“the greatest promotion scheme that any industry ever devised for itself”

Legend

• Probably gonna win
• Might win / Maybe
• If I had it my way
• Better not!
• Haven’t seen it / Can’t say

Best Picture

• Avatar
• The Blind Side
• District 9
• An Education
• The Hurt Locker
• Inglourious Basterds
• Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire
• A Serious Man
• Up
• Up in the Air

Best Director

• Kathryn Bigelow – The Hurt Locker
• James Cameron – Avatar
• Lee Daniels – Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire
• Jason Reitman – Up in the Air
• Quentin Tarantino – Inglourious Basterds

Best Actor

• Jeff Bridges – Crazy Heart as Bad Blake
• George Clooney – Up in the Air as Ryan Bingham
• Colin Firth – A Single Man as George Falconer
• Morgan Freeman – Invictus as Nelson Mandela
• Jeremy Renner – The Hurt Locker as Sgt. William James

Best Actress

• Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side as Leigh Anne Tuohy
• Helen Mirren – The Last Station as Sofya Tolstoy
• Carey Mulligan – An Education as Jenny Miller
• Gabourey Sidibe – Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire as Claireece “Precious” Jones
• Meryl Streep – Julie & Julia as Julia Child

Best Supporting Actor

• Matt Damon – Invictus as François Pienaar
• Woody Harrelson – The Messenger as Capt. Tony Stone
• Christopher Plummer – The Last Station as Leo Tolstoy
• Stanley Tucci – The Lovely Bones as George Harvey
• Christoph Waltz – Inglourious Basterds as Col. Hans Landa

Best Supporting Actress

• Penélope Cruz – Nine as Carla Albanese
• Vera Farmiga – Up in the Air as Alex Goran
• Maggie Gyllenhaal – Crazy Heart as Jean Craddock
• Anna Kendrick – Up in the Air as Natalie Keener
• Mo’Nique – Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire as Mary Lee Johnston

Best Original Screenplay

• The Hurt Locker – Mark Boal
• Inglourious Basterds – Quentin Tarantino
• The Messenger – Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman
• A Serious Man – Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
• Up – Tom McCarthy, Bob Peterson and Pete Docter

Best Adapted Screenplay

• District 9 – Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell from Alive in Joburg by Blomkamp
• An Education – Nick Hornby from An Education by Lynn Barber
• In the Loop – Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci and Tony Roche from The Thick of It created by Iannucci
• Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire – Geoffrey Fletcher from Push by Sapphire
• Up in the Air – Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner from Up in the Air by Walter Kirn

Best Animated Feature

• Coraline – Henry Selick
• Fantastic Mr. Fox – Wes Anderson
• The Princess and the Frog – Ron Clements and John Musker
• The Secret of Kells – Tomm Moore
• Up – Pete Docter

Best Foreign Language Film

• Ajami (Israel) in Arabic and Hebrew – Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani
• El Secreto de Sus Ojos (Argentina) in Spanish – Juan José Campanella
• The Milk of Sorrow (Peru) in Spanish and Quechua – Claudia Llosa
• Un Prophète (France) in French, Corsican and Arabic – Jacques Audiard
• The White Ribbon (Germany) in German – Michael Haneke

Best Documentary Feature

• Burma VJ – Anders Østergaard and Lise Lense-Møller
• The Cove – Louie Psihoyos and Fisher Stevens
• Food, Inc. – Robert Kenner and Elise Pearlstein
• The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers – Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith
• Which Way Home – Rebecca Cammisa

Best Documentary Short

• China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province – Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill
• The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner – Daniel Junge and Henry Ansbacher
• The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant – Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert
• Music by Prudence – Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett
• Rabbit à la Berlin – Bartosz Konopka and Anna Wydra

Best Live Action Short

• The Door – Juanita Wilson and James Flynn
• Instead of Abracadabra – Patrik Eklund and Mathias Fjellström
• Kavi – Gregg Helvey
• Miracle Fish – Luke Doolan and Drew Bailey
• The New Tenants – Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson

Best Animated Short

• French Roast – Fabrice O. Joubert
• Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty – Nicky Phelan and Darragh O’Connell
• The Lady and the Reaper – Javier Recio Gracia
• Logorama – Nicolas Schmerkin
• A Matter of Loaf and Death – Nick Park

Best Original Score

• Avatar – James Horner
• Fantastic Mr. Fox – Alexandre Desplat
• The Hurt Locker – Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders
• Sherlock Holmes – Hans Zimmer
• Up – Michael Giacchino

Best Original Song

• “Almost There” from The Princess and the Frog – Randy Newman
• “Down in New Orleans” from The Princess and the Frog – Randy Newman
• “Loin de Paname” from Paris 36 – Reinhardt Wagner and Frank Thomas
• “Take it All” from Nine – Maury Yeston
• “The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)” from Crazy Heart – Ryan Bingham and T-Bone Burnett

Best Sound Editing

• Avatar – Christopher Boyes and Gwendolyn Yates Whittle
• The Hurt Locker – Paul N.J. Ottosson
• Inglourious Basterds – Wylie Stateman
• Star Trek – Mark Stoeckinger and Alan Rankin
• Up – Michael Silvers and Tom Myers

Best Sound Mixing

• Avatar – Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson and Tony Johnson
• The Hurt Locker – Paul N.J. Ottosson and Ray Beckett
• Inglourious Basterds – Michael Minkler, Tony Lamberti and Mark Ulano
• Star Trek – Anna Behlmer, Andy Nelson and Peter J. Devlin
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen – Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers and Geoffrey Patterson

Best Art Direction

• Avatar – Art Direction: Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg; Set Decoration: Kim Sinclair
• The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus – Art Direction: Dave Warren and Anastasia Masaro; Set Decoration: Caroline Smith
• Nine – Art Direction: John Myhre; Set Decoration: Gordon Sim
• Sherlock Holmes – Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer
• The Young Victoria – Art Direction: Patrice Vermette; Set Decoration: Maggie Gray

Best Cinematography

• Avatar – Mauro Fiore
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – Bruno Delbonnel
• The Hurt Locker – Barry Ackroyd
• Inglourious Basterds – Robert Richardson
• The White Ribbon – Christian Berger

Best Makeup

• Il Divo – Aldo Signoretti and Vittorio Sodano
• Star Trek – Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow
• The Young Victoria – Jon Henry Gordon and Jenny Shircore

Best Costume Design

• Bright Star – Janet Patterson
• Coco Before Chanel – Catherine Leterrier
• The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus – Monique Prudhomme
• Nine – Colleen Atwood
• The Young Victoria – Sandy Powell

Best Film Editing

• Avatar – James Cameron, John Refoua and Stephen E. Rivkin
• District 9 – Julian Clarke
• The Hurt Locker – Chris Innis and Bob Murawski
• Inglourious Basterds – Sally Menke
• Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire – Joe Klotz

Best Visual Effects

• Avatar – Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R. Jones
• District 9 – Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros, and Matt Aitken
• Star Trek – Roger Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh and Burt Dalton

The Olympics are sweet. When else do you get to see a country blatantly foregoing its usually tactful ideological dissemination in favour of pop-y, widest-possible-appeal all-out stunts of patriotism? Well, besides war, that is. But seriously, this was certainly the most flawless Olympics I’ve ever heard of or experienced.

The shot of Alexandre Bilodeau during that (embarassingly-bad-French’d) speech got to my emotions more than any other simply because it seemed, to me, to be totally spontaneous, humbling and sincere. Surely there’s no greater way than video (of an actual event) to instantly inspire an emotional experience in distant viewers. I mean, when Crosby scored—I kid you not—my whole family jumped in unison! Stephen Harper would be so damned proud. And I can’t help but think he is: Vancouver 2010 went off virtually without a hitch—with Canada on top. A broken record here, a touching personal story there, world attention in between, and a spotlight on our Indigenous righteousness whereever possible. Maybe the closing ceremonies could have been a little more tongue-in-cheek—sure the announcers made a strong point of it throughout—but I’m not so sure I would’ve picked up on that had the TV been on another network, or had I been from another country, for that matter.

I’m still perplexed by Lloyd Robinson’s (twice repeated) comment that the Olympics are so great because “no one”, not the “government” and not any “big companies” told us to watch them, so we just do it ourselves, more than any other TV event, obviously because we are so passionate about the athletes (whose names we only just learned (and will soon forget)) and this great country we call home. This might strike you as conspiracy theory, but if you think the Olympics (via TV) is (just) about sports, then you’re either watching all your footage as downloaded from torrents, with the commericals removed, or you’re too fucking excited to care. I digress: I can already see myself starting to give up on my hardcore moral values in favour of ones that are more socially appealing—I’ll look back on myself at 21, this blog post even, as being naïve, no doubt—but fuck I wish I could figure out why I have to do this. Here’s to hoping this will give my future self a good shock back into reality, if need be.