DBD 3.5.10 Academy Awards Thread

Avatar, The Blind Side, District 9, An Education, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, Precious, A Serious Man, Up, Up in the Air

Four questions to ponder for each of these.
1) Who should win?
2) Who will win?
3) Is there a movie not on this list that should be on this list?

Avatar, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, Up in the Air, Precious

It’s usually hard for me to distinguish between Best Director and Best Picture. I’m sure some movie people can explain the difference to me, but it seems like they go hand in hand.

Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart), George Clooney (Up in the Air), Colin Firth (A Single Man), Morgan Freeman (Invictus), Jeremy Renner (Hurt Locker)

Sandra Bullock (Blind Side), Helen Mirren (The Last Station), Carey Mulligan (An Education), Gabourey Sidibe (Precious), Meryl Streep (Julie and Julia)

Matt Damon (Invictus), Woody Harrelson (The Messenger), Christopher Plummer (The Last Station), Stanley Tucci (The Lovely Bones), Christoph Waltz (Inglorious Basterds)

Huh. I thought Woody would’ve gotten nominated for that movie where he spends his whole time killing zombies for fun.

(This is always my favorite category every year. Usually lots of fun performances in this one.)

Penelope Cruz (Nine), Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air), Maggie Gyllenhaal (Crazy Heart), Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air), Mo’Nique (Precious)

Coraline, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Princess and the Frog, The Secret of Kells, Up

LINK

Art Direction

    * "Avatar" Art Direction: Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg; Set Decoration: Kim Sinclair
    * "The Imaginarium of Doctor 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

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

Costume Design

    * "Bright Star" Janet Patterson
    * "Coco before Chanel" Catherine Leterrier
    * "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" Monique Prudhomme
    * "Nine" Colleen Atwood
    * "The Young Victoria" Sandy Powell

Directing

    * "Avatar" James Cameron
    * "The Hurt Locker" Kathryn Bigelow
    * "Inglourious Basterds" Quentin Tarantino
    * "Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire" Lee Daniels
    * "Up in the Air" Jason Reitman

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

Documentary (Short Subject)

    * "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" Bartek Konopka and Anna Wydra

Film Editing

    * "Avatar" Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua and James Cameron
    * "District 9" Julian Clarke
    * "The Hurt Locker" Bob Murawski and Chris Innis
    * "Inglourious Basterds" Sally Menke
    * "Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire" Joe Klotz

Foreign Language Film

    * "Ajami" Israel
    * "The Milk of Sorrow (La Teta Asustada)" Peru
    * "A Prophet (Un Prophète)" France
    * "The Secret in Their Eyes (El Secreto de Sus Ojos)" Argentina
    * "The White Ribbon (Das Weisse Band)" Germany

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

Music (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

Music (Original Song)

    * "Almost There" from "The Princess and the Frog" Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
    * "Down in New Orleans" from "The Princess and the Frog" Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
    * "Loin de Paname" from "Paris 36" Music by Reinhardt Wagner Lyric by Frank Thomas
    * "Take It All" from "Nine" Music and Lyric by Maury Yeston
    * "The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)" from "Crazy Heart" Music and Lyric by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett

Best Picture

    * "Avatar" James Cameron and Jon Landau, Producers
    * "The Blind Side" Gil Netter, Andrew A. Kosove and Broderick Johnson, Producers
    * "District 9" Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham, Producers
    * "An Education" Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey, Producers
    * "The Hurt Locker" Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, Nicolas Chartier and Greg Shapiro, Producers
    * "Inglourious Basterds" Lawrence Bender, Producer
    * "Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire" Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness and Gary Magness, Producers
    * "A Serious Man" Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, Producers
    * "Up" Jonas Rivera, Producer
    * "Up in the Air" Daniel Dubiecki, Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman, Producers

Short Film (Animated)

    * "French Roast" Fabrice O. Joubert
    * "Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty" Nicky Phelan and Darragh O’Connell
    * "The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)" Javier Recio Gracia
    * "Logorama" Nicolas Schmerkin
    * "A Matter of Loaf and Death" Nick Park

Short Film (Live Action)

    * "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

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

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

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

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

    * "District 9" Written by Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell
    * "An Education" Screenplay by Nick Hornby
    * "In the Loop" Screenplay by Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche
    * "Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire" Screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher
    * "Up in the Air" Screenplay by Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner

Writing (Original Screenplay)

    * "The Hurt Locker" Written by Mark Boal
    * "Inglourious Basterds" Written by Quentin Tarantino
    * "The Messenger" Written by Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman
    * "A Serious Man" Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
    * "Up" Screenplay by Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, Story by Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, Tom McCarthy

Damn, the only movie I’ve seen on this list is Star Trek. I used to watch so many movies…

Protests were meh according to the Daily Cal.

Yesterday, students across California rallied in their towns and at local college campuses for the need to defend and value public education. These demonstrations made a powerful statement, manifesting the great desire and drive of students and faculty to maintain the quality of education in this state.

UC Berkeley students, workers and faculty rallied on Sproul and marched to downtown Oakland while many bused themselves to a large demonstration in Sacramento. On a campus inundated with protests since last fall, the turnout was understandably unimpressive. However, it’s unfortunate that UC Berkeley, with its activist reputation, failed to match UC Riverside’s turnout.

Compared to the estimated 5,000 demonstrators in the Sept. 24 walkout, yesterday’s protest in Berkeley peaked with only about 800 protesters. The low turnout likely stems from the fallout of last week’s Southside riot and a growing level of apathy, as protests have been happening here for months.

The outspoken presence at the rally of Marika Goodrich and Zachary Miller, who were arrested at the Southside riot, may have also contributed to students deciding not to participate. Sure, anyone is welcome to speak their views, but simply being arrested isn’t sufficient justification for these two to continually cast themselves as leaders of this movement. They personify students’ concerns that extremists have hijacked a once broad mobilization effort and hurt, rather than help, the cause.

LINK

Today our newspapers will be dominated by the headlines that March 4 was a historic day for public education. They will say that never before have so many people from all the sectors of education mobilized across the state and country.

They are right that March 4 should be remembered for all of these things. Unfortunately, the real history-making day will have been misquoted. It is our actions and decisions on March 5 that will truly mark just how determined we are to transform our broken education system.

March 4 alone will not guarantee an end to the budget cuts. To fight them, we must start connecting public

education with other societal issues, namely the runaway spending on the wars, prisons and banks. This is not because we wish to take on all the issues plaguing our society but because these issues are intruding into our campuses and wallets, whether we want them to or not.

It costs an estimated $1 million to deploy a soldier to Afghanistan for a year and $49,000 to incarcerate a prisoner for a year in California. The state of California spends less than $10,000 to educate one K-12 student each year. The tradeoff is clear and unjustifiable.

Participating in and organizing for the March 20 anti-war protest in San Francisco would be a good start to contesting these misplaced priorities.

One of our commenters, Ed Yevelev, reports!

Prior to last weekend, USC was the only remaining top-five school yet to face the Cal women’s water polo team.

In their first chance at the Trojans during the UC Irvine Invitational, the No. 4 Bears were stymied by the nation’s hottest team in the semifinal match. On its way to capturing the tournament championship, USC broke open a 5-2 halftime score against Cal (12-4, 2-1 in the MPSF) with four third-quarter goals and prevailed 10-5.

“We were with them for a little bit, but then we let down defensively,” senior utility Stephanie Schnugg said. “I didn’t really know what to expect. It was an experience game for us, to figure out what they’re going to run.”

Saturday’s 1 p.m., rematch at McDonald’s Swim Stadium will be different, as the two teams square off in Los Angeles for an official MPSF contest.

LINK

The Cal track and field team, after a winter indoors, steps outside this weekend.

On Saturday, the No. 16 men’s team and unranked women’s team will make the trip to Palo Alto, Calif., for the Stanford Quad Meet, which is the first outdoor meet for the Bears in 2010.

Coach Tony Sandoval expects the change to the outdoor season to be fairly seamless.

“The transition won’t be that much of a difference,” Sandoval said. “Since we don’t have an indoor facility, we train outdoors year round.”

The switch to competing outdoors, however, will not be met with the familiar faces who have garnered success for the Bears so far this year.

With distance runners like senior Mark Matusak, junior Michael Coe and sophomore Deborah Maier along with heptathlete Michael Morrison automatically qualified for next week’s NCAA indoor championships in Fayetteville, Ark., this weekend’s meet serves as a week off for the regular competitors.

LINK

Just the mention of Stanford coming to town elicits high levels of emotion and excitement from the Cal women’s tennis team.

The two squads exchanged 4-3 home victories last season, which is indicative of just how close and competitive they have become in recent years, as both Cal and Stanford have remained near the top of the women’s tennis rankings.

The Bears (8-2) will get their chance to notch another victory in the storied rivalry at home on Saturday. Matches are set to begin at noon.

“There’s no doubt that it’s a special rivalry,” coach Amanda Augustus said. “These types of games just bring out the best in everyone — they’re fun to play and coach, and playing a team of their quality makes us better.”

For the players, matching up against Stanford means one thing is guaranteed — intensity.

“It’s always very exciting to play them,” junior Marina Cossou said. “The matches are usually very close and they’re intense, but this time, we’re at home and that makes us real confident heading into it.”

However, the Bears must first get by San Diego State, which rolls into Hellman Tennis Complex on Friday afternoon. The Aztecs may not be as tough a matchup on paper as the Cardinal, but Augustus insists that her team will not look past them.

LINK

Prior to Saturday’s game against Stanford, Alexis Gray-Lawson, Lauren Greif and Natasha Vital will parade out onto Pete Newell Court with family and friends in tow. As it does every season, the Cal women’s basketball team will honor its three seniors before what will likely be their last game at Haas Pavilion.

But this year, it doesn’t have to be the last hurrah.

The Bears could receive their fifth consecutive tournament bid and open postseason play at home. But that depends on Cal (17-11, 11-6 in the Pac-10) making the NCAA tournament.

“I’m worried about not making the tournament,” guard Eliza Pierre said. “I want to make the tournament as a freshman. It’s the reason why I’m still playing basketball.”

Those postseason hopes weigh heavily on the Bears’ last regular-season contest against the nine-time defending conference champion Cardinal.

I prefer it dark and hot, like my women, how about you?