And the Oscar goes to (part 2)...

Well we've done Best Picture and the best acting categories so lets go over the directing and screenplay.

Best Director
Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
James Cameron, Avatar
Lee Daniels, Precious
Jason Reitman, Up in the Air
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds

The Guilds once again go five for five with the nominations for the Academy. All five of these movies are great and the nominees are far and away the best in the field this year. Chances are if there was just five movies nominated for Best Picture these would probably be the five. Tarantino and Reitman both have great movies that also did well in the box office but they are probably the least likely to win. Especially with the chance to make history as Lee Daniels would be the first African-American to win the Academy Award for Best Director. But instead it looks like Kathryn Bigelow is the one to beat and thus becoming the first woman to win the best directing award. An added bonus for Bigelow would be the chance to beat her ex-husband James Cameron. Although he may get a thank you in her speech as it was Cameron who suggested that she direct the movie.


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

This may be the tightest race of the major awards. A Serious Man didn't do anything for me but I can understand why the Coen-heads out there liked this movie. While Up may be the most heartfelt story in the running don't expect an animated movie to win the award. I am a little surprised and even a little hurt that The Messenger took the final nomination for screenplay over (500) Days of Summer. Days was an original way to look at the romantic comedy genre and it went unrecognized by the Academy. The Messenger delivers some strong performances and probably locked up the nomination with a surprisingly small amount of dialogue instead letting the visuals tell the story. Mark Boal writes an incredibly tense story and might have the edge because of the movie being a perceived front runner for best picture, but I like Tarantino to take his second statuette. Tarantino likes breaking the screen writing rules and includes intense details in his screenplays to give the actor's a better idea of what he wants. He also has been known to include directing cues which is usually a no-no in scripts but since he is directing the movie it doesn't do any harm. The story is great and he writes incredible characters and interactions. The story can splice easily between comedy and suspense. This is his best chance to win an Oscar this year and if he really believes that this movie is his masterpiece than he'll have to win at least one Oscar as Pulp Fiction was able to do just that in 1994.

Best Adapted Screenplay
Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci & Tony Roche, In the Loop
Neil Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell, District 9
Geoffrey Fletcher, Precious
Nick Hornby, An Education
Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner, Up in the Air

I'm a little surprised that there was no love for Fantastic Mr. Fox. While it had no shot to win for the same reason that Up won't win it would be nice to be nominated. Neil Blomkamp has an outside chance to win with his story of intolerance. But you have to believe that Up in the Air is going to take home the award as the dialogue is sharp and the story is relevant to the times. That being said the next movie I plan on seeing next is In the Loop, it's supposed to be fuckin hilarious. The Academy loves to include those little fuckin indie comedies from the U.K. But since it is from across the pond and most Americans avoid foreign films It would be in-fuckin-credible if this movie won. Its liberal use of the word fuck negates any real chance to win, but fuck that I'm still gonna see it.

Need a reason to watch on Sunday. My good friend Kiel Servideo gives you 5 good reasons to watch. Stay tuned as we get closer to the big day.