The 80th Annual Academy Awards

Oh, the Oscars. I cannot miss the oscars. They seem to like to show it live even in the UK, which means it was on our screens between 12 and 5am on sunday morning. Who's idea was that? It is all very well having the live experience, but no one would stay up to watch that (well, I wouldn't). So I recorded it of course. I watched it in segments throughout this week which is why I'm a little late in making comments on it. The Oscars is a bit of an emotional thing to watch. It's beautiful seeing someone rewarded with such a prestigious award for their debut, whatever it may have been. Imagine working so hard on something and then getting the best kind of recognition for it, especially if it's your first.

Anyway, I don't have much to protest about in terms of who won what award, partly because I still haven't seen most of the big winners of the night (even though I claim to love film so much. I really do, I promise). I was delighted to see that one film I did see - The Savages - got a couple of nominations. It was especially lovely to see this, for until then, I thought I was the only one that had heard of this film (never mind seen it), so I was starting to wonder if it even existed. This now leads me to the only true disappointment of the night. Laura Linney (from The Savages) was nominated for best actress in a leading role. But Marion Cotillard got the award for La Vie En Rose. That does look like a wonderful film, and by the looks of things, Cotillard had to undergo a huge transformation everytime she got into character, but I was still disappointed. Linney deffinately deserved that award just as much as her. She has gone unrecognised for so long. It's not like she hasn't done her share. As well as being in The Truman Show, she even did a one-off ITV drama with Julie Walters and that ginger boy from Harry Potter who can't act very well.

This now leads us to Cate Blanchett, who was also nominated for best actress in leading role. Of course I was hoping for Linney to pick up the award, but expected Blanchett to get it for her role in Elizabeth: The Golden Age. Then if she didn't get that (which she didn't) I assumed she would win the award for best supporting actress for her role as Bob Dylan (yes I know, when casting a film about the life of Bob Dyaln, Cate Blanchett wouldn't be the first person I think of either...)in I'm Not There . But, alas, she didn't get that either (never mind, she has an Oscar already). The other favourite was Saoirse Ronan for Atonement. Again I was wrong. It was Tilda Swinton (for her role in Michael Clayton) who picked up the award. Not at all surprisngly - she is fantastic. The academy (god bless them) must have had a pretty tough job this year.

One thing that did come as somewhat of a surprise was Diablo Cody (who wrote Juno) winning the award for best original screenplay. I got the impression that Juno wasn't the kind of film with a particularly strong script. Perhaps it was the heart-touching storyline that brought it to the Oscars (of course I'm just guessing. Or as certain objectors my put it - talking out of my arse). Again I think The Savages fully deserved that award as well. I can only say that since it's the only film I've seen that's been nominated...

Some minor disappointments were that there were people I like who weren't there/nominated for anything. For instance, where the hell was Meryl Streep? And I wish Nicole Kidman was nominated for something, but it wasn't possible since the two films she was in last year were quite unimpressive (The Invastion - what the hell was that?). Tom Hanks is another example. Charlie Wilson's War was a lovely film but deffinately not Oscar-worthy. Although Philip Seymour Hoffman did get a nomination for his supporting role. It was clear he wouldn't get it, though.

Anyway, I don't know why I'm giving my opinions on all of this, for most of them are uninformed. Why should you care? It is just important that everyone realises how much I love film. Quite a lot.