I also stayed up all night and watched the Academy Award Ceremony yesterday. After sleeping ahead a bit I didn’t fall asleep once during the ceremony, so this year I caught everything.

All together I really was surprised, as probably many others to, how well “The Hurt Locker” did. During the course of the ceremony I assumed that it’ll also make “Best Motion Picture” though. Too bad for “Inglorious Bastards”! I really would’ve enjoy seeing that movie win “Best Motion Picture”, but maybe it’s going to take a few more years, until a movie like that wins.

What I was really happy about, was that the Oscar for best supporting actor was the very first one. Because if Christoph Waltz hadn’t won, I would’ve shut off the television immediately and went to bed. No other actor deserved the Oscar more than he did this year!

I was also excited for Sandra Bullock and Jeff Bridges. Bridges has been in the business so long and was nominated several times in the past. George Clooney will pick up his Oscar as “Best Actor” some other year ;) Bullock’s Thank-You-Speech I found very touching and was one of my highlights of the rather bland show. Finally she is getting the recognition she deserves.

A mile stone in Oscar-History was Kathryn Bigelow’s win as the first female director. Nice story, also if you recall that her ex-husband, James Cameron, was nominated in the same category with “Avatar”.

This year’s ceremony wasn’t that thrilling to me. But that could also my impression, because I just don’t like Steve Martin, who was the host together with actor Alex Baldwin.

I already had written my favorites (italic) in a few categories, here’s the final result (bold):

Best Picture

• Avatar – James Cameron and Jon Landau
• The Blind Side –
• District 9 – Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham
• An Education – Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey
• The Hurt Locker – Kathryn Bigelow
• Inglourious Bastards – Lawrence Bender
• Precious: Based on the novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire – Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness and Gary Magness
• A Serious Man – Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
• Up – Jonas Rivera
• Up In the Air – Daniel Dubiecki, Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman

Actor in a Leading Role

• Jeff Bridges in ”Crazy Heart”
• George Clooney in ”Up in the Air”
• Colin Firth in ”A Single Man”
• Morgan Freeman in ”Invictus”
• Jeremy Renner in ”The Hurt Locker”

(I didn’t have a guess here, I just like George Clooney)

Actor in a Supporting Role

• Matt Damon in ”Invictus”
• Woody Harrelson in ”The Messenger”
• Christopher Plummer in ”The Last Station”
• Stanley Tucci in ”The Lovely Bones”
• Christoph Waltz in ”Inglourious Bastards”

Actress in a Leading Role

• Sandra Bullock in ”The Blind Side”
• Helen Mirren in ”The Last Station”
• Carey Mulligan in ”An Education”
• Gabourey Sidibe in Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
• Meryl Streep in ”Julie & Julia”

Actress in a Supporting Role

• Penélope Cruz in ”Nine”
• Vera Farmiga in ”Up in the Air”
• Maggie Gyllenhall in ”Crazy Heart”
• Anna Kendrick in ”Up in the Air”
• Mo’Nique in ”Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”

(I hadn’t had a guess here, either.)

Director

• Avatar – James Cameron
• The Hurt Locker – Kathryn Bigelow
• Inglourious Bastards – Quentin Tarantino
• Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire – Lee Daniels
• Up in the Air – Jason Rietman

Writing (Original Screenplay)

• The Hurt Locker – written by Mark Boal
• Inglourious Bastards – 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

Sound Mixing

• Avatar – Christopher Boyes und Gwendolyn Yates Whittle
• The Hurt Locker – Paul N.J. Ottosson
• Inglourious Bastards – Wylie Stateman
• Star Trek – Mark Stoeckinger and Alan Rankin
• 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

Animated Feature Film

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

My average: 4/10
(“The Hurt Locker” simply ruined my guessing average ;) )