81st Academy Awards

Starting with some red carpet, here are the awards:

Kate Winslet is beautiful and should win. That is all.

Taraji P. Henson quite possibly had the best performance in Benjamin Button. Unfortunately she will not win.

Mickey Rourke is talking about his dog dying and how he had a tux made and he has it with him. It is so incredibly sad.

They are talking with Meryl Streep now. I used to hate her and then I saw Doubt. I like her now.

Hugh Jackman is welcoming us. I am afraid he is going to cheese it up. He says that this is his first year hosting...I am not sure if he will get a second. He has created his own opening number to pay tribute to the movies. Anne Hathaway helps him out with Frost/Nixon. The Reader consists of a large group dance...he didn't have time to actually watch the movie. So apparently Hugh Jackman can be funny.

I think something went horribly wrong with the curtain opening before the supporting actress montage. What is Whoopi wearing? And what is Tilda wearing?
Actress, Supporting - Penelope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona)

Steve Martin and Tina Fey. They rock.
Screenplay, Original - Dustin Lance Black (Milk)

Screenplay, Adapted - Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire)

Jack Black and Jennifer Aniston are introducing the 2008 movie yearbook, starting with animation. Jack Black made everyone feel awkward when he made a Dreamworks/Pixar joke.
Animated Feature - WALL-E (Andrew Stanton)

Short Film, Animated - La Maison en Petits Cubes (Kunio Kato)

Sarah Jessica Parker and Daniel Craig announce (these two are getting a lot of screen time doing three awards)
Art Direction - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Donald Graham Burt, Victor J. Zolfo)

Costume Design - The Duchess (Michael O'Connor)

Makeup - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Greg Cannom)

Robert Pattinson and Amanda Seyfried introduce the romance movies of the year.

Ben Stiller (as Joaquin Phoenix) and Natalie Portman come out to announce
Cinematography - Slumdog Millionaire (Anthony Dod Mantle)

Jessica Biel looks really weird. I think her dress has a growth on it. She wasn't really there for anything interesting.

Judd Apatow does a short for the comedies of 2008.

Short Film, Live Action - Spielzeugland (Toyland) (Jochen Alexander Freydank)

Hugh Jackman is talking about how musicals are back...he is going to sing now. Beyonce is now joining him. They are singing GREASE!!! and many other musical numbers from Oscar movies. Zack Efron and Vanessa Hudgens and Amanda Seyfried and Dominic Cooper also join them. It was alright, but lasted too long.

Now (just like the women) five previous supporting actor guys come out to announce that Heath Ledger has won. Alan Arkin, Christopher Walken, Kevin Kline, Cuba Gooding Jr., and an old guy who's name I missed.
Actor, Supporting - Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)
His father, mother, and sister accept his award and give a really nice speech.

Bill Maher comes out after the montage of Documentaries.
Documentary Feature - Man on Wire (James Marsh and Simon Chinn)

Documentary Short - Smile Pinki (Megan Mylan)

And now for the 2008 Action movies.

Will Smith, who apparently loves action movies, will now tell us who won
Visual Effects - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton, and Craig Barron)

Sound Editing - The Dark Knight (Richard King)

Sound Mixing - Slumdog Millionaire (Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke, and Resul Pookutty)

Film Editing - Slumdog Millionaire (Chris Dickens)

Eddie Murphy is presenting Jerry Lewis with the humanitarian award.

Now they are playing the original scores and Zack Efron and Alicia Keys tell us that
Original Score - Slumdog Millionaire (A.R. Rahman)

Original Song - Jai Ho (Slumdog Millionaire, A.R. Rahman and Gulzar)

Liam Neeson and Freida Pinto announce
Foreign Language Film - Departures (Japan)

Queen Latifah introduces the in memoriam...oh, and she sings. Her dress is not flattering. This is horrible because they keep puling back so you can't read the names at all. They are not doing these people justice.

Reese Witherspoon is pretty and announcing
Directing - Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire)

Sophia Loren, Shirley MacLaine, Halle Barry, Nicole Kidman, and Marion Cotillard announce
Actress, Leading - Kate Winslet (The Reader) I am very happy for her.

Robert De Niro, Ben Kingsley, Anthony Hopkins, Adrien Brody, and Michael Douglas announce
Actor, Leading - Sean Penn (Milk) Penn's speech was really good!

Steven Spielberg announces
Best Picture - Slumdog Millionaire (Christian Colson)


[sorry if anything was incoherent...I did not edit]