Well, it was quite a show, wasn’t it? Before I get to my general thoughts
on the evening, the results of my annual bet with my father: for the third
time in the roughly 15 years that we’ve been doing this thing, I’m saddened
to report that we tied, and it’s all thanks to Nicole Kidman. I must say, I
really was surprised that she won, and it really did have to be a close call
with her and Renee Zelwegger. Still, I owe the fact that I didn’t lose to my
long-shot pick of Pedro Almodovar for screenplay, and I’m perfectly happy to
take a tie as opposed to the shame of losing outright.

Some other thoughts on the results:

  • Re: Michael Moore’s speech: you give an award to Michael Moore, that’s
    what you get. I agreed with what he was saying, but wish it wasn’t quite
    as angry as it was. But then, I wouldn’t have expected anything less from
    him, and something different would have felt phoney.
  • Was it just me, or did Diane Lane look absolutely stunning? If the way
    you dress to the ceremony is what determined the winner, she should have
    gotten that best actress award.
  • Adrien Brody? Roman Polanski? Good gravy, who saw that one coming? All
    hard-earned awards to be sure, but very surprising. Also surprising was the
    audience’s favorable reception of Polanski’s name being called. Given his
    past, there just as easily could have been some boos.
  • The winner of the best speech award goes to Conrad W. Hall, for that loving
    tribute to his father. Really touching, and that award was well deserved.
  • Runner up goes to Adrien Brody, who managed to give a message of
    peace without being blunt or angry. Very classy.
  • Nicole Kidman looked this year like Jennifer Connelly did last year. Gorgeous
    women looking frumpy. It’s a crime, really.
  • It’s definitely a shame Eminem didn’t accept his award or perform his winning
    song…either would have been an entertaining moment.
  • The show felt a lot more thrown together this year…the gathering of past
    winners was nice, but kinda pointless. And what was up with not performing
    the winning scores?
  • He didn’t win, but I think I’m going to have to run out and buy Philip
    Glass’ score to The Hours. The snippits played during that best picture
    segment reminded me of how good it was. And while Glass didn’t win, at least
    he lost to Elliot Goldenthal for his decidedly un-Oscar-like score for Frida.
    Very surprising, but at least it was a quality soundtrack.

So there you have it…another Oscar year behind us. While it wasn’t included
in my bet with my Father (or mentioned in my article at Shacknews), I was pleased
to see my off-the-books prediction for The Chubb Chubbs be accurate. Pixar
is always the favorite for the animated short category, but Mike’s New Car
just wasn’t up to their usual quality level (being basically a DVD extra, this
was to be expected). If you missed some part of the show, here’s the
full list of winners, care of the official Oscar site. G’night everybody!