The time has finally arrived! Be sure to refresh the page to keep up with everything going on. Unfortunately, I never figured out how to get pictures in here easier, so its all going to be words (I know, end of the world). Enjoy the blog and the show!
7:50 Geoffrey Rush is bald. Whoa. I actually really hate these red carpet shows, as I've ranted about in the past. All the banalities and nonsense talk by a group of people who, for one day of the year, call themselves "Oscar experts." Bleh.
7:53 I've learned absolutely nothing about Reese in her interview, which wrapped with them admiring the Green Room. Robert Downey Jr. complimented it too. Is that seriously the big talking point of the red carpet this year?
7:56 Does Source Code look trippy to anyone else? I mean, it could really suck, but Jake Gyllenhaal + Vera Farmiga + Moon Director Duncan Jones + sci-fi = me sold.
8:00 An 8:30 start time? Lame. But Tim Gunn is interviewing Jennifer Hudson, which he seems ecstatic about.
8:01 Natalie Portman's here now, hiding the baby bump. She's got to be tired of having to talk about how grueling the shoot was. But big win: she described Darren Aronofsky as "the bee's knees." I agree.
8:03 I still think its tacky to have a nominee also host the show, as James Franco is doing. Of course his mind is elsewhere, have you noticed everything he's been doing? School + hosting + filming movies + the nerves of being a nominee....I don't know how the multitasker does it.
8:05 Justin Timberlake is here as well, noting how the red carpet is really fuschia. Here's some food for thought: at one point, he was a serious competitor for a Best Supporting Actor nomination for The Social Network. How interesting would that have been?
8:06 Can we stop gushing about Sandra Bullock? Its been over a year since the media fell ravenously in love with her, and it obviously hasn't stopped yet. I know she's a nice person, but come on, she's not that amazing.
8:08 Colin Firth is the favorite for Best Actor? There's been a shift in Best Picture? Take it away, Jesse:
7:50 Geoffrey Rush is bald. Whoa. I actually really hate these red carpet shows, as I've ranted about in the past. All the banalities and nonsense talk by a group of people who, for one day of the year, call themselves "Oscar experts." Bleh.
7:53 I've learned absolutely nothing about Reese in her interview, which wrapped with them admiring the Green Room. Robert Downey Jr. complimented it too. Is that seriously the big talking point of the red carpet this year?
7:56 Does Source Code look trippy to anyone else? I mean, it could really suck, but Jake Gyllenhaal + Vera Farmiga + Moon Director Duncan Jones + sci-fi = me sold.
8:00 An 8:30 start time? Lame. But Tim Gunn is interviewing Jennifer Hudson, which he seems ecstatic about.
8:01 Natalie Portman's here now, hiding the baby bump. She's got to be tired of having to talk about how grueling the shoot was. But big win: she described Darren Aronofsky as "the bee's knees." I agree.
8:03 I still think its tacky to have a nominee also host the show, as James Franco is doing. Of course his mind is elsewhere, have you noticed everything he's been doing? School + hosting + filming movies + the nerves of being a nominee....I don't know how the multitasker does it.
8:05 Justin Timberlake is here as well, noting how the red carpet is really fuschia. Here's some food for thought: at one point, he was a serious competitor for a Best Supporting Actor nomination for The Social Network. How interesting would that have been?
8:06 Can we stop gushing about Sandra Bullock? Its been over a year since the media fell ravenously in love with her, and it obviously hasn't stopped yet. I know she's a nice person, but come on, she's not that amazing.
8:08 Colin Firth is the favorite for Best Actor? There's been a shift in Best Picture? Take it away, Jesse:
8:12 I never knew that Nicole Kidman is taller than husband Keith Urban. I find that amusing. And "what type of music do you listen to?" continues the banalities. At least nobody has to think too hard in their interviews here.
8:13 Since when has Gwyneth Paltrow been a fashion icon? However, she does think that Jay-Z is a genius and that they are "perfect" duet partners. I seriously have nothing further to say about that.
8:15 Christian Bale looks like he's auditioning to be the new face of Brawny.
8:16 Fashion recap! I could not be more excited!
8:18 Should anyone really be surprised that everyone on the red carpet thinks their own film should win?
8:19 This is a diversion, I know, but seeing a Venus commercial prompted this from me: Jennifer Lopez is famous for no reason other than she's Jennifer Lopez. She's not a strong vocalist, a pitiful actress, and not much of an American Idol judge. She was built in a studio pop-star lab, a name brand without the level of talent to justify her fame. Just thought I'd share.
8:22 Yes, Robin Robins, we are inside now. I like how Hugh Jackman slid in there. He genuinely seems like a fun guy to hang out with.
8:25 Only five minutes left until we get this thing started. Steven Spielberg is helping out, apparently. As he should be. And Tom Hanks is the first presenter.
8:27 Hanks is quite the merry prankster. There's a reason he's one of my favorite actors.
8:30 And so it begins! With a montage of the Best Picture nominees, too. Interesting clips, especially the red-eyed Portman from Black Swan. Welcome to my nightmares.
8:33 So far, this opening sketch is pretty cute. I mean, maybe not the funniest little bit, but Franco and Hathaway are a cute bear. And Franco in a bear suit? Yes, please.
8:34 I like that Hathaway was described as "the naked girl from Love & Other Drugs." That's a nice touch, and so totally true. And I would pay to watch her dance like that again.
8:37 Back to the Future is a bit unexpected. But the producers did say that this year's ceremony would be a "virtual trip through Oscar history," so I guess it fits.
8:39 Hathaway is obviously feeling looser than Franco, who looks a lot more uncomfortable up there. I suspect, despite his shrugging jokes, he's beyond nervous. He's trying, though, and he's just so damn charming.
8:41 I enjoyed their opening bit; I mean, it was sporadically funny, but they're both just soooo cute!
8:43 Tom Hanks is presenting Art Direction and Cinematography. I didn't realize Titanic was the last film to win these two awards and Best Picture. That's stunning to me.
8:44 Art Direction is up first. And the winner is.....ALICE IN WONDERLAND. Ew, that's such an ugly film to win. But Tim Burton films have never lost when nominated in this category, and that's a streak that continues tonight, for better or worse. And just for kicks, one last time, the sets of The King's Speech were originally built for a gay porn. Tee-hee.
8:46 On to cinematography. And the winner is....INCEPTION. This is really surprising to me, as I was sure Black Swan's Matthew Libatique or True Grit's Roger Deakins would win. But Wally Pfister's done incredible work with Christopher Nolan, and I think he's a very deserving winner. Just think of those great shots in Inception, such as the van falling in slo-mo into the water. Brilliance.
8:51 Wow, Kirk Douglas looks AMAZING for his age. I wish we could all age as gracefully. I completely concur with him: Anne Hathaway is very, very gorgeous. He's here to present Best Supporting Actress, and the winner is....MELISSA LEO, THE FIGHTER.
8:58 So it turns out Leo's self-made FYC ads didn't hurt her that much. She's great in the film, I encourage everyone to go check it out. And she swears! Yay FCC-mandated time delay of live events!
9:01 Hathaway is giggly. Awwww.... Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis are presenting Best Animated Short Film. More importantly, Timberlake is Banksy. Now you know.
9:03 The winner for Animated Short is....THE LOST THING. So the Pixar short didn't win, but this one looks inventive, to say the least. I'll have to see if I can find it somewhere.....
9:05 Oh, and they're presenting Best Animated Feature as well. The winner there being....TOY STORY 3. There was actually a serious chance of How to Train Your Dragon upsetting, but no, there's no stopping Pixar (they've won this category four years running now).
9:12 Josh Brolin and Javier Bardem: now there's two men who can work a white tuxedo. I really like the look back at the first Oscars: such rich history there. And I like seeing Brolin and Bardem together after they so memorably antagonized each other on screen in No Country for Old Men.
9:13 They're presenting Adapted Screenplay first. The Oscar goes to....AARON SORKIN, THE SOCIAL NETWORK. Its about time he won, and I'm glad to hear him throw out a mention to the legendary Paddy Chayefsky. If you don't know who that is, go rent Network right now. You won't regret it.
9:16 And now its Original Screenplay. The winner is....DAVID SEIDLER, THE KING'S SPEECH. Pretty obvious. He's a pretty funny guy, between unintentionally loosing the microphone and his late-bloomer joke. Is he the oldest winner in this category? I'll have to look that up....
9:23 Anne in a tuxedo. More please. More Anne in general, please.
9:24 And she can sing! I love the Hugh Jackman reaction shot to the song that's obviously about him. Someone get this girl a musical, stat!
9:25 James Franco in drag. Again, more please.
9:26 Russell Brand and Helen Mirren are presenting. Believe it or not, they've now shot two movies together, last year's The Tempest and this year's Arthur. But they're presenting Best Foreign Language Film, and the Oscar goes to....IN A BETTER WORLD, DENMARK. This is Denmark's third win, which puts them in fourth-place all time for the most behind Italy, France, and Spain. And Mexico now ties Poland for the second-most nominated nation without a win.
9:29 Reese Witherspoon is presenting Best Supporting Actor. The winner is....CHRISTIAN BALE, THE FIGHTER. Its taken him this long to be nominated, and he was so good in that film. I hate it didn't go to Mark Ruffalo, though. I loved that performance and I loved that movie.
9:33 Dickie Ecklund and Mickey Ward are at the ceremony, and I thought it was sweet that Bale gave them a shoutout.
9:36 I am so looking forward to Super 8. June 10 is officially on my calendar.
9:37 I can't find any age statistics on Best Original Screenplay winners, so I can't verify David Seidler's claims. Does anyone out there know?
9:38 Here's the required message from the Academy president. Its mercifully short this year, though.
9:39 Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman, aka the biggest stars to come out of Australia, are presenting. What does everyone think about the stage and the glimpses at film history? I'm a fan.
9:42 Jackman and Kidman are presenting the Oscar for Best Original Score, which goes to....TRENT REZNOR AND ATTICUS ROSS, THE SOCIAL NETWORK. I'm really proud of the Academy for embracing a non-traditional (and very deserving) score. And from Nine Inch Nails, no less.
9:45 Scarlett Johansson and Matthew McCounaghy are presenting the Oscars for Sound Mixing. Kind of a lame gag, but whatever. The Oscar goes to....INCEPTION. I'm actually really excited about that; just think about the way music was integrated into the film, and the various sound effects. That's great sound work, people.
9:48 And the Sound Editing Oscar goes to...INCEPTION. Its not often that a film wins both sound awards. And by the way, Inception has the most Oscars of the night so far, with three awards. Who would have thought?
9:53 These Oscars are just zipping by, aren't they? They really do have a faster paced show this year, for once.
9:54 Marisa Tomei is our next presenter, letting us know what happened when she hosted the Technical Oscars earlier this month. As Franco, said, congrats, nerds.
9:55 Cate Blanchett is presenting, introduced by The Lord of the Rings, the only film she'll ever need. She's presenting Best Makeup, and the Oscar goes to....THE WOLFMAN. With seven Oscars, they really do love makeup artist Rick Baker, don't they?
9:58 Blanchett's also presenting Best Costume Design. This Oscar goes to....ALICE IN WONDERLAND. They also really love Colleen Atwood. So now that abomination has two Oscars. If it wins Best Visual Effects and goes three-for-three on its nominations, I will cry and rant. That is a guarantee.
10:01 I was actually talking earlier about movie songs, and how they're a dying breed. Hopefully, you guys learned something from that little montage. Bring back original songs in film!
10:02 Kevin Spacey is introducing Randy Newman, who will perform Best Original Song nominee "We Belong Together" from Toy Story 3. Can you believe Newman has 20 Oscar nominations, but only one win (for "If I Didn't Have You" from Monsters, Inc. in 2001)?
10:05 Now its "I See the Light" from Tangled. I'm glad they're actually letting the nominated songs be performed this year, even if they are abbreviated versions. By the way: I want this song to win. Its lovely, and feels straight out of the Disney Renaissance (the songs from that period, by the way, were also written by this song's Alan Menken).
10:11 Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal are presenting. I swear, if Hathaway were on stage right now, it would be a cute overdose. They're presenting Best Documentary Short, which goes to....STRANGERS NO MORE. I guess this is the Academy's nod to education, since it snubbed the private-school-commercial Waiting for "Superman" for Best Documentary Feature.
10:14 The Oscar for Best Live-Action Short goes to....GOD OF LOVE. Whoa, dude is awkward looking. No wonder you're a director.
10:17 Harry Potter musical: lolzy lolz! Auto-Tune the Oscars has arrived!
10:19 When can we get a .gif of Anne Hathaway's shimmy? Soon, please?
10:20 Oprah Winfrey is returning to acting, by the way. She's also presenting Best Documentary Feature. This is the big moment: if Banksy wins, what will happen? We're about to find out, because the Oscar goes to.....INSIDE JOB. And our big panic over the shame Banksy would bring to the ceremony with his monkey-masked shenanigans was all for naught. Instead we get statements about our recent economic crisis, which Inside Job was all about. Fair trade?
10:26 Billy Crystal's here! I don't care what anybody says, that's a funny man.
10:28 There's a reason Crystal is considered one of the best hosts of the Oscars: he's a stand-up comic, and they make the best MCs of any ceremony. This is a fact proven by science.
10:30 Bob Hope is back from the dead! And he's introducing the Best Visual Effects presenters, Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law. And let me just say that those two are very, very good visual effects. I'm sure many of you will agree.
10:33 And the Oscar goes to....INCEPTION. That's four Oscars for that film tonight, a number that, at this point, The King's Speech or The Social Network can only beat. Inception could be the biggest winner of the night. Who'd have thought?
10:35 And the Oscar for Best Film Editing goes to....THE SOCIAL NETWORK. So far, The Social Network has three Oscars, The King Speech has one despite 12 nominations. Not quite the sweep that was predicted by, well, everyone.
10:41 The Best Original Songs are coming to a close, and the final two plus the award will be introduced by Jennifer Hudson. First up is "If I Rise" from 127 Hours, and its being performed by Florence Welch of Florence + the Machine and composer A.R. Rahman. I'm not a fan of the song, but I do love hearing Welch's booming voice, so I say it evens out.
10:44 Gwyneth Paltrow, aka "country music's newest star," is performing "Coming Home" from Country Strong. Needless to say Paltrow's career is getting crazier and crazier every day.
10:45 And the Oscar for Best Original Song goes to...."WE BELONG TOGETHER," TOY STORY 3. Well, at least his second Oscar came sooner than his first. I wonder if Newman thought this is where he would end up at this point in his career when he got started? And thank you, Newman, for pointing out the need for more original songs. Make this happen, people!
10:52 In Memoriam. You'll all be missed.
11:01 Hilary Swank is introducing Kathyrn Bigelow, last year's Best Director winner. She's presenting the award this year, which goes to....TOM HOOPER, THE KING'S SPEECH. I'm genuinely surprised, since his work was the least impressive this year. But he did win the Directors' Guild Award, so many were expecting it. There could still be a director/picture split, though: The Social Network has more awards tonight than TKS.
11:05 Annette Bening presents the Governor's Awards, which were handed out four months ago.
11:07 Francis Ford Coppola, Eli Wallach, and film preservationist Kevin Brownstein were the recipients of those awards, as well as French director Jean-Luc Godard, who didn't come to either ceremony.
11:11 Jeff Bridges, himself a nominee this year, is presenting Best Actress. Such a strong, wonderful category this year: all of these women are deserve this. But the Oscar goes to....NATALIE PORTMAN, BLACK SWAN. You know, the one who won EVERY SINGLE AWARD this year. But good job, Natalie, you earned it.
11:19 Sandra Bullock, last year's Best Actress winner, gets to present Best Actor. If Colin Firth wins, then all four categories will go exactly as expected. Boring.
11:25 And the Oscar goes to....COLIN FIRTH, THE KING'S SPEECH. He really deserved this last year for A Single Man, but he's an Oscar winner now, finally. And, of course, everybody, myself included, correctly predicted all of the acting winners. People's Oscar pools should have been easy this year.
11:32 Steven Spielberg gets to hand out Best Picture this year. Lucky guy.
11:35 I rather liked the clip package for the Best Picture nominees. But here we go: the Oscar for Best Picture of the year 2010 goes to: THE KING'S SPEECH. I didn't think the Academy would take the old-fashioned route after being so "edgy" this past decade, but there you have it.
11:39 Whoa, those kids are good! If there were ever evidence to support the arts in schools, there it is!
That's a wrap, everyone. Another Oscar season has come to an end. I hope you enjoyed this live-blog and the ceremony, and that'll you'll come back to the site in the future. Actually, I'll be posting day-after reflections on the ceremony tomorrow, so be sure to come back and check out my analysis, along with various bits of trivia about the winners. Thank you all for following!
8:18 Should anyone really be surprised that everyone on the red carpet thinks their own film should win?
8:19 This is a diversion, I know, but seeing a Venus commercial prompted this from me: Jennifer Lopez is famous for no reason other than she's Jennifer Lopez. She's not a strong vocalist, a pitiful actress, and not much of an American Idol judge. She was built in a studio pop-star lab, a name brand without the level of talent to justify her fame. Just thought I'd share.
8:22 Yes, Robin Robins, we are inside now. I like how Hugh Jackman slid in there. He genuinely seems like a fun guy to hang out with.
8:25 Only five minutes left until we get this thing started. Steven Spielberg is helping out, apparently. As he should be. And Tom Hanks is the first presenter.
8:27 Hanks is quite the merry prankster. There's a reason he's one of my favorite actors.
8:30 And so it begins! With a montage of the Best Picture nominees, too. Interesting clips, especially the red-eyed Portman from Black Swan. Welcome to my nightmares.
8:33 So far, this opening sketch is pretty cute. I mean, maybe not the funniest little bit, but Franco and Hathaway are a cute bear. And Franco in a bear suit? Yes, please.
8:34 I like that Hathaway was described as "the naked girl from Love & Other Drugs." That's a nice touch, and so totally true. And I would pay to watch her dance like that again.
8:37 Back to the Future is a bit unexpected. But the producers did say that this year's ceremony would be a "virtual trip through Oscar history," so I guess it fits.
8:39 Hathaway is obviously feeling looser than Franco, who looks a lot more uncomfortable up there. I suspect, despite his shrugging jokes, he's beyond nervous. He's trying, though, and he's just so damn charming.
8:41 I enjoyed their opening bit; I mean, it was sporadically funny, but they're both just soooo cute!
8:43 Tom Hanks is presenting Art Direction and Cinematography. I didn't realize Titanic was the last film to win these two awards and Best Picture. That's stunning to me.
8:44 Art Direction is up first. And the winner is.....ALICE IN WONDERLAND. Ew, that's such an ugly film to win. But Tim Burton films have never lost when nominated in this category, and that's a streak that continues tonight, for better or worse. And just for kicks, one last time, the sets of The King's Speech were originally built for a gay porn. Tee-hee.
8:46 On to cinematography. And the winner is....INCEPTION. This is really surprising to me, as I was sure Black Swan's Matthew Libatique or True Grit's Roger Deakins would win. But Wally Pfister's done incredible work with Christopher Nolan, and I think he's a very deserving winner. Just think of those great shots in Inception, such as the van falling in slo-mo into the water. Brilliance.
8:51 Wow, Kirk Douglas looks AMAZING for his age. I wish we could all age as gracefully. I completely concur with him: Anne Hathaway is very, very gorgeous. He's here to present Best Supporting Actress, and the winner is....MELISSA LEO, THE FIGHTER.
8:58 So it turns out Leo's self-made FYC ads didn't hurt her that much. She's great in the film, I encourage everyone to go check it out. And she swears! Yay FCC-mandated time delay of live events!
9:01 Hathaway is giggly. Awwww.... Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis are presenting Best Animated Short Film. More importantly, Timberlake is Banksy. Now you know.
9:03 The winner for Animated Short is....THE LOST THING. So the Pixar short didn't win, but this one looks inventive, to say the least. I'll have to see if I can find it somewhere.....
9:05 Oh, and they're presenting Best Animated Feature as well. The winner there being....TOY STORY 3. There was actually a serious chance of How to Train Your Dragon upsetting, but no, there's no stopping Pixar (they've won this category four years running now).
9:12 Josh Brolin and Javier Bardem: now there's two men who can work a white tuxedo. I really like the look back at the first Oscars: such rich history there. And I like seeing Brolin and Bardem together after they so memorably antagonized each other on screen in No Country for Old Men.
9:13 They're presenting Adapted Screenplay first. The Oscar goes to....AARON SORKIN, THE SOCIAL NETWORK. Its about time he won, and I'm glad to hear him throw out a mention to the legendary Paddy Chayefsky. If you don't know who that is, go rent Network right now. You won't regret it.
9:16 And now its Original Screenplay. The winner is....DAVID SEIDLER, THE KING'S SPEECH. Pretty obvious. He's a pretty funny guy, between unintentionally loosing the microphone and his late-bloomer joke. Is he the oldest winner in this category? I'll have to look that up....
9:23 Anne in a tuxedo. More please. More Anne in general, please.
9:24 And she can sing! I love the Hugh Jackman reaction shot to the song that's obviously about him. Someone get this girl a musical, stat!
9:25 James Franco in drag. Again, more please.
9:26 Russell Brand and Helen Mirren are presenting. Believe it or not, they've now shot two movies together, last year's The Tempest and this year's Arthur. But they're presenting Best Foreign Language Film, and the Oscar goes to....IN A BETTER WORLD, DENMARK. This is Denmark's third win, which puts them in fourth-place all time for the most behind Italy, France, and Spain. And Mexico now ties Poland for the second-most nominated nation without a win.
9:29 Reese Witherspoon is presenting Best Supporting Actor. The winner is....CHRISTIAN BALE, THE FIGHTER. Its taken him this long to be nominated, and he was so good in that film. I hate it didn't go to Mark Ruffalo, though. I loved that performance and I loved that movie.
9:33 Dickie Ecklund and Mickey Ward are at the ceremony, and I thought it was sweet that Bale gave them a shoutout.
9:36 I am so looking forward to Super 8. June 10 is officially on my calendar.
9:37 I can't find any age statistics on Best Original Screenplay winners, so I can't verify David Seidler's claims. Does anyone out there know?
9:38 Here's the required message from the Academy president. Its mercifully short this year, though.
9:39 Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman, aka the biggest stars to come out of Australia, are presenting. What does everyone think about the stage and the glimpses at film history? I'm a fan.
9:42 Jackman and Kidman are presenting the Oscar for Best Original Score, which goes to....TRENT REZNOR AND ATTICUS ROSS, THE SOCIAL NETWORK. I'm really proud of the Academy for embracing a non-traditional (and very deserving) score. And from Nine Inch Nails, no less.
9:45 Scarlett Johansson and Matthew McCounaghy are presenting the Oscars for Sound Mixing. Kind of a lame gag, but whatever. The Oscar goes to....INCEPTION. I'm actually really excited about that; just think about the way music was integrated into the film, and the various sound effects. That's great sound work, people.
9:48 And the Sound Editing Oscar goes to...INCEPTION. Its not often that a film wins both sound awards. And by the way, Inception has the most Oscars of the night so far, with three awards. Who would have thought?
9:53 These Oscars are just zipping by, aren't they? They really do have a faster paced show this year, for once.
9:54 Marisa Tomei is our next presenter, letting us know what happened when she hosted the Technical Oscars earlier this month. As Franco, said, congrats, nerds.
9:55 Cate Blanchett is presenting, introduced by The Lord of the Rings, the only film she'll ever need. She's presenting Best Makeup, and the Oscar goes to....THE WOLFMAN. With seven Oscars, they really do love makeup artist Rick Baker, don't they?
9:58 Blanchett's also presenting Best Costume Design. This Oscar goes to....ALICE IN WONDERLAND. They also really love Colleen Atwood. So now that abomination has two Oscars. If it wins Best Visual Effects and goes three-for-three on its nominations, I will cry and rant. That is a guarantee.
10:01 I was actually talking earlier about movie songs, and how they're a dying breed. Hopefully, you guys learned something from that little montage. Bring back original songs in film!
10:02 Kevin Spacey is introducing Randy Newman, who will perform Best Original Song nominee "We Belong Together" from Toy Story 3. Can you believe Newman has 20 Oscar nominations, but only one win (for "If I Didn't Have You" from Monsters, Inc. in 2001)?
10:05 Now its "I See the Light" from Tangled. I'm glad they're actually letting the nominated songs be performed this year, even if they are abbreviated versions. By the way: I want this song to win. Its lovely, and feels straight out of the Disney Renaissance (the songs from that period, by the way, were also written by this song's Alan Menken).
10:11 Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal are presenting. I swear, if Hathaway were on stage right now, it would be a cute overdose. They're presenting Best Documentary Short, which goes to....STRANGERS NO MORE. I guess this is the Academy's nod to education, since it snubbed the private-school-commercial Waiting for "Superman" for Best Documentary Feature.
10:14 The Oscar for Best Live-Action Short goes to....GOD OF LOVE. Whoa, dude is awkward looking. No wonder you're a director.
10:17 Harry Potter musical: lolzy lolz! Auto-Tune the Oscars has arrived!
10:19 When can we get a .gif of Anne Hathaway's shimmy? Soon, please?
10:20 Oprah Winfrey is returning to acting, by the way. She's also presenting Best Documentary Feature. This is the big moment: if Banksy wins, what will happen? We're about to find out, because the Oscar goes to.....INSIDE JOB. And our big panic over the shame Banksy would bring to the ceremony with his monkey-masked shenanigans was all for naught. Instead we get statements about our recent economic crisis, which Inside Job was all about. Fair trade?
10:26 Billy Crystal's here! I don't care what anybody says, that's a funny man.
10:28 There's a reason Crystal is considered one of the best hosts of the Oscars: he's a stand-up comic, and they make the best MCs of any ceremony. This is a fact proven by science.
10:30 Bob Hope is back from the dead! And he's introducing the Best Visual Effects presenters, Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law. And let me just say that those two are very, very good visual effects. I'm sure many of you will agree.
10:33 And the Oscar goes to....INCEPTION. That's four Oscars for that film tonight, a number that, at this point, The King's Speech or The Social Network can only beat. Inception could be the biggest winner of the night. Who'd have thought?
10:35 And the Oscar for Best Film Editing goes to....THE SOCIAL NETWORK. So far, The Social Network has three Oscars, The King Speech has one despite 12 nominations. Not quite the sweep that was predicted by, well, everyone.
10:41 The Best Original Songs are coming to a close, and the final two plus the award will be introduced by Jennifer Hudson. First up is "If I Rise" from 127 Hours, and its being performed by Florence Welch of Florence + the Machine and composer A.R. Rahman. I'm not a fan of the song, but I do love hearing Welch's booming voice, so I say it evens out.
10:44 Gwyneth Paltrow, aka "country music's newest star," is performing "Coming Home" from Country Strong. Needless to say Paltrow's career is getting crazier and crazier every day.
10:45 And the Oscar for Best Original Song goes to...."WE BELONG TOGETHER," TOY STORY 3. Well, at least his second Oscar came sooner than his first. I wonder if Newman thought this is where he would end up at this point in his career when he got started? And thank you, Newman, for pointing out the need for more original songs. Make this happen, people!
10:52 In Memoriam. You'll all be missed.
11:01 Hilary Swank is introducing Kathyrn Bigelow, last year's Best Director winner. She's presenting the award this year, which goes to....TOM HOOPER, THE KING'S SPEECH. I'm genuinely surprised, since his work was the least impressive this year. But he did win the Directors' Guild Award, so many were expecting it. There could still be a director/picture split, though: The Social Network has more awards tonight than TKS.
11:05 Annette Bening presents the Governor's Awards, which were handed out four months ago.
11:07 Francis Ford Coppola, Eli Wallach, and film preservationist Kevin Brownstein were the recipients of those awards, as well as French director Jean-Luc Godard, who didn't come to either ceremony.
11:11 Jeff Bridges, himself a nominee this year, is presenting Best Actress. Such a strong, wonderful category this year: all of these women are deserve this. But the Oscar goes to....NATALIE PORTMAN, BLACK SWAN. You know, the one who won EVERY SINGLE AWARD this year. But good job, Natalie, you earned it.
11:19 Sandra Bullock, last year's Best Actress winner, gets to present Best Actor. If Colin Firth wins, then all four categories will go exactly as expected. Boring.
11:25 And the Oscar goes to....COLIN FIRTH, THE KING'S SPEECH. He really deserved this last year for A Single Man, but he's an Oscar winner now, finally. And, of course, everybody, myself included, correctly predicted all of the acting winners. People's Oscar pools should have been easy this year.
11:32 Steven Spielberg gets to hand out Best Picture this year. Lucky guy.
11:35 I rather liked the clip package for the Best Picture nominees. But here we go: the Oscar for Best Picture of the year 2010 goes to: THE KING'S SPEECH. I didn't think the Academy would take the old-fashioned route after being so "edgy" this past decade, but there you have it.
11:39 Whoa, those kids are good! If there were ever evidence to support the arts in schools, there it is!
That's a wrap, everyone. Another Oscar season has come to an end. I hope you enjoyed this live-blog and the ceremony, and that'll you'll come back to the site in the future. Actually, I'll be posting day-after reflections on the ceremony tomorrow, so be sure to come back and check out my analysis, along with various bits of trivia about the winners. Thank you all for following!
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