Welcome to

The Friday Night Movie
Annual Oscar Contest

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Hey, Movie Lovers!

The ballots have been tallied and the 2009 Friday Night Movie Oscar Contest is over! I had 30 participants this year.

And the winner is Jimmy Orsag (last year's 3rd place finisher) who got an amazing 19 out of 21 correct guesses!!! Congratulations to Jimmy for his win! Second place finisher was a first-time participant, my friend Brenda Van Damme with 18 correct guesses. Rounding out the top three in 3rd place with a score of 17 was last year's winner Katie Wallace. Congrats to all! If you didn't see your name in the list and you submitted an entry, I did receive two entries with no name, so let me know who you are.

Check out the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) Oscar Site for more details on this year's event.

Thanks for participating. See you on the red carpet next year.

And the Oscar goes to...

Best Motion Picture of the Year
   The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
   Frost/Nixon
   Milk
   The Reader
   Slumdog Millionaire

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
   Richard Jenkins in The Visitor
   Frank Langella in Frost/Nixon
   Sean Penn in Milk
   Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
   Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
   Anne Hathaway in Rachel Getting Married
   Angelina Jolie in Changeling
   Melissa Leo in Frozen River
   Meryl Streep in Doubt
   Kate Winslet in The Reader

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
   Josh Brolin in Milk
   Robert Downey Jr. in Tropic Thunder
   Philip Seymour Hoffman in Doubt
   Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight
   Michael Shannon in Revolutionary Road

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
   Amy Adams in Doubt
   Penélope Cruz in Vicky Cristina Barcelona
   Viola Davis in Doubt
   Taraji P. Henson in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
   Marisa Tomei in The Wrestler

Best Achievement in Directing
   Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire
   Stephen Daldry for The Reader
   David Fincher for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
   Ron Howard for Frost/Nixon
   Gus Van Sant for Milk

Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen
   Frozen River: Courtney Hunt
   Happy-Go-Lucky: Mike Leigh
   In Bruges: Martin McDonagh
   Milk: Dustin Lance Black
   WALL·E: Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter

Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published
   The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: Eric Roth, Robin Swicord
   Doubt: John Patrick Shanley
   Frost/Nixon: Peter Morgan
   The Reader: David Hare
   Slumdog Millionaire: Simon Beaufoy

Best Achievement in Cinematography
   Changeling
   The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
   The Dark Knight
   The Reader
   Slumdog Millionaire

Best Achievement in Editing
   The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
   The Dark Knight
   Frost/Nixon
   Milk
   Slumdog Millionaire

Best Achievement in Art Direction
   Changeling
   The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
   The Dark Knight
   The Duchess
   Revolutionary Road

Best Achievement in Costume Design
   Australia
   The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
   The Duchess
   Milk
   Revolutionary Road

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score
   Alexandre Desplat for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
   James Newton Howard for Defiance
   Danny Elfman for Milk
   A.R. Rahman for Slumdog Millionaire
   Thomas Newman for WALL·E

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song
   "Jai Ho" from Slumdog Millionaire
   "O Saya" from Slumdog Millionaire
   "Down to Earth" from WALL·E

Best Achievement in Makeup
   The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
   The Dark Knight
   Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Best Achievement in Sound
   The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
   The Dark Knight
   Slumdog Millionaire
   WALL·E
   Wanted

Best Achievement in Sound Editing
   The Dark Knight
   Iron Man
   Slumdog Millionaire
   WALL·E
   Wanted

Best Achievement in Visual Effects
   The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
   The Dark Knight
   Iron Man

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year
   Bolt
   Kung Fu Panda
   WALL·E

Best Foreign Language Film of the Year
   Der Baader Meinhof Komplex (The Baader Meinhof Complex ) [Germany]
   Entre les murs (The Class) [France]
   Revanche [Austria]
   Okuribito (Departures) [Japan]
   Vals Im Bashir (Waltz with Bashir) [Israel]

Best Documentary, Features
   The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)
   Encounters at the End of the World
   The Garden
   Man on Wire
   Trouble the Water

The following short film categories were not counted for this contest.

Best Documentary, Short Subjects
   The Conscience of Nhem En
   The Final Inch
   Smile Pinki
   The Witness from the Balcony of Room 306

Best Short Film, Animated
   Ubornaya istoriya (Lavatory Lovestory)
   La Maison en Petits Cubes (The House Of Small Cubes)
   Oktapodi (Octopi)
   Presto
   This Way Up

Best Short Film, Live Action
   Auf der Strecke (On the Line)
   Manon sur le bitume (Manon on the Asphalt)
   New Boy
   Grisen (The Pig)
   Spielzeugland (Toyland)

Contest Participants
with # of correct quesses

19 Jimmy Orsag
18 Brenda Van Damme
17 Katie Wallace
15 Paul Dakin
15 Richie Baptista
14 Kevin Tyrrell
13 Cristobal
13 Tim Wholey
13 Ursula Boyle
11 Jen Petitt
11 Paul Haus
11 Philip Roberts
11 Pragati Gupta
10 Brent Wilkening
10 Scott Sughrue
9 Allie Keeton
9 Ricardo DeFrutos
8 Ezekiel Montgomery
7 David Ashleydale
7 Jed Shumsky
7 JP LaFond
7 Lyn Ketterer
6 David Aurelio
6 David Van Stone
5 Mike Blair
4 Denice Thornhill
4 Bernard Tyrrell
3 Peter Bohlin
3 Rob Bowen