More Oscar (and how'd I do?)

I don't have many more reactions to add, it was pretty easy to take in and react to this morning. Instead I'll offer a few random tidbits:

Last year that all five Best Picture nominees also received Best Director nominations: 1981 (Warren Beatty's Reds, Hugh Hudson's Chariots of Fire, Louis Malle's Atlantic City, Mark Rydell's On Golden Pond and Steven Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark; Beatty won for director, Chariots won picture)

Number of years running the Best Picture nominees match the Directors Guild of America nominations: 4

Last year my favorite film of the year was nominated for Best Picture: 2001 (Traffic)

Last year my favorite film of the year won Best Picture: 2000 (American Beauty) (Go Brokeback!)

Last year four films on my top ten were nominated for Best Picture: 2005 (last year - The Aviator, Finding Neverland, Million Dollar Baby, Sideways; this year - Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Good Night, and Good Luck., Munich; and the fifth nominee in both years, Ray and Crash, was nowhere near my list)

Percentage of nominations I correctly predicted: 78%

Percentage of final nominees I correctly predicted or listed as an alternate: 85%

Percentage of correct predictions in the top six categories: 87% (90% with alternates)

Here's how I did, category by category:

Best Picture

I got four out of five: Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Crash and Good Night, and Good Luck. The fifth nominee, Munich, was an alternate pick. My incorrect prediction was Walk the Line.

Best Director

Also four out of five: George Clooney (Good Night, and Good Luck.), Paul Haggis (Crash), Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain), Bennett Miller (Capote). My alternate pick, Steven Spielberg (Munich), trumped my prediction David Cronenberg (A History of Violence).

Best Actor

Direct hit: Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote), Terrence Howard (Hustle & Flow), Heath Ledger (Brokeback Mountain), Joaquin Phoenix (Walk the Line), David Strathairn (Good Night, and Good Luck.)

Best Actress

Four out of five: Judi Dench (Mrs. Henderson Presents), Felicity Huffman (Transamerica), Charlize Theron (North Country), Reese Witherspoon (Walk the Line). And I was happy to be wrong because it meant my alternate pick Keira Knightley (Pride & Prejudice) was nominated instead of Zhang Ziyi (Memoirs of a Geisha).

Best Supporting Actor

Four out of five: George Clooney (Syriana), Matt Dillon (Crash), Paul Giamatti (Cinderella Man), Jake Gyllenhaal (Brokeback Mountain). My "daring" prediction of Terrence Howard (Crash) is replaced on the actual list with the closest thing to main category surprise: William Hurt (A History of Violence).

Best Supporting Actress

Five for five: Amy Adams (Junebug) (yay!), Catherine Keener (Capote), Frances McDormand (North Country), Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener), Michelle Williams (Brokeback Mountain)

Best Adapted Screenplay

Five for five: Brokeback Mountain, Capote, The Constant Gardener, A History of Violence, Munich

Best Original Screenplay

Five for five: Crash, Good Night, and Good Luck., Match Point, The Squid and the Whale, Syriana

Best Animated Film

I'm very happy to get this one right! Three for three: Howl's Moving Castle, Tim Burton's The Corpse Bride, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

Best Foreign Language Film

A surprising four out of five: Joyeux Noel (France), Paradise Now (Palestine), Sophie Scholl-The Final Days (Germany), Tsotsi (South Africa). I predicted Hungary's Holocaust-related Fateless instead of actual nominee, Italy's Don't Tell.

Best Documentary (Feature Length)

Three out of five: Enron: The Smartest Guys In the Room, March of the Penguins, Murderball. I missed Darwin's Nightmare and Street Fight.

Best Art Direction

Three out of five: Good Night, and Good Luck., King Kong, Memoirs of a Geisha. I incorrectly said Brokeback Mountain and Walk the Line instead of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (a real surprise to me) and Pride & Prejudice.

Best Cinematography

Three out of five: Brokeback Mountain, Good Night, and Good Luck., Memoirs of a Geisha. I incorrectly said The Constant Gardener and King Kong. I mentioned actual nominees Batman Begins and The New World, but not as alternates.

Best Costume Design

Four out of five: Memoirs of a Geisha, Mrs. Henderson Presents, Pride & Prejudice, Walk the Line. I went with a wild card pick, Casanova, but the Oscars went with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Best Editing

Three out of five: Capote, The Constant Gardener, Crash. I said Brokeback and Good Night, Oscar said Cinderella Man and The Constant Gardener.

Best Makeup

Two out of three: The Chronicles of Narnia, Cinderella Man. In my eagerness to predict a near shut out of Star Wars: Episode III I selected it as an alternate and incorrectly said The New World would get a nom instead.

Best Original Score

Four out of five: Brokeback Mountain, Memoirs of a Geisha, Munich, Pride & Prejudice. I'm a little surprised that Cinderella Man missed out but it did, and The Constant Gardener got in.

Best Original Song

Two out of three: "In the Deep" (Crash), "Travelin' Thru" (Transamerica). With five picks (no one knew for sure how many would be nominated in this category) I should've nailed this. But I predicted "Hustle & Flow" from Hustle & Flow would be nominated. Right movie, wrong song. Instead it was "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp." This is probably the first year in a long time, maybe ever, when all the original song nominees are from films that are also nominated in an acting category.

Best Sound

Three out of five: King Kong, Memoirs of a Geisha, Walk the Line. I said Batman Begins and Munich but instead both of my alternate picks made the cut (the lion's roar of Chronicles of Narnia and the alien invasion of War of the Worlds).

Best Sound Editing
Two out of three: King Kong, War of the Worlds. I said Chronicles of Narnia but the rather inexplicable reality was Memoirs of Geisha.

Best Visual Effects

Two out of three: King Kong, War of the Worlds. Star Wars: Episode III got the smackdown (voters must have taken the "too busy" criticism seriously). The mediocre effects of Chronicles of Narnia, an alternate pick, made the cut instead.