My vote is for better dresses this year. I don't subscribe to the whole "It's a depression let's not rub our wealth and glamor in the faces of the downtrodden and wear understated muted colors and simple gowns". We need glamor now more than ever! If you can't overdress at the Oscars then stay off the red carpet!

Best Picture: Up in the Air. Although I wish I could have seen the Hurt Locker. Still haven't got my copy from Netflix.

Actor in a Leading Role: Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart) sentimental favorite

Actress in a Leading Role: Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side) and Meryl Streep (Julia and Julie) in a tie. It could happen!

Supporting Actress: Mo'Nique (Precious) not even close.

Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz (Inglurious Basterds)

Director: Katheryn Bigelow (the Hurt Locker) It would be nice to see a woman get it.

Director Kathryn Bigelow talks about The Hurt Locker
 

The Hurt Locker
Nominated for 9 Oscars. Another 68 wins & 42 nominations

Summary
US Army Sergeant First Class Will James, Sergeant JT Sanborn and Specialist Owen Eldridge comprise the Bravo Company's bomb disposal unit currently stationed in Baghdad. James is the tech team leader. When James arrives on the scene, Bravo Company has thirty-nine days left on its current deployment. It will be a long thirty-nine days for Sanborn and Eldridge whose styles do not mesh with their new leader. James is a renegade for who the thrill of the dismantlement seems to be the ultimate goal regardless of the safety of his fellow team members, others on the scene or himself. On the other hand, Sanborn is by the books: he knows his place and duty and trusts others in the army to carry out theirs as well as he. And Eldridge is an insecure soldier who is constantly worried that an error or misjudgment on his part will lead to the death of an innocent civilian or a military colleague. While the three members face their own internal issues, they have to be aware of any person at the bomb sites, some of who may be bombers themselves.

Bigelow Interview

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAcz4gvWHug"]YouTube- Kathryn Bigelow talks The Hurt Locker[/ame]

http://easyandelegantlife.com/wp-con.../edithhead.jpg

http://fashiontribes.typepad.com/mai..._edna_mode.jpg


Gowns haven't been the same since these two left us.....

Because of the way the poll mechanism works, this is the best I can do. :)

District 9-Interview with Director Peter Jackson
 

District 9
Nominated for 4 Oscars. Another 9 wins & 29 nominations

Summary
In 1982, a massive star ship bearing a bedraggled alien population, nicknamed "The Prawns," appeared over Johannesburg, South Africa. Twenty-eight years later, the initial welcome by the human population has faded. The refugee camp where the aliens were located has deteriorated into a militarized ghetto called District 9, where they are confined and exploited in squalor. In 2010, the munitions corporation, Multi-National United, is contracted to forcibly evict the population with operative Wikus van der Merwe in charge. In this operation, Wikus is exposed to a strange alien chemical and must rely on the help of his only two new 'Prawn' friends

Peter Jackson Interview

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JDDWao7dSY"]YouTube- "District 9" - Behind The Scenes [HD HQ][/ame]

Up In the Air-Interview with Director Jason Reitman
 

Up In the Air
Nominated for 6 Oscars. Another 44 wins & 49 nominations

Summary
Ryan Bingham works for Omaha based Career Transition Counseling whose contracts are in corporate downsizing. In other words, they fire people. Ryan is flying around the US over 320 days of the year, which he feels is the best part of his job. He does whatever he can to rack up frequent flyer miles, the goal not to use them but just to accumulate them to a specific number he has in his mind. A secondary job he has is to give motivational speeches on relieving one's life of excess physical and emotional baggage. He truly does believe what he espouses as he lives out of his carry-on suitcase (his apartment in Omaha is really in name only), he is not close to his siblings (although he does do a favor for his sister while on his travels), nor does he have or want a significant person in his life. Ryan's life may change when the company hires Natalie Keener, a young overachieving woman who recommends that the company change the nature of the work by conducting the "firings" via remote computer access. Ryan believes that Natalie does not fully understand the nature of the business, and as such, their boss, Craig Gregory, suggests that she accompany Ryan on a business trip. Ryan is also trying to protect his way of life, which now includes meeting up with a woman named Alex Goran whenever their flight schedules mesh. Like Ryan, Alex, who he met in an airport hotel bar, is constantly traveling for work, and is as equally turned on the by the concepts of "elite status" or "preferred member" as Ryan is.

Reitman Interview

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDfCxrw73nU"]YouTube- Interview With Jason Reitman, Director of "Up In The Air" Starring George Clooney[/ame]

Official Academy video and video links to this year's 82nd Annual Academy Awards

Watching The Oscars, but knowing little about the movies or the Awards is a drag.
I'm posting this for additional information—just about everything you would like to
know behind the scenes is here. At least, this helps watching them this year more interesting. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/user/oscars?blend=7&ob=4

An Education-Interview with Director Lone Scherfig
 

An Education
Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 16 wins & 44 nominations

Summary
In the early 1960's, sixteen year old Jenny Mellor lives with her parents in the London suburb of Twickenham. On her father's wishes, everything that Jenny does is in the sole pursuit of being accepted into Oxford, as he wants her to have a better life than he. Jenny is bright, pretty, hard working but also naturally gifted. The only problems her father may perceive in her life is her issue with learning Latin, and her dating a boy named Graham, who is nice but socially awkward. Jenny's life changes after she meets David Goldman, a man over twice her age. David goes out of his way to show Jenny and her family that his interest in her is not improper and that he wants solely to expose her to cultural activities which she enjoys. Jenny quickly gets accustomed to the life to which David and his constant companions, Danny and Helen, have shown her, and Jenny and David's relationship does move into becoming a romantic one. However, Jenny slowly learns more about David, and by association Danny and Helen, and specifically how they make their money. Jenny has to decide if what she learns about them and leading such a life is worth forgoing her plans of higher eduction at Oxford.

Scherfig Interview

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXR8ShhNhPA"]YouTube- Lone Scherfig on An Education[/ame]

well git with it, girl..best be gittin' that Netflix to ship out in time for Awards night.

A Serious man-Behind the Scenes
 

A Serious Man
Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 7 wins & 27 nominations

Summary
"A Serious Man is the story of an ordinary man's search for clarity in a universe where Jefferson Airplane is on the radio and F-Troop is on TV. It is 1970, and Larry Gopnik (Tony Award nominee Michael Stuhlbarg), a physics professor at a quiet Midwestern university, has just been informed by his wife Judith (Sari Lennick) that she is leaving him. She has fallen in love with one of his more pompous acquaintances, Sy Ableman (Fred Melamed), who seems to her a more substantial person than the feckless Larry. Larry's unemployable brother Arthur (Richard Kind) is sleeping on the couch, his son Danny (Aaron Wolff) is a discipline problem and a shirker at Hebrew school, and his daughter Sarah (Jessica McManus) is filching money from his wallet in order to save up for a nose job."


[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-S4FhDZaucM"]YouTube- Tribeca Videos - Geoff Gilmore on "A Serious Man"[/ame]

No, but at least reading through here you'll know a little more when you watch the show—if you do.

Precious-An Interview with Gabbie Sidibe
 

Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
Nominated for 6 Oscars. Another 53 wins & 60 nominations

Summary
Monster's Ball producer Lee Daniels follows up his 2005 directorial debut, Shadowboxer, with this adaptation of author Sapphire's best-selling novel about an overweight, illiterate African-American teen from Harlem who discovers an alternate path in life after she begins attending a new school. Clareece "Precious" Jones is only a teenager, yet she's about to give birth to her second child. Unable to read or write, Clareece shows little prospect for the future until discovering that she has been accepted into an alternative school. There, with a little help from a sympathetic teacher (Paula Patton) and a kindly nurse (Lenny Kravitiz), the young girl receives something that most teens never get -- a chance to start over. Mo'nique co-stars in an inspirational drama featuring the debut performance of screen newcomer Gabourey "Gabbie" Sidibe.


[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEAT6FrXbvk"]YouTube- Gabby Sidibe Dance & Interview On Ellen Show 10/28/2009[/ame]


[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6emKxAx9Mc"]YouTube- Mo'Nique Interview On Ellen Show 11/03/2009[/ame]

Mo'nique deserves the oscar for her role in Precious

Up-Scenes from Disney's "Up"
 

Up
Nominated for 5 Oscars. Another 34 wins & 27 nominations

Summary
Carl Fredrickson, a little boy and a dreamer who idolizes the adventurer Charles Munts. When he meets Ellie, who also worships Munts, they become close friends. However Charles Munts falls into disgrace, accused of forging the skeleton of the monster of Paradise Falls. He travels in his blimp to South America to bring the monster back alive but is never seen again. Eventually he Carl grows up and marries Ellie. They promise each other that they would travel together to Paradise Falls and build a house there. Many years later, Ellie dies and Carl, who's lonely, refuses to move from their house despite the offers of the owner of a construction company. When Carl accidentally hits a worker that damaged his mailbox, he is sentenced to move to a retirement home. However, he uses many balloons to float his house in order to travel to Paradise Falls. Adventure ensues.

NOMINEES-Actor in a Supporting Role
 

NOMINEES-Actor in a Supporting Role


Matt Damon
Invictus

Woody Harrelson
The Messenger

Christopher Plummer
The Last Station

Stanley Tucci
The Lovely Bones

Christoph Waltz
Inglourious Basterds

who's your choice?....

NOMINEES-Actress in a Supporting Role
 

NOMINEES-Actress in a Supporting Role

Penélope Cruz
Nine

Vera Farmiga
Up in the Air

Maggie Gyllenhaal
Crazy Heart

Anna Kendrick
Up in the Air

Mo'Nique
Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire


your choice....?