We had a fun time doing our yearly live coverage of the Academy Awards tonight, even if the wins went largely as expected. To revisit everything that happened you can read our chronicle of the ceremony’s progression below. 

04:50 am GMT - Well, that’s a wrap. 3 hours and 20 minutes later (and almost 4 hours since the start of our live coverage) the final results are in: No Country for Old Men is, as expected, the big winner of the night with four Oscars (Best Picture, Director, Supporting Actor and Adapted Screenplay), while the acting awards went to Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Javier Bardem and Tilda Swinton.

04:48 am GMT - And here’s the big moment. Denzel Washington will reveal to us the Best Picture Oscar winner which I cannot see going to anyone else but No Country for Old Men. The Oscar goes to… No Country for Old Men! The film is co-produced by the Coen brothers, so they are up on stage for the third time tonight, but Scott Rudin is holding the speech. Hey, Cormac McCarthy is in the audience and he looks happy and proud. McCarthy is one of the greatest American prose writers currently alive and of course the author of No Country for Old Men. 

04:45 am GMT - The night’s two main prizes are imminent, and the way the ceremony has been going with only a small amount of surprises I’m quite sure that Directing and Picture will go to No Country for Old Men. So far all the awards handed out have been spread very evenly, The Bourne Ultimatum is still “ahead” with three Oscars. Jon Stewart calls the great Martin Scorsese to the stage to hand over the Best Directing Oscar. And the winner is… no, the winners are Joel and Ethan Coen for No Country for Old Men, who walk up there for the second time tonight following their screenplay win.

04:35 am GMT - The Best Actor Oscar is up next and here’s hoping that Daniel Day-Lewis isn’t snubbed again after Gangs of New York five years ago. I’ve not seen an acting performance as good as his in There Will Be Blood since the turn of the millennium, and I’m not the only one who thinks so. So if he doesn’t win then there will be blood. Last year’s best actress Helen Mirren will announce the winner. The Oscar goes to… Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood! And what a beautifully articulate speech he delivers. Day-Lewis is awesome, even on the Oscar podium he radiates an enormous amount of charisma.

04:27 am GMT - The only categories remaining are Original Screenplay, Actor, Directing and Picture. Juno, Day-Lewis, the Coens and No Country for Old Men? We’ll soon find out. Harrison Ford enters the stage, backed by the Indiana Jones main theme. He’s presenting the Original Screenplay award. This is between Juno and Michael Clayton. And the Oscar goes to… Diablo Cody for Juno. Who’s now completed her incredible career path from exotic dancer to screenwriter to Oscar winner. The big five are all with an Oscar now, No Country has two, and we’ve got three categories to go.

04:17 am GMT - We see a live (?) satellite feed to Baghad where a group of US soldiers present the nominees for Best Documentary Short Subject. The Oscar is awarded to Freeheld. Tom Hanks will follow this up handing over the Oscar for the Best Documentary Feature… Michael Moore is up once again but he’s an outsider tonight, No End in Sight is the projected winner. But the Oscar goes to Taxi to the Dark Side.

04:11 am GMT - Amy Adams is presenting the Best Original Score Oscar, which goes to Dario Marianelli for Atonement. My second favourite score of the year, but Johnny Greenwood’s music for There Will Be Blood was ruled ineligible at the last possible moment so I had my fingers crossed for a Marianelli win. His incorporation of the type writer sound into the film’s soundtrack was a stroke of genius. Juno is now the only film of the big five still Oscar-less.

04:02 am GMT - Marketa Irglova didn’t get a chance to say her thank yous so Jon Stewart just brought her back on stage after the commercial break. That is really awesome - is this a first? And Irglova just delivered the best speech of the evening so far! Cameron Diaz will now present the Oscar for Best Cinematography. Has Roger Deakins had his votes split between his two films The Assassination of Jesse James and No Country for Old Men? The winner is Robert Elswit for There Will Be Blood. Deakins is snubbed once again (he merely nodded when Elswit’s name was announced, he’s not happy) and I’m sure that’s because of split votes. I’m not complaining though since There Will Be Blood was my pick for film of the year and has now deservedly won its first Oscar of the night.

03:55 am GMT - John Travolta will hand out the Oscar for Best Original Song. Hansen and Irglova, please… tonight’s five performances demonstrated the song’s utter brilliance. And the Oscar goes to Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova for “Falling Slowly” from Once!!!! Thunderous applause from the crowd. Despite my dislike for the category this is my favourite award of the night next to Cotillard’s win. Hansard says they “shot the film for hundred grand and never expected to stand in a room like this one.” I think that such a small film production being able to come so far and win an Oscar will be an inspiration to brave new filmmakers and is a testimony to the Academy’s ability to reward unique talent.

03:46 am GMT - Penelope Cruz stands at the podium to hand out the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar which was a real disappointment this year, considering the wealth of brilliant films not-in-the-English-language which were released in 2007 and ruled ineligible for various obscure reasons. The Oscar goes to The Counterfeiters from Austria, the only one of the nominated films I’ve at least seen previews of. Grey’s Anatomy’s and Enchanted’s Patrick Dempsey announces the fifth and last nominated song, the third from Enchanted, “So Close”. Which really fades in comparison to “Falling Slowly”. The really elaborate set makes the song’s shortcomings really obvious.

03:40 am GMT - We are treated to a clip featuring the best work of Honorary Oscar winner and set designer Robert Boyle, who gets a standing ovation from the audience. “That’s the good part of getting old,” he says. “I don’t recommend the other.” Nicole Kidman handed him the award, she stands almost two heads taller. The Honorary Oscar recipients are usually permitted the longest amount of speech time, to reflect their long and stirring careers. But Boyle’s speech is not much more than a traditional thank-you-everyone: disappointing.  

03:32 am GMT - Another montage, now briefly showing all the Best Picture winners in chronoligical order. There are some truly singular films among them, but also a couple of bad apples, especially more recently (A Beautiful Mind? Chicago?). Here comes Renee Zellweger to present the Oscar for Film Editing. Five really deserving nominees are line-up here. And the winner is The Bourne Ultimatum! Holy shit, the third Oscar for the third Bourne film puts it ahead of No Country and La Vie En Rose (2 each) in the current Oscar count. Even if No Country goes ahead to sweep the rest it will win no more than a total of five - the only remaining categories the film is up for are Cinematography, Directing and Best Picture.

03:23 am GMT - Colin Farrell walks to the podium to present the fourth nominated song, and the one that HAS to win… here are Glen Hansard and Market Irglova performing “Falling Slowly”… with an orchestra… this is definitely a live performance, and one to savour! “Falling Slowly” is one of the greatest film songs of all time. Wow, goosebumps all over. The orchestra made the song sound a bit more pompous but that was a great performance. Which reminds me: if you haven’t seen it yet, go and rent or buy Once on DVD immediately. You won’t see any other film as true and emotionally satisfying as this one for a long while.

03:15 am GMT - One-and-a-half hours gone and we’re just about half-way through the awards. Forest Whitaker, last year’s Best Actor winner, is on stage to present the award for Best Actress… say Marion… Marion… Marion… it’ll probably go to Julie Christie… but come on Marion… (just how gorgeous is she?)… though Page winning would be sort of cool… and the Oscar goes to MARION COTILLARD!!!!!!!!!!!! I say again, the Oscar for Best Actress goes to Marion Cotillard for La Vie En Rose. She’s messing up her speech but she is genuinely shaken about winning this. Beautiful. This Oscar is so richly deserved. There were so many great French films released last year (La Vie En Rose, Persepolis, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly…) so I’m glad that so many French talents are being honoured tonight.

03:07 am GMT - Dame Judi Dench and Halle Berry are announced as the next presenters, instead Seth Rogen and the lead from Superbad who’s name currently evades me are on stage, arguing about who gives off more of a “Halle Berry vibe”. The Oscar for Best Sound Editing goes to The Bourne Ultimatum. Awesome, the most incredible action franchise of the decade is honoured with an Oscar it thoroughly deserves! And Transformers is snubbed again. The Oscar for Best Sound Mixing goes to… probaby No Country… The Bourne Ultimatum again!! B-R-I-L-L-I-A-N-T.

02:57 am GMT - We’re seeing a short clip explaining the Oscar voting procedure, followed by the third song performance, “How does she know?” from Enchanted. Didn’t Amy Adams’ character sing this song in the film? She’s not performing it here, even though she did the first one. I still maintain Best Original Song is the most redundant of all Oscar categories. A Best Original Music category, which would include both films with instrumental scores and films predominantly set against songs, would make so much more sense. The Academy will never get rid of the Song category though as they probably think the song performances during the ceremony make for a good diversion. Even if year after year you hear them complaining about the show’s long running time. Go figure.

02:49 am GMT - I’m just thinking, if Michael Clayton goes on to win, say, screenplay (over Juno) and actor (Clooney over Day-Lewis), there is a slight possibility that votes really went this film’s way to the point that it would stand a chance at winning Best Picture. But it’s more likely that Swinton’s Oscar is also sort of a consolation award - which I’m not saying to slate her really good acting performance. But if a film has seven nominations and isn’t more than an outsider in most of them, you can bet that it will still win at least one. Josh Brolin and James McAvoy take the stage - the ladies will love this. They’ll be handing out the adapted best Adapted Screenplay award, which will go to No Country for Old Men… if it does, the film will own the night. The Oscar goes to Joel and Ethan Coen (No Country for Old Men), their second screenplay Oscar after 1997’s Fargo. Here’s hoping both of them will be back up there soon to receive the Best Directing Oscar.

02:40 am GMT - Here’s tonight’s first really interesting award in the sense that any of the five nominees could walk away with the Best Supporting Actress Oscar. I’d love for Cate Blanchett to win her second Oscar for playing Bob Dylan in I’m Not There. She is the most versatile and talented actress currently working in Hollywood. Ruby Dee was hardly in American Gangster but she may get the sentimental age vote. Gone Baby Gone’s Amy Ryan used to be the frontrunner for this award early in the season. Tilda Swinton could win this in the face of Michael Clayton’s many nominations in categories it will likely not succeed in. And the Oscar goes to… Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton)! She looks flabbergasted, but captures herself right away. Good speech too. 

02:33 am GMT - We’re back moving on through the award-givings as Owen Wilson enters the stage to hand out the Oscar for the Best Live-Action Short Film. I haven’t seen any of these so I can’t really comment on who should/shouldn’t win. The Oscar is awarded to Le Mozart des Pickpockets, my random pick in my predictions. This is handed out back-to-back with the Animated Short Film Oscar, which goes to Peter & the Wolf. Also my random prediction in this unfamiliar category!

02:27 am GMT - WTF? Another montage, this of “Oscar’s salute to binoculars and periscopes”. You know, since that’s what an ill-fated writers strike version of the ceremony would have looked like. The clip is fortunately short. “Raise it up” from August Rush is now being performed on stage, the second of five nominated songs. Definitely playback. Get them off the stage already.

02:20 am GMT - Five Oscars have been handed out so far to five different winners, none of which are from the “big five”. This could change if Jennifer Hudson presents the Best Supporting Actor award to the big favourite Javier Bardem for his portrayal of Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men. They show the first coin toss scene from the film. The Oscars goes to… go Javier… Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men)!!! Who’s up on stage now with a much better hairdo than Chigurh’s… he dedicates the win to his mother, speed-talking in Spanish. Awesome.

02:13 am GMT - My favourite actress Cate Blanchett is presenting the Art Direction Oscar, which goes to Sweeney Todd. Here I was thinking one of the big five was going to win its first Oscar, as There Will Be Blood was the mooted frontrunner. No complaints from me though, the aesthetics in Tim Burton’s movie were amazing.

02:10 am GMT - Dwayne Johnson aka The Rock is up there, and he’s presenting Best Visual Effects. This has to go to Transformers but Pirates 3 could undeservedly spoil it. The winner is… The Golden Compass!! Bloody hell. I’m the biggest His Dark Materials nut you’ll find around here and never in a million years would I have called this win. Not that they don’t deserve it, but the film really bombed in the United States and I thought it was a wonder the movie even got nominated in the midst of all the negative buzz. Its effects were outstanding though, so I’m happy.

02:03 am GMT - Actress Amy Adams is performing the first of three nominated original songs from Enchanted. Is she singing live or are we hearing playback? I don’t have the original recording so I can’t really tell, but I’m leaning towards the latter. This reminds me that I’m very much looking forward to Glen Hansard and Marketo Irglova performing “Falling Slowly” from Once, although I’m wondering if such an intimate song will work performed in front of such an enormous audience.

01:59 am GMT - The stunning Katherine Heigl is on stage to hand out the Best Make-Up Oscar to La Vie En Rose, hopefully. If Norbit wins something is seriously wrong. The winner is La Vie En Rose. Good call. No clips of Cotillard but it won anyways. I just hope we get another good look at Cotillard when she wins Best Actress. Fingers crossed.

01:55 am GMT - George Clooney is up at the podium to present a “80 Years of Oscar” montage. Stewart mentioned at the beginning that Oscar turning eighty this year makes him an immediate frontrunner for the position of the next Republican presidential candidate. The clip playing is showing highlights from Oscar ceremonies along the decades. It’s too self-indulgent for my tastes. Anna Hathaway and Steve Carrell take to the stage to present the Best Animated Film Award. I recently rewatched Ratatouille, which I thought really mediocre after my first viewing, whereas Persepolis was absolutely brilliant. I think Pixar’s done far better films than Ratatouille, even though I did appreciate it far better the second time around. And the Oscar goes to… Ratatouille.

01:45 am GMT - Stewart’s jokes are starting to run thin but he passes the bucket just in time. The first presenter to come on stage is Jennifer Garner, who looks so much more charismatic in real life than in movies. She’ll award the Oscar for Costume Design. This will go to Sweeney Todd or Atonement. And the Oscar goes to… Elizabeth: The Golden Age. Well, Blanchett’s performance and the costumes and set design were about all the film had going for itself. The film itself was a huge letdown, so it’s encouraging to see that the Academy seemingly isn’t just handing out the “small” awards to the big nominees to bring up their Oscar total.

01:39 am GMT - Jon Stewart’s opening comment is a “joke” about the writers strike. “You’re here! You’re all here!” Not very original, but he redeems himself but going serious and expressing what sounded like genuine content about the strike having settled. Stewart mentions this year’s nominees for Best Psychopathic Murderer Films and asks if this town needs a hug! Okay, seven minutes in and Stewart’s enticed more than a couple of chuckles out of me. He’s handling this quite well.

01:32 am GMT - The show starts as host Jon Stewart takes the stage following a neat little blockbusters montage. He proved to be the best Oscar host of the past ten years by far when he stood right up there two or three years ago. I hope he’ll be just as good tonight, even though I might not catch everything he says, being busy with this live commentary and all.

01:26 am GMT - I’m getting a commercial break on my TV feed so I’ll take this chance to once again admire this year’s five big nominees. I can’t remember the last time five intimate films of such high quality made the cut; these films aren’t crowd-pleasers or blockbusters, but genuine works of art. Just to give you an impression of the scale we’re looking at: In any other year a film like Juno would be considered “the indie movie that made it to the Oscars”. This year, Juno is the film with the biggest box office of the five Best Picture nominees!

01:17 am GMT - One of the red carpet interviewers caught hold of Marion Cotillard - if her sacrificial performance in La Vie En Rose wasn’t enough to get her up on stage to take the Best Actress Oscar, than her jaw-drapping Gautier dress definitely is. At least when they play the clips from the films nominated for Best Make-Up they should intercut scenes from La Vie En Rose with Cotillard sitting in the audience just to show the incredible job the film’s crew did on transforming this beautiful young actress into the decaying Edith Piaf at the end of her life. Best Actor nominee Daniel Day-Lewis doesn’t watch films he stars after they’re finished - “it’s none of my business”. He sees humanity in Daniel Plainview, his character in There Will Be Blood. I see a thirst for milkshakes.

01:05 am GMT - Looking at the stars and starlets arriving outside the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood - it’s the same red carpet hysteria as every year. Everyone’s showing off their best sides and the depth of their pockets. Is there some added fervour about the entire shebang? There might be, considering we were about two weeks away of seeing this ceremony downgraded to a press conference àla Golden Globes. But the writers are back at work, and we’ll soon find out how well they supplied Oscars host Jon Stewart.

00:56 am GMT - Let’s start our Oscar coverage with a summary of tonight’s major contenders. Joel and Ethan Coens’ No Country for Old Men and Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood are nominated in eight categories including Best Picture. The other three films vying for the main award are Joe Wright’s Atonement (7 nominations in total), Tony Gilroy’s Michael Clayton (also 7) and Jason Reitman’s Juno (4 noms). No Country for Old Men is the big favourite for Best Picture having sweeped pretty much all the important precursor awards: any other Best Picture winner would be considered a MAJOR upset.

Posted by Tai in Awards, Movies • Add to del.icio.us Add to Digg