Awesome Friday!

Tonight is the 90th annual Academy Awards and for the 6th year in a row we are live blogging! Newest updates are at the top!

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Greetings all! Tonight is the night of the 89th Annual Academy Awards and for the sixth year we will be live blogging the night! We’ll be posting some updates to twitter but the bulk of it will be right here.

We’ll be updating the winners below, and here are Matt’s predictions.

The show starts in 40 minutes, we’ll see you then!

The Winners:

• Best Picture: Moonlight La La Land
• Best Director: Damien Chazelle for Moonlight.
• Best Actor: Casey Affleck in Manchester by the Sea
• Best Actress: Emma Stone in La La Land
• Best Supporting Actor: Mahershala Ali in Moonlight
• Best Supporting Actress: Viola Davis in Fences
• Best Adapted Screenplay: Barry Jenkins & Tarell Alvin McRaney for Moonlight
• Best Original Screenplay: Kenneth Lonergan for Manchester by the Sea
• Best Foreign Language Film: The Salesman (Iran)
• Best Animated Feature: Zootopia
• Best Animated Short: Piper
• Best Documentary Feature: O.J.: Made In America
• Best Documentary Short: The White Helmets
• Best Live Action Short: Sing
• Best Cinematography: La La Land
• Best Film Editing: Hacksaw Ridge
• Best Makeup & Hairstyling: Suicide Squad
• Best Costume Design: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
• Best Production Design: La La Land
• Best Original Song: City of Stars from La La Land
• Best Original Score: Justin Hurwitz for La La Land
• Best Sound Mixing: Hacksaw Ridge
• Best Sound Editing: Arrival
• Best Visual Effects: The Jungle Book

Is the 88th Annual Academy Awards, and the 5th Annual Awesome Friday Oscars Liveblog! Newer updates are at the top!

Winners so Far: (y or n for my predictions)

• Best Original Screenplay: Spotlight (y)
• Best Adapted Screenplay: The Big Short (y)
• Best Supporting Actress: Alicia Vikander (n)
• Best Costume Design: Mad Max (n)
• Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Mad Max (y)
• Best Production Design: Mad Max (y)
• Best Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki (y)
• Best Editing: Mad Max (y)
• Best Sound Editing: Mad Max (y)
• Best Sound Mixing: Mad Max (y)
• Best Visual Effects: Ex Machina (n)
• Best Animated Short: Bear Story (-)
• Best Animated Feature: Inside Out (y)
• Best Supporting Actor: Mark Rylance (n)
• Best Documentary Short: A Girl in the River (-)
• Best Documentary Feature: Amy (y)
• Best Live Action Short: Stutterer (-)
• Best Foreign Language Film: Son of Saul (-)
• Best Original Score: Ennio Morricone (y)
• Best Original Song: The Writing’s On The Wall (n)
• Best Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu (y)
• Best Actress: Brie Larson (y)
• Best Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio (y)
• Best Picture: Spotlight (n)

This is a live blog. Newest posts at the top.

Here we go! The last of today’s big conferences. Let’s see what Sony has in store to counter this morning’s strong show by Microsoft. Come on in!

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HEY YOU. Do you like Assassinating some Creed? Do you like Watching some Dogs? Do you enjoy the odd bit of Far Crying? You do? You’re in the right place. It’s time for Ubisoft’s E3 conference!

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OK, get you ear protectors ready, it’s time for the EA conference! Come on in and get comfy. It’s going to be dramatic.

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Here we go! Join me (us) as I (we) career through the latest and greatest Mario Kart!

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You may want to book this Friday off or plan some well-timed sick leave: Mario Kart 8 will be in my sweaty hands, and all over the site! (eww)

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It’s that time again folks for us to sit in judgement of choices that millionaires make as they give each other solid gold statues.

You can check Matt’s predictions here but in the mean time sit back, relax, and enjoy your flight.

Newest updates at the top of the page.

Tonight the Hollywood Foreign Press Association holds their annual statue giving ceremony and I’ll be watching and commentating. The show starts at 5pm Pacific so check back here around then to follow along.

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What do you do with your only day to yourself for the next eight weeks? Read? Create? Play.

Capcom’s Remember Me has intrigued me since I last heard about it last year, and a copy seemed to arrive in my collection just in time, so today I’ll be playing the entirety of the game and constantly writing about my experience.

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The timer is ticking down the last 37 minutes to the Xbox One media briefing in E3, executives are sweating, and tea is brewing. Get comfy and watch with me to see if Microsoft can do anything to reverse the tide of dissent stemming from gamers after their lukewarm first reveal. DRM? Trading? Prices? Exclusives? Hopefully, all of these questions will be categorically answered.

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Howdy folks. Watch here for all our thoughts on the Oscars tonight! Newest updates at the top, and I’ll update with a winners list as we go.

Winners

• Christoph Waltz for Best Supporting Actor
• Paperman for Best Animated Short
• Brave for Best Animated Feature
• Claudio Miranda for Life of Pie for Best Cinematography
• Life of Pi for Best Visual Effects
• Anna Karenina for Best Costume Design
• Les Miserables for Best Makeup
• Curfew for Best Live Action Short
• Inocente for Best Documentary Short
• Searching for Sugarman for Best Documentary Feature.
• Amour for Best Foreign Language Film
• Les Miserables for Best Sound Mixing
• Zero Dark Thirty and Skyfall tie for Best Sound Editing.
• Anne Hathaway for Best Supporting Actress
• Argo for Best Film Editing
• Lincoln for Best Production Design
• Life of Pi for Best Original Score
• Skyfall for Best Original Song
• Chris Terrio for Argo for Best Adapted Screenplay
• Quentin Tarantino for Django Unchained for Best Original Screenplay
• Ang Lee for Best Director
• Jennifer Lawrence for Best Actress
• Daniel Day Lewis for Best Actor
• Argo for Best Picture

Oscar night and I’m going to live blog the show. I was having trouble deciding where to start writing for the site and this seems like a golden opportunity really, just up and said “hey write about me!” So that is what I am doing. I will of course time stamp my thoughts as I have them, and hopefully provide you with enough context that you can read them without needing the show to be on in the background for you to understand what the hell I am talking about.

17:22: just getting set up with a place to write and record. Red carpet stuff is almost over, show about to start! Is a good thing we’re doing this without a screaming baby around. Oh wait….

17:30: Aaaaaaaand show starting. Morgan Freeman on stage. He’s welcoming us to the show, and also Billy Crystals parody montage.

17:35: Montage over. “Say ‘I’m Batman, it’ll help me!'” was hilarious, but all the jokes are pretty …. Uh…. Safe. I have a feeling this will be indicative of the rest of the show as well.

17:37: “Nothing takes your mind off these economic times like watching millionaires give each other golden statues.”. Awesome, if a little obvious. Now the singing. Oh the singing. If only Billy Crystal could sing.

17:41: I should probably point out how cynical I am about the Oscars this year, in case it hasn’t come through yet. I have a bad feeling there’ll be no risks taken tonight, and the jokes aren’t that funny so far.

17:43: First award is cinematography. Hugo wins. Second up is art direction. Hugo wins again. I haven’t seen this yet, but from what I have seen the film is gorgeous so this makes sense. I have no strong opinions about this either way really.

17:47: WTF is the band doing up in the box seats? Going back to Billy Crystal for a second my question is this: why the hell don’t they just get Hugh Jackman back again? Seriously; his song was way better and unlike Billy Crystal he can actually sing.

17:52: And now a montage of iconic moments in film. Brett from Flight of the Conchords is in the audience and I blew Simons mind by telling him that Brett is nominated for the songs in The Muppets.

17:55: The Artist wins Best Costume Design. Not surprised. Everyone looked great in it. The Iron Lady wins for Makeup. They did do a. Good job of turning Meryl Streep into Mrs. Thatcher and then aging the crap out of her.

18:03: Montage of actors talking about their first movie going experience. Mostly boring except that Brad Pitt dropped “War of the Gargantuas” which is kind of amazing. This is a movie which you need to see if you haven’t.

18:05: Sandra Bullock takes the stage. She’s about to speak Chinese. In German.

18:07: A Separation wins best foreign film. Iranian Film meant to be gorgeous. We wonder if it’s a political decision at all, but it is meant to be an amazing film. Is that too cynical? I can’t tell anymore.

18:09: Christian Bale on stage to give away the Best Supporting Actress trophy. Still hoping for Jessica Chastain. Simon and Wife taking the piss out of Christian Bale’s accent. Funny, most Brits I know do this, take the piss out of every other Brits accent.

18:12: Octavia Spencer wins for The Help. Everyone on their feet. Kind of brilliant. She was amazing after all. I maintain that the Octavia Spencer/Jessica Chastain storyline in The Help was the best part of the movie.

18:17: So far Sandra Bullock speaking Chinese in German, Iranian Director giving a political speech for his acceptance, and Octavia Spencer winning are the best moments of the show.

18:18: Ooooh Billy Crystal makes a joke that’s actually funny. “45 minute drive indeed.”

18:20: Christopher Guest and co doing what appears to be ad lib focus group for Wizard of Oz. Kind of right up my alley. “I didn’t like it until the flying monkeys.” Fred Willard FTW.

18:25: Girl With The Dragon Tattoo picks one up for best editing. Hugo for Sound Editing and Sound mixing. I realllly wanted Drive to win for sound editing, if only so that it could have an Oscar. Kind of wish that Transformers won for sound editing just to see everyone’s reaction and also the DVD cover a Transormers film that reads “Oscar Winner.”

18:32: Can we have more Fred Willard please?

18:34: Muppets on camera. It’s a good thing.

18:35: Cirque du Soleil interpreting “going to the movies” in dance. This could actually be pretty interesting.

18:39: I wish that at some point in my life I could be half as athletic as someone from Cirque. Seriously.

18:41: Robert Downey Jr and Gwyneth Paltrow presenting for documentaries. Not being very funny. Fuck I didn’t see any documentaries this year at all. Undefeated wins. Yay?

18:44: Huh, first instance of someone being played off. Even cut off the mic on the guys who won best documentary. Not really fair consider there were six of them.

18:46: Best animated film is Rango. Fucking amazing since its clearly the best animated film from 2011 and Gore Verbinski is overdue. Maybe a bit surprising that the film that was the best was chosen.

18:50: Any voice actors in the audience? I’d like to hear what you have to say abut Chris Rock’s little description of your job. I’d be willing to bet that you’re maybe wanting to go all Hulk SMAHSH right now?

18:54: Emma Stone is amazing. That is all.

18:55: Lots of good choices for visual effects but Hugo wins. Seems like Hugo is going to win all the technical awards. I wonder how that bodes for the beat picture/director awards… No I don’t, it bodes poorly.

18:59: Best Supporting Actor award. Christopher Plummer wins! Yes! About time. He’s generally speaking always great.

19:10: You know, I think they should just let the hosts of these shows run wild. When these jokes are so blatantly scripted they aren’t funny. If they’d just let them ad lib and make fun of the audience it might actually be good. So far Billy Crystals best jokes have all been off the cuff remarks, like the one to the president of the academy, “mister excitement.”

19:13: The Artist is totally going to win best score.

19:14: The Artist won best score. I mean, how could it not? The film is all music. On top of that the score is really good, too. Also John Williams had two nominations for the same score. YEAH I SAID IT.

19:18: Will Ferrell and Zach Galifiniakais presenting for best song. Muppets to win, right?

19:19: Bret Harrison of Flight of the Conchords is now an Oscar winning musician. Fuck Yes. Muppets FTW.

19:25: is it just me or is Angelina Jolie not looking super healthy? She looks like a stick figure. Either way, The Descendants just won best adapted screenplay. I’m sure it’s great but I was really pulling for Moneyball.

19:29: I really hope Woody Allen wins for best original.

19:30: Woody Allen wins. Fucking A. I’d really like to see him win best picture as well but don’t see it happening.

19:37: You know, the technical awards should get more than just a 2 minute recap. But maybe I’m a huge nerd.

19:39: Maya Rudolph and Kristin Wiig making innuendo about short vs long film should be cliche but somehow is just funny.

19:42: Are all the best documentary nominees seated in the nose bleeds? Do they get to give their speech after the next awards when they finally get to the stage?

19:45: That’s a capitol hat the guy who won for best animated short is wearing. Jaunty angle as well.

19:50: Michael Douglas is clone of Kirk Douglas right? Time for the best director. Thinking that The Artist will likely win. If something I don’t want to win is going to win though, let it be Hugo. If something I want to win wins let it be Midnight in Paris.

19:53: aaaand The Artist wins for best director. Le sigh.

19:57: Governors awards. Again, wish they weren’t given such a brief recap. Just make it part of the show. Or, better yet, replace the red carpet BS with them.

20:00: Only best actor, actress, and film are left. Not hopeful for anyone involved in films that don’t rhyme with “de smartest.”

20:03: Time for the in memoriam. Usually this is when we get to hear how famous people were by how loud the crowd claps, but no one is clapping. Fucking finally.

20:13: ok the show is starting to feel dragged out. But at least Natalie Portman is on stage to give ay the best actor award. I’m sure Rene Dujardin will win, but we’ll see. Nice little unspoken exchange between her and Gary Oldman as she talked about his performance in Tinker Tailor.

20:18: Jean Dujardin wins. Not surprised in the slightest. Don’t get me wrong, while I didn’t think the movie was worth all the awards it’s winning or even like his character? He did a brilliant job. That said, GARY OLDMAN WAS NOMINATED.

20:24: Here’s Colin Firth to give the best actress award. No idea who it will be. Meryl Streep won the BAFTA but that’s British isn’t it. Viola Davis needs to win, Rooney Mara I want to win, but I have a feeling it’ll be Bernice Bejo.

20:29: Oh wait Bernice Bejo wasn’t nominated. Fuck. I had kind of assumed that she was. Either way, Meryl just won and it’s about fucking time. Even if Viola Davis should have. But seriously, about time. 13 nominations between wins?? Too many.

20:32: Tom Cruise to present best picture. With a montage. It’ll be The Artist, but I really want it to be … Well, they’re all good, but Midnight in Paris. Or Moneyball.

20:36: And The Artist wins. Quel surprise. Between Hugo cleaning up the technical awards and The Artist cleaning up everything else it doesn’t seem like anything else won much of anything.

You know, this ceremony wasn’t very exciting. I hope next year there’s some risks, some more varied choices, and that the theme is a little more specific than “we like movies.”. I’m going to sleep on it and recap in a day or two with more feelings on who won and who didn’t but long story short: boring, Emma Stone hot, Angelina Jolie not hot, and very few surprises.