It's here. The winners are already announced. Stayed up into the wee hours of dawn only to watch the live coverage of Oscars via Kodak Theater in the City of Angels. The Departed had finally departed from Oscar snub and grabbed the Best Picture statuette. I must admit I can't see why it won, or maybe Boston cop thrillers don't usually win Oscars, or maybe I'm just too selfish and opionated and steeled against cops getting Best Picture. Little Miss Sunshine would have been a nicer choice and more subtle decision, a great stun for indie films since Crash. Never belittle, it says. Sunshine is the year's most successful indie film and most heartfelt family movie in recent years. Or maybe Academy voters had hearts of damned steel also.

The Departed for me was a good film, but it lacks the grandeur that a Best Picture winner is supposed to convey. It has brilliant direction by Martin Scorcese, whom at last finally seized that golden man-trophy after years and years and gazillion of years of Oscar snub and letdowns. His balls must have been shrunk now, like Peter O'Toole's heaven's-sake career with 8 nomination but no Oscar win, but at least, so-called one of America's greatest director has finally bagged a trophy that could be displayed on his mantlepiece, in which visitors in his home could watch and notice "Ah, you've got Oscar trophy! How many?" One. Yeah right.

I was on Babel's side, and actually wanting it to win. After Crash's success, it would have ben possible for the Academy to fall for another interrelating story about global misunderstanding and connectedness. But the Academy knew better of course. Babel was just too grandeur and ambitious for a Best Picture. And only emotionally complex people would only understand it. So much for Oscar voters then. As what I have heard, some of them are shallow like seashores. Right, Roger Ebert? You've been voting for Babel as well.

I haven't seen The Letters From Iwo Jima but as what Flags of Our Fathers had established, people became too lazy seeing other people on screen being bombed. Two sides, one story - Clint Eastwood made that possible. The first one, down. Flags of Our Fathers never made it critically. But Iwo Jima, Japan's side of the story, made it but missed it.

The Queen, hail holy mercy. Brilliant film. Helen Mirren could usurp audience to fall into their knees in front of her by this magnificent performance and no doubt, she won Best Actress. But Best Picture? Bet my bollocks, it won't happen in millions of years. American's could be sometimes too American, see what I mean. Like sidetepping Brokeback Mountain last year and rather chose Crash, deftly demeaning Brokeback's strength of filmmaking. The Queen however is a performance-ridden film. Without the queen's character herself, the film's monarchy will fall into ruins.

My second best bet aside from Babel was Little Miss Sunshine. I would treasure this film forever. It's a film that everyone, from the littlest scrawny kid in the family, to the weirdest, to the attention-seeking teenagers, to the annoying adults, to the impulsive dominant fathers, the sympathetic mothers, the gay-lesbo charades, the motor-mouthing granddads - I mean what more could you ask for a film that gives us a dysfunctional family that has a big warm heart. And Oscar believed they thought better of it and threw the blame on The Departed. My respect to Scorcese because I believe he's a brilliant director. He's a legend. But he has done other GREATER films, why chose The Departed? I might have been undermining The Departed or maybe it's not just my cup of tea. Even Jack Nicholson wasn't nominated for his awesome performance here and rather put Mark Wahlberg on the nomination, in which all he had done in his part was shouting, swearing, dropping F-bomb and expletives. So in that logic, if I was an actor and offered a role that takes an effort to swear a lot, f*ck a lot and shouts a lot, that conclusion would lead me to believe that I would be nominated as well. Hell yeah.

Pan's Labyrinth, my 2006's best film, wasn't nominated for Best Picture. Or maybe it seemed to innocent for the Academy's eyes. Or maybe they're just too blind to see the real beauty beneath the staggering darkness that clothes the film. Then again, maybe America is too afraid to choose a foreign film to become Best Picture. Here's the real terrorism crisis. Borat could be your witness. Pan's Labyrinth didn't even win for Best Foreign Film. That's human carnage. Children of Men didn't even win Best Cinematography. That's more bloody.


Eddie Murphy was sidestepped as well. Alan Arkin won as Best Supporting Actor. I won't mind. Alan Arkin was absolutely unbelievable as the grandfather in Little Miss Sunshine. I won't also mind of Abigail Breslin of Little Miss Sunshine would win as well. But the trophy goes to Jennifer Hudson. Her payback revenge to American Idol. I won't mind at all. Simon Cowell might have killed her, I won't mind at all. But if she wouldn't win, that's where I should min because her performance is just so powerful.

So much for the bitchery. I couldn't do a thing but just sit down here, criticise things and events. Who the hell am I anyway. Yeah, I'm just a lousy bugger who sits down watch films and write reviews. So much for humanity. So much for Oscars. Wait until The Moviejerk Awards will launch very soon. The real show would begin. (laughs evilly)

Here are the results:

Best Picture
THE DEPARTED
BABEL
LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA
THE QUEEN

Actor in a Leading Role
Forest Whitaker, THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND
Peter O'Toole, VENUS
Will Smith, THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS
Leonardo DiCaprio, BLOOD DIAMOND
Ryan Gosling, HALF NELSON

Actress in a Leading Role
Helen Mirren, THE QUEEN
Judi Dench, NOTES ON A SCANDAL
Kate Winslet, LITTLE CHILDREN
Penelope Cruz, VOLVER
Meryl Street, THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA

Best Director
Martin Scorsese, THE DEPARTED
Paul Greengrass, UNITED 93
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, BABEL
Stephen Frears, THE QUEEN
Clint Eastwood, LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA

Actor in a Supporting Role
Eddie Murphy, DREAMGIRLS
Alan Arkin, LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
Mark Wahlberg, THE DEPARTED
Djimon Hounsou, BLOOD DIAMOND
Jackie Earle Haley, LITTLE CHILDREN

Actress in a Supporting Role
Jennifer Hudson, DREAMGIRLS
Adriana Barraza, BABEL
Rinko Kinkuchi, BABEL
Abigail Breslin, LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
Cate Blanchett, NOTES ON A SCANDAL

Best Original Screenplay
THE QUEEN
LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
BABEL
LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA
PAN'S LABYRINTH

Best Adapted Screenplay
THE DEPARTED
LITTLE CHILDREN
NOTES ON A SCANDAL
BORAT
CHILDREN OF MEN

Best Original Score
BABEL
THE GOOD GERMAN
NOTES ON A SCANDAL
PAN'S LABYRINTH
THE QUEEN

Best Animated Film
HAPPY FEET
CARS
MONSTER HOUSE

Best Foreign Film
PAN'S LABYRINTH
AFTER THE WEDDING
WATER
DAYS OF GLORY (INDIGENES)
THE LIVES OF OTHERS

Best Art Direction
PAN'S LABYRINTH
DREAMGIRLS
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN’S CHEST
THE GOOD SHEPHERD
THE PRESTIGE

Best Cinematography
CHILDREN OF MEN
THE PRESTIGE
THE ILLUSIONIST
THE BLACK DAHLIA
PAN'S LABYRINTH

Best Costume Design
DREAMGIRLS
MARIE ANTOINETTE
CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER
THE QUEEN
THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA

Best Documentary Feature
AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH
DELIVER US FROM EVIL
IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS
JESUS CAMP
MY COUNTRY, MY COUNTRY

Best Documentary (Short Subject)
THE BLOOD OF YINGZHOU DISTRICT
RECYCLED LIFE
REHEARSING A DREAM
TWO HANDS

Best Film Editing
BABEL
THE DEPARTED
UNITED 93
CHILDREN OF MEN
BLOOD DIAMOND

Best Makeup
PAN'S LABYRINTH
APOCALYPTO
CLICK

Best Short Film (Animated)
THE DANISH POET
LIFTED
THE LITTLE MATCHGIRL
MAESTRO
NO TIME FOR NUTS

Best Short Film (Live-Action)
BINTA AND THE GREAT IDEA (BINTA Y LA GRAN IDEA)
ÉRAMOS POCOS (ONE TOO MANY)
HELMER & SON
THE SAVIOUR
WEST BANK STORY

Best Sound Editing
APOCALYPTO
BLOOD DIAMOND
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST
FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS
LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA

Best Sound Mixing
DREAMGIRLS
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST
FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS
BLOOD DIAMOND
APOCALYPTO

Best Visual Effects
POSEIDON
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST
SUPERMAN RETURNS

Best Original Song
“Love You I Do” – DREAMGIRLS, Jennifer Hudson
“Listen” – DREAMGIRLS, Beyonce Knowles
“I Need to Wake Up” - AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, Melissa Etheridge
“Patience” – DREAMGIRLS, Eddie Murphy
“Our Town” - CARS, James Taylor