82nd Academy Awards (for 2009): Predictions and Winners
by HELEN GEIB
edited March 8, 2010 to add the winners (we called best picture/director, we were solid on acting, we failed totally with screenplay, and the Academy threw a curveball again this year with foreign-language picture)
And now for the annual Commentary Track Oscar predictions post! Who will win? Who should win? Nir, Tom, Geoff, and I participated in the making of this post, which will be updated with the winners after the awards show broadcast (coming this Sunday, March 7). Our predictions match in all but one vote in one category so we stand or fall together in the strength of our predictive powers. Our “should win” picks, on the other hand, are all over the map.
Picture
Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9 (2d review)
An Education
The Hurt Locker – All WINNER
Inglourious Basterds
Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air
Should win: The Hurt Locker – Nir, Geoff, Helen; Inglourious Basterds – Tom Read more 
DVD of the Week – Review of Where the Wild Things Are (2009)
by NIR SHALEV
Maurice Sendak’s classic children’s book only contains 48 pages and 338 words, but writer/director Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich (1999), Adaptation (2009)) was able to adapt it into a 90 minute-long spiritual, and emotionally complex story about growing up. Read more
Rewind: Films of the 60s, 70s, 80s – A Soldier’s Story (1984)
by RICHARD WINTERS
This film is based on the off-Broadway play that won the Pulitzer Prize for best drama in 1982 and was written by Charles Fuller. Many of the performers in the play ended up reprising their roles in the film including the stars, Adolph Caesar and Howard E. Rollins, Jr. Director Norman Jewison spent many years trying to get the green light for the project and ended up being rejected by just about every studio. Finally Columbia Pictures gave the go-ahead, but only after Jewison agreed to do it for no salary and all the performers agreed to be paid at the minimum union scale. Read more
