tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24089047431228898532011-04-21T14:24:04.096-07:00Patricia Jameson-Sammartanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13124156931790304417noreply@blogger.comBlogger11100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2408904743122889853.post-8338526592421093852007-02-25T22:26:00.000-08:002007-02-25T23:53:04.219-08:00<a href="https://www.t-mobilepictures.com/9754522/_entry/8a38a9d110f11c090110f15af63a5ab2/ps/SENDTOAFRIEND/SENDENTRY?foneblog=1172471429048"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://www.t-mobilepictures.com/9754522/_entry/8a38a9d110f11c090110f15af63a5ab2/ps/SENDTOAFRIEND/SENDENTRY?foneblog=1172471429048" border="0" /></a><br /><div>"The Departed" bounced home with four Oscars Sunday night - Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay(William Monaghan), Best Film Editing(Thelma Schoonmaker) -- and yes, Martin Scorcese finally got to take a statue home for Best Achievement in Directing. The award, presented by Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppolan and George Lewis, marks the eighth time Scorcese, a native of Queens, has been nominated and the first Oscar win. His first words were to the presenters: "Please double check the envelope." Then he went on to thank everyone associated with the film, and as he walked offstage, was caught in a bear hug by none other than Jack Nicholson, whose acting job as Boston Irish mafia's chief Frank Costello, was nothing short of brilliant and surprised us that he wasn't nominated for an award.</div><div> Since last year's Palme d'Or winner"The Wind that Shakes the Barley" wasn't in contention for an award because the US distributors didn't show it for a week in Los Angeles before the December 31 deadline, we are satisfied that Scorcese's ensemble crime drama starring Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Mark Wahlberg(who lost out to Alan Arkin in the Best Supporting Actor category), Alec Baldwin and Martin Sheen, took home prizes.</div><div> </div><div> "Barley" won the 4th Annual Irish Film award for Best Picture; Liam Cunningham won for Supporting Actor. Also nominated were Padraig Delaney for Supporting Actor and Cillian Murphy for Best Actor(he lost to himself in "Breakfast on Pluto.")</div><div> </div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div> Other Oscar winners were not a surprise: Helen Mirren won for "The Queen," Forest Whittaker for "The Last King of Scotland," Jennifer Hudson won Supporting Actress for "Dreamgirls" and didn't even bother to thank the American Idol crew, although she had promised that in a pre-Oscar telecast. Former Vice President Al Gore and filmaker David Guggenheim won Best Documentary for "An Inconvenient Truth," which also won singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge a statue for "I Need to Wake Up." She thanked her wife Tammy, her children and Al Gore, saying, "We are all green."</div><div> </div><div> Surprises? "Dreamgirls" was nominated for three awards in the Best Song category, but came up empty. As host Ellen De Generis said early in the broadcast, people did vote for Al Gore. Much of the broadcast consisted of inside jokes, with de Generis handing a screenplay to Scorcese, and Al Gore's anticipated presidential candidacy announcement drowned out by the swelling music that signified "time's up" for the artists' thank you speeches.</div><div> </div><div> This truly was a year of Oscar internationalism, with Mexican, Japanese, Argentinian, German, and Spanish nominees. The Best Documentary Short was won by Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon for "The Blood of Yingzhou District," a film about AIDS in China. If the name Lennon sounds familiar, it's because he produced the mini-series "The Irish in America" for PBS and Walt Disney Television in 1998. </div><div> </div><div><span style="color:#009900;"><strong>Patricia Jameson-Sammartano</strong></span></div><div><span style="color:#009900;"><strong>Culture Editor</strong></span>, <a href="http://www.thewildgeese.com">www.thewildgeese.com</a> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2408904743122889853-833852659242109385?l=thewildgeesecom.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Patricia Jameson-Sammartanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13124156931790304417noreply@blogger.com0