AND THE WINNER IS…

Best director nominee James Cameron (“Avatar”) added to his crowded mantelpiece and healthy ego on Saturday night when the Santa Barbara International Film Festival bestowed upon him its highest honor, the Modern Master Award. The part-time Santa Barbara resident has attended the festival before — once to receive an honor for his underwater documentaries, and another time to present former vice president Al Gore with an honor for “An Inconvenient Truth” (2006) — but this was the first time that the festival devoted an entire evening to celebrating his career, and he was clearly in his element.

Film critic/author Leonard Maltin was initially thrown for a loop when Cameron took the stage and immediately began delivering his acceptance speech, something that usually follows the Q&A portion of SBIFF tributes. Maltin eventually interrupted Cameron to clarify the situation, at which time Cameron insisted that he had only been following the instructions he had been given by someone backstage but apologized for the confusion and sat down for the Q&A. The Q&A inexplicably jumped all over the place until it arrived at “The Terminator” (1984), when it finally became clear why things seemed rushed: Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governor of California and the man whom Cameron had turned from an Austrian bodybuilder into a major movie star, strode out onto the stage, presented his close friend with his award, told the audience his iconic line from the film (“I’ll be back”), and then departed for the airport to catch a plane back to Sacramento.

At this point, the Q&A portion resumed, and Cameron made the following comments (some of which were insightful and others of which came across as a bit arrogant, although I suppose that someone who has achieved as much as Cameron has is entitled to a little arrogance)…

• “The Wizard of Oz” (1939), he says, “was — and still is — my favorite movie,” in part because of its employment of cutting-edge technical wizardry (it morphs a black-and-white world into a world of Technicolor) and in aprt because it features “both beauty and terror,” both things that he strives to include in his films, too.
• As a youngster, he “couldn’t decide if I wanted to write or I wanted to draw,” and then, in his 20s, realized that he could do both by telling stories with pictures on film.
• Before becoming a filmmaker, he spent his weekdays driving a truck, and his off-hours photocopying hundreds of pages from film-related books, magazines, and even college theses, through which he taught himself a great deal about the technical terminology and techniques of filmmaking.
• Spent some time working as a “model builder” and “art director” for B-movie king/recent honorary Oscar recipient Roger Corman, during which he learned that “you need other people to accomplish anything.”
• On screenwriting, he candidly says, “I like having written. I don’t like writing.” He also adds, “If you can’t make yourself cry, how can you expect someone else to have an emotional reaction?”
• “I made ‘Titanic’ (1997) because I wanted to dive the shipwreck.”
• While making “Titanic,” “It was fun knowing that were doing something that hadn’t been done… that’s been true on really every one of the films… I don’t really think of how impossible these things are before the fact… I just take them on.”
• Reveals that in “Titanic,” 1 in 5 people in the scene in which the ship sinks were actually licensed lifeguards dressed in period costumes.
• Of the scene in which Leonardo DiCaprio shouts, “I’m the king of the world!,” says he initially asked the actor — via walkie-talkie, since DiCaprio was in a basket high above the ground — to try a variety of other ways to convey his excitement at the situation before suggesting “I’m the king of the world!” Cameron adds, “Of course, I got in a lot of trouble with that line later,” referring to his awkward acceptance speech after winning the best director Oscar for the film. “He sold it. I didn’t sell it.”
• Made several underwater documentaries between “Titanic” and “Avatar,” including “Aliens of the Deep” (2005), because “I wanted to make science aspirational for kids.”
• While going underwater to explore the “Titanic” shipwreck, “I made a vow to myself to shoot my next film in 3-D.”
• “Good films are always personal films, no matter what their scale… ‘Avatar’ was certainly a personal film for me.”
• Regarding “Avatar,” says he first thought of and wrote the story (about 100 pages) in two to three weeks in 1995; then left it for other projects; returned to it in May 2005, whereupon he spent two years working on the design of the CGI-created creatures and world and developing the technology to bring it to life (the simulcamera, eMotion capture, etc.); then started wroking with his actors in April 2007, spending one year on principal photography; and then spent 2 years working on post-production, which involved over 2600 tech shots
• To prepare for “Avatar,” he read extensively about the conquest of New Spain and the history of the American West (and especially the genocide and displacement of the horse clans of the plains)
• Somewhat surprisingly volunteers, “I don’t make movies for iPhones, but if you’re making a good film it should be scalable.”
• Of his film’s nine Oscar nominations he says, “Do I need another trophy? No, I don’t. But I’m proud for the team, which feels a sense of validation.”
• Besides, he says, when receiving awards, “I usually do something stupid like yell ‘I’m the King of the World’ and jump around.”

Photo: James Cameron accepts the SBIFF’s Modern Master Award from Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s annual screenwriters panel convened at the Lobero Theatre on Saturday morning. Questions were posed to the panelists — Mark Boal (“The Hurt Locker”), Pete Docter (“Up”), Geoffrey Fletcher (“Precious”), Alex Kurtzman (“Star Trek”), Nancy Meyers (“It’s Complicated”), Scott Neustadter (“500 Days of Summer”), and Jason Reitman (“Up in the Air”) — by moderator Anne Thompson (wrote writes the “Thompson on Hollywood” blog for IndieWire) and then by audience members.

Highlights of the roughly hour-and-a-half session included the following:

• Boal described “Triple Frontier,” his next collaboration with “The Hurt Locker” director Kathryn Bigelow, as a “love story” set in “a lawless area” of South America “with crime, drugs, and kidnapping.”
• Fletcher says that after college he worked temp jobs in New York City during the week while writing on the side, all “with very little positive reinforcement, which helped me to understand what Precious was all about” (adding that he thought of her as a variation of Odyssius, Huck Finn, and Celie from “The Color Purple”)
• Reitman (who is nominated for best original screenplay) told Fletcher (who is nominated for best adapted screenplay) that he was “really impressed with what you did,” as far as adapting a complex book into a strong screenplay
• Reitman said of adapting a screenplay that the easy part is “you’re stealing someone else’s genius” and the hard part is “making it work for the screen,” in part by “deleting stuff and not feeling guilty about it”
• Boal admitted that the only reason he and Bigelow decided to include “the mercenary sequence in the middle of a bomb movie” was to provide Ralph Fiennes with a part that he would agree to play in the movie (Fiennes had earlier turned down an offer to play a British Ambassador who harshly chides American troops, telling Boal in no uncertain terms that he knew people who were in similar positions and who would never do such a thing)
• Reitman said, “I offered ‘Thank You for Smoking’ to George Clooney. He had no interest in that one.”
• Meyers discussed her dismay at the R-rating that her film received from the MPAA because it features characters (Alec Baldwin and Meryl Streep) who smoke marijuana without adverse effects. Meyers says she had assumed that because they do it only once, for what they proclaim to be the first time in decades, and don’t do anything stupid as a result, she would be in the clear. (Reitman then asked her if she would have added a lot more risque material if she’d known she was going to get the dreaded R-rating anyway!)
• Neustadter emphasized that “500 Days of Summer” is very much a true story — one based on his own experiences with a girl who broke his heart. He says he shared stories about the girl with Michael H. Weber, who he had hired to work for him 10 years ago and with whom he eventually collaborated on a screenplay about the ill-fated relationship.
• Docter spoke a lot about the unique experience of making movies at Pixar, where one is able to get regular input not from executives (as is usually the case) but from other great animators/directors like Oscar winners Brad Bird, Andrew Stanton, and John Lasseter (who is also the studio’s CEO, and who cried upon hearing the pitch for “Up,” Docter says)
• Kurtzman says he and his longtime writing partner Roberto Orci were absolutely terrified by the propsect of writing a new version of “Star Trek,” since they both grown up as huge fans of the franchise and feared having to face the wrath (pardon the pun) of the fanbase if they botched the job. They ultimately decided to take it on, though, when they realized they’d feel even worse — and, indeed, personally responsible — if they didn’t and someone else botched it!

Photo (l to r): Panel moderator Anne Thompson and screenwriters Mark Boal, Pete Docter, Geoffrey Fletcher, Alex Kurtzman, Nancy Meyers, Scott Neustadter, and Jason Reitman. Credit: Scott Feinberg.

During the audience Q&A portion of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s annual directors panel on Sunday, I seized a rare opportunity to pose a question to both Kathryn Bigelow (“The Hurt Locker”) and James Cameron (“Avatar”) about a striking similarity that I observed on this blog a few weeks ago between “Strange Days,” a 1995 film that Bigelow directed and Cameron co-wrote and produced, and “Avatar,” which Cameron says he first thought of in — you guessed it — 1995. (The attached video, which features a portion of my question and the entirey of their response, was captured by Jeff Wells of Hollywood-Elsewhere, unbeknownst to me. Thanks Jeff!)

Video: Scott Feinberg asks Kathryn Bigelow and James Cameron about a possible connection between “Strange Days” and “Avatar.” Credit: Jeff Wells.

The best offering of the 25th Santa Barbara International Film Festival, thus far, was undoubtedly last night’s tribute to best actress hopeful Sandra Bullock (“The Blind Side”), who received the festival’s American Riviera Award following a Q&A session with film critic Pete Hammond and remarks from Forest Whitaker, the Oscar-winning actor who also directed her in the film “Hope Floats” (1998).

On Friday night, Bullock  was — as she is in her films — infinitely attractive, charming, and likable, if not always all that deep. But, hey, people have always gone to see Bullock’s films — among them “Speed” (1994), “Practical Magic” (1998), “Miss Congeniality” (2000), “Two Weeks Notice” (2002), and “The Proposal” (2008) — not for enlightenment but for fun escapism, pure and simple, and she delivered that in spades over the course of about two hours.

Among the highlights? Poopooing her inclusion on People’s “50 Most Beautiful People” lists; mocking her flat-chestedness; acknowledging that not even she and Keanu Reeves had or have any idea what exactly is going on in “The Lake House” (2006); and gamely talking about her “other” 2009 performance in the critical and commercial bomb “All About Steve” — she was nominated for a Razzie Award and says, quite seriously, that she plans to attend the ceremony in case she wins.

SBIFF tributes are always fun, not least because they offer something of a combination of “Inside the Actors Studio” and “This Is Your Life,” requiring honorees to not only reference but also watch years of past work that they have often avoided. Bullock was no exception, professing to having shied away from watching many of her past films for years because she inevitably finds herself frustrated that she can’t change something about her performances in them. But once she saw them, she happily chatted about her various hairstyles, on-set struggles, and collaborators, about whom she was unfailingly complimentary.

There’s no question that Bullock is one of the most talented and popular on-screen comediennes of her generation. It was interesting to hear her say, though, that her biggest hope for many years was not to make “romantic-comedies” but to make Jim Carrey-style physical comedies — movies in which she can be a “guy” and do stupid “guy things” — and it’s true that she’s been at her funniest when she has been set free to improvise awkward dialogue and employ her physicality in funny ways. It is what’s made her an “everywoman” — even if she’s much prettier, funnier, and more likable than every woman — and what has landed her at the top of Quigley’s 78th annual poll, which identifies the top box-office attraction according to theater owners. As Hammond noted during his introduction tonight, only seven other women have ever topped the list: Marie Dressler (1932, 1933), Shirley Temple (1935, 1936, 1937, 1938), Betty Grable (1943), Elizabeth Taylor (1961), Doris Day (1960, 1962, 1963, 1964), Julie Andrews (1966, 1967) and Julia Roberts. (1999). That’s pretty exclusive/impressive company.

Perhaps the most memorable part of the evening was when Whitaker delivered almost poetic remarks about Bullock — who was shown to be visibly moved on the big screen behind her — to a dead-silent room before calling her over to accept her award. I’d be surprised if any Oscar voters in the room (there are apparently many) who came into the evening on the fence about Bullock’s awards-worthiness weren’t won over by her charm and humility, as well as by Whitaker’s high praise.

In other words — for both Bullock and the festival — “mission accomplished.”

Photo: Sandra Bullock accepts her SBIFF Award, as presenter Forest Whitaker looks on from behind. Credit: Scott Feinberg.

When the 2009 Oscar nominees were announced last Tuesday, there was no bigger surprise — not even the best picture nod for “The Blind Side” — than the best animated feature nod for Tomm Moore’s Irish film “The Secret of Kells,” which sent many a blogger (this one included) scrambling to IMDB for information, since so few of us had heard of (much less seen) the film. Coincidentally, and conveniently, it was among the films chosen to play at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, where many an Oscar blogger are camped out to monitor the Oscar-nominated tribute recipients, so today’s first screening of the film drew as many Oscar bloggers (Pete Hammond, Kris Tapley, Anne Thompson, and myself) as most big studio premieres in late December!

The verdict? Split. Anne Tweeted that it was “magical, mythical, old-fashioned, stylized, 2-D, pre-Arthurian, compelling.” Kris told me he thought it was visually impressive. I didn’t get to speak with Pete about it. And me? Well, I find myself sympathizing more with the guy in front of me who woke himself up with his loud snore… literally.

The film’s central problem is that it tells an “adult story” in a “child’s format” — in other words, no child could possibly follow its story (unlike Disney/Pixar movies, which appeal to both adults and kids on different levels), and few adults who could would want to watch it told through animation.

The animation itself is impressive enough — many characters and settings evoked memories of the Oscar-nominated “Triplets of Belleville” (2003), which makes sense since they were produced by the same people, though others reminded me more of television’s “Pokemon” (1998-), which was never mistaken for high art. But the much bigger issue is the story, which never really engaged me, partly because of the format, but also because the material at its center –  the Book of Kells, a historic Irish book of Gospels written by Monks centuries ago — hardly makes for a spellbinding and/or escapist trip to the movies.

In a year in which there were so many animated films with great aesthetics and plots — nore more so than the Australian film “Mary and Max,” which was snubbed on Tuesday — I just don’t understand how a film as bland as this one made it into the Academy’s final five alongside the likes of “Up,” “The Fantastic Mr. Fox,” “Coraline,” and “The Princess and the Frog.” But that’s just me.

Photo: A scene from “The Secret of Kells.” Credit:

The 25th Santa Barbara International Film Festival kicked off last night with remarks from the festival’s chairman of the board Jeff Barbakow, executive director Roger Durling, and founder Phyllis de Picciotto, followed by the world premiere of the Derek Magyar’s “Flying Lessons” (trailer) and a fun opening night bash attended by festival volunteers and filmmakers alike.

Unlike the killer lineup of stars scheduled to attend the fest over the next 10 days, Magyar’s directorial debut left a lot to be desired. It was probably selected for the opening night slot because it was shot largely in the area (the nearby Santa Ynez Valley) and features a cast of first-rate actors — among them the Oscar-nominated actress Christine Lahti (who also appeared in the first SBIFF opening night film a quarter-century ago), the Oscar-nominated actor Hal Holbrook (who is just over a week shy of his 85th birthday), and the beautiful and talented up-and-comer Maggie Grace (who was a regular on “Lost” during its first two seasons) — which is fair enough, I guess. The actors all appear to be giving it their all and do a solid enough job, but strong pieces do not always mesh together to form a strong whole, and in this case the result is a meandering melodrama. To put it simply, the film bites off more topics than it can chew — Alzheimer’s Disease, a murder, alcoholism, a business scandal, and a long-simmering love affair, to name just a few.

Tomorrow, I hope to get to check out Holbrook’s other festival showcase, “That Evening Sun,” which generated some awards buzz this past season but never really got widely enough distributed to make a serious run, and/or “The Secret of Kells,” the animated film that snuck into the best animated feature category to the surprise of virtually all forecasters, before attending the tribute/presentation of the American Riviera Award presented by Chopin to Sandra Bullock, whose performance in “The Blind Side” has already brought her SAG and Golden Globe awards and is widely expected to bring her an Oscar on March 7.

Photo: SBIFF Opening Night Party. Credit: Scott Feinberg.

Just a heads-up that the blog will be silent today, as I’ll be traveling from New York to Los Angeles and then on to Santa Barbara, “The American Riviera,” for the 25th annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

I can’t begin to tell you how impressed/excited I am by the army of writers, directors, producers, and stars — including 21 of this year’s Oscar nominees, by my count — that my friends Roger Durling (executive director) and Carol Marshall (director of publicity) have lined up for screenings, panels, and tributes over the next 12 days: producer Lawrence Bender (“Inglourious Basterds”), director Kathryn Bigelow (“The Hurt Locker”), actress Emily Blunt (“The Young Victoria”), writer/producer Mark Boal (“The Hurt Locker”), actor Jeff Bridges (“Crazy Heart”), actress Sandra Bullock (“The Blind Side”), director James Cameron (“Avatar”), director Pete Docter (“Up”), actor Kirk Douglas, actress Vera Farmiga (“Up in the Air”), actor Colin Firth (“A Single Man”), writer Geoffrey Fletcher (“Precious”), writer Alex Kurtzman (“Star Trek”), producer Jon Landau (“Avatar”), producer Lori McCreary (“Invictus”), writer/director Nancy Meyers (“It’s Complicated”), actress Julianne Moore (“A Single Man”), actress Carey Mulligan (“An Education”), writer Scott Neustadter (“500 Days of Summer”), documentarians Ric O’Barry and Louie Psihoyos (“The Cove”), writer/director Todd Phillips (“The Hangover”), producer Ivan Reitman (“Up in the Air”), writer/director Jason Reitman (“Up in the Air”), producer Jonas Rivera (“Up”), actress Saoirse Ronan (“The Lovely Bones”), actor Peter Sarsgaard (“An Education”), actress Gabby Sidibe (“Precious”), actor Michael Stuhlbarg (“A Serious Man”), writer/director Quentin Tarantino (“Inglourious Basterds”), actor Stanley Tucci (“The Lovely Bones”), actor Christoph Waltz (“Inglourious Basterds”), and others. It’s nothing short of amazing.

I hear that a number of my west coast based Oscar brethren — including Pete Hammond (Notes on a Season), Steve Pond (The Odds), Kris Tapley (In Contention), Anne Thompson (Thompson on Hollywood), and Jeff Wells (Hollywood Elsewhere) — will also be in attendance, so it will be nice to catch up with them, too.

Last year’s festival was a blast, and this year’s silver anniversary edition promises to be even better, so I can’t wait to touch down!

Photo: Mickey Rourke and Francis Ford Coppola at the 2009 Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Credit: Scott Feinberg.

Joe Letteri (“Avatar”), a veteran visual effects artist who worked at George Lucas’s Industrial Light and Magic for 10 years before joining Peter Jackson’s WETA Digital in 2001 and becoming its director in 2007, received his fifth Oscar nomination for best visual effects (shared with collaborators Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham, Andrew R. Jones) on Tuesday for his work on the critical and commercial hit “Avatar.”

Yesterday afternoon, the 52-year-old — who has also worked on many of the other top visual effects showcases of the past quarter-century, including “The Abyss” (1989), “Jurassic Park” (1993), “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” (2002), “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” (2003), “I, Robot” (2004), “King Kong” (2005), and “The Lovely Bones” (2009) — was kind enough to take a few minutes to speak with me about his profession and accomplishments, as you can hear by clicking on the links below…

• Letteri on his previous nominations for best visual effects — he won for “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” (2002), “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” (2003), and “King Kong” (2005), and lost for “I, Robot” (2004)
  

• Letteri discusses his pioneering work creating creatures (Gollum, King Kong, and the Na’vi) and virtual worlds (Middle Earth, Skull Island, and Pandora)

• Letteri describes the evolution of motion capture and some of the major advances that have been made in just the past few years

• Letteri explains the technology used to make “Avatar” that had never been used before (e-motion capture, etc.) — “we just rethought everything”

• Letteri talks about how he has managed to stay at the forefront of the visual effects profession for so long

• Letteri describes what it was like to meet and work with “Avatar” director James Cameron

• Letteri addresses whether or not he expected the phenomenal critical and commercial reception for “Avatar”

• Letteri reacts to the lack of acting nominations for “Avatar” and provides the counter-argument to those who look down on acting in motion-capture films

Photo: A scene from “Avatar.” Credit: 20th Century Fox.

Projected win count: 6 - “The Hurt Locker”; 3 - “Avatar”; 2 - “Crazy Heart,” “Up”; 1 - “The Blind Side,” “The Cove,” “Inglourious Basterds,” “Precious,” “Star Trek,” “Up in the Air,” “The White Ribbon,” “The Young Victoria”

BEST PICTURE

• 1. “The Hurt Locker” (Summit, 6/26, trailer)
• 2. “Avatar” (20th Century Fox, 12/18, trailer)
• 3. “Inglourious Basterds” (The Weinstein Company, 8/21, trailer)
  
• 4. “Up in the Air” (Paramount, 12/4, trailer)
• 5. “Precious” (Lions Gate, 11/6, trailer)
  
• 6. “District 9” (TriStar, 8/14, trailer)
• 7. “Up” (Disney, 5/29, trailer)
• 8. “The Blind Side” (Warner Brothers, 11/20, trailer)
  
• 9. “An Education” (Sony Pictures Classics, 10/9, trailer)
  
• 10. “A Serious Man” (Focus Features, 10/2, trailer)
  

BEST DIRECTOR

• 1. Kathryn Bigelow (“The Hurt Locker”)
• 2. James Cameron (“Avatar”)
• 3. Quentin Tarantino (“Inglourious Basterds”)
• 4. Jason Reitman (“Up in the Air”)
• 5. Lee Daniels (“Precious”)

BEST ACTOR

• 1. Jeff Bridges (“Crazy Heart”)
  
• 2. George Clooney (“Up in the Air”)
  
• 3. Jeremy Renner (“The Hurt Locker”)
  
• 4. Colin Firth (“A Single Man”)
  
• 5. Morgan Freeman (“Invictus”)

BEST ACTRESS

• 1. Sandra Bullock (“The Blind Side”)
  
• 2. Meryl Streep (“Julie & Julia”)
  
• 3. Carey Mulligan (“An Education”)
  
• 4. Gabby Sidibe (“Precious”)
• 5. Helen Mirren (“The Last Station”)
  

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

• 1. Christoph Waltz (“Inglourious Basterds”)
  
• 2. Woody Harrelson (“The Messenger”)
  
• 3. Christopher Plummer (“The Last Station”)
  
• 4. Matt Damon (“Invictus”)
• 5. Stanley Tucci (“The Lovely Bones”)
  

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

• 1. Mo’Nique (“Precious”)
• 2. Anna Kendrick (“Up in the Air”)
  
• 3. Vera Farmiga (“Up in the Air”)
  
• 4. Maggie Gyllenhaal (“Crazy Heart”)
  
• 5. Penelope Cruz (“Nine”)

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

• 1. Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner (“Up in the Air”)
  
• 2. Geoffrey Fletcher (“Precious”)
• 3. Nick Hornby (“An Education”)
  
• 4. Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell (“District 9”)
  
• 5. Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche (“In the Loop”)
  

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

• 1. Mark Boal (“The Hurt Locker”)
• 2. Quentin Tarantino (“Inglourious Basterds”)
• 3. Pete Docter, Bob Peterson (“Up”)
• 4. Ethan Coen, Joel Coen (“A Serious Man”)
• 5. Alessandro Camon, Oren Moverman (“The Messenger”)

BEST ANIMATED FILM

• 1. “Up” (Disney)
• 2. “Fantastic Mr. Fox” (Fox Searchlight)
  
• 3. “Coraline” (Focus FeatureS)
  
• 4. “The Princess and the Frog” (Disney)
• 5. “The Secret of Kells” (GKIDS)

BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM

• 1. “The Cove” (Roadside Attractions, 7/31, trailer)
  
• 2. “Food, Inc.” (Magnolia, 6/12, trailer)
• 3. “The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers” (Kovno, 6/1, trailer)
  
• 4. “Burma VJ” (Oscilloscope, 5/20, trailer)
  
• 5. “Which Way Home” (HBO, 1/31, trailer)

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

• 1. “The White Ribbon” (Germany)
• 2. “A Prophet” (France)
• 3. “The Secret in Their Eyes” (Argentina)
• 4. “Ajami” (Israel)
• 5. “The Milk of Sorrow” (Peru)

BEST ART DIRECTION

• 1. “Avatar” (Rick Carter, Robert Stromberg, Kim Sinclair)
  
• 2. “Nine” (John Myhre, Gordon Sim)
• 3. “Sherlock Holmes” (Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer)
• 4. “The Young Victoria” (Patrice Vermette, Maggie Gray)
• 5. “The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus” (Dave Warren, Anastasia Masaro, Caroline Smith)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

• 1. “The Hurt Locker” (Barry Ackroyd)
  
• 2. “Avatar” (Mauro Fiore)
• 3. “Inglourious Basterds” (Robert Richardson)
  
• 4. “The White Ribbon” (Christian Berger)
  
• 5. “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” (Bruno Delbonnel)

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

• 1. “The Young Victoria” (Sandy Powell)
• 2. “Nine” (Colleen Atwood)
• 3. “Bright Star” (Janet Patterson)
• 4. “Coco Before Chanel” (Catherine Leterrier)
• 5. “The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus” (Monique Prudhomme)

BEST FILM EDITING

• 1. “The Hurt Locker” (Bob Murawski, Chris Innis)
  
• 2. “Avatar” (Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua, James Cameron)
• 3. “Inglourious Basterds” (Sally Menke)
  
• 4. “Precious” (Joe Klotz)
  
• 5. “District 9” (Julian Clarke)

BEST MAKEUP

• 1. “Star Trek” (Barney Burman, Mindy Hall, Joel Harlow)
• 2. “The Young Victoria” (Jon Henry Gordon, Jenny Shircore)
• 3. “Il Divo” (Aldo Signoretti, Vittorio Sodano)

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

• 1. “Up” (Michael Giacchino)
• 2. “Avatar” (James Horner)
  
• 3. “Sherlock Holmes” (Hans Zimmer)
• 4. “The Hurt Locker” (Marco Beltrami, Buck Sanders)
• 5. “Fantastic Mr. Fox” (Alexandre Desplat)

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

• 1. “The Weary Kind” (“Crazy Heart”)
• 2. “Take It All” (“Nine”)
• 3. “Down in New Orleans” (“The Princess and the Frog”)
• 4. “Almost There” (“The Princess and the Frog”)
• 5. “Loin de Paname” (“Paris 36″)

BEST SOUND EDITING

• 1. “Avatar” (Christopher Boyes, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle)
• 2. “Star Trek” (Mark Stoeckinger, Alan Rankin)
• 3. “Inglourious Basterds” (Wylie Stateman)
• 4. “The Hurt Locker” (Paul N.J. Ottosson)
• 5. “Up” (Michael Silvers, Tom Myers)

BEST SOUND MIXING

• 1. “The Hurt Locker” (Paul N.J. Ottosson, Ray Beckett)
• 2. “Avatar” (Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson, Tony Johnson)
• 3. “Star Trek” (Anna Behlmer, Andy Nelson, Peter J. Devlin)
• 4. “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” (Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers, Geoffrey Patterson)
• 5. “Inglourious Basterds” (Michael Minkler, Tony Lamberti, Mark Ulano)

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

• 1. “Avatar” (Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham, Andrew R. Jones)
• 2. “District 9” (Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros, Matt Aitken)
• 3. “Star Trek” (Robert Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh, Burt Dalton)

BEST SHORT FILM (ANIMATED) BASED ON LIMITED INFO/EXPECT REVISIONS

• 1. “A Matter of Loaf and Death” (Nick Park)
  
• 2. “French Roast” (Fabrice O. Joubert)
• 3. “Logorama” (Nicolas Schmerkin)
• 4. “Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty” (Nicky Phelan and Darragh O’Connell)
• 5. “The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)” (Javier Recio Gracia)

BEST SHORT FILM (DOCUMENTARY) BASED ON LIMITED INFO/EXPECT REVISIONS

• 1. “The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant” (Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert)
  
• 2. “China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province” (Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill)
• 3. “The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner” (Daniel Junge and Henry Ansbacher)
• 4. “Music by Prudence” (Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett)
• 5. “Rabbit à la Berlin” (Bartek Konopka and Anna Wydra)

BEST SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION) BASED ON LIMITED INFO/EXPECT REVISIONS

• 1. “Miracle Fish” (Luke Doolan and Drew Bailey)
  
• 2. “The New Tenants” (Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson)
• 3. “Kavi” (Gregg Helvey)
• 4. “The Door” (Juanita Wilson and James Flynn)
• 5. “Instead of Abracadabra” (Patrik Eklund and Mathias Fjellström)

Photo: Kathryn Bigelow on the set of “The Hurt Locker.” Credit: Summit.

My final nomination projections, which I posted last Friday, turned out pretty well: I forecasted 9 of the 10 best picture nominees (10 of 10 if you count my alternate, “A Serious Man”); 38 of the 45 nominees in the Big 8 categories (41 of the 45 if you count my alternate picks); and 48 of the 60 nominees in the Big 11 categories (52 of the 60 if you count my alternate picks).

Here is a detailed look at how I fared in all 11 major categories that I predicted:

• Best picture: 9/10 (10/10 with alternate), missing “A Serious Man” in favor of “Invictus”
• Best director: 5/5
• Best actor: 5/5
• Best actress: 5/5
• Best supporting actor: 4/5 (5/5 with alternate), missing Stanley Tucci (“The Lovely Bones”) in favor of Anthony Mackie (“The Hurt Locker”)
• Best supporting actress: 3/5 (4/5 with alternate), missing Penelope Cruz (“Nine”) and Maggie Gyllenhaal (“Crazy Heart”) in favor of Julianne Moore (“A Single Man”) and Samantha Morton (“The Messenger”)
• Best adapted screenplay: 3/5, missing “District 9″ and “In the Loop” in favor of “A Single Man” and “Crazy Heart”
• Best original screenplay: 4/5, missing “The Messenger” in favor of “500 Days of Summer”
• Best animated feature: 4/5, missed “The Secret of Kells” in favor of “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”
• Best documentary feature: 2/5, missing “Burma VJ,” “The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers,” and “Which Way Home” in favor of “Every Little Step,” “Garbage Dreams,” and “Mugabe and the White African”
• Best foreign language film: 4/5 (5/5 with alternate), missing “The Milk of Sorrow” in favor of “Samson and Delilah”

The projection that I’m proudest of this year? “The Blind Side” earning a best picture nomination. In the aftermath of it happening, many have claimed that they saw it coming, but the fact of the matter is that only myself and only two others pundits (Roger Ebert and Nathaniel Rogers) were willing to go out on a limb and include it in our final projections. So, yeah, that one felt good. (Not as good as anticipating that the “The Reader” would bump “The Dark Knight” from last year’s best picture race — something that no other pundit did — but almost as good.)

Incidentally, my initial nomination projections — which I posted six months ago, in August 2009 — weren’t half-bad either, especially when you consider that I’d seen virtually none of the films at that time:

• Best picture: (5/10), predicting “An Education,” “Avatar,” “The Hurt Locker,” “Precious,” and “Up in the Air”
• Best director: (2/5), predicting Lee Daniels (“Precious”) and Jason Reitman (“Up in the Air”)
• Best actor: (2/5), predicting Morgan Freeman (“Invictus”) and George Clooney (“Up in the Air”)
• Best actress: (2/5), predicting Carey Mulligan (“An Education”) and Meryl Streep (“Julie & Julia”)
• Best supporting actor: (2/5), predicting Matt Damon (“Invictus”) and Stanley Tucci (“The Lovely Bones”)
• Best supporting actress: (3/5), predicting Penelope Cruz (“Nine”), Mo’Nique (“Precious”), and Anna Kendrick (“Up in the Air”)

Photo: Anne Hathaway, Oscar-nominated actress, and Tom Sherak, president of the Academy, announce the 2009 best picture nominees. Credit: AMPAS.