Oscar 2006: Wrap-up

Article by Mark Dujsik

Be in shock all you want at Crash taking Best Picture over Brokeback Mountain and becoming the weakest Best Picture winner in many a year, but I told you. What an odd, predictable year for the Academy Awards. I was 100% right in major category predictions and 83% correct overall, so if I helped you win the Oscar pool, you're welcome. But what a boring show. Seriously, the only things that kept it slightly interesting were the technical goofs and a neutered Jon Stewart.

Some observations:

Most groan-inducing win: The murky, ugly, cluttered Memoirs of a Geisha takes Best Cinematography. I'd argue against its wins in costume and art direction, but I couldn't tell how good or bad they were because the movie was so dark. And to add insult to injury, it won over The New World in its only nod.

Most expected disappointment: Munich going home empty handed. They'll regret it later.

Least shocking "surprise:" Crash beating out Brokeback Mountain for top honors. Seriously, I told you.

Best acceptance speech: He was emotional. He was succinct. He made a point. Gavin Hood, director of Best Foreign Language Film winner Tsotsi, in exactly the time allotted to him showed what a good acceptance speech should be.

Classiest acceptance speech: Reese Witherspoon kept her cool and broke the streak of the typical sobbing ramblings of actresses who just love to point out "It's been my dream since I was a little girl." She set herself up as a very classy lady. Runner up: Philip Seymour Hoffman for thanking his mother.

Least class: Howard Berger winner of Best Makeup hogging the entire time to himself while his co-winner Tami Lane stood by waiting to talk. Of course, when he finally finished, the orchestra played her off before she could get in a second word.

Funniest Stewart-as-Stewart line: Montage of Oscar montages bit. Why don't they just get rid of them?

Worst montage: The film noir montage. Why? Because Good Night, and Good Luck was in black-and-white? That doesn't make it a noir.

Most unintentionally funny moment: Within a minute of the important films about important issues montage, up pops a clip from The Day After Tomorrow. Ha!

Please, please, please just stop it: Lily Tomlin and Meryl Streep going on for minutes about Robert Altman's filmmaking style. Painful.

Best filler: The negative ad campaigns. Classic.

Weirdest trivia of the night: Four films tied for the most wins. Brokeback Mountain, Crash, King Kong, and Memoirs of a Geisha all won three a piece.

Please, please, please just stop it, part II: The interpretive dance choreography. Zombies in L.A.! Zombie pimps and "witches!"

Best personal discovery during this year's ceremony: DirecTV. You can pause, rewind, and, if you start late (like my group did), fast-forward live TV. Oh, what a joy to skip over "In the Deep."