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Finally !

It was with a hopeful heart that I watched last night's Oscar show. Thankfully, Martin Scorsese, director of many excellent films like "Gangs of New York", "The Aviator", "Taxi Driver," "Raging Bull" and "GoodFellas", finally won a Best Director award for his latest masterpiece "The Departed".

After receiving his Oscar from the trio of Spielberg, Copolla and Lucas, Scorsese jokingly asked "Could you double-check the envelope?" One can hardly blame him having previously lost out on five previous occasions.

The Departed won a leading four Oscars, including the best picture, best adapted screenplay and best director trophies. The Los Angeles Times ran an interesting article today, indicating that unlike the makers of "Dreamgirls," who touted that film's award credentials long before the movie debuted, the people involved with "The Departed" rarely talked of the movie's potential for winning anything but moviegoers' affections.

Complete list of Oscar winners

Here's a quick recap of last night's winners:

Best Picture: "The Departed"
Best Director: Martin Scorsese, "The Departed"
Best Actor: Forest Whitaker, "Last King of Scotland"
Best Actress: Helen Mirren, "The Queen"
Best Film Editing: Thelma Schoonmaker, "The Departed"
Best Song: "I Need to Wake Up," "An Inconvenient Truth"
Best Original Screenplay: "Little Miss Sunshine"
Best Original Score: "Babel"
Best Documentary: "An Inconvenient Truth"
Best Documentary Short: "The Blood of Yingzhou District"
Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Hudson, "Dreamgirls"
Best Foreign-Language Film: "The Lives of Others"
Best Visuals Effects: "Pirates of the Caribbean 2"
Best Cinematography: "Pan's Labyrinth"
Best Costume Design: "Marie Antoinette"
Best Adapted Screenplay: "The Departed"
Best Animated Feature: "Happy Feet"
Best Supporting Actor: Alan Arkin, "Little Miss Sunshine"
Best Sound Mixing: "Dreamgirls"
Best Sound Editing: "Letters from Iwo Jima"
Best Live Action Short: "West Bank Story"
Best Animated Short: "The Danish Poet"
Best Makeup: "Pan's Labyrinth"
Best Art Direction: "Pan's Labyrinth"

Hey YouTubers: Make Art, Not Bore

I don't always agree with her reviews but this time Washington Post writer Ann Hornaday has hit the nail on the head. Ann spent two weeks looking over original creations posted on YouTube and she came up with some interesting viewpoints. She also suggests some guidelines to help amateur moviemakers make their short films better.

You can read her full article on the Washington Post site (free subscription may be required).

Black Snake Moan - Trailer

Bitter and broken from a cheating wife and a shattered marriage, Lazarus' soul is lost in spent dreams and betrayal's contempt--until Rae. Half naked and beaten unconscious, Rae (Christina Ricci) is left for dead on the side of the road when Lazarus (Samuel L Jackson) discovers her. Lazarus decides to cure Rae of her wicked ways--and vent some unresolved male vengeance of his own. He chains her to his radiator, justifying his unorthodox methods with quoted scripture.

New Grindhouse Trailer

Here's the latest trailer for the collaboration between Quentin Tarantino & Robert Rodriguez. Should be interesting!

Cash Money Millionaires

The recent king of the bad movie, Ben Affleck, admits he regrets "the times I took movies just to work". With than in mind, Entertainment Weekly has an intriguing list of what they term the "25 most shameless paycheck-grabbing roles in history".

Singles night at the movies

In time for Valentine's Day, I thought I'd feature a newish trend in the dating world -- Single's Night at the Movies. Lavalife and Cineplex Entertainment are running a program called Click at a Flick, a regularly scheduled singles event in Canadian cities Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver. The concept is that singles can hang out with hundreds of other friendly singles in a relaxed party atmostphere before watching a new-release movie together. Typically there is also an after-part to encourage more mingling.

Check out http://www.doubleclutch.com/flick/ for more details.

Theatres to sell naming rights

Borrowing a page from sports arenas and stadiums, Canada's Cineplex Entertainment movie theaters have sold naming rights to five theaters in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver to Scotiabank. As part of the deal, movie patrons who use a specially branded Scotiabank debit card to make purchases at the theater will be able to earn free movie tickets and combos at concession stands.

The first city to launch the program is Toronto, with the flagship Paramount Toronto now to be called Scotiabank Theatre Toronto. The rewards and renaming program will expand to other markets across Canada in the spring. For more information on the rewards program, please visit cineplex.com

This calls for a rewrite

Being movie awards season, The New York Times has run a funny article about acceptance speeches. The article examines how the same winners in the acting categories have the same old people to thank and too many opportunities to do it.