the big o 2009

I must say, having the Oscars on live in the middle of Monday in Hong Kong is quite cool. Usually I hate missing basketball games and other events because it’s on in the middle of the day but for Oscars, it works. It’s because the Oscars are more results oriented. You don't really need to watch it closely, like say a basketball game.You just need to know the results. And since there are many different sides to root for, it makes for compelling office day time instant messenger and text messaging.

I still remember my first ever day of work in Hong Kong. I was at BC Magazine and all morning we were keeping up to date with the Oscars. That was the year Martin Scorsese finally won Best Director and Departed won Best Picture. This year, I’ve had the luxury of watching all five Best Picture contenders before the awards (something that’s never happened before) and now that I have befriended movie distributors. It was cool to see their reaction when their picture wins.

When I found out Sean Penn won Best Actor in what can probably be considered an upset, I immediately SMSed a friend who worked for the distribution company behind Milk. Turns out I was late, as she said she already got like 3 emails and 3 SMS. The days leading up to the awards, I got into a heated argument with the that same friend because she thinks Slumdog is far and away the best picture and I didn’t concur. It didn’t help matters that gay guy Cyrus Lo comes out of nowhere and threw his alliance to Slumdog… EVEN THOUGH HIS ASS HAS YET TO SEE THE MOVIE.

And it was interesting to see friends who worked for distributors root for other movies. The friend who was promoting Milk thought Slumdog was the best. Then ironically, the girl who does Slumdog didn’t like it as much and enjoyed Frost/Nixon more.

Then there’s Philbert’s great piece on his predictions, Mr Phan backing Frost/Nixon, thus making him, the girl who is promoting Slumdog, and I as the only three people on earth who thought Frost/Nixon was the best film of the five.

It’s also great to see people with passion for their work. The girl who does promotion for Departures has been plugging it on her MSN messenger status for the last two weeks. I’m sure she’s thrilled it won Best Picture. How often do you see people genuinely excited about something over work?

And the more I think about it. The more I think The Dark Knight should have gotten a nomination. There is absolutely no way that the audience satisfactory rate was higher for say, The Reader, than TDK. I’m not even using the “more people like TDK over The Reader” fallacy as reason here. I’m saying I’m pretty sure the percentage of TDK audiences walking out of the theater loving the movie is higher than the percentage of The Reader audiences walking out loving The Reader. I have no way of proving it but it’s just fact. Some things don’t need to be proven when you got fucking eyes, common sense, and the ability to pick up that buzz. TDK had that buzz. I’ve been to like 70-80 screenings in 2008 and every screening is filled with scrubs. I’m talking entry level press like myself or C-list celebs appearing to plug a movie (and the hilarious part of HK is, the celebs that show up to plug a movie has nothing to do with the movie. Like some random model chick will show up as a special guest at a Ben Button premiere and I'm like huh?). But the TDK screening, all the editors-in-chiefs were there and the crowd was silent before and after the movie. And I'm not talking silent in the bad way, but in that “oh my god Hans Grueber just took over our office building” way.

I also loved the new Oscar format. The way they had five former winners come out and each introduce a nominee is great. Loved De Niro’s intro for Penn. Although I wonder why didn’t they have Anthony Hopkins introduce Frank Langella? Nixon on Nixon, you know.