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The Oscars: an annual tribute to the excesses that have made Hollywood what it is, a glorified and overdone celebration of all things fantastic in film. Tonight the 83rd annual Academy Awards comes from the Kodak Theater in Hollywood, California, and will be hosted by the tandem of James Franco and Anne Hathaway. During its (roughly) three-hour-long telecast, 24 different winners will be announced as the year's best in all facets of film production.

A few front-runners have emerged come Oscar time this year. The King's Speech leads the pack with 12 nominations, followed by True Grit with 10. Inception and The Social Network also garnered eight nods apiece. The King's Speech is widely perceived to have the momentum leading into tonight's ceremony, believed by most to be a heavy favorite to win Best Picture, among other Oscars. Will another early favorite, such as The Social Network or Inception, regain its impetus and upset The King's Speech? Will a dark horse like 127 Hours or Toy Story 3 shock the Academy and take the night's top prize? Or will Colin Firth's King George VI indeed receive his expected coronation?

During this live blog, Shadowlocked's NYC Editor Nicky Ugrin will endeavor to keep our loyal readers informed of all the latest award announcements, noteworthy acceptance speeches, and other consequential tidbits throughout the night. Stay with us, while we appreciate the best of what contemporary cinema has to offer. Or complain that your favorite film wasn't nominated. Either way, happy Oscar Night to all! Let the festivities begin!

Pre-Show: Here are two memorable moments in the Oscar pre-show: An interviewer just told Jesse Eisenberg that he would definitely be returning to the Oscars in the future, because he's so talented. Then she told him to "tell (his) mom she said hi!" and dismissed him. It was awkward to watch. I'm actually going to upgrade that to AWK...WARD. And number two: Mila Kunis' almost-a-dress. She is ridiculously hot. Not being a what-are-you-wearing kind of a person, mostly the pre-show interviews bring out the homicidal maniac in me; but the exception to this rule is Mila, in a see-through dress, being completely amazing. Thanks, Mila!

The intro was actually pretty good: hosts Anne Hathaway and James Franco go into Alec Baldwin's dreams, Inception-style, in order to learn the secret of being a good host. The high point: Alec Baldwin telling them both, "You just got Inception-ed!" then admitting to Morgan Freeman that he has no idea who those people are.

The monologue had a couple of actual laugh moments as well: when Anne Hathaway lamented her lack of a nomination, saying, "It used to be, you get naked, you get an Oscar!" But the best moment was when James Franco's grandmother announced, "Hey, I just saw Marky Mark!" and when the camera went to Mark Wahlberg, he offered to show her his abs. Best improv at the Oscars. Now, to the awards!

The Votes Are In:

Art Direction

WINNER: “Alice in Wonderland” Production Design: Robert Stromberg; Set Decoration: Karen O'Hara

ALSO NOMINATED:

• “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1”
• “Inception”
• “The King's Speech”
• “True Grit”

Cinematography

WINNER: "Inception" Wally Pfister

ALSO NOMINATED:

• “Black Swan”
• “The King's Speech”
• “The Social Network”
• “True Grit”

Actress in a Supporting Role

WINNER: Melissa Leo in “The Fighter”

ALSO NOMINATED:

• Amy Adams in “The Fighter”
• Helena Bonham Carter in “The King's Speech”
• Hailee Steinfeld in “True Grit”
• Jacki Weaver in “Animal Kingdom”

Kirk Douglas was the presenter for this award, and he was hilarious. First, I think he hit on Anne Hathaway, a little bit. Then, he hit on Melissa Leo a little bit. He wrestled his assistant for his cane, and pointed out that Colin Firth didn't think he (Kirk D.) was very funny...because he's British. Now, Melissa Leo played the mom-ager (mom/manager) in The Fighter, and was amazing. But she felt that somebody wasn't promoting her as an Oscar nominee enough, so she ran her own campaign. How is this going to affect future nominees, as far as running their own advertising campaigns to garner votes from the Academy?

Please, can Justin Timberlake host everything from now on? Not that James Franco and Anne Hathaway aren't doing a good job, they are. But Justin Timberlake is funny, even when he's not on Saturday Night Live!? Who knew? He walked out with Mila Kunis and said, "I'm Banksy. <big sigh> God, that felt good." As animation veterans (he was in Shrek 3, she's been in Family Guy since it began) they presented the awards:

Short Film (Animated)

WINNER: “The Lost Thing” Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann

ALSO NOMINATED:

• “Day & Night”
  
• “The Gruffalo”
• “Let's Pollute”
• “Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary)”

Animated Feature Film

WINNER: “Toy Story 3” Lee Unkrich

ALSO NOMINATED:

• “How to Train Your Dragon”
• “The Illusionist”

Anne Hathaway came out in a tuxedo and sang a version of "On My Own" in which she accused an unnamed Australian (cough-Hugh Jackman-cough) of standing her up for their duet; then James Franco came out in what I think was Marilyn's dress from "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," and joked that he just got a text message from Charlie Sheen.

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

WINNER: “The Social Network” Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin

ALSO NOMINATED:

• “127 Hours”
  
• “Toy Story 3”
• “True Grit”
• “Winter's Bone”

Writing (Original Screenplay)

WINNER: “The King's Speech” Screenplay by David Seidler (He opened his speech with, "My parents always said I would be a late bloomer," then proceeded to dedicate his award to stutterers everywhere, who now have a voice.) This is a bit of an upset to fans of Inception, and of Christopher Nolan, who hoped that the Academy would make up for snubbing Nolan in the Best Director category with a win for writing.

ALSO NOMINATED:

• “Another Year”
• “The Fighter”
• “Inception”
• “The Kids Are All Right”

Foreign Language Film

WINNER: “In a Better World” Denmark

ALSO NOMINATED:

• “Biutiful” Mexico
• “Dogtooth” Greece
• “Incendies” Canada
• “Outside the Law (Hors-la-loi)” Algeria

Actor in a Supporting Role

WINNER: Christian Bale in “The Fighter”

ALSO NOMINATED:

• John Hawkes in “Winter's Bone”
• Jeremy Renner in “The Town”
• Mark Ruffalo in “The Kids Are All Right”
• Geoffrey Rush in “The King's Speech”

Music (Original Score)

WINNER: “The Social Network” Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. I can't believe that the world is about to witness Trent Reznor accept an Oscar. My life is surreal, and now complete. "Wow, is this really happening?" Trent asks. My thoughts exactly!

ALSO NOMINATED:

• “How to Train Your Dragon”
• “Inception”
• “The King's Speech”
• “127 Hours”

Sound Mixing

WINNER: “Inception” Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick

ALSO NOMINATED:

• “The King's Speech”
• “Salt”
• “The Social Network”
• “True Grit”

Sound Editing

WINNER: “Inception” Richard King

ALSO NOMINATED:

• “Toy Story 3”
• “Tron: Legacy”
• “True Grit”
• “Unstoppable”

A sound sweep for Inception? It's not Best Picture, but I'll take it.

Makeup

WINNER: “The Wolfman” Rick Baker and Dave Elsey - when accepting the Oscar for achievement in imitating painful cranio-facial disfigurement, he said completely without irony, "I'm smiling so much my face hurts." Hee!

ALSO NOMINATED:

• “Barney's Version”
• “The Way Back”

Costume Design

WINNER: “Alice in Wonderland” Colleen Atwood

ALSO NOMINATED:

• “I Am Love”
• “The King's Speech”
• “The Tempest”
  
• "True Grit”

Documentary (Short Subject)

WINNER: “Strangers No More” Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon

ALSO NOMINATED:

• “Killing in the Name”
• “Poster Girl”
• “Sun Come Up”
• “The Warriors of Qiugang”

Short Film (Live Action)

WINNER: “God of Love” Luke Matheny  (“I guess I should have gotten my hair cut!”)

ALSO NOMINATED:

• “The Confession”
• “The Crush”
• “Na Wewe”
• “Wish 143”

Documentary (Feature)

WINNER: “Inside Job” Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs

ALSO NOMINATED:

• “Exit through the Gift Shop”
• “Gasland”
• “Restrepo”
• “Waste Land”

Visual Effects

WINNER: “Inception” Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb

ALSO NOMINATED:

• “Alice in Wonderland”
• “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1”
• “Hereafter”
• “Iron Man 2”

Film Editing

WINNER: “The Social Network” Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter

ALSO NOMINATED:

• “Black Swan”
• “The Fighter”
• “The King's Speech”
• “127 Hours”

Music (Original Song)

WINNER: “We Belong Together” from “Toy Story 3” Music and Lyrics by Randy Newman

ALSO NOMINATED:

• “Coming Home”
• “I See the Light”
• “If I Rise”

Directing

WINNER: “The King's Speech” Tom Hooper

ALSO NOMINATED:

• “Black Swan”
• “The Fighter”
• “The Social Network”
• “True Grit”

What an upset! Almost all the predictions pre-show had Fincher as the top bet, and Aronofsky as the dark horse candidate. I love Hooper's speech though, where he credits his mom with bringing him the idea for the movie, and finished with, "the moral of the story is to always listen to your mother."

Actress in a Leading Role

WINNER: Natalie Portman in “Black Swan”

ALSO NOMINATED:

• Annette Bening in “The Kids Are All Right”
• Nicole Kidman in “Rabbit Hole”
• Jennifer Lawrence in “Winter's Bone”
• Michelle Williams in “Blue Valentine”

Actor in a Leading Role

WINNER: Colin Firth in “The King's Speech”. (“I've a feeling my career's just peaked.”)

ALSO NOMINATED:

• Javier Bardem in “Biutiful”
• Jeff Bridges in “True Grit”
• Jesse Eisenberg in “The Social Network”
• James Franco in “127 Hours”

Best Picture

WINNER: “The King's Speech” Iain Canning, Emile Sherman and Gareth Unwin, Producers

ALSO NOMINATED:

• “Black Swan”
• “The Fighter”
• “Inception”
• “The Kids Are All Right”
• “127 Hours”
• “The Social Network”
• “Toy Story 3”
• “True Grit”
• “Winter's Bone”

See also:

Forget the Oscars, here are the Whedon Oscars!

Academy Award predictions 2011

Predictions for the Oscars in 2011

Oscars' 'In Memoriam' segment gets it wrong again

The Last Airbender, Shyamalan, "win" big at the Razzies

The top ten most undeserved Oscars of the last 20 years

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