Woody Allen... Always the Entertainer

“A relationship, I think, is like a shark, you know? It has to constantly move forward or it dies. And I think what we got on our hands is a dead shark.”

“I am thankful for laughter, except when milk comes out of my nose.”

“Sex without love is a meaningless experience, but as far as meaningless experiences go its pretty damn good.”

“Life doesn't imitate art, it imitates bad television.”

“I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying.”

“Some guy hit my fender and I said "be fruitful and multiply" but not in those words.”

“When I was kidnapped, my parents snapped into action. They rented out my room.”

"I want to tell you a terrific story about oral contraception. I asked this girl to sleep with me and she said 'No.'"

“I was nauseous and tingly all over. I was either in love or I had smallpox.”

Someday...

Someday, I will live in a place like this. I will stay in that little house in the center with the teal blue awnings, preferably renting from a little nonna who bakes bread on Sunday mornings and tries to set me up with every eligible Italian bachelor in town under the age of thirty.

The house itself will be full of character, with creaking stairs and a brass crucifix hanging over the well-worn dining room table. Space will be limited, with just enough room for me and my perpetual stream of visitors (the guest bedroom will never be empty). Of course, the best part of the house (aside from the small deck that overlooks the Mediterranean) will be my study, a small library with a comfy patterned armchair, old scroll desk, and shelves of books that cover all four walls, floor to ceiling.

I will, of course, be fluent in Italian by then, and I will saunter forth every day to the piazza to buy my groceries for the day and chat with all my new friends. My favorite is Marco, the local baker who often slips in an extra roll and who loves to shout "Buon giorno, bella!" at me from across the piazza as soon as I arrive. And after an eventful morning in town, getting all the latest gossip, I will return home to my little paradise, spending the rest of the day writing and sipping caffè while looking out over the sea.

Whoops!

I was so exuberant about the birth of my niece that I completely forgot to go to class this afternoon. Just totally forgot that I had Marketing at 4:30 pm.

Instead, I casually left the office where I work at 4:40 pm and sauntered home with a huge grin and occasional giggle. Not until I was halfway home, when I was contemplating what I was going to do with my largely free afternoon, that I started to wonder why my afternoon schedule was in fact so empty. And thats when I remembered I was supposed to be in class. Whoops!

Oh well. It's not every day that you can excuse skipping class because of something as awesome and monumental as a new baby.

I'M AN AUNT!!!

Name: Isabella Maria Petroni

Born: February 25th at 1:00 pm (Pacific Time)

Size: 7 lbs; 18.5 inches long

Status: Healthy, beautiful and sleeping with her mama. Pictures to come!

Today! It's Today!

My sister's water broke today at noon, and I am so ansy today that I almost can't sit still. I am having a terrible time concentrating in my classes and at work.

I mean, it is impossible to concentrate on anything when I know Evangelina and John are about to meet Isabella. I can't believe that so so soon, we will have a tiny new member of our family. How wonderful! I've been saving up all my tears for the last week (I even refrained from frustrated tears while studying Tuesday night) so that I can have buckets of happy tears to shed when I see pictures of her.

And I do expect pictures of her. Pronto. ASAP. I'll be sure to post them when I get them.

I cannot wait for her to join the world, and in a few months, I can't wait to meet her and hold her and play with her itty-bitty baby fingers and toes.

Good luck Evangelina! I'll be thinking of you (and Isabella)!

. . .

“After my screen test, the director clapped his hands gleefully and yelled: "She can't talk! She can't act! She's sensational!""

- Ava Gardner (American actress in 1940s and 50s who, despite her renowned beauty and sensuality, successfully resisted being typecast as a sex symbol)

Go Get It

"You got a dream, you got to protect it. People can't do something themselves, they want to tell you that you can't do it. You want something? Go get it. Period."

- Will Smith, as Chris Gardner in The Pursuit of Happyness.

Missing the Olympics

I think this might be the first winter Olympics in memory that I haven't watched a single event on my own time. The only events I've been able to catch have been reruns that are playing on the televisions at work when I arrive in the evenings.

And the winter games are by far my favorite, because they have fun things like half-pipe snowboarding and figure-skating (the best event ever). Although on a side note, what is curling and why does everyone seem to be obsessed with it this year?

It's sad that I seem to be missing the entirety of this most auspicious and entertaining events... The closing ceremonies are only four days away!

On a totally unrelated note: The website for the 2010 Winter Olympics, vancouver2010.com, looks really cool... I like the icy blue-green theme.

Update on Frustrated State

Things are looking up. I've made a break-through, and things are magically starting to make a little more sense (little = key word here).

If I could paint for you a mental picture of the anguish and pain my poor brain has undergone in the last four or five hours, it would look like me hitting my head against a wall (of debits and credits) again and again and again... and I finally just broke through (probably by the sheer force of my frustration-- I think God felt sorry for me).

Accounting = Bane of My (Spring '10) Existence

I have never been more frustrated in my life. I have a Financial Accounting midterm tomorrow, and I want to cry. Why does none of this make sense to me? I've done the reading (for the most part) and I go to every class (though I'll admit to zoning out rather frequently).

It's just so goddamn boooooring. So boring, in fact, that I have a really difficult time forcing myself to focus... and I'd like to think I have a pretty good amount of self-control and drive when it comes to studying and things like that. I mean, I usually take my grades far too seriously. I guess this time around, not so much.

I just hate the fact that I literally started studying for this test last week, and it makes just as much sense to me now as it did then. I feel like I have made zero improvement in my comprehension of any of it.

And the best part is, how do I expect to make any progress in studying if every time I get frustrated, I just turn to someone (like you, my reader) to complain? This is getting pathetic.

Sad Day

B-Side Entertainment is closing. The company, based in Austin, is a tech and distribution company that provides website services for film festivals, and I have encountered it a number of times when attending film festivals. For example, when I went to the Austin Film Festival in October, I was able to read about all the films being shown online, as well as create my own personalized festival schedule and rank each film after I'd seen them. deadCENTER Film Festival, in Oklahoma City, also used B-Side's services. It will be sad to see them go.

The complete article discusses the practical aspects of their closing, such as funding issues, as well as having really interesting things to say about their distribution business model.

Concludes Hyams, “We find ourselves at a time of great upheaval in the film industry. We are somewhere between the old and the new world. Technology is altering the way films are being made, and there are new avenues for how films can be consumed. How audiences discover and find films — that’s what’s we have been focused on. We have proven an amazing amount of things about how audiences become engaged and how to connect with them, but we were not able in that time to build a business that would sustain itself.

The Vagina Monologues

My friend Valerie and I went to see The Vagina Monologues yesterday at the Union. The performances were last night and tonight, and they are put on by the Women's Outreach Center here at OU.

This was my second year attending, and I was a little nervous that the incredible amount of fun I'd had last year couldn't be beat. So I tried to lower my expectations and not think about the show that much before-hand... which ended up not being terribly difficult to do, since I got out of class late that evening and was running around campus like a maniac for the half hour right before the show. But as soon as I sat down and the lights dimmed, I was able to get properly pumped up for the show. And let me tell you, it was far from a disappointment.

The Vagina Monologues, for those of you who don't know (and can't guess from the title), is a series of monologues written by Eve Ensler, an award-winning playwright and activist. It is a compilation of monologues, all about women issues and well, vaginas.

The play is touching, risqué, beautiful and hilarious-- sometimes all at the same time. I laughed so hard that my eyes watered during the "My Angry Vagina" monologue. And I cried real tears during the monologue of "A Teenage Girl's Guide to Surviving Sex Slavery."

That's the incredible thing about the monologues-- they do such an excellent job of mixing humor with sadness. Because the play is both a celebration of a woman's "down there" and an event to raise awareness about sexual violence, there are a number of deeply saddening monologues and facts (for example, 40 women were raped in Norman, OK alone last year) mixed into the larger number of humorous/contemplative/uplifting monologues.

On a side note, while some of the monologues are hilarious for all, some would be incredibly awkward to sit through if you were a man (of which there were a surprisingly large number at the show). I remember looking around and thinking, you are a brave soul, sir. A very brave soul.

Advertisements on Pandora

Pandora, my beloved online radio, has advertisements. They don't usually bother me, as they are normally few and far between. But for some particular reason, my "study" music channel (soft classical music) has latched on to one particular advertisement and wont let go.

This means that for the five hours I have been at the library, I get to hear, with annoying frequency, the ridiculous "How do I quantify awesomeness?" advertisement from McDonalds about their new McCafé drink.

I guess you could say the advertisement is effective, since I am now knowledgeable of the fact that the McCafé drink comes in seven different flavors... or something like that. But the advertisement is officially so incredibly irritating that I have sworn (under my breath with a couple choice expletives) to never purchase that frappe thing from McDonalds-- ever. So if Mickey D's isn't getting any money out of me for all their promotion, is it really worth it?

I beg of you, Pandora, change up the advertisements!

Open Letter to That Guy

Dear Guy,

Thank you for coming out to the bars tonight. I hope you had an enjoyable evening. I'm sure your friends did at least, since you picked up the tab for everyone. That was very generous of you. I'm sure they appreciated all the Patrón shots and RedBull Vodkas. You're a very nice friend.

But kiddo, we have a problem. You see, you had a very large tab with me tonight. In fact, I distinctly remember it being close to $70. Not bad for an evening. However, at the end of this evening, I ran your credit card and gave you the receipt. "Sign the top copy for me, and the bottom is yours. Thanks!" The usual. You took said receipt, wrote in your tip, and left. Great.

But honey, a $5 tip on a $70 tab is not okay. Never is that okay. First of all, that's less than 10%. I was a very attentive cocktail waitress. I smiled a lot and brought you your drinks in record time. A standard tip nowadays is 20%. Second of all, do you realize how much I get paid an hour here? Less than $2.50, meaning that I rely almost solely upon those tips. And third, if you can afford to spend $70 on alcohol, you can afford gratuity. You're probably spending your daddy's money anyway.

And so, while I thank you for patronizing our establishment, I feel that it is time to give you a little lesson in waitress etiquette (as this applies to all servers everywhere). Or rather, its a lesson in common courtesy. I'm not out enjoying my Saturday night. Instead, I have a job. And my job is to bring you as many Kamikaze shots as your heart desires. All I ask in return is that you respect my time. I'm not asking for a miracle, just a standard 15-20%.

Sincerely,

Your Cocktail Waitress

Number 3.14159...

Right now I am at Cafe Plaid, an awesome coffee/sandwich shop just north of campus, attempting to study for my Microeconomics Exam that I have on Monday. Its a painful process, this Entrepreneurship minor. I can't wait to get out of all this "elementary" business stuff and get into the fun stuff... like writing a business plan.

Anyway, since studying for this stuff is so hard on my brain, I decided to take a break for nourishment. I ordered their delicious Brown Bag lunch special (1/2 sandwich, cup of soup, world's best cookie). The guy at the counter took my order and then handed me a number, per usual. But this particular number is anything but usual. Love it!

Nostalgia on the Breeze

I am absolutely loving the weather today. And its odd, because today's weather isn't much different than most other days. It's overcast and it's breezy-- both very typical for Oklahoma in the winter.

And yet today feels different-- and wonderful. The air feels unusually light and fresh, as if I were back in Montana. In fact, the smell of the air takes me straight back to living in the shadow of Emmigrant Peak. If I were to step outside the front door of our old little house there and take a deep breath, it would smell like this. And feel like this.

It makes me almost homesick... and for a place I barely remember. Besides being born there, I lived there for only a year, when I was in second grade (so 7 or 8 yrs old). I don't have a lot of memories of the place, but most of the ones I do have consist of romping around in the hills above the house, playing all sorts of made-up game. And let me tell you, my younger brother Stan and I had quite lively little imaginations. We could spend hours and hours up there, building forts and making weapons and teacups out of branches and mullein leaves.

When I think about it, I feel like we'd be gone for hours on end. And I'm sure my mom loved the rare solitude of a near-quiet house, since I know my two older sisters weren't half as rambuncious as me and Stan. But I do wonder how she felt about having her little five and seven year old running around the hills unattended. I mean, she obviously wasn't worried enough to restrict our movement much. Must have been all a part of her plan to raise independent kids. Either way, I just remember the frequent admonition to "Stay where you can hear me." Part of the beauty of living out in the country was the silence... You could hear Mom yell from hills away.

Fil d’actualité

I just changed my Facebook interface over from English to French. So instead of "News Feed", I get Fil d'actualité, and instead of "What's on your mind?," I get Exprimez-vous. (Express yourself-- which I actually like better... I feel like it begs the poetic more than the mundane)

Now, instead of a mindless saunter through Facebook, it actually requires thought and effort to use. I am now officially using Facebook as a french study guide. Score!

Sold!

I sold my high school car last week! Success!

In honor of my baby, who I owned for five very reliable years, I am putting up the only known picture I have of her, for you to admire.

Isn't she beautiful?

Two More to Go...

Things are really rolling for the remaining two film shoots I have this weekend.

All in one day, I got confirmations back for all my Friday actors and almost all my Saturday actors. I also have crew members for both days, and almost all locations are finalized.

I ran into a minor road block with one location, however, as Wagner Hall is closed on Saturdays. While thats a bummer, I think it might work out better this way in the end. That particular building, while more factually accurate to use (as it holds the freshman advising center-- the topic of our film), is much less cinematically attractive or practical. So having to find an alternate location might be better in the long run.

Other than that, no serious snags. This round of filming looks like it will run a lot smoother than the last one (at least on my nerves).

From "The Dhammapada"

"What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: our life is the creation of our mind."

-- Buddha

Can't Wait!

For those of you who don't know yet, I am about to become an aunt! I can't wait. I've been running through what I want to be called (besides "World's Coolest Aunt," of course), and I haven't come up with anything for sure yet. I think I might go for "Aunt Ginny." But "Aunt Ginya" seems easier for a toddler to say. See, it's a hard decision to make.

But I guess I really do have plenty of time. My older sister is due on March 4th (which is SOON!), but then I'll have at least a couple years until the tike is old enough to say my name.

Candlelight Ceremony

One of the fun parts about being in a sorority are the candlelight ceremonies. Whenever a girl gets engaged, she doesn't tell anyone in the house right away, but instead has a candlelight ceremony.

The process goes like this:

One of her close friends places a wreath on the staircase rail by the front door of the house. To everyone in the house, this means "Candlelight ceremony tonight!" Then, after our sorority chapter, we all gather in the dining room and form a large circle around the perimeter of the room.

The president of our sorority lights a small tea candle and starts it in a circle. As the candle gets passed from girl to girl around the room, we sing some song about love and Chi Omega and all that fun stuff.

The candle goes all the way around the circle once. Then, on the second time around the circle, the anticipation heightens. There is almost a tangible electricity in the room as the candle passes from girl to girl. At any moment, someone could blow the flame out, signifying that she is engaged. I love that moment. I love the quick intake of breath followed by the sound of about a hundred girls screaming with excitement and surprise.

After a quick round of congratulatory hugs from her closest friends and acquaintances, the girl stands on the nearest chair and to a chorus of "Tell us the story! Tell us the story!," she does just that.

And as she recounts each moment-- how she definitely didn't see it coming, thought he'd been acting funny, cried when he got on one knee, etc-- there are appreciative oohs and aahs from the girls listening in rapt attention. Something about listening to a proposal story touches the hopeless romantic in all of us (or at least in me), and there are more than a couple watery eyes by the end of the story.

Basically, its practically a magical experience. And we are having one tonight!!! Looks like someone got engaged over the weekend (Valentines Day, so not a huge surprise there)... I can't wait to find out who!

That's a Wrap!

I finished filming one of my friend's campaign films yesterday, so now I will be spending all of today editing it together. My film editing class requires us to turn in projects fairly often, so I'm killing two birds with one stone on this film and turning it into class tomorrow as well as putting it on YouTube in a couple weeks to spread around to the student body. I'll be sure to post it here when its done! =)

Overall, the filming experience was enjoyable. Stressful, but enjoyable. I really feel like there was a certain amount of serendipity that went into the whole thing. For example, all three film shoots last week pulled together within the last two hours before filming.

Wednesday night, I wasn't sure if I'd have enough main actors until the girl showed up right at film shoot time (I didn't have her number). Friday, I didn't know if I'd have a crew member to help me until a couple hours prior. And on Saturday morning, I still needed 8-10 extras for the shoot at 2pm. Thankfully, I found three of my friends to show up, and when we got to the film location, there was a group of seven guys at one table that were fine with sticking around to fill the background. Again, all of it pulled together at the last minute, and I couldn't be more grateful.

And stressed... because I have to do all of that all over again this coming week. However, I plan to spend much, much more time on Monday and Tuesday recruiting actors, extras and crew for my Friday and Saturday shoots (instead of waiting until Wednesday and Thursday). So hopefully they wont all come down to the wire this time. Hopefully.

...

“You must learn day by day, year by year to broaden your horizon. The more things you love, the more you are interested in, the more you enjoy, the more you are indignant about, the more you have left when anything happens.”

– Ethel Barrymore

Filming Under Way

I just finished a film shoot tonight for part of the first narrative short film I've made since freshman year. In a way, it was really exciting to get "back in the game," so to speak. It was also quite nerve-racking. I wanted to have everything together and to look like I knew exactly what I was doing. But of course, as these things always seem to go, I ended up needing a lot of help and getting a lot of advice from my film friend who came to help out with the lighting (which we didn't end up needing).

Then I got to that moment where it was imperative to swallow my pride and let myself be instructed on how to do something in front of a whole group of actors (that I'll willingly admit that I wanted to impress). It wasn't easy to do. In fact, it was much more difficult than I expected it to be. But in the end, I listened and the project is much better for it now.

And I did learn a lot. Of course, I wont fool myself by any stretch into thinking I now know everything and that I'll have nothing to learn during our next film shoot. I shall simply be more prepared to take the advice graciously during the next go-round.

Productive Procrastination

Rather than study for my Marketing exam this afternoon, I instead spent thirty minutes making phone calls to obtain permission for filming at various locations around campus. I also sent out a ton of emails to student actors in an attempt to recruit them to be in my films. I feel really good about everything I accomplished, as it was a really productive half-hour.

Too bad I needed to be spending that time on more pressing things... like studying for this exam. Woops. Wish me luck, I guess.

"There Will Be Blood" in a Nutshell

The Best of (500)

This is why I think (500) Days of Summer deserved to at least be nominated for Best Original Screenplay...

Author's Note: The following is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. Especially you Jenny Beckman. Bitch.

Partygoer: So Tom, what is it that you do?
Tom: I uh, I write greeting cards.
Summer: Tom could be a really great architect if he wanted to be.
Partygoer: That's unusual, I mean, what made you go from one to the other?
Tom: I guess I just figured, why make something disposable like a building when you can make something that last forever, like a greeting card.

Rachel Hansen: Better that you find this out now before you come home and find her in bed with Lars from Norway.
Tom: Who's Lars from Norway?
Rachel Hansen: He's some guy she met at the gym with Brad Pitt's face and Jesus' abs.

Tom: Darling...
[Summer looks up at him]
Tom: I don't know how to tell you this, but... there's a Chinese family in our bathroom.

Tom: Look, we don't have to put a label on it. That's fine. I get it. But, you know, I just... I need some consistency.
Summer: I know.
Tom: I need to know that you're not gonna wake up in the morning and feel differently.
Summer: And I can't give you that. Nobody can.

McKenzie: Hey, maybe you should write a book.
Tom: What?
McKenzie: Well, you know, Henry Miller said the best way to get over a woman is to turn her into literature.

. . .

"We are in the transportation business. We transport audiences from one place to another."

—Bruckheimer on the film industry's obligation to its audience.

How to NOT Take Things Personally

While on Facebook earlier today, I came across a quote on a friend's page that I really liked. Wanting to know who the quote came from, I plugged the first sentence into Google.

I found her name-- Christine Kane. But the best part is that I also came upon her incredibly insightful blog. I've never heard of her before, but from the looks of her website, she writes inspirational books and has put out numerous CDs as a singer.

The awesome quote that I loved (below) came from one of her blogs, titled "How to NOT Take Things Personally: A Personal Guide."

"The biggest benefits of not taking things personally are self-awareness and clarity. Being centered and grounded while knowing that only you can dictate whether or not you’re on track or whether or not you’re successful is a reward in and of itself." --Christine Kane

After reading the "Not Taking Things Personally" blog, I clicked on another blog of hers, titled "Why Little Victories Matter in a Big Way." I might like that one even more. It is about training yourself to always acknowledge and appreciate the small victories that come on the way to your larger successes, and she states five very good reasons why small victories matter. Super inspirational.

...

"If there's specific resistance to women making movies, I just choose to ignore that as an obstacle for two reasons: I can't change my gender, and I refuse to stop making movies."

Kathryn Bigelow

Director - The Hurt Locker

Notes on the Noms

I'm not really going to go into a huge long schpeal about the 2010 Oscar nominations. Lots of other bloggers and journalists have already got that area covered. But I do have a few thoughts...

1. I'm a little bummed that (500) Days of Summer wasn't nominated for Best Original Screenplay. I thought the story was brilliant.

2. I really need to get cracking if I'm going to watch all the films nominated for Best Picture between now and March 7th. So far I still need to see:

The Blind Side

An Education

A Serious Man

The Hurt Locker

3. In order to make more educated guesses as to who is going to win, I should see these movies too:

Crazy Heart

Julie and Julia

Invictus

Nine

Coco Before Chanel

The Young Victoria

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

The problem is, where am I going to find the time?!

Oscar Nominations are here!

Here's the full list of Oscar Nominations for 2010.

Best Picture

Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air

Best Actor
Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
George Clooney, Up in the Air
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Morgan Freeman, Invictus
Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker

Best Actress
Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
Helen Mirren, The Last Station
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Gabourey Sidibe, Precious
Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia

Best Supporting Actor
Matt Damon, Invictus
Woody Harrelson, The Messenger
Christopher Plummer, The Last Station
Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds

Best Supporting Actress
Penélope Cruz, Nine
Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal, Crazy Heart
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Mo’Nique, Precious

Best Director
Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
James Cameron, Avatar
Lee Daniels, Precious
Jason Reitman, Up in the Air
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds

Best Original Screenplay
Mark Boal, The Hurt Locker
Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman, The Messenger
Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, A Serious Man
Pete Docter, Bob Peterson & Tom McCarthy, Up
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds

Best Adapted Screenplay
Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci & Tony Roche, In the Loop
Neill Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell, District 9
Geoffrey Fletcher, Precious
Nick Hornby, An Education
Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner, Up in the Air

Best Animated Film
Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Princess and the Frog
The Secret of Kells
Up

Best Foreign Language Film
El Secreto do Sus Ojos (Argentina)
Un Prophete (France)
The White Ribbon (Germany)
Ajami (Israel)
The Milk of Sorrow (Peru)

The rest of the categories are after the jump.

Best Art Direction
Avatar
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
Sherlock Holmes
The Young Victoria

Best Cinematography
Avatar
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
The White Ribbon

Best Costume Design
Bright Star
Coco Before Chanel
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
The Young Victoria

Best Documentary
Burma VJ
The Cove
Food, Inc.
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
Which Way Home

Best Editing
Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious

Best Makeup
Il Divo
Star Trek
The Young Victoria

Best Score
Avatar
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Hurt Locker
Sherlock Holmes
Up

Best Song
“Almost There,” The Princess and the Frog, Randy Newman
“Down in New Orleans,” The Princess and the Frog, Randy Newman
“Loin de Paname,” Paris 36, Reinhardt Wagner & Frank Thomas
“Take It All,” Nine, Maury Weston
“The Weary Kind,” Crazy Heart, T-Bone Burnett & Ryan Bingham

Best Sound Editing
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Up

Best Sound Mixing
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Best Visual Effects
Avatar
District 9
Star Trek

Best Documentary Short
China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province
The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner
The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant
Music by Prudence
Rabbit à la Berlin

Best Animated Short
French Roast
Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty
The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)
Logorama
A Matter of Loaf and Death

Best Live-Action Short
The Door
Instead of Abracadabra
Kavi
Miracle Fish
The New Tenants