The head to head duel with Avatar that had intensified in recent weeks was finally put to bet on the weekend as the Academy Awards came and went yet again.

The big winner on the night was The Hurt Locker, but it was not all bad news for Avatar with the film still taking out a few gongs on the night.

Here is a look at the winners on the night:

Performance by an actor in a leading role: Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart
Performance by an actor in a supporting role: Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds
Performance by an actress in a leading role: Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side
Performance by an actress in a supporting role: Mo’Nique in Precious
Best animated feature film of the year: Disney / Pixar’s UP
Achievement in art direction: Avatar
Achievement in cinematography: Avatar
Achievement in costume design: The Young Victoria
Achievement in directing: The Hurt Locker Kathryn Bigelow
Best documentary feature: The Cove
Best documentary short subject: Music by Prudence
Achievement in film editing: The Hurt Locker
Best foreign language film of the year: The Secret in Their Eyes (El
Secreto de Sus Ojos)
Achievement in makeup: Star Trek
Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score): Up
Best motion picture of the year: The Hurt Locker
Best animated short film: Logorama
Best live action short film: The New Tenants
Achievement in sound editing: The Hurt Locker
Achievement in sound mixing: The Hurt Locker
Achievement in visual effects: Avatar
Adapted screenplay: Precious
Original screenplay: The Hurt Locker

Oh, and of course, there are the awards to won too!

Here is a look at the nominees for this years Oscar Awards:

2010 Oscars Nominations List

:

Best Actor in a Leading Role:
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 in a Leading Role:
Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side
Helen Mirren – The Last Station
Carey Mulligan – An Education
Gabourey Sidibe – Precious: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire
Meryl Streep – Julie & Julia

Best Actor in a Supporting Role:
Matt Damon – Invictus
Woody Harrelson – The Messenger
Christopher Plummer – The Last Station
Stanley Tucci – The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz – Inglourious Basterds

Best Actress in a Supporting Role:
Penelope Cruz – Nine
Vera Farmiga – Up In The Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal – Crazy Horse
Anna Kendrick – Up In The Air
Mo’Nique – Precious: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire

Best Director:
James Cameron – Avatar
Kathryn Bigelow – The Hurt Locker
Quentin Tarantino – Inglourious Basterds
Lee Daniels – Precious: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire
Jason Reitman – Up In The Air

Best Picture:
Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire
A Serious Man
Up
Up In The Air

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: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire
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 de Sus Ojos (Argentina)
Un Prophete (France)
The White Ribbon (Germany)
Ajami (Israel)
The Milk of Sorrow (Peru).

The film is itself a spin off from the successful BBC comedy series The Thick of It, which satirically critiques politics in the current world we live in.

In The Loop is based around the theme of the western world beginning a war in the middle east.

The controversy begins when the Minister for International Development, Simon Foster (played by Tom Hollander) accidentally states that a proposed war in the Middle East is “unforeseeable”.

Although he gets grilled by the Prime Minister’s enforcer Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi), the statement coincides with a visit by high-up U.S. officials who jump upon the phrase and begin to use Simon, as a pawn in an international game of politics.

The film actually follows the exact format as the TV series The Thick of It, and if you are a fan of the comedy show, you will be sure to enjoy In The Loop.

The film has a tendency to go off the rails at times and really take the piss out of international politics, which adds to quite a humorous plot.

All in all the movie will make you laugh, cringe, and at times be scared to laugh at the controversial lines dished out.

Starring Tom Hollander, James Gandolfini, Peter Capaldi and Steve Coogan, In The Loop delivers a great satire on the US and UK political lunacy on the issue of war.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQrqMkCuHqA

8/10

YouTube currently has partnerships with productions companies who let them rent movies through their site.

The first five films available to rent through YouTube will cost jus under four dollars for a 48-hour viewing period.

But, movie studios will be able to set their own prices, with rental viewing windows ranging from one day to three months.

YouTube will get an unspecified commission from each rental sold.

Currently, YouTube are encourage many studios to rent movies through its site, hoping to eventually create a new financial stream to supplement the internet ads that bring in most of its revenue.

The evolution marks the next step in the quirky, content ridden websites history, and a sign of the way DVD rentals will pan out in the future.

It was only a matter of time before movies were rented, and watched online, but very few thought it would be YouTube who would pioneer the movement.

The new move is also expected to be financially handsome for YouTube with a 50 per cent increase in profit expected over the next six months. Last year the website made 700 million dollars and hopes to eclipse that in 2010.

However, if YouTube still doesn’t tickle your fancy, there are still plenty of places to rent movies that can be downloaded or streamed over high-speed internet connections such as Apple’s iTunes store, Netflix and Amazon.com

Luckily for those who love the genre, there is still one man out there ensuring it is not lost to cinema entirely.

His name is Rob Marshall, and in case you are not familiar with his work, he is the director of Chicago and Memoirs of a Geisha to name a few.

Marshall is back again this year with his recent Hollywood musical, Nine.

The movie is set in the 1960s and centred on a famous film director named Guido.

Played by Daniel Day-Lewis, Guido is a filmmaker who apparently made a few brilliant movies, then made some bombs, and now he’s working on another one.

His first films were so good that he’s incredibly famous and well-respected, but people find it hard to mention liking his films without mentioning their dislike for his new creations.

Now he finds himself fairly deep in production on his new movie, with costumes being created, test screenings under way, and countless people on the payroll, but he has no script and no idea for one.

He’s married, has a mistress, and has no idea what he’s doing with any part of his life.

We follow along as he pretends to have a movie, runs away from the press, has his affair, and generally drowns in the soulless egomaniac he is.

The storyline for Nine is quite the drama, and when you throw in a few musical songs it really does set the groundwork for a good traditional Hollywood musical.

The focus of the movie is around the South African nation, and the problems they had to overcome just to make the tournament.

Clint Eastwood makes his return to the directors list for the film and it is his first piece of work since Gran Torino this time last year.

The word Invictus itself means is Latin for “undefeated” and comes from a poem by William Ernest Henley.

Henley was going through a period of transformation in the mid 90s, much similar to South Africa during the same time.

The apartheid had just been put to an end and Nelson Mandela elected to the office of the President after serving twenty-seven years in prison.

The movie stars Matt Damon who plays Francois Pienaar, a rugby player for South Africa, who leads his nation to a Cinderella victory in the 1995 world cup.

While Invictus is a sporting movie, it really is dominated by drama and a compelling story about a true event.

If you are after some great footage of Rugby Union, prepare to be disappointed.

Invictus definitely falls behind in the area of quality sporting action.

Overall, however, the film certainly captivates the viewers, and the experienced presence of Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela is played out perfectly.

A movie adaptation of the events in South Africa during the 90s was always going to be although task, but Eastwood has done so with style and accuracy.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9Ovkye6lac

I don’t really need to point out that Repo! The Genetic Opera has an amazingly original concept. Director Darren Lynn Bousman (Saw II, III and IV) creates a stylised setting reminiscent of Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s La cité des enfants perdus (fancy French way of saying City of Lost Children), Alex Proyas’s Dark City, even Terry Gilliam’s 12 Monkeys. Based on the stage play written and composed by Darren Smith and Terrance Zdunich, Repo is heavy with back-story. Bousman uses Tank Girlesque comic book interludes to keep the exposition from weighing down the narrative.

The actors do their best with the musical dialogue, but it is Anthony Stewart Head who really stands out. I’ve been in this guy’s corner for a while now, and not just because he battled vampires as Buffy’s mentor. He’s strong and charismatic, underrated and very underused. Whilst Repo is no Sound of Music, it does contain a few moments of greatness. When spoilt surgery addict Amber Sweet (played by a perfectly cast Paris Hilton) starts her big number in the climatic on-stage Genetic Opera, her face falls off before a booing crowd.

It should also be said that somewhere beneath all that violence and melodrama, there is a satirical warning that our society is relying more and more on cosmetic surgery. If there’s something about our physical appearance we don’t like, we can change it with one trip under the knife and… Whoa, whoa, whoa… hold on a second. Original concept, comparisons to City of Lost Children, social commentary! I’m making Repo sound like a masterpiece. It isn’t.

Lazy chorography is where Repo loses its step (puns are fun). The sleepy movement coupled with unmemorable songs keeps this from becoming the next Rocky Horror Picture Show (an obvious inspiration). There is an unparalleled lameness about Repo, but whilst it falls short of its goal, there is the nagging sense that this could have been something great. It all comes down to that old chestnut: Sometimes even with all the right ingredients things just don’t go right in the mixing bowl.
Two and a half stars.