Best Original Song
• “Down to Earth” from WALL-E, Music by Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman, Lyric by Peter Gabriel
• “Jai Ho” from Slumdog Millionaire, Music by A.R. Rahman, Lyric by Gulzar
• “O Saya” from Slumdog Millionaire, Music and Lyric by A.R. Rahman and Maya Arulpragasam
A reduced set omits Bruce Springsteen’s Golden Globe winner from The Wrestler. Gabriel won’t perform due to the cut down performance time, but will attend the ceremony to watch “Jai Ho” likely win, adding more gold to the Slumdog tally.
Best Cinematography
• Anthony Dod Mantle, Slumdog Millionaire
• Chris Menges and Roger Deakins, The Reader
• Claudio Miranda, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Wally Pfister, The Dark Knight
• Tom Stern, Changeling
Will Deakins finally win? We’ll see, but this category has two main contenders, just as with many other categories, Mantle and Miranda for Slumdog and Benjamin Button, respectively.
Best Foreign Language Film
• The Baader Meinhof Complex, Germany
• The Class, France
• Departures, Japan
• Revanche, Austria
• Waltz with Bashir, Israel
Bashir and The Class seem to be the front runners.
Best Documentary Feature
• The Betrayal (Nerakhoon), Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath
• Encounters at the End of the World, Werner Herzog and Henry Kaiser
• The Garden, Scott Hamilton Kennedy
• Man on Wire, James Marsh and Simon Chinn
• Trouble the Water, Tia Lessin and Carl Deal
Herzog and Kaiser have a strong case, Man on Wire will cross the long traverse to win.
Best Makeup
• John Caglione, Jr. and Conor O’Sullivan, The Dark Knight
• Greg Cannom, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Mike Elizalde and Thom Floutz, Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Cannom should win here. Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy II gets nice recognition here – look for more when his two The Hobbit films release in 2012.
Best Animated Short Film
• La Maison en Petits Cubes, Kunio Kato
• Lavatory - Lovestory, Konstantin Bronzit
• Oktapodi, Emud Mokhberi and Thierry Marchand
• Presto, Doug Sweetland
• This Way Up, Alan Smith and Adam Foulkes
Presto definitely had the widest audience, showing before WALL-E, also the likely winner for Best Animated Feature, but La Maison could upset.
Article comments
1 - Clarence Yu
Very logical analysis. I was thinking about this the other day and thought that Slumdog would be the big winner but had no major actor, so it was either Penn or Rourke. Penn having won previously with Mystic River, it's really logical for Rourke to get it. And who else but Kate Winslet?
My only major disappointment was the complete shutout of Gran Torino. Though I might be biased as I am a big Eastwood fan.