Holy, moly — I knew this year was gonna be f*cked up. I mean, we all knew supporting actress was wide open, but how many people lost money on Tilda Swinton’s win? She looked more surprised even than Ruby Dee and Amy Ryan (Amy, to be fair, smiled wide). That followed quickly on the heals of Javier Bardem’s predictable win for supporting actor. (No gay man would have given him that haircut, but he deserved the win.) The Coens then won for adapted screenplay for No Country for Old Men, the evening’s first double winner.
I saw all the short film nominees. I have a policy about live action short and foreign films: Movies with cute kids in adult situations so mawkish that the Academy would laugh them off a list of potential best picture nominees win these awards like popcorn. So the fact Les Mozart des Pickpockets was not the best of the lot doesn’t matter. On the other hand, Peter and the Wolf was the best animated short.
 They aren’t wasting time, either — it’s barely 90 minutes in, and already actress (an upset Marion Cotillard), supporting actor and actress and adapted screenplay have been presented.Â
 — Arnold Wayne Jones