"Those awards presented annually by that film society."

Well, it's that time of the year again. No, not Christmas just yet, but the Oscars ceremony is happening tomorrow! I get way too exited about these galas, coveting the outfits worn by my favourite actors and subtly hinting to my mum that I wouldn't be too tired at school if I stayed up to watch them announce the awards at about 3am my time. Here are my top 5 lists of best oscar winners in each major category (classic movies of course!). I haven't watched many foreign films yet, and special effects aren't my thing, so these lists will be more the performing, direction and script. There will also be a mixed list at the end for awards that should have been awarded but weren't. Each list is in no particular order except the top winner. These aren't necessarily my favourite performances/jobs - they are just the winners.

My Top 5... 

Best Picture Winners (Top 10)...

1. All About Eve (1950)
2. Rebecca (1940)
3. Mrs. Miniver (1942)
4. Casablanca (1943)
5. West Side Story (1961)
6. The Apartment (1960)
7. It Happened One Night (1934)
8. The Sound Of Music (1965)
9. My Fair Lady (1964)
10. The Greatest Show On Earth (1952)

Best Director Winners...

1. William Wyler - Mrs. Miniver (1942)
2. Michael Curtiz - Casablanca (1943)
3. Billy Wilder - The Apartment (1960)
4. Joseph L. Mankiewicz - All About Eve (1950)
5. Frank Capra - It Happened One Night (1934)

Best Screenplay Winners... (Adaptation and Original)

1. Joseph Mankiewicz - All About Eve (1950)
2. Philip G. Epstein, Julius J. Epstein, Howard Koch - Casablanca (1943)
3. James Goldman - The Lion In Winter (1968)
4. William Rose - Guess Who's Coming To Dinner (1967)
5. I.A.L. Diamond, Billy Wilder - The Apartment (1960)

{Holy jumpin' catfish, this post is gonna be nearly as long as "Gone With The Wind"!}

Best Actor...

James Cagney ~ Yankee Doodle Dandy

1. James Cagney - Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
2. Humphrey Bogart - The African Queen (1951)
3. Robert Donat - Goodbye Mr. Chips (1939)
4. Clark Gable - It Happened One Night (1934)
5. Yul Brynner - The King And I (1956)
6. Rex Harrison - My Fair Lady (1964)

Best Actress (in no particular order, I can't chose!)

1. Ingrid Bergman - Gaslight (1944)
2. Barbra Striesand and Katharine Hepburn - Funny Girl and The Lion In Winter respectively, tie (1968)
3. Bette Davis - Jezebel (1938)
4. Greer Garson - Mrs. Miniver (1942)
5. Audrey Hepburn - Roman Holiday (1953)
6. Katharine Hepburn - Guess Who's Coming To Dinner (1967)

Awards that should have been awarded but because of those annoying people at the academy weren't...

1. Bette Davis - All About Eve (1950), but there were lots of other times she should have won, like in 1939 for Dark Victory and 1942 for Now Voyager.
2. James Stewart - It's A Wonderful Life (1946)
3. Irene Dunne - I remember Mama (1948)
4. Ronald Colman - Random Harvest (1942)
5. Thelma Ritter - All About Eve. Anne Baxter should have been nominated in the supporting actress category rather than main actress. Just because her character's name is in the title doesn't mean she has a right to go and beg the producers to classify her as a leading actress after she was put in the supporting actress category. 
6. Jack Lemmon - The Apartment (1960)
7. David Lean - Great Expectations (1947) + This Happy Breed (1944)
8. Billy Wilder - Double Indemnity (1944)
9. The Little Foxes (1941) 

To name only a few not awarded gems.

As you may know, I think that films like All About Eve and Random Harvest should have won every award under the sun, but there were some other movies that were left out at the awards. Good films that didn't even get nominated. It is certain that a film has to be one of those "award winning" films: fairly artsy, sometimes serious, hits with the public and they also have to have had an amazing amount of publicity.

There have been some good movies out around now in England, like The King's Speech which was the best modern film I have seen in donkey's years, and they deserve everything they are nominated for. Another one that is multi nominated that I found very unpleasant was The Social Network - a real downer. Not a great fan of facebook myself and reluctant to join the reams of people at my school who while away their time having arguments and gossips on facebook, I was interested to watch the film and see what the real ideas behind it was. The guy who created facebook sounds like a complete idiot, who created the whole thing basically out of angst because his girlfriend dumped him. It wasn't at all a badly made film (although the script was awful, despite the fact that it is the most tipped screenplay to win at the oscars) - it just didn't appeal to me. I did go and see Tangled, Disney's answer to Rapunzel, and found it enchanting. It really restored my faith in Disney fairy tales.

~Bette