My thoughts on the 84th Academy Awards nominees.

I didn't expect that Rooney Mara is nominated for the Best Actress category, as the 2011 film will be shown here in the Philippines on February 1, next week. That's on Wednesday.

While there are only two nominees in the Best Original Song category.

As for the Best Animated Feature:

There's a a rule regarding the Motion Capture technique employed in films such as Disney's A Christmas Carol from Robert Zemeckis and The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn from Steven Spielberg, and how they might not be eligible in this category in the future. This rule was possibly made to prevent live action films that heavily relied on motion capture, such as James Cameron's Avatar, from getting in.

My 84th Academy Awards predictions

Best Picture:
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close – Scott Rudin

Best Director:
Martin Scorsese – Hugo

Best Actor:
Demián Bichir – A Better Life as Carlos Galindo

Best Actress:
Viola Davis – The Help as Aibileen Clarke

Best Supporting Actor:
Max von Sydow – Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close as The Renter

Best Supporting Actress:
Melissa McCarthy – Bridesmaids as Megan Price

Best Original Screenplay:
Margin Call – J.C. Chandor

Best Adapted Screenplay:
Moneyball – Screenplay by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin; Story by Stan Chervin from Moneyball by Michael Lewis

Best Animated Feature: (any of these two films)
Puss in Boots – Chris Miller
Rango – Gore Verbinski

Best Foreign Language Film:
In Darkness (Poland) in Polish – Agnieszka Holland

Best Documentary Feature:
Hell and Back Again – Danfung Dennis and Mike Lerner

Best Documentary – Short Subject:
The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom – Lucy Walker and Kira Carstensen

Best Live Action Short Film:
Time Freak – Andrew Bowler and Gigi Causey

Best Animated Short Film: (any of these two films)
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore – William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg
A Morning Stroll – Grant Orchard and Sue Goffe

Best Original Score:
The Artist – Ludovic Bource

Best Original Song:
"Man or Muppet" from The Muppets – Bret McKenzie

Best Sound Editing:
Drive – Lon Bender and Victor Ray Ennis

Best Sound Mixing:
War Horse – Gary Rydstrom, Andy Nelson, Tom Johnson and Stuart Wilson

Best Art Direction:
The Artist – Laurence Bennett and Robert Gould

Best Cinematography: (any of these three films)
The Artist – Guillaume Schiffman
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo – Jeff Cronenweth
The Tree of Life – Emmanuel Lubezki

Best Makeup:
The Iron Lady – Mark Coulier and J. Roy Helland

Best Costume Design: (any of these five films)
Anonymous – Lisy Christl
The Artist – Mark Bridges
Hugo – Sandy Powell
Jane Eyre – Michael O'Connor
W.E. – Arianne Phillips

Best Film Editing: (any of these three films)
The Artist – Anne-Sophie Bion and Michel Hazanavicius
The Descendants – Kevin Tent
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter

Best Visual Effects: (any of these five films)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 – Tim Burke, David Vickery, Greg Butler and John Richardson
Hugo – Rob Legato, Joss Williams, Ben Grossman and Alex Henning
Real Steel – Erik Nash, John Rosengrant, Dan Taylor and Swen Gillberg
Rise of the Planet of the Apes – Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, R. Christopher White and Daniel Barrett
Transformers: Dark of the Moon – Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Matthew Butler and John Frazier

Taio Cruz - Dynamite

First of all, I'm not familiar with Taio Cruz. And I didn't that he's the original performer of this song.

And also, I didn't know that the song's title is Dynamite. I just learned it just now.

Firework & Grenade MASHUP (Explosion Medley) - Sam Tsui

I learned this guy, when I was looking for Chico Garcia and Delamar’s Top Ten, via Yahoo! and Chico Garcia’s WordPress blog with the help of Ricky Lo’s online article.

To be honest, his performance gave me goose bumps.

Paramore: The Only Exception [OFFICIAL VIDEO]

Forst of all and first and foremost, I'm not a fan of Paramore. The first time I learned about Paramore, when the aformentioned band has song in the Twilight soundtrack.

Maroon 5 - Moves Like Jagger featuring Christina Aguilera (Official Music Video)

I don't remember the first time I heard this song. And the female singer sings and sounds like Christina Aguilera.

Enjoy watching the music video.

Simple Plan - Jet Lag featuring Natasha Bedingfield or Marie Mai or Kelly Cha (Official Videos)

The first the time heard the song is from 99.5 RT. I liked it the first time I heard this song. The song I heard is the one with Natasha Bedingfield.

There are two versions of the song.

The first version, in English and French, the video featuring Marie-Mai.


And the second version, in English, the video featuring Natasha Bedingfield.


And the third version in Chinese-Mandarin/Mandarin-Chinese, the video featuring Kelly Cha.