IT’S boring when they get it right. Right?

It was billed as a classic year for the film industry and in those circumstances, cream will normally rise to the top, and so it proved.

The easiest decision of the night was surely Daniel Day-Lewis as Best Actor. I dropped in on Fact in Liverpool on Sunday morning (bloody freezing and how can you watch a three hour film when our moronic city leaders insist you can only pay and display for two?) to catch There Will be Blood.

Watching Day-Lewis is really an exercise in art appreciation. It is truly an astonishing performance.

Plenty of critics were hoping for TWBB to scoop Best Picture and Best Director for Paul Thomas Anderson but for me the right decision was made. No Country for Old Men is ultimately a more enjoyable film to watch and surely that’s what really counts. Right?

Directors Joel and Ethan Coen are men to be cherished (only the Hudsucker Proxy has ever felt like a let down from them) and their film certainly created the most recent debate in the office.

It’s all about that unwrapped up ending which a few colleagues, for some reason mostly the fairer sex, aren’t happy with. No Country also provided another deserving winner in Javier Bardem for Best Supporting Actor.

Not really sure where the split between actor and supporting actor comes because the chilling Bardem has the key role in No Country but ultimately it worked to his advantage because he would have lost out to Day-Lewis in the main category.

Personally I think No Country should have won for Cinematography too but I’m willing to let TWBB have that one. In the Best Actress award I wasn’t surprised to see Julie Christie lose out to Marion Cotillard for La Vie en Rose.

The beautiful Christie has floated my boat since I first saw Far from the Madding Crowd but Away from Her tackles a most difficult subject in senility and it’s a hard film to truly love despite Christie’s considerable efforts. Right again Academy.

There was nothing much for Atonement despite best Score and that too was on the money. It’s a film which looks beautiful but just doesn’t break your heart the way it should and director Joe Wright left too much on the cutting room floor for me.

Maybe one of the most heart-warming awards was Best Song for Falling Slowly in Irish indie hit Once. It’s a movie and song which grows on you for weeks after you’ve watched it. I was actually a wee bit disappointed in it at first – all the hype probably - but a few weeks later and I look back on it fondly. Her acceptance speech showed Czech pianist Markita Irglova’s Irish accent is almost as good as Jan Molby’s Scouse too.

The wonderful Juno was recognised for Screenplay to round off a night when for once the good guys did come first. Embrace it because it doesn’t happen very often. Right?

What did you think? Was your favourite overlooked? Let me know by commenting below....

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