* I woke up to this morning the realization that Netflix has become a liberal cause celebre. It has to do with Comcast attempting to charge Level 3, a provider of Netflix’s streaming, a fee which the company says would effectively block access by cable companies to the interwebs and threaten the net neutrality that allows a site like this one to be readily usable. Brian Stetler at NYT has the details.

* Not sure how the Deadline team got scooped on this, but some lesser known sites have word that Tom Hanks‘ next acting gig, after wrapping directing duties on the upcoming “Larry Crowne,” will be in the new drama from the team that brought us “The Hurt Locker,” writer Mark Boal and director Kathryn Bigelow. It’s the Latin America set “Triple Frontier.”

* Two categories of people get to say exactly what they want: the elderly and universally beloved film stars who took a creative risk and essentially made a franchise. Johnny Depp isn’t quite yet at the early bird dinner stage of his life, but he had some interesting things to say about Disney executives’ initial reaction to his Jack Sparrow — really, the only thing I ever liked about the “Pirates of the Carribean” franchise, other than the ride. They hated Depp’s performance, and for some rather disturbing juvenile reasons.

* Nikki Finke claimed her “toldja” this morning over the actually really smart choice of having this year’s Oscar telecast hosted by James Franco and Anne Hathaway. Both clearly have comedy chops, Hathaway can sing, as she showed a couple of years back during the “Frost/Nixon” gag in Hugh Jackman’s opening number, and best of all, they’re not satirists like Jon Stewart and Chris Rock and therefore probably won’t perturb Hollywood’s well-manicured egos. The egos must, above all, be maintained. (H/t Anne Thompson for the Jackman vid.)

* The Independent Spirit Award nominations were announced today. Not too surprisingly, some of the biggest nominees were “127 Hours,” “The Black Swan,” “Greenberg,” “The Kids Are All Right,” (directed by Lisa Chodelenko, interviewed here by Ross Ruediger) “Rabbit Hole,” and “Winter’s Bone,” which already collected some Gotham Awards a day or so back.

* I’m sure the role of the U.S. Secretary of State in “X-Men: First Class” isn’t huge, but anything that keeps Ray Wise onscreen, where he belongs, works for me.

* RIP director Mario Monicelli, who passed on a day or so back at age 95. I have no excuse for having never seen “Big Deal on Madonna Street,” I fear.

Okay, that’s all for tonight. The gods of sleep and hunger have just about claimed me.

Yes, my friends, the action starts right here, right now, right after the jump.

New comments will go above older remarks, so if you’re reading this later and want to start at the beginning, you’ll scroll down to the end. Got that? Good. Let’s hope for an interesting night and don’t forget to keep refreshing — the page and yourself with the commestibles of your choice.

9:30 — A few quick final thoughts. All in all, I have to praise producers Bill Mechanic and Adam Shankman for a swift and entertaining production, traditionalist though I am and even though I still feel the Academy badly shortchanged tonight’s lifetime honorees. The hosting team of Baldwin and Martin did a fine job, though I’ve seen both men individually be even funnier, but these guys clearly know their shtick.

Also, though I admire “The Hurt Locker” a lot more than I actually like it, I think it says something very positive about Hollywood’s respect for craftmanship and serious intent that a film that didn’t even come close to setting the box office on fire can win best picture and, I’m sure, get a whole new life as a result. Awards like the Oscars might be inherently silly in that comparing films is invariably like putting apples and oranges up against avocados and hamburgers, but occasionally they can also fulfill a function. And I say that even though I personally would have voted for “Inglourious Basterds” in a heartbeat over any of the other films. (“Up in the Air,” which I finally caught up with last night, would be a strong second.)

Well, time to wrap up, but they’ll more here on the awards later on tomorrow. Stay tuned…

9:21 — Tom Hanks has apparently been told to cut to the chase and eschews listing all ten nominated films for simply saying the winner’s name, which I have to say kind of hampers the drama. Anyhow, the prognosticators turn out to be right. Ten nominees or not, “The Hurt Locker” still won the way it probably would have had there only been five nominees. The film’s three main actors run up on stage and act kind of the way their characters did in the film would if they had won something, as Mark Boal and the producer who isn’t Nicolas Chartier thanks Nicolas Chartier, along with many others. Again, Kathryn Bigelow seems genuinely overwhelmed and takes the time to thank all sorts of military heroes.

Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin end with more funny shtick in which Martin praises Baldwin and Baldwin does not.

9:20 — Barbara Streisand, mentioning that tonight might be the night the first woman or the first African-American wins. Not at all surprisingly, it’s the first woman’s turns and Kathryn Bigelow wins for “The Hurt Locker.” She seems genuinely thrilled and intimidated, thanking writer Mark Boal, the cast and notes that the secret to directing is collaborating. She thanks lots of other people (including banished producer Nick Chartier) as well as soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. “May they come home safe.” The band plays “I am Woman.” (Would they have played “(Say it Loud) I’m Black and I’m Proud” if Lee Daniels had won?)

9:10 — Another group testimonial for Best Actress. Forest Whitaker talks about directing Sandra Bullock for “Hope Floats”; Michael Sheen discusses working with the great Helen Mirren on “The Queen” — “Is it wrong to be so wildly attracted to a queen…Royalty with a tattoo”; a shaven-headed Peter Saarsgard talks about Carey Mulligan falling in love with him twice (on stage and in “An Education”) and praises her work to the sky; executive producer Oprah Winfrey talks about Gabourey Sidebe getting the title role in “Precious,” “a true American Cinderella on the threshold of a brilliant new career…congratulations Gabby Sidebe”; and Stanley Tucci, who really does enjoy a lovely chemistry with Meryl Streep onscreen — the camera misses a joke about his two films with her being “the highlight of my career” but he then jokes about capping the number of nominations at 16 while seeming to like her quite a bit.

Sean Penn presents the award, alluding interestingly to his non-membership in the Academy, to Sandra Bullock for “The Blind Side” who does a funny bit of actor-joke business with Meryl Streep. “Did I really earn this or did I just wear you all down?” She humorously and graciously praises all her competitors in various ways, including Streep and her kissing abilities. She ends by thanking “the moms that take care of the babies and the children, no matter where they come” which she says is the theme of the film, and then tearfully thanks her own mom for not letting her ride in cars with boys (she apparently was ready to engage in a parental worst case scenario had she).

8:55 — An all star cast assembles to present pre-award testimonials the best actor award — Michelle Pfeiffer about Jeff Bridges drawing capillaries on his face while making “The Fabulous Baker Boys,” Vera Fermiga about George Clooney (as she talks about his concern with making sure his costars do as well or better than he does, he seems genuinely touched); Julianne Moore talks about working for only three days on “A Single Man,” though her scenes are in many respects central to the film; Tim Robbins kids about becoming the friend of Morgan Freeman on “The Shawshank Redemption”: “Being a friend is about getting the other a cup of coffee, can you do that for me, Ted? It is ‘Ted,’ isn’t it?”; finally, Colin Farrell talks about, apparently sleeping, literally, with Jeremy Renner on “SWAT” and seems genuinely impressed with his great work on “The Hurt Locker.”

I think using people who actually worked together beats the somewhat random selection of actors last year.

Kate Winslet actually presents the award to, of course, Jeff Bridges, who is certainly pleased if not hugely surprised. “Thank you mom and dad for turning me on to such a groovy profession.” He talks about being trained by his dad for a role in “Sea Hunt” and thanks his director on “Crazy Heart” and as many of his coworkers as they’ll allow him (and they seem to be allowing him a lot). He really does say “man” a fair amount.

8:40: More time wonkyness caused by a phone call I kind of had to take. Two of cinema’s most talented bad boys, Pedro Almodovar and Quentin Tarantino present the Best Foreign Language award.  The winner is one of the less hyped films, “The Secret in Their Eyes” from Argentina. The producer thanks the Academy for not considering Na’vi a foreign language. Good to know they have “development hell” in Latin America also.

8:30 — Gerard Butler and Bradley Cooper present the best visual effects award to “Avatar.” Not a surprise and, considering the advances in motion capture and 3-D, it’s kind of a given — though I’m sure techies might want to school me on that point somewhat in case I’m over-simpliflying it any case. One of the award winners (sorry, didn’t catch his name) notes that: “The world that we live in is just as amazing as the one we created for you.”

Nice head-bobbing to the “Sherlock Holmes” music by George Clooney. His hair is getting younger, even if no man can achieve that.

Matt Damon presents the Best Documentary Feature award. It’s nice to see these films get a nice amount of publicity with some good and lengthy montages. “The Cove” wins. Not a big surprise — except that this can be a wonky category at times that likes to honor less well known films, but not this year.

Tyler Perry: “They just said my name at the Oscars. I should enjoy it because it’ll probably never happen again.” He presents the editing award to “The Hurt Locker,” another “technical “award that tends to go to the film people like the most.

8:00 — James Taylor sings John Lennon’s  “In My Life” over the annual “in memoriam” montage. Makes up a little bit for the lack of “Best Song” musical numbers otherwise and, as always, it’s stunning the amount of great talent we lose every year. This year it ends with Karl Malden who passed on at 97 this year and was pretty widely beloved in “this town.”

That’s followed by a dance number set to this year’s nominated scores. Not to put down the obvious talent and acrobatic talent of these folks, but quasi-breakdancing to the music from “Sherlock Holmes” and “The Hurt Locker”? Things improve a lot with the music from “Fantastic Mr. Fox” and the lovely score from “Up” by Michael Giacchino. The “Avatar” music works nicely with the spectacular dancing and the audience seems pleased.

The award for best score goes to Michael Giacchino. Well deserved and very nice words to young people about the importance of creativity.

7: 40 — Elizabeth Banks helps the Oscars give short shrift to the “sci/tech” awards.

Quentin Tarantino seems pleased with the “Inglourious Basterds” montage. I think he’s made peace with the likelihood that Christoph Waltz will be getting the film’s only award tonight. When you make films that are the opposite of Oscar bait, you can’t complain too much about not getting Oscars, no matter how deserved they might be.

Sandra Bullock is funny explaining that the first job of cinematographers is making stars like her look pretty. (I like hearing her say “mishegas.”) It goes to Mauro Fiore of “Avatar.” Again, this is an award as much for the fact that people liked the movie as it is for Fiore’s good work. He’s also probably getting credit for the 3-D and motion capture work.

7:37: What’s that thumping behind Baldwin & Martin? It turns out to be appropriate as they are following it with a parody of “Paranormal Activity” to set up the coming horror film tribute.

Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner present the horror montage. Not exactly Karloff and Lugosi. Also, some shmoe of a writer says that no horror film has won an Oscar since “The Exorcist” to which I say, “What was ‘Silence of the Lambs’? Musical comedy?” Horror-loving film blogger Dennis Cozzalio will be delighted happy to see Chucky of “Child’s Play” represented, but having a clip from “Leprechaun” in there might be going a bit far. On the other hand I love hearing the music from “Young Frankenstein” alongside the iconic music from  “Psycho.” On the other hand, “Marathon Man” and “Edward Scissorhands” are not really horror films at all. They also show the alien-from-John Hurt”s-chest gag from “Alien” in all it’s bloody gory. What is this, the Scream awards?

Morgan Freeman explains the awards for Sound Editing and Mixing for people who never went to film school or made a film. There are some of you out there, right. Lautner and Stewart present the awards for both categories to  “The Hurt Locker.” Movies with a certain amount of effects work tend to get nominated and the movie which people generally like the best of those tends to win it. If you marked “Hurt Locker” on your Oscar pool, things are seriously looking up.

7:15: Sigourney Weaver presents the  production design/set decoration award. (Have they always been combined like this?) “Avatar” wins and she seems a bit excited about it. People who don’t realize the importance of this category should take a page from Ms. Weaver. She can’t do what she does if they don’t do what they do. An emotional moment from one of the designers who discusses an old illness. Lots of compliments to producer Jon Landau and, of course, James Cameron.

Clothes designer turned director Tom Ford of the excellent “A Single Man” and Sarah Jessica Parker present best costume design to the expected winner, “The Young Victoria.” Probably somewhat wrongly, this category always seems to go to period pictures and the two-time award winner, Sandy Powell, graciously acknowledges designers on other kinds of films. Classy move.

7:10: Robin Williams presents the Best Supporting Actress to, of course, Mo’Nique, for “Precious.” I can’t say she was as good as her opposite number, Christoph Waltz, in being a fait accompli award winner in a highly villainous supporting role, but she certainly brought the fire to her work and I can’t argue with it. She also brings the fire to her acceptance speech. She makes her point.

7:04: If you’re noticing that my times are slightly wonky, it’s the miracle of the DVR at work without which this would be a lot harder. Rachel McAdams and the hard to spell Jake Gyllenhaal present the award for best adapted screenplay to Geoffrey Fletcher for “Precious.” He won an Indie Spirit award yesterday for best first screenplay. Having seen the film just yesterday, I can’t agree with this award, especially considering how great “In the Loop” and “Up in the Air” are in terms of their writing, but I understand the feelings behiind it. Very emotional speech.

Montage of Governor’s award honorees to Roger Corman, Gordon Willis, and Lauren Bacall. Sorry, but these people all absolutely deserved to get their award live and have their own lenghty montages, rather than just waving from the audience. They are all true motion picture greats and, as gracious as  they are being, deserve more.

6:50: Similarly heighted — and similarly amazing looking — Zoe Saldana and Carey Mulligan present short film awards, almost stumbling over their dresses as they walk out on stage. John Lasseteer on short films (paraphrased): “You know what I like about short films; they’re short.” Award fo Aninmated short goes not to Nick Park’s latest, but “Logorama.” Best documentary short goes to “Music by Prudence” — the two filmmakers seems to be fighting for airtime or something before getting played off. Live action short goes to “The New Tenants.” Second award winner gets his mike cut before he say anything. They’re being brutally efficient.

And now Ben Stiller is a really funny, frightening Na’vi. (Wasn’t this related to the deleted Sacha Baron Cohen gag?) Great contact lens, hands, and tail gags. “I see you,” he says to James Cameron. Presents award for Best Make-Up to “Star Trek.”

6:30: Molly Ringwald and Matthew Broderick pay nice tribute to the late John Hughes. He says he’s frequently accosted by peole who ask: “Hey Ferris, is this your day off?” Nice montage following; I’m sure Hughes’ millions of devoted fans will be getting all misty eyed. Nicely done. Followed up with many of Hughes other stars, ranging from Ally Sheedy to Jon Cryer, Macauley Culkin, and Judd Nelson. It’s a nice tribute that it’s a shame more filmmakers can’t get.

6:27: Tina Fey and Robert Downey, Jr., very funny on the tensions between writers and actors. Downey: “It’s a collaboration between handsome gifted people and sickly little mole people.” Award for Best Original Screenplay goes to Mark Boal for “The Hurt Locker” — and so the sweep begins? He dedicates his award to the troops, well and injured, in Afghanistan and Iraq and to his recently deceased father.

6:20: Cameron Diaz and Steve Carrell introduce Barbara Walter’s “interviews” with characters from animated films. Cute. Nice shot of a happy looking Ed Asner. Award for Best Animated Feature goes to “Up.” Not a shocker by any stretch, but it’s a lovely movie, so hard to complain. (Also, I missed all but one of the other nominated films.) Pete Doctor, like everyone else at Pixar seemingly, is one of the good ones.

Next up Miley Cyrus and Amanda Seyfried of “Dear John” and “Mamma Mia”…who I’ll be meeting in a couple of days (along with scads of other journos; maybe I’ll get to ask a question, maybe). They’re introducing the Best Song with clips from the films rather than the usual production number(s). I wasn’t too thrilled about the change, but the clips aren’t badly orchestrated and certainly give an idea of how the songs are used in the films.

Ryan Bingham and T-Bone Burnett win for their song, “The Weary Kind” from “Crazy Heart.” Mr. Burnett is a long time hero of mine. And Mr. Bingham’s backpack seems full enough. (Sorry. “Up in the Air” joke.)

6:10: If Christoph Waltz doesn’t win tonight’s first award for Best Supporting Actor award for “Basterds”  the earth under the Kodak may just open up. He does a good job of acting surprised and mentioning everyone’s name. Nice to know the earth doesn’t need to open up and Waltz’s historically good performance has been acknowledged.

6:00: Baldwin & Martin heating up. Funny/silly gags about various nominated actors, though that gag about “Frida” and Brad Pitt’s “Inglourious Basterds” mustache will fly over many heads. Good reaction shot of George Clooney when the two couldn’t think of who was nominated for Best Actor other than Jeff Bridges.

5:51: Funny threesome gag about Baldwin and Martin’s work with Meryl Streep on “It’s Complicated.” Another good gag: “Anyone who’s ever worked with Meryl Streep always ends up saying the exact same thing: ‘Can that women act!” and “What’s up with all the Hitler memorabilia?” Martin calls out to “The Jerk” re: “Precious.” He too, you’ll recall, was born a poor black child.

5:49: Opening monologue okay so far, though the passing off between Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin seems slightly contrived rather than a comedy. Still, I liked this bit:

Steve: Oh, look, there’s that damn Helen Mirren.

Alec: Steve that’s Dame Helen Mirren.

5:43: Best actor and actress nominees all on stage at once. Ms. Sidibe seems to enjoy it. And Neal Patrick Harris lied, sort of — Martin Short is nowhere to be seen. Doesn’t quite nail his song as well as other shows, probably a bit nervous, but mostly pretty great, as usual. Song moderately clever

5:30: Jeff Bridges is “all Gucci’d out.” He also looks just like my semi-insane boss from a long-gone Orange County job. Gabourey Sidibe is a texting demon and very excited to be at her very first Oscars. Meryl Streep’s favorite part of the Oscars is sitting down in her seat and “getting off the Jimmy Chus”. The ladies hosting liked Sandra Bullock, Zoe Saldana dresses and Ms. Sidibe’s blue thingy. And we get ready to start.

5:14 — So they tricked me into being on time and watching some of the flackery on the pre-show. J-Lo loved “Precious” and Sarah Jessica Parker looks fantastic in Chanel, they tell me. Matthew Broderick is trying not to smirk, I think. He’s wearing Tom Ford. Must be uncomfortable for Mr. Ford. Yes, and I will be here all night.

* Since about Wednesday (my day off) items about the upcoming Superman film being presided over by Christopher Nolan have been rolling out. First Latino Review broke the news in Spanglish that writer David Goyer, who has been involved with Nolan’s Batman franchise from the start, would be on board. Now IESB (via Bad Guy Wins) reports what it says are rumors that  the director of the Superman film will be Christopher’s writing partner brother, Jonah, making his directorial debut.

That seems reasonable enough especially given that Nolan’s going to be busy with the third instalment in his Batman franchise. I get a bit more skeptical about the idea that Nolan will be sticking around to direct the long-mulled Justice League movie which would presumably include the new Supes (whoever he may be; sorry Brandon Routh), the current Batman (just as long as no one gets into his eyeline), and Ryan Reynolds’ Green Lantern, but I suppose anything is possible.

* I could spend the next week trying to figure this one, but negative PR campaigns against Best Picture Oscar nominees have become de rigeur in recent years and the shrapnel is flying in more than one direction around “The Hurt Locker.” First there were stories from Pete Hammond and a typically voracious Nikki Finke about anti-“Avatar” e-mail blasts by producer Nicolas Chartier. Today there was a far more substantive front page news story in the Los Angeles Times on some disagreements among military people about the film’s putative claims to authenticity. The most serious allegation — which doesn’t appear to be anywhere close to being proven — charges that the crew drove a Humvee into a Jordanian village in order to film angry locals.

Though I think quite highly of Paul Rieckhoff of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, a frequent guest on Rachel Maddow’s old radio show, I think his criticism is way off-base and was surprised to see him on the anti-“Hurt Locker” side. I don’t think anything in the film indicates that the dangerous-seeking behavior of Jeremy Renner’s character is supposed to be typical, but simply one person’s reaction to an insane situation. Still, it’ s easy to understand why some might kind of forget the movie, though attempting to mirror reality to some degree, makes no claims to being anything other than fiction.

Steve Pond covers the push-back by reporter-turned-screenwriter Mark Boal.

* An attempted revolt by British Exhibitors against Disney’s decision to greatly shorten the window in Europe between the release of Tim Burton‘s upcoming “Alice in Wonderland” and the DVD release has been put down. Earlier in the week, Kim Masters asked “Has Disney Gone Mad“? Maybe, maybe not. I’m still trying to remember what the dormouse said.

* Documentarian R.J. Cutler of “The September Issue” is making the switch to dramatic films with “Au Pairs,” writes Mike Fleming. Not that his temporary site-partner, Nikki Finke, is MIA. No, she has word that one of my favorite oft-filmed tales, Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers, is going to filmed by one of the least respected directors now working. In 3-D. Oh, joy. Let’s hope that rival film gets going soon with a decent helmer.

* Angelina Jolie has exited “Wanted 2” and is going to do a movie with Alfonso Cuarón (“Children of Men“) instead. Excellent choice.

* Remember that very cool, very profane, very hilarious trailer for “Kick-Ass” I ran here some time ago? Well, not everyone is amused. If studios want to make it a bit harder for kids to see this kind of material, I have no objection, but the focus on the horrors of children cursing amuses me. I’ve never heard more constant and strongest profanity used than I did during my schooldays between, roughly, the third and eighth grades.

* Unlike the Playlist’s Gabe Toro, I think Will Smith would be just about perfect for a remake of Alfred Hitchcock‘s “Suspicion.” For one thing, the film is one of Hitch’s weaker hit movies, despite being quite gripping for much of its length. It’s ending was famously changed and it’s ending is pretty much an insult to the audience’s intelligence. It would be nice to see someone do it right this time. In any case,  I don’t think Smith is as far from Cary Grant as Toro seems to think. It’s not his fault today’s Hollywood has a problem with making romantic films intelligent grown-ups can stand to watch.

* Roger Ebert‘s voice as a writer is one of the strongest of any film critics and is stronger than ever these days. Sadly, of course, he hasn’t been able to actually talk in some time due to the complications of his cancer surgery, but he has found something like his spoken voice again through some new digital technology and will be exercising it on the show of an old Chicago acquaintance of his, Oprah Winfrey, this Tuesday. (Via Herc and HuffPo.) Ebert discusses the technology on his site, and if you’re curious if how the two dates Ebert and Winfrey went on back in the day helped pave the way for her media empire, read here.

Perhaps almost as predictably, the main acting awards, however, did go to more local talent. Specifically Colin Firth won for his performance as a man in mourning in “A Single Man” and Carey Mulligan for her teen learning some hard, yet kind of fun, life lessons in “An Education.” Still, the BAFTAs bowed to standard practice by giving the supporting actor awards to Mo’Nique of “Precious” and Christoph Waltz of “Inglourious Basterds,” yet again. (Also truish-to-form, Mo’Nique wasn’t there.)

Best British film went to the highly praised “Fish Tank,” which happens to feature “Basterd” secret weapon Michael Fassbender opposite Kierston Wareing and newcomer Katie Jarvis. As for the lastest from the onetime Mr. Kathryn Bigelow, “Avatar,” it met the once traditional fate of well-regarded science fiction movies at the Oscars, and only got a Best Visual Effects and Production Design awards but, of course, is only making a double gazillion dollars. Aaah. Geeks may be take some solace, however, in learning that “Outstanding Debut By A British Writer, Director Or Producer” went to Duncan Jones for his intriguing feature debut, “Moon,” a small-scale space tale like they used to make.

Journalist-turned-screenwriter Mark Boal was rewarded for his hard-earned real-world experience as an embedded reporter with a Best Original Screenplay nod for “The Hurt Locker.” In another completely unsurprising award, the well-liked and respected Jason Reitman was similarly rewarded for his critically acclaimed work on the adult-aimed topical comedy, “Up in the Air.” The documentary category wasn’t much of a surprise either, with the muckraking “The Cove” picking up yet another award.

This isn’t quite on the level of a statistical study, but it’s worth noting that, for the last couple of years at least, the WGA awards and the Oscars have been lining up 100% in the writing categories, so Oscar betters should take note.  This is a bit of a blow to any fans of Quentin Tarantino“Pulp Fiction” screenplay and the writers tend to be a bit more openminded about offbeat films than Oscar voters as a whole. who might have been hoping for some Oscar wins, as Best Original Screenplay has been “his” category in the sense that his only Oscar win so far has been for his

Still, older and/or less geeky fans of old-school post-war (as in WWII) realism are likely impressed by the real-life underpinnings of Boal’s work and Kathryn Bigelow’s film is just edgy enough, while not marred in the minds of some by being a “fun” war movie, and “Inglourious Basterds” is definitely fun. It’s also controversial to some degree, perhaps not the best combination if all you want out of a movie is award wins.

In the adapted screenplay category, I personally wouldn’t have minded seeing the award go to the brilliant and scabrous “In the Loop,” but that film was less widely seen and it’s humor might be bit too nasty (in a good, cleansing way) and British for some.

[UPDATE: Aren’t you people supposed to correct me when I write complete nonsense? If I had bothered to check a bit more carefully this morning before I wrote this, I would have noted/remembered that “Basterds” was not nominated for a Writers Guild award and therefore might have somewhat better Oscar screenplay chances than I initially thought. The same applies to “In the Loop.” These scripts were not eligible under the WGA’s rather arcane rules which also disqualified such worthy films as “An Education.” If you’re curious about the reasons why, Steve Pond, via Anne Thompson, had a partial explanation back in January. Anyhow, thanks to Anne Thompson, whose post on this showed me the error of my ways, or whatever. We now resume our regularly scheduled blog post.]

You can read about all of the WGA awards, including the ones for television (yay “Mad Men” and “30 Rock”!) via Jay Fernandez at THR.

Not only the people who write the words, but the people who make sure you can hear them, gave out awards last night. I speak of the Sound Editors. While this might not be something that keeps you up night, as any filmmaker knows, sound plays an enormous role in whether or not a picture works. Just ask any director how he feels before locking in the final mix and you’ll get an earful. On the other hand, it’s a tough gig. During my film school days, I carelessly referred to “shit jobs” in movies before my affably curmudgeonly teacher of both sound and writing. His gruff correction: “There are not shit jobs in movies — except cutting sound.”

Anyhow, the sound editors spread the joy around, geek wise, giving awards to, yes,”Avatar,” but also “Up,” “District 9” (best foreign geek picture),  and “Inglourious Basterds” as well as the obviously music heavy “This is It.” Maybe there’ll be a teensy amount of suspense on Oscar night around the so-called technical categories — which are actually pretty important and a big part of the filmmaker’s art — if they bother to televise any.

And a quick note for awards hounds seeking sexier award shows, the BAFTAS (the British Oscar equivalent) are starting right about now, though reality might force me to give them short shrift tomorrow. We shall see.