Romance Books '4' Us: awards

And The Oscar Goes To...

Are you a movie fan? Each week, I go to a movie and then review it on the local radio station. Throughout the year, I see some amazing movies and some real duds. (I also eat a great deal of popcorn!)

On February 24th, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) will present a gold trophy to the best of the best for 2018. This year is the 91st presentation of the Oscars. Can you believe they have been around for so long?

Whether you love movies or not, the Oscars is a sight to behold from the gorgeous gowns to the musical numbers. This year there won't be a host which hasn't happened in thirty years.

There are some amazing movies and actors up for awards this year. Here's the complete list of nominations:

Best Picture Black Panther – Kevin Feige BlacKkKlansman – Sean McKittrick, Jason Blum, Raymond Mansfield, Jordan Peele and Spike Lee Bohemian Rhapsody – Graham King The Favourite – Ceci Dempsey, Ed Guiney, Lee Magiday and Yorgos Lanthimos Green Book – Jim Burke, Charles B. Wessler, Brian Currie, Peter Farrelly and Nick Vallelonga Roma – Gabriela Rodriguez and Alfonso Cuarón A Star Is Born – Bill Gerber, Bradley Cooper and Lynette Howell Taylor Vice – Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Adam McKay and Kevin J. Messick	Best Director Alfonso Cuarón – Roma Yorgos Lanthimos – The Favourite Spike Lee – BlacKkKlansman Adam McKay – Vice Paweł Pawlikowski – Cold War
Best Actor Christian Bale – Vice as Dick Cheney Bradley Cooper – A Star Is Born as Jackson "Jack" Maine Willem Dafoe – At Eternity's Gate as Vincent van Gogh Rami Malek – Bohemian Rhapsody as Freddie Mercury Viggo Mortensen – Green Book as Frank "Tony Lip" Vallelonga	Best Actress Yalitza Aparicio – Roma as Cleodegaria "Cleo" Gutiérrez Glenn Close – The Wife as Joan Castleman Olivia Colman – The Favourite as Anne, Queen of Great Britain Lady Gaga – A Star Is Born as Ally Maine Melissa McCarthy – Can You Ever Forgive Me? as Lee Israel
Best Supporting Actor Mahershala Ali – Green Book as Don Shirley Adam Driver – BlacKkKlansman as Philip "Flip" Zimmerman Sam Elliott – A Star Is Born as Bobby Maine Richard E. Grant – Can You Ever Forgive Me? as Jack Hock Sam Rockwell – Vice as George W. Bush	Best Supporting Actress Amy Adams – Vice as Lynne Cheney Marina de Tavira – Roma as Sofía Regina King – If Beale Street Could Talk as Sharon Rivers Emma Stone – The Favourite as Abigail Masham Rachel Weisz – The Favourite as Sarah Churchill
Best Original Screenplay The Favourite – Written by Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara First Reformed – Written by Paul Schrader Green Book – Written by Nick Vallelonga, Brian Currie and Peter Farrelly Roma – Written by Alfonso Cuarón Vice – Written by Adam McKay	Best Adapted Screenplay The Ballad of Buster Scruggs – Screenplay by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, based on the short stories All Gold Canyon by Jack London, The Gal Who Got Rattled by Stewart Edward White, and short stories by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen BlacKkKlansman – Screenplay by Charlie Wachtel & David Rabinowitz and Kevin Willmott & Spike Lee, based on the book Black Klansman by Ron Stallworth Can You Ever Forgive Me? – Screenplay by Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty, based on the book by Lee Israel If Beale Street Could Talk – Screenplay by Barry Jenkins, based on the book by James Baldwin A Star Is Born – Screenplay by Eric Roth, Bradley Cooper & Will Fetters; based on the 1954 screenplay by Moss Hart and the 1976 screenplay by Joan Didion, John Gregory Dunne & Frank Pierson; based on a story by Robert Carson & William A. Wellman
Best Animated Feature Film Incredibles 2 – Brad Bird, John Walker and Nicole Paradis Grindle Isle of Dogs – Wes Anderson, Scott Rudin, Steven Rales and Jeremy Dawson Mirai – Mamoru Hosoda and Yūichirō Saitō Ralph Breaks the Internet – Rich Moore, Phil Johnston and Clark Spencer Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse – Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller	Best Foreign Language Film Capernaum (Lebanon) in Arabic – Directed by Nadine Labaki Cold War (Poland) in Polish and French – Directed by Paweł Pawlikowski Never Look Away (Germany) in German – Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck Roma (Mexico) in Spanish and Mixtec – Directed by Alfonso Cuarón Shoplifters (Japan) in Japanese – Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda
Best Documentary – Feature Free Solo – Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin, Evan Hayes and Shannon Dill Hale County This Morning, This Evening – RaMell Ross, Joslyn Barnes and Su Kim Minding the Gap – Bing Liu and Diane Quon Of Fathers and Sons – Talal Derki, Ansgar Frerich, Eva Kemme and Tobias N. Siebert RBG – Betsy West and Julie Cohen	Best Documentary – Short Subject Black Sheep – Ed Perkins and Jonathan Chinn End Game – Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman Lifeboat – Skye Fitzgerald and Bryn Mooser A Night at The Garden – Marshall Curry Period. End of Sentence. – Rayka Zehtabchi and Melissa Berton
Best Live Action Short Film Detainment – Vincent Lambe and Darren Mahon Fauve – Jérémy Comte and Maria Gracia Turgeon Marguerite – Marianne Farley and Marie-Hélène Panisset Mother – Rodrigo Sorogoyen and María del Puy Alvarado Skin – Guy Nattiv and Jaime Ray Newman	Best Animated Short Film Animal Behaviour – Alison Snowden and David Fine Bao – Domee Shi and Becky Neiman-Cobb Late Afternoon – Louise Bagnall and Nuria González Blanco One Small Step – Andrew Chesworth and Bobby Pontillas Weekends – Trevor Jimenez
Best Original Score Black Panther – Ludwig Göransson BlacKkKlansman – Terence Blanchard If Beale Street Could Talk – Nicholas Britell Isle of Dogs – Alexandre Desplat Mary Poppins Returns – Marc Shaiman	Best Original Song "All the Stars" from Black Panther – Music by Mark Spears, Kendrick Lamar Duckworth and Anthony Tiffith; Lyrics by Kendrick Lamar Duckworth, Anthony Tiffith and Solána Rowe "I'll Fight" from RBG – Music and Lyrics by Diane Warren "The Place Where Lost Things Go" from Mary Poppins Returns – Music by Marc Shaiman; Lyrics by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman "Shallow" from A Star Is Born – Music and Lyrics by Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando and Andrew Wyatt "When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings" from The Ballad of Buster Scruggs – Music and Lyrics by David Rawlings and Gillian Welch
Best Sound Editing Black Panther – Benjamin A. Burtt and Steve Boeddeker Bohemian Rhapsody – John Warhurst and Nina Hartstone First Man – Ai-Ling Lee and Mildred Iatrou Morgan A Quiet Place – Ethan Van der Ryn and Erik Aadahl Roma – Sergio Díaz and Skip Lievsay	Best Sound Mixing Black Panther – Steve Boeddeker, Brandon Proctor and Peter J. Devlin Bohemian Rhapsody – Paul Massey, Tim Cavagin and John Casali First Man – Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño, Ai-Ling Lee and Mary H. Ellis Roma – Skip Lievsay, Craig Henighan and José Antonio Garcia A Star Is Born – Tom Ozanich, Dean Zupancic, Jason Ruder and Steve A. Morrow
Best Production Design Black Panther – Production Design: Hannah Beachler; Set Decoration: Jay Hart The Favourite – Production Design: Fiona Crombie; Set Decoration: Alice Felton First Man – Production Design: Nathan Crowley; Set Decoration: Kathy Lucas Mary Poppins Returns – Production Design: John Myhre; Set Decoration: Gordon Sim Roma – Production Design: Eugenio Caballero; Set Decoration: Bárbara Enrı́quez	Best Cinematography Cold War – Łukasz Żal The Favourite – Robbie Ryan Never Look Away – Caleb Deschanel Roma – Alfonso Cuarón A Star Is Born – Matthew Libatique
Best Makeup and Hairstyling Border – Göran Lundström and Pamela Goldammer Mary Queen of Scots – Jenny Shircore, Marc Pilcher and Jessica Brooks Vice – Greg Cannom, Kate Biscoe and Patricia Dehaney	Best Costume Design The Ballad of Buster Scruggs – Mary Zophres Black Panther – Ruth E. Carter The Favourite – Sandy Powell Mary Poppins Returns – Sandy Powell Mary Queen of Scots – Alexandra Byrne
Best Film Editing BlacKkKlansman – Barry Alexander Brown Bohemian Rhapsody – John Ottman The Favourite – Yorgos Mavropsaridis Green Book – Patrick J. Don Vito Vice – Hank Corwin	Best Visual Effects Avengers: Infinity War – Dan DeLeeuw, Kelly Port, Russell Earland Dan Sudick Christopher Robin – Christopher Lawrence, Michael Eames, Theo Jones and Chris Corbould First Man – Paul Lambert, Ian Hunter, Tristan Myles and J. D. Schwalm Ready Player One – Roger Guyett, Grady Cofer, Matthew E. Butler and David Shirk Solo: A Star Wars Story – Rob Bredow, Patrick Tubach, Neal Scanlan and Dominic Tuohy

I've seen many of the pictures up for best picture and have my own thoughts on what movies and actors will win.

For best picture: The Favorite

Best Actor: Rami Malek

Best Actress: Glenn Close

Best Supporting Actor: Mahershala Ali

Best Supporting Actress: Regina King

Best Director: Spike Lee

You can check out my reviews of the movies I've seen on my website under Melissa's Morning After Movie Reviews. Or you can listen to my reviews on WHMI (I'm live on Monday mornings at 8:40 am).

It's fun to see if my guesses are correct. Do you have your own predictions? Which of the movies have you seen? Do you agree with the nominations? Were there any movies which were missing?

Schoolteacher, Melanie Whitman’s dating life is in shambles when her boyfriend and former boss dumps her. Her best friend arranges for Master Draikoh San, matchmaker extraordinaire, to provide her with a night to remember.

Breakout star of the third season of the reality TV show Laguna Nights Cole Hayes was burned by the limelight and started a family. After a messy divorce and looking to move back into the dating scene, he agrees to a one-night stand.

Can Cole and Melanie create a relationship that will last a lifetime, or will their one-night stand crash in the waves of Laguna Beach?

Available in ebook and print.

Amazon

Until next month,

Melissa

www.melissakeir.com

Another year's behind us and a new one stretches out in infinite possibility before us. I don't believe in resolutions, so I'm not going to talk about those.

2010 was a pretty damn good year, personally and professionally.On the home front, I celebrated my 25th wedding anniversary, my youngest finished high school and turned 18, so I no longer have minors in the house, AND I have a great office corner in our new family room.

On a professional level, I sold my 40th manuscript (and several others). I finaled in both the EPIC awards (Yuletide Enchantment for best fantasy erotic romance) and the CAPA awards (favorite erotic romance author, Motor City Fae for best paranormal romance, and Awakening Augusta for best historical erotic romance.) Stay tuned in 2011 for results on those.

Incidentally, Eagle's Redemption is up for best western romance of 2010 at Siren Book Reviews, so if you'd like to vote on that, here's the link. They have prizes for random voters.

I was a launch author for Carina Press, and I signed with an agent. Altogether, not bad at all.

So where to go from here in 2011? I've never been one to make resolutions, but that doesn't mean I don't have goals. Of course, I'm hoping to continue the weight loss, maybe boosted by getting back to the pool on a regular basis. I'm hoping both my boys will do okay in their college careers (and maybe get jobs).

I'd really like to sell a book to a mainstream print publisher.And no, winning one of those awards wouldn't break my heart, though I'm certainly not going to hold my breath.

So what else is on my list for 2011? Well, I have four books scheduled so far: 3 with Carina Press and one with Ellora's Cave. I'm attending my first Science Fiction conference this month, and hopefully a Steampunk one in the spring, both here in the Detroit area. I have a couple of library events scheduled, which should also be fun.