Uh-O CANADA

Oscar was a COLOSSAL grouch at the Academy Awards last night in Los Angeles. A grouch, that is, as far as the Canada is concerned. In fact, I believe Oscar was heard singing, "Lame Canada!"
Tons 'o Canadians were nominated, but walked out of the Kodak Theatre with no Kodak moments to look back on. Best Actress, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Art Direction, Set Direction, Animated Short Film, Sound Mixing are some of the top categories for which many Canucks found themselves nominated, but not winners. Before we find out what the eff happened, let's take a Canuck style spin around the red carpet.
Here is Juno star Ellen Page who unfortunately kinda looked like she hit up the Halifax thrift shops to pull together her Oscar look. Don't get me wrong, I love that girl, but hopefully now that she's 21, her matured brain cells will offer some intuition on how to look her best...

Next, my fellow Vancouverite, Seth Rogen. He's a hilarious writer, but he's also another Canadian who needs a serious image-overhaul.

Next, Juno director Jason Reitman showed up hoping to take home the Oscar for Best Director - we all know how that turned out...

Here's the beautiful Julie Christie, Best Actress nominee, and Sarah Polley, who were both nominated for Polley's directorial debut, Away From Here...

And one more look at Ellen Page because she's such a sweetie (who really needs to spend some of her next Hollywood paycheque in the boutiques)...

Despite working the red carpet like pros, and contributing to some very well-received films last year, the Canadians nevertheless fell like igloos to global warming:

HOLLYWOOD -- The Oscars were a total disaster for Canada last night.
nominees who went down. Page, celebrated as Hollywood's new 'it' girl, was also up against Cotillard. Polley missed out in her first crack at the Oscars. She had been over the moon when nominated for adapting Alice Munro's The Bear Came Over The Mountain into her feature-film debut as a director with Away From Her. But the Coen brothers took that Oscar. The Canadians started dropping early when Sweeney Todd took the Oscar for art direction and set direction. Canadian Jim Erickson had been nominated along with Jack Fisk for the sets on There Will Be Blood. Peter & The Wolf's victory as best animated short ended the night both for Toronto director Josh Raskin, who crafted the John Lennon opus I Met The Walrus, and also Montreal co-directors Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski, who created the exquisite puppet film Madame Tutli-Putli. The sound-mixing category took out more Canadians. Paul Massey and David Giammarco were up for 3:10 To Yuma, while Craig Berkey was part of theNot only did all 10 Canadian-born nominees lose, so did all but one of those who had been nominated with strong Canadian connections. The august bunch of sad faces included British veteran Julie Christie, up for best actress for Toronto filmmaker Sarah Polley's Away From Her. Christie was thought to be the front-runner, but was upset by rising French star Marion Cotillard for La Vie en Rose. Another big name losing out was American Viggo Mortensen, nominated as best actor for Toronto director David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises, although his loss was expected. Halifax actress Ellen Page was among the Canadian-born team nominated for No Country for Old Men. The only joy in mudville, Canadian style, came when American screenwriter Diablo Cody took the best original screenplay Oscar for Juno. The former stripper delighted journalists backstage, admitting the whole experience leading up to the Oscars has been incredible, as is her own saga. But a biopic about her would be ridiculous, she said. "I only say it would be a silly movie because no one would believe it," Diablo said. Juno, while considered an American production, is widely touted as Canadian, including by its Montreal-born director Jason Reitman. But Reitman himself lost to the Coen brothers in the best-director category. Oh, oh Canada. The Great White North nominees will have to content themselves with just being nominated. But, as Jack Nicholson said this week, people who declare that are liars. "Everybody wants to win," Nicholson told USA Today. "The worst is when you're sure you are going to win, and you don't."

Oh well. At least when Juno comes out on DVD we'll be able to watch it again and know that a seriously deep influence was placed on that great movie by a Canadian director (Jason Reitman), Canadian lead actors (Ellen Page & Michael Cera) and a Canadian location (yup, the whole thing was filmed right here in Vancouver).

Awards season ain't over yet. The Genie Awards (the Canadian equivalent of the Academy Awards) are coming up a week from today. The Genies will be hosted by Great White North(ern) gal Sandra Oh from Grey's Anatomy.

TORONTO - "Grey's Anatomy" star Sandra Oh will host the Genie Awards honouring the best in Canadian film. Oh, who was raised in Ottawa, is a previous Genie winner herself for her roles in Don McKellar's "Last Night" and Mina Shum's "Double Happiness." More recently, she starred in the wine-tasting comedy "Sideways," and has received a Golden Globe Award for her role as the tough-as-nails Dr. Cristina Yang on "Grey's." A strong slate of Canadian movies is vying for Genie glory this year, including David Cronenberg's bloody Russian mob thriller "Eastern Promises" and Sarah Polley's poignant Alzheimer's drama "Away From Her." The awards will be handed out March 3.