This Sunday, the 86th annual Oscars ceremony took place. Ellen DeGeneres hosted it for the second time. In my opinion, she was very funny! She sure did make the audience laugh a lot. This year, Alfonso Cuaron’s space adventure Gravity won the most Oscars (7 of them!). The Best Original Song nominees performed their songs (Despicable Me 2’s “Happy” by Pharrell Williams, Her’s “The Moon Song” by Karen Orzolek, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom’s “Ordianry Love” by U2, and Frozen’s “Let It Go” by Idina Menzel). Also, 12 Years a Slave’s Lupita Nyong’o won her first Oscar (Best Supporting Actress). The cool thing is that 12 Years a Slave is also Nyong’o’s first film! Presenters included Jim Carrey, Harrison Ford, Kerry Washington, Matthew McConaghey(who also won an award the same night), Amy Adams, Robert De Niro, Penelope Cruz, Daniel Day-Lewis, Jennifer Lawrence, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Will Smith (who presented the Best Picture award.) Here is the list of winners:

Best Picture: 12 Years a Slave

Best Actor: Matthew McConaughey for Dallas Buyers Club

Best Actress: Cate Blanchett for Blue Jasmine

Best Supporting Actor: Jared Leto for Dallas Buyers Club

Best Supporting Actress: Lupita Nyong’o for 12 Years a Slave

Best Director: Alfonso Cuaron for Gravity

Best Original Screenplay: Her (written by Spike Jonze)

Best Adapted Screenplay: 12 Years a Slave (written by John Ridley)

Best Film Editing: Gravity

Best Sound Editing: Gravity

Best Sound Mixing: Gravity

Best Costume Design: The Great Gatsby

Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Dallas Buyers Club

Best Production Design: The Great Gatsby

Best Cinematography: Gravity

Best Visual Effects: Gravity

Best Original Score: Gravity

Best Original Song: “Let It Go” from Frozen (performed by Idina Menzel)

Best Animated Feature: Frozen

Best Animated Short: Mr. Hublot

Best Foreign Language Film: The Great Beauty (from Italy) in Italian

Best Documentary Feature: 20 Feet from Stardom

Best Documentary Short: The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life

Best Live Action Short: Helium

Do you agree or disagree with the winners? Comment below and let me know what you think. I think this year’s Oscars ceremony was one of my favorites. I can’t wait until the next Oscars!

This Sunday, the Golden Globe Awards took place. For those of you who missed it, here are the winners (from the movie categories):

Best Picture – Drama: 12 Years A Slave

Best Picture – Musical or Comedy: American Hustle

Best Actor – Drama: Matthew McConaughey in Dallas Buyers Club

Best Actress – Drama: Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine

Best Actor – Musical or Comedy: Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street

Best Actress – Musical or Comedy: Amy Adams in American Hustle

Best Supporting Actor: Jared Leto in Dallas Buyers Club

Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Lawrence in American Hustle

Best Director: Alfonso Cuarón  from Gravity

Best Screenplay: Her (written by Spike Jonze)

Best Original Score: All Is Lost

Best Original Song: “Ordinary Love” by U2, from Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom

Best Animated Feature: Frozen

Best Foreign Language Film: The Great Beauty (from Italy)

I am predicting that the Oscars might turn out very similarly, with 12 Years A Slave or American Hustle winning Best Picture, Jennifer Lawrence winning Best Supporting Actress, and Frozen winning Best Animated Feature. The Oscar nominations will be announced this Thursday.

Hey, everybody! To celebrate the new year, I have also decided to post my top ten best and worst movies of the year. I have decided to also post the top ten highest grossing movies of the year, and some box office bombs this year, just for your information. Here are my top ten favorite movies of 2013 and why I liked them (not all of these movies have been reviewed on FilmToppings, since I didn’t watch all of them in the theaters):

1. Gravity: This movie has breathtaking cinematography and visual effects, and is possibly one of my favorite movies of all time. (5 out of 5 pizza slices)

2. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug: This movie has amazing visual effects, especially the dragon, and has lots of suspense. It is way better than the first Hobbit movie. I can’t wait to see what happens next. (5 out of 5 pizza slices)

3. Thor: The Dark World: This movie is very entertaining, and is possibly my favorite Marvel movie other than The Avengers. (4 out of 5 pizza slices)

4. Fast and Furious 6: Very entertaining, but not as good as the 5th movie in the trilogy. (4 out of 5 pizza slices)

5. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: Slower but way better than the original, and has an amazing soundtrack. I absolutely cannot wait to see Mockingjay – Part 1.(4 out of 5 pizza slices)

6. Ender’s Game: Very satisfying for a fan of the novel, and has a great soundtrack. (4 out of 5 pizza slices)

7. Pacific Rim: This film has awesome graphics and  cool action scenes. Any action fan would enjoy this movie just like I did. (4 out of 5 pizza slices)

8. The Wolverine: The action is great and very entertaining, and much better than I expected, since I thought it would be boring. (4 out of 5 pizza slices)

9. Red 2: Very entertaining and funny. I recommend it for all Bruce Willis fans. (4 out of 5 pizza slices)

10. Saving Mr. Banks: This movie is well-acted and has great costume designing as well. (4 out of 5 pizza slices)

Here are some of the worst movies of 2013 and why I hated them (not all of these movies have been reviewed on FilmToppings, since I didn’t watch all of them in the theaters):

1. Paranoia: I expected this movie to be an action movie (since the trailer made it look like an action movie), but when I saw it, it hardly had any action! (1 out of 5 pizza slices)

2. After Earth: I expected this movie to be cool, but the action scenes don’t last that long, and neither does the movie!  It lacks suspense and is too serious of a movie. (1 out of 5 pizza slices)

3. Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters: This movie is extremely disappointing and dumb, and has terrible visual effects. (1 out of 5 pizza slices)

4. R.I.P.D.: This lifeless movie has bad visual effects, and isn’t funny like I thought it would be. (1 out of 5 pizza slices)

5. The Lone Ranger: This movie is very disappointing, slow, and stupid, especially Johnny Depp’s character. (1 out of 5 pizza slices)

Here are the top 10 highest grossing movies of the year and how much they earned:

1. Iron Man 3*: $1,215,439,994

2. Frozen: $1,000,236,000

3. Despicable Me 2: $970,761,885

4. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug: $894,052,000

5. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: $863,767,855

6. Fast and Furious 6: $788,679,850

7. Monsters University: $743,559,607

8. Gravity: $704,865,000

9. Man of Steel: $668,045,518

10. Thor: The Dark World: $641,162,958

*Iron Man 3 is currently the 5th highest-grossing movie of all time

Here are some of the biggest box office bombs of the year, their budget, and their box office:

Ender’s Game: Budget: $115 million, Box office:$87.9 million, Total loss of money: $27.1 million

The Fifth Estate: Budget: $28 million, Box office: $8.5 million, Total loss of money: $19.5 million

R.I.P.D.: Budget: $130 million, Box office: $78.3 million, Total loss of money: $51.7 million

Oldboy: Budget: $30 million, Box office: $4 million, Total loss of money: $26 million

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone: Budget: $30 million, Box office: $22.5 million, Total loss of money: $7.5 million

Bullet to the Head: Budget: $55 million, Box office: $9.4 million, Total loss of money: $45.6 million

Getaway: Budget: $18 million, Box office: $10.5 million, Total loss of money: $7.5 million

Battle of the Year: Budget: $20 million, Box office: $13.7 million, Total loss of money: $6.3 million

Machete Kills: Budget: $33 million, Box office:$15 million, Total loss of money: $18 million

Tyler Perry Presents Peeples: Budget: $15 million, Box office: $9 million, Total loss of money: $6 million

Happy new year, everybody! To celebrate the new year, I have posted some interesting stats on FilmToppings in 2013, including most commented posts, countries this blog was viewed in, and much more!

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 2,500 times in 2013. If it were a cable car, it would take about 42 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

I am happy to share with you that FilmToppings now has 100 posts (including this one)! I’d like to thank you for reading my blog, following it, and commenting on posts. Please continue reading my blog and learing about new movies.

In early February, an author/ poet with the pen name of  Mr. Lemur came to my school. She told us about her books. She also told us about a poetry contest that she and her husband (who writes books with her) created. I wrote a poem named Bruce the Goose (which my friend Michael illustrated) for the contest. Michael and I won the fifth grade Reader’s Choice Award. We each got a certificate and a Mr. Lemur pocket notebook. Here are some pictures of me and my awards:

The Oscars took place this Sunday at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood from 5:30 PM to 9 PM. I watched the whole thing live with my family. We all really enjoyed watching it. There were funny parts, such as when Jennifer Lawrence tripped on her way upstage to receive her award (she won Best Actress for her role in Silver Linings Playbook). Fortunately, Hugh Jackman (who was nominated Best Actor for his role in Les Miserables) helped her get back up. I think she tripped because of her skirt. My favorite part was when Mark Wahlberg and “Ted” (probably just a robot teddy bear voiced by Seth Macfarlene) presented the Best Sound Mixing and Sound Editing awards. That part was pretty funny, too. Lincoln got the most nominations (12) and Life of Pi won the most awards (4).

Also, The 85th Academy Awards were notable for several rare and first-time feats. Quvenzhane Wallis, a 9-year-old actress from a movie called Beasts of the Southern Wild, became the youngest person ever to be nominated an Oscar, while Emmanuelle Riva, an 85-year-old actress from a foreign movie called Amour, became the oldest person ever to be nominated an Oscar. Argo became the first Best Picture Winner in 23 years to not also have a Best Director nomination. Brenda Chapman became the first woman to win the Best Animated Feature award. She shared her award for the Pixar film Brave with co-director Mark Andrews. Also, Silver Linings Playbook became the first film in 31 years to be nominated for all acting categories. Jennifer Lawrence, who acted in that movie, became the youngest Best Actress 2-time nominee at age 22. Also, Les Miserables became the first musical movie to be nominated Best Leading Actor. Adele’s song “Skyfall” from the James Bond movie”Skyfall” became the first song from a James Bond movie to win the Best Original Song award. Daniel Day-Lewis became the first person ever in the Academy Award history to win 3 Best Actor awards in his lifetime.

Here is a list of the award categories and their winners:

Best Picture: Argo

Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln

Best Actress: Jennifer Lawrence in Silver Linings Playbook

Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz in Django Unchained

Best Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway in Les Miserables

Best Director: Ang Lee for Life of Pi

Best Original Screenplay: Django Unchained

Best Adapted Screendplay: Argo

Best Animated Feature: Brave

Best Foreign Language Film: Amour (from Austria) in French

Best Documentary Feature: Searching for Sugar Man

Best Documentary Short: Inocente

Best Live Action Short Film: Curfew

Best Animated Short: Paperman

Best Original Score: Life of Pi

Best Original Song: “Skyfall” from “Skyfall”. Sung by Adele

Best Sound Editing: There was a tie between two movies: Zero Dark Thirty and Skyfall

Best Sound Mixing: Les Miserables

Best Production Design: Lincoln

Best Cinematography: Life of Pi

Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Les Miserables

Best Costume Design: Anna Karenina

Best Film Editing: Argo

Best Visual Effects: Life of Pi

Performances included the cast of Les Miserables, Adele, who sang Skyfall, Shirley Bassey, who sang Goldfinger, and the cast of Chicago. I think Wreck-It Ralph should have won Best Animated Feature and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey should have won Best Makeup and Hairstyling. I was surprised that Beasts of the Southern Wild received 4 nominations, including Best Picture, but it didn’t win any at all! I can’t wait until the next Oscars!

You may want to take a pick at some interesting facts about my blog in 2012  – Who else read FilmToppings? What countries do they come from? Which posts were the most popular? Which readers commented the most? Click on a link below here for all these and much more!

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. FilmToppings got about 2,100 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 4 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

Last week my family and I went to Hollywood, California. I saw the Walk of Fame, the Chinese Theater, the famous Hollywood sign, people dressed as superheroes, and much more! Here are some pictures: