So how did you watch your movies in 2010? Did you go to the theater, buy the DVD, pay to download it to your iPad or just download it to your PC/MAC for free? If you downloaded it, you’re not alone.

This information is from Torrentfreak.com

Most Downloaded Movies on BitTorrent, 2010

This lists the movie, the number of downloads and the box office turnover

1 Avatar 16,580,000 $2,779,551,867
2 Kick-Ass 11,400,000 $96,130,432
3 Inception 9,720,000 $825,408,570
4 Shutter Island 9,490,000 $294,803,014
5 Iron Man 2 8,810,000 $621,751,988
6 Clash of the Titans 8,040,000 $493,214,993
7 Green Zone 7,730,000 $94,875,650
8 Sherlock Holmes 7,160,000 $523,029,864
9 The Hurt Locker 6,850,000 $48,612,915
10 Salt 6,700,000 $175,190,850

Do you feel guilty downloading a movie knowing that the actors and the producer won’t get a penny from your actions: the distributors of the DVD won’t earn from you?

Or do you believe they earn too much already; prices at the Theatre and the DVD shop are too high; you’re being ripped off paying those prices?

Perhaps the movies didn’t come to a ‘cinema near you.’ perhaps you don’t want to or can’t afford to get it second hand from Amazon.

Difficult decisions, difficult world. Those with the money can carry on making movies, but what about those who struggle to break even, yet we rely on them to bring us innovative movies? Should they add a donate button to their websites if you’ve downloaded for free?

Apart from a select few, nobody really thought that Avatar was the movie of the year, nevertheless more people have gone to see that movie than any other in history with dollars itching to leave their hands.

It’s difficult to understand why the movie companies need to spend tens of millions promoting the movie just when it comes to the Academy Awards nominations. Surely, if they all sent a DVD copy of their movie to all the people on the panel then they could just leave it to the people to watch the movie and make their own decisions Quite simply those tens of millions could be spent encouraging new talents, particularly screenplay writers, to the industry or even make donations to worthy world courses which are crying out for help. What’s morally right?

Is easy to see that both screenplay winners wrote in a certain style, that of almost a documentary; you feel you may have been watching nonfiction, but you’d be wrong.

So here’s where the awards went, whether you have the same opinion or oppose, these are the people will have their little statues on display for their family to impress friends for years to come.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Winner: Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker)
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Winner: Geoffrey Fletcher (Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire)
BEST PICTURE
Winner: The Hurt Locker
BEST DIRECTOR
Winner: Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker)
BEST ACTOR
Winner: Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart)
ACTRESS
Winner: Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Winner: Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Winner: Mo’Nique (Precious)
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
The winner: El Secreto de Sus Ojos – The Secret in Their Eyes (Argentina)
BEST ANIMATION
Winner: Up
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Winner: Geoffrey Fletcher (Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire)
BEST ART DIRECTION
Winner: Avatar
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Winner: Avatar
BEST SOUND MIXING
The winner: The Hurt Locker
BEST SOUND EDITING
The winner: The Hurt Locker
BEST ORIGINAL SONG
Winner: The Weary Kind (theme from Crazy Heart) from Crazy Heart by Ryan Bingham, T Bone Burnett
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Winner: Up (Michael Giacchino)
BEST COSTUMES
Winner: The Young Victoria
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
The winner: The Cove
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
Winner: Music by Prudence
BEST FILM EDITING
The winner: The Hurt Locker
BEST MAKE-UP
Winner: Star Trek
BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM
Winner: Logorama
BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
Winner: The New Tenants
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Winner: Avatar

Best Picture
Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourous Basterds
Precious
A Serious Man
Up
Up In The Air

Best Actor In A Leading Role
Jeff Bridges – Crazy Heart
George Clooney – Up In The Air
Colin Firth – Single Man
Morgan Freeman – Invictus
Jeremy Renner – The Hurt Locker

Best Actress In A Leading Role
Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side
Helen Mirren – The Last Station
Carey Mulligan – An Education
Gabourey Sibide – Precious
Meryl Streep – Julie and Julia

Best Actor In A Supporting Role
Matt Damon – Invictus
Woody Harrelson – The Messenger
Christopher Plummer – The Last Station
Stanley Tucci – The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz – Inglorious Basterds

Best Actress In A Supporting Role
Penelope Cruz – Nine
Vera Farminga – Up In Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal – Crazy Heart
Anna Kendrick – Up In Air
Mo’Nique – Precious

Best Director
James Cameron – Avatar
Kathyn Bigelow – The Hurt Locker
Quentin Tarantino – Inglorious Basterds
Lee Daniels – Precious
Jason Reitman – Up In The Air

Foreign Language Film
Ajami
El Secreto de Sus Ojos
The Milk of Sorrow
Un Prophete
The White Ribbon

Best Original Screenplay
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
The Messenger
A Serious Man
Up

Best Adapted Screenplay
District 9
An Education
In The Loop
Precious
Up In The Air

Best Animated Feature Film
Coraline
Fantastic Mr Fox
The Princess And The Frog
The Secret Of Kells
Up

Art Direction
Avatar
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
Sherlock Holmes
The Young Victoria

Cinematography
Avatar
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
The White Ribbon

Costume Design
Bright Star
Coco Before Chanel
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
The Young Victoria

Documentary Feature
Burma VJ
The Cove
Food, Inc
Which Way Home

Documentary Short
China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province
The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner
The Last Truck: Closing of GM Plant
Music by Prudence
Rabbit a la Berlin

Film Editing
Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious

Make-up
Il Divo
Star Trek
The Young Victoria

Music (Original Score)
Avatar
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Hurt Locker
Sherlock Holmes
Up

Music (Original Song)
The Princess and the Frog
Paris 36
Nine
Crazy Heart

Sound Editing
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Up

Sound Mixing
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Visual Effects
Avatar
District 9
Star Trek

Short film (Animated)
French Roast
Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty
The Lady and the Reaper
Logorama
A Matter of Loaf and Death

Short Film (Live Action)
The Door
Instead of Abracadabra
Kavi
Miracle Fish
The New Tenants

Oscar® winners to be revealed on Sunday, March 7, 2010.

Not all the best get nominated, but that’s why we can all have our own viewpoint. No doubt a large percentage of people will disagree with the winners, but that’s life as we know it.

The most important award of the night, the Best Screenplay, went to Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner for their writing of Up in the Air. Clearly a very good screenplay, but still a surprise winner ahead of such master epics such as Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci & Tony Roche – In the Loop, David Leslie Johnson – Orphan, Jamie Thraves – Cry Of The Owl, Larry Doyle – I Love You Beth Cooper, and James Cameron – Avatar.

James Cameron, known as Jim to his close friends which appeared to be everyone at the awards scored with both Best Director and Best Movie with his Avatar marathon. A part of his acceptance speech was made in Na’vi – the language spoken by the blue aliens of Avatar.

It was nice to see Sandra Bullock get her award for best Actress for The Blind Side. It makes a change to see her in a serious role, rather than her comic routines which are also highly watchable.

The list went:

Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Comedy or Musical) – Meryl Streep for Julie & Julia
Best Actor in a Motion Picture (Comedy or Musical) – Robert Downey Jnr for Sherlock Holmes
Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Drama) – Sandra Bullock for The Blind Side
Best Actor in a Motion Picture (Drama) – Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart
Best Supporting Actress – Mo’nique for Precious
Best Supporting Actor – Christoph Waltz for Inglourious Basterds
Best Director – James Cameron for Avatar
Cecile B DeMille award for lifetime achievement – Martin Scorsese
Best Motion Picture (Comedy or Musical) – The Hangover
Best Motion Picture (Drama) – Avatar
Best Animated Film – Up
Best Screenplay – Jason Reitman for Up In The Air
Best Actress in a Mini-Series made for Television – Drew Barrymore for Grey Gardens
Best Actor in a Mini-Series made for Television – Kevin Bacon for Taking a Chance
Best Actress in a TV Show (Musical or Comedy) – Toni Collette for United States of Tara
Best Actor in a TV Show (Musical or Comedy) – Alec Baldwin for 30 Rock
Best Actor in a TV Show (Drama) – Michael C Hall for Dexter
Best Actress in a TV Show (Drama) – Julianna Marguiles for The Good Wife
Best Supporting Actor in a TV Mini Series- John Lithgow for Dexter
Best Supporting Actress in a TV Mini Series -Chloe Sevigny for Big Love
Best TV series (Drama) – Mad Men
Best TV series (Comedy or Musical) – Glee
Best TV Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made For Television: Grey Gardens
Best Song -The Weary Kind from Crazy Heart
Best Original Score – Up
Best Foreign Film – The White Ribbon

It doesn’t matter if your personal choices didn’t win; it’s all a matter of individual choice.

Drum roll please …

Best film/movie:

• In The Loop
• Orphan
• Invictus
• Star Trek
• Skin

Best screenplay:

• Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci & Tony Roche – In the Loop
• David Leslie Johnson – Orphan
• Jamie Thraves – Cry Of The Owl
• Larry Doyle – I Love You Beth Cooper
• James Cameron – Avatar

Best actor:

• Peter Capaldi – In the Loop
• Gerard Butler – Law Abiding Ciziten
• Colin Firth – A Single Man
• Christian Bale – Terminator Salvation
• Sharlto Copley – District 9

Best actress:

• Julie Stiles – Cry Of The Owl
• Sienna Miller – G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
• Sophie Okonedo – Skin
• Isabelle Fuhrman – Orphan
• Sandra Bullock – Proposal

Best musical:

• This Is It
• Nine

Best score/music:

• Hans Zimmer – Sherlock Holmes
• Michael Jackson & others -This Is It
• Harald Kloser & Thomas Wander -2012
• James Horner – Avatar
• Michael Giacchino – Star Trek

Best director:

• James Cameron – Avatar
• Clint Eastwood – Invictus
• J. J. Abrams – Star Trek
• Kenny Ortega – This Is It
• Guy Ritchie – Sherlock Holmes

Best animation:

• Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
• Ice Age 3
• Fantastic Mr. Fox
• Monsters & Aliens
• Up

Special FAMM mention 2009:

• There are no nominations for this award; it goes direct to the winner and we’ll tell you why!

The list shows you what a disappointing year 2009 was, for movies. There were some immense movies, there were some big performances both on screen and behind the scenes, some very good screenplays, but we failed to use the words ‘really great’ anywhere in 2009.

If you favorites aren’t mentioned, please leave a comment to say who you think should have been included and/or who you believe should win these prestigious awards. If your faves are not here, it means we were too busy writing screenplays and missed your movie choice!

The winners will be announced on January 20th, 2009.

Did it match the hype? Well kind of yes and no. Yes, in the sense that the effects, CGI and anything including blue and green screens were wonderful, but no in the sense that the movie wasn’t seriously exciting and tended to plod along for large periods of time until the final battles.

James Cameron has been trying to get this picture made for a decade. However, technology hadn’t moved along enough for it to match his vision, hence the delay. He’s written a deeply interesting screenplay which could only have been directed by the same person. A different director would have made a completely different movie. I wonder, having not seen the screenplay, how much of the final vision was in those first few pages and how much was lodged into the director’s mind?

Star Wars was a great movie originally and although it’s newism slowed down across six movies, it was way ahead of its time. Avatar was supposed to be ahead of its time but we were left underwhelmed at the CGI and special effects. Perhaps we’re too used to what they can do in the studio after the acting has finished, that we just take greatness for average expectations these days.

Obviously a budget of some $250 million plus another $150 million for marketing needs a substantial payback and with turnover of $750,000 to date, the break-even point has already been passed and that doesn’t count for merchandise sales over the festive period.

Our almost three hours run time was nearly in jeopardy at our showing; the film got stuck and burnt some frames with just five minutes remaining. So we spent a few minutes guessing which slushy ending would follow and weren’t surprised when we finally viewed the last few minutes minus those lost frames. Why Hollywood believes we all have to leave the cinema with beaming smiles after a war epic, I don’t know? We can take bad news, seriously. Most of the theatre ticket purchasers have brains and can work out what’s real and what’s fiction.

So the movie that’s a cross between Vietnam and the Waltons proved to be good entertainment; it just didn’t take us to that final level. No doubt Avatar 2 & 3 will follow in time, something Mr Cameron didn’t try with his superb epic; Titanic. Something tells me he should stop here, but he won’t.