Malibu Cove Colony resident Sandra Radoff-Bernstein made
her picks based on her extensive movie knowledge. She goes
to the theater about three or four times per week.
By Kim Devore / Staff Writer
and Jonathan / FriedmanAssistant Editor
And the winner is … Sandra Radoff-Bernstein. The 30-year Malibu Cove Colony resident and movie buff correctly predicted 12 of 18 winners in The Malibu Times Oscar Contest and earned the title of The Malibu Times’ official 2006 Movie Guru. She will also receive 10 free passes to Malibu Cinema Hollywood Theater.
“I’m so excited, I’ve never won anything before,” said Radoff-Bernstein on Monday when she was told about her victory.
Radoff-Bernstein spoke to various people, including her screenwriter son-in-law, before making her picks. But she didn’t need too much help choosing the winners because she already knows her stuff fairly well. Radoff-Bernstein is a frequent moviegoer, going to the theater about three or four times per week.
“I’m retired, so I can go to lots of movies,” Radoff-Bernstein said. “I usually go with my friends or my son-in-law. There’s a group that I go with.”
Radoff-Bernstein had a gut feeling it was going to be a good year for director Martin Scorsese. She picked his Irish mob thriller “The Departed” as the big winner at the 79th Annual Academy Awards presentation on Sunday night. She named the film as the top vote getter in three coveted categories: Scorsese for best director, Bill Monahan for best adapted screenplay and Thelma Schoonmaker for best film editing. However, Radoff-Bernstein did not foresee the film winning best picture, and incorrectly predicted that the quirky comedy “Little Miss Sunshine” would cause an upset.
“I really thought that would win because it was a feel-good movie,” Radoff-Bernstein said. “I’m not crazy about violent movies.”
Although she predicted best picture would go to “Little Miss Sunshine,” Radoff-Bernstein said she believed it should have gone to Clint Eastwood’s World War II film from the Japanese point of view, “Letters From Iwo Jima.”
“It really was enlightening,” said Radoff-Bernstein, who added that although she does not like violent films, she accepts violence in war movies because one should expect it there. “The movie did a good job showing what it was like for the Japanese soldiers, and how they did not go to war expecting to come home.”
Radoff-Bernstein’s favorite genre is foreign films. She recently saw the German movie “The Lives of Others,” and enjoyed it. The movie won the best foreign film award Sunday night, but like most of the contestants, Radoff-Bernstein didn’t pick that as the winner. Instead, she went with the Mexican fantasy drama “Pan’s Labyrinth.”
“I have not seen that movie [Pan’s Labyrinth] yet, but I had heard really good things about it,” Radoff-Bernstein said.
Fifty people took the Times’ Oscar challenge, with the average contestant picking eight winners correctly. Like Radoff-Bernstein, most participants did not believe “The Departed” would take the crown for best picture. Nineteen picked “Babel,” while another 16 went with “Little Miss Sunshine.” “Departed” was third with 11 votes, followed by a tie between “The Queen” and “Letters from Iwo Jima,” with two votes apiece.
The majority of voters predicted that Scorsese would be going home with his first Oscar as well as voting correctly for the best acting wins for the king and queen. Thirty-eight cast their votes for Scorsese, 41 agreed that Forest Whitaker would take home Oscar gold for “The Last King of Scotland” and 44 correctly identified Helen Mirren as “The Queen.”
Many local moviegoers expected Eddie Murphy to win best supporting actor for his role as James “Thunder” Early in “Dreamgirls.” The award went to Alan Arkin for his role in “Little Miss Sunshine.” Forty contestants picked Jennifer Hudson as the best supporting actress winner for “Dreamgirls.” Visual effects winner “Pirates of the Caribbean” was apparently easy to spot, with a total of 45 votes. Only one person correctly picked “The Danish Poet” for animated short. Three people correctly picked “I Need to Wake Up” for best song, the theme to Al Gore’s global warming film, “An Inconvenient Truth.” However, 42 people were on the money figuring out the film would win the documentary award.
This year’s ceremony was the first hosted by talk show host Ellen DeGeneres. Radoff-Bernstein said she felt DeGeneres did a decent job.
“It moved along …[but it was] very long,” Radoff-Bernstein said. “She tried to be more casual than it’s been in the past. That was OK until she started vacuuming. What was that about?”