Oscar Night Buzz Report: Slumdog Millionaire and Sean Penn Receive the Most Tweets

With our work done on the films months ago, we were able to do what we do best last night -- participate in the online conversation (had a few dozen of us going strong on Twitter) and track online buzz. With a lot of our clients up for awards, we were even that much more interested.  On that front, NMS projects racked up 6 wins last night, including those for Benjamin Button and Dark Knight. And, combined, we have worked on projects that have won over 40 Oscars and earned over 100 nominations since we opened our doors 10 years ago.

On the reporting front, we tracked Oscar buzz for the 24 hour period surrounding the night itself and have produced two reports: one covering Twitter posts (lead by @leslieann44) and one covering blog posts (lead by @simonowens of Bloggasm).  

Our findings showed that Twitterers were most passionate about Slumdog Millionaire and Sean Penn -- the former mostly due to the number of nominations and wins, the latter, having a lot to do with the political nature of his acceptance speech.  With regard to what bloggers were writing about, for seven of the 10 major categories, the winner of the Academy Award was also the most-cited nominee in the blogosphere. The three exceptions were Best Actor (Mickey Rourke received 17,828 mentions), Best Actress (Angelina Jolie received 21,831 mentions), and Best Foreign Language Film (Waltz with Bashir received 3,949 mentions).

TWITTER REPORT // Most Tweeted About: Top 9 Films and People on Oscar Night

Total tweets posted about the Oscars: 24,100

Most tweeted about films

1. Slumdog Millionaire: 6,369
2. Milk: 3,617
3. Wall-e: 1,284
4. Benjamin Button: 1,110
5. The Wrestler: 1,070
6. Dark Knight: 893 (add in Heath Ledger mentions and you get 3,503)
7. The Reader: 814
8. Frost/Nixon: 543
9. Kung Fu Panda: 139

Most tweeted about individuals

1. Sean Penn: 3,040
2. Heath Ledger: 2,612
3. Mickey Rourke: 2,040
4. Penélope Cruz: 1,843
5. Hugh Jackman: 1,827
6. Kate Winslet: 1,250
7. Angelina Jolie: 912
8. Brad Pitt: 592
9. Jennifer Aniston: 422

BLOG REPORT // Most Blogged About: Total Blog Mentions of Nominees and Winners in Each Category

Simon's report is posted in full over at Bloggasm.  A quick hit by the numbers (Bolded denotes most tweeted about; ** denotes the winner in each category):

Best Picture

    Slumdog Millionaire** — 28,909
    The Curious Case of Benjamin Button — 20,939
    Frost/Nixon — 8,341
    Milk — 20,676
    The Reader — 16,123

Best Director

    Danny Boyle** — 8,158
    David Fincher — 3,791
    Stephen Daldry — 2,381
    Ron Howard — 3,183
    Gus Van Sant — 3,591

Best Actor

    Sean Penn** — 9,132
    Mickey Rourke — 17,828
    Richard Jenkins — 3,078
    Frank Langella — 3,432
    Brad Pitt — 16,741

Best Actress

    Kate Winslet** — 16,106
    Anne Hathaway — 11,428
    Angelina Jolie — 21,831
    Melissa Leo — 3,983
    Meryl Streep — 7,287

Best Supporting Actor

    Heath Ledger** — 17,336
    Josh Brolin — 4,113
    Robert Downey, Jr. — 6,242
    Philip Seymour Hoffman — 3,290
    Michael Shannon — 2,518

Best Supporting Actress

    Penélope Cruz** — 19,725
    Amy Adams — 6,779
    Viola Davis — 4,579
    Taraji P. Henson — 4,615
    Marisa Tomei — 6,306

Best Original Screenplay

    Milk** — 20,676
    WALL-E — 15,518
    Happy-Go-Lucky — 4,049
    Frozen River — 6,929
    In Bruges — 3,498

Best Adapted Screenplay

    Slumdog Millionaire** — 28,909
    The Curious Case of Benjamin Button — 20,939
    Doubt — 5,939
    Frost/Nixon — 8,341
    The Reader — 16,123

Best Animated Feature

    WALL-E** — 15,518
    Bolt — 4,867
    Kung Fu Panda — 6,647

Best Foreign Language Film

    Departures** — 2,905
    Waltz with Bashir — 3,949
    Revanche — 3,776
    The Class — 2,666
    The Baader Meinhof Complex — 1,176