Well the Oscars are done, dusted and polished for another year and it was certainly one to remember for the British contingent. Unfortunately for us Brits though, many couldn’t watch it as it happened because it was on Sky Movies. So we had to make do with the highlights a day later on the newly named Sky Living. Not sure what this channel is about yet; it’s replaced Living, or Dead as I call it, after Sky purchased the group sometime last year.
When the BAFTAs were shown on the BBC, there was an hour delay for some unknown reason, which was problematic as it could be ruined somehow by winners getting revealed to you before Auntie Beeb showed you. This problem was solved simply by a mobile phone, Facebook and Twitter blackout. The Oscars wouldn’t be as simple.
I went to bed Sunday night, not knowing a thing. When I awoke all was done, but I still knew as much as Sergeant Schultz. Until I came downstairs for breakfast and turned on the TV to find Lorraine Kelly ruining my day. Colin Firth’s won best actor. Jeez I was on the channel for like three seconds and they managed to reveal that little gem to me.
Oh well, not all was lost, that’s just one award. Now I just had to get through ten and a half hours of my day without any more spoilers. It was never going to happen really, but Colin Firth’s victory certainly aided me in my quest as all news outlets, be it newspaper or radio, were focussing solely on that. All other awards weren’t mentioned at all.
I managed to make it all the way through the day, thanks to an internet blackout and my cunning ability to run away whenever hearing someone talk about it. All I found out was Colin Firth’s win and the radio told me Inception won three. Even though it won four. Finally the radio being so poor pays off!
With so little time to go I thought I was home and dry. But I didn’t count on Granada Reports. Why would they mention the Oscars, what does it have to do with the North West? Well this being Granada Reports on a slow news day they linked it with Danny Boyle, who wasn’t even nominated. Running away wasn’t going to work this time as upon leaving the room I heard the big one. Best Picture. Ruined for me. Alas.
So yes I made it to 7.30pm with only the following knowledge: The King’s Speech won Best Picture, Colin Firth won Best Actor, and Inception won three.
I won’t go into who I thought should have won too much on this one, as I’ve pretty much done that already with my blog on the BAFTAs. I’ll list the nominations again and the winner and give my short opinion on it. That should suffice.
BEST PICTURE
127 Hours
Black Swan
Inception
The Fighter
The Kids Are All Right
The King’s Speech
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter’s Bone
Winner: The King’s Speech
I don’t think this surprised anyone really. I personally would have chosen Inception as I think it’s the best of them all, but I can see why The King’s Speech got it. Inception isn’t the kind of movie that wins an Oscar. It has a ‘blockbuster’ feeling about it so it had no real chance.
BEST DIRECTOR
Darren Aronofsky – Black Swan
Joel And Ethan Coen – True Grit
David Fincher – The Social Network
Tom Hooper – The King’s Speech
David O. Russell – The Fighter
Winner: Tom Hooper – The King’s Speech
Fincher won the BAFTA but Hooper was the lucky man to take the golden statuette. How Darren Aronofsky left without either of them is beyond me, he didn’t even get the Golden Globe. He deserved something for his painstaking effort alone. Oh and Christopher Nolan not even nominated? Fail.
BEST ACTOR
Javier Bardem – Biutiful
Jeff Bridges – True Grit
Jesse Eisenberg – The Social Network
Colin Firth – The King's Speech
James Franco – 127 Hours
Winner: Colin Firth – The King's Speech
Another win for Firth to add to his BAFTA success. I thought they might give it to Jeff Bridges, as good as he was though, it would have been a travesty for Firth not to win this one.
BEST ACTRESS
Annette Bening – The Kids Are All Right
Nicole Kidman – Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence – Winter's Bone
Natalie Portman – Black Swan
Michelle Williams – Blue Valentine
Winner: Natalie Portman – Black Swan
Easy decision to make, Natalie Portman’s performance overshadowed everyone else’s. She deserves it for the amount of effort she put into that performance. As I’ve said in the past, Black Swan would be average without her.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Christian Bale – The Fighter
John Hawkes – Winter's Bone
Jeremy Renner – The Town
Geoffrey Rush – The King's Speech
Mark Ruffalo – The Kids Are All Right
Winner: Christian Bale – The Fighter
I think they got this right. After seeing Christian Bale in The Fighter I knew he was destined to take some awards. He missed out on the BAFTA to Geoffrey Rush but this one is well deserved. I’m not sure about his beard though, maybe Bruce Wayne is sporting a beard in the next Batman.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams – The Fighter
Helena Bonham Carter – The King’s Speech
Melissa Leo – The Fighter
Hailee Steinfeld – True Grit
Jacki Weaver – Animal Kingdom
Winner: Melissa Leo – The Fighter
Major shock this one, I think Melissa Leo was as stunned as everyone else when her name was read out. She is good in The Fighter, and I find it hard to say she doesn’t deserve this, but I thought this one was between Amy Adams, Helena Bonham Carter and Hailee Steinfeld. If I had to choose I’d go with Hailee Steinfeld, for her massive performance in True Grit, one that overshadowed Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon no less. I found it particularly strange that she was even in this category though, as I thought she was the leading actress in True Grit. Jeff Bridges was up for Best Actor and yet Hailee Steinfeld has to settle for Best Supporting Actress. Makes no sense to me at all. The BAFTAs nominated her in the Best Leading Actress category. Did the Oscars panel even watch True Grit? Based on the amount of awards it got, probably not.
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Another Year - Mike Leigh
Inception - Christopher Nolan
The Fighter - Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson, Keith Dorrington
The Kids Are All Right - Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg
The King's Speech - David Seidler
Winner: The King's Speech - David Seidler
Another gong for The King’s Speech and for David Seidler. His story alone is a remarkable one, suffering with a speech impediment himself as a youngster. His was one of the better speeches of the evening, well it should have been really shouldn’t it. Would I have given the Oscar to him? Nope, I’d have given it to Christopher Nolan; Inception was the most original thing I saw last year. His time will come. Surely.
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
127 Hours - Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy
The Social Network - Aaron Sorkin
Toy Story 3 - Michael Arndt, John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton & Lee Unkrich
True Grit - Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
Winter's Bone - Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini
Winner: The Social Network - Aaron Sorkin
Sorkin took the BAFTA and now has the Oscar too. It’s a difficult one to call as he does deviate from the book, which in turn deviates from the real events. At least he thanked Mezrich this time though. As I said in my BAFTA’s blog, this should have been won by Scott Pilgrim vs. The World but again it wasn‘t even nominated. As much as I love Toy Story 3, it should not be nominated in this category! Sequels are not adapted screenplays, they just aren’t.
BEST ANIMATED FILM
How To Train Your Dragon
The Illusionist
Toy Story 3
Winner: Toy Story 3
Pixar picked up yet another Oscar for Best Animated Film, and it was well deserved. Only three nominations this year. I’m not sure what Despicable Me did to deserve that.
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Biutiful (Mexico)
Dog Tooth (Greece)
In A Better World (Denmark)
Incendies (Canada)
Outside the Law (Algeria)
Winner: In A Better World (Denmark)
I wish I could comment more on this but I have no clue on any of these movies. Susanne Bier’s acceptance speech was one of the better ones. Yep.
BEST SCORE
127 Hours – A.R. Rahman
How to Train Your Dragon – John Powell
Inception – Hans Zimmer
The King's Speech – Alexandre Desplat
The Social Network – Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
Winner: The Social Network – Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
Inception received yet another snub, but at least Hans Zimmer was actually nominated in this one. The Social Network is such a bizarre winner, obviously I thought Inception should have won but if not then I’d definitely choose The King’s Speech. I don’t even get why The Social Network is nominated really, it’s an okay score I suppose but winner of the Academy Award? Silly. It wasn’t even nominated at the BAFTAs.
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Black Swan – Matthew Libatique
Inception – Wally Pfister
The King's Speech – Danny Cohen
The Social Network – Jeff Cronenweth
True Grit – Roger Deakins
Winner: Inception – Wally Pfister
Nice to see Wally Pfister win this one for Inception. He deserves it, the cinematography and scale in Inception is too big not to award it to him.
I’m not going to list the rest of the awards as, to be frank, the Academy give awards for bloody everything. So here’s a quick round up of the rest of the winners: The Social Network won for Best Editing while Inception claimed three more technical awards with Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Editing, and Best Sound Mixing. Inside Job won Best Documentary Feature and Strangers No More took Best Documentary Short Subject. Best Live Action Short Film was won by God Of Love and Best Animated Short Film was taken by The Lost Thing. Alice in Wonderland won the Oscars for Best Costume Design and Best Art Direction while The Wolfman, a film no one watched, won Best Make-up. And last but not least, Randy Newman won an Oscar for Best Song with ‘We Belong Together’ from Toy Story 3.
There you have it: The 83rd Academy Awards. I don’t agree with all of their decisions but they got some right. True Grit can count itself a little unlucky for leaving empty handed, not least Hailee Steinfeld. Inception will be happy to take the major technical awards but I really don’t see how it can win all of these without Christopher Nolan, the man who oversaw all of it, receiving a nomination for Best Director. The 83rd Academy Awards will be remembered for The King’s Speech though. An excellent movie that deserves all the high praise it receives.
As for the hosts for the evening James Franco and Anne Hathoway, they weren’t too bad. I preferred Alec Baldwin and Jon Stewart but they did an okay job. It's hard for me to judge really as I only watched the highlights. Not really sure about the cross-dressing sketch they did. I don’t really know why they do sketches at the Academy Awards in the first place, they’re always more awkward than funny. The opening movie wasn’t shown on Sky Living, but it’s available on the Academy Awards website. It was based on Inception, well done in parts, but I wouldn’t go as far to say it was very funny. Always a pleasure to see Morgan Freeman though.
The quality in all the nominations was pretty good this year. Here’s hoping next year’s will be just as great.
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Check out the Academy Awards website for videos and such: http://oscar.go.com/
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