Boy wasn't that exciting? This year’s Academy Award ceremony
was broadcasted from the Dolby Theatre late on March 2, 2014 and had its fair
share of ups and downs. Ellen DeGeneres was once again entertaining and
charming as the host making light of winners, losers, seat warmers and Twitter.
Some highlights included Lupita Nyong’o’s teary proclamations, Idina Menzel’s performance
of Frozen’s “Let it Be” (which won
best song) and 20 Feet From Stardom’s
Darlene Love belting out “I Sing Because I’m Happy”.
Admittedly I only saw parts of the ceremony thanks in part
to ABC live streaming only in selected markets. As a result we ended up
watching it in a less than seemly manner. Yet the Oscar party I hosted went
fairly well considering. Good food, friends and prizes for those with the
killer Oscar ballot. One of my friends even brought a keg of his own brewed
beer, named the Winning Streep (after Meryl Streep who once again went home
empty handed). I wanted the hors d’ouerves to have equally clever nicknames but
the only thing we could think of was Schindler’s Links for the cocktail
weenies. Not exactly an inspired title.
I decided to make a follow up to my Academy Award article;
specifically I wanted to claim responsibility for my false predictions…while of
course celebrating the victories on my Oscar ballot. I first want to say I
apologize if I steered anyone in the wrong directions when it came to your own
Oscar ballot. Many critics, industry insiders and random people on the street
don’t take credit for false claims. They don’t own their mistakes; well I do.
What kind of person would I be if I didn't have integrity?
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| I'd be working for these guys |
Best animated did indeed go to Mr. Hublot therefore my theory on winners being foreign language
alliterations of classic French films is sound. If only I didn't follow my own
logic for Best Live Action Short which didn't go to the only English language
entry The Voorman Problem. No it
ended up going to Danish import Helium.
Also The Lady in Number 6 won against
my pick Cavedigger for Documentary
short, and reading the synopsis it feels like a no brainer now. The story of an
ambitious artist/spelunker versus the oldest Holocaust survivor; Come on!
Gravity as
expected won all the technical awards i.e. Best Sound Editing, Sound Mixing,
Best Cinematography and Visual Effects. The big surprise was Gravity also picking up Best Editing
(with I thought 12 Years a Slave
would win for). I also assumed Gravity would
win for Best set design but that ended up going to The Great Gatsby who also won Costume Design over American Hustle. I guess I’ll have to
sit down and watch The Great Gatsby
after all.
As expected Frozen
won Best Original Song; may tried to convince me it wasn't a lock but if you
were under the impression Pharrell was going to win for Happy you’re crazy.
Speaking of crazy; choosing anything other than Frozen to win Best Animated
Feature. Who in this crazy would do that? Oh right, I did. I foolishly thought
the Academy would award Hayao Miyazaki one more time for The Wind Rises, you know, before his retirement. Looks like
traditional animation, like VHS and newspapers is finally dead.
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| Hand-drawn animation: 4000 BCE - 2014 |
Let’s see, what other less glamorous awards are there. Oh
yeah Best Makeup and Hairstyling ended up going to Dallas Buyers Club instead of Jackass
Presents: Bad Grandpa. I’ll level with you here; I’m not happy about this
defeat. I am not the biggest fan of Bad
Grandpa or the Jackass crew but
surly you have to give props to the makeup artists here. Hours of prosthetics,
mounds of finely detailed old-people makeup was snubbed, snubbed I say! In
favor of a movie whose contribution to the world of makeup and hairstyling is
Jared Leto’s rouge?
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| At least this didn't win |
As expected Best Foreign Film went to The Great Beauty marking the 12th time Italy has won the award. 14th
if you include Shoeshine (1946) and The Bicycle Thief (1948) which won
special awards before the Foreign Film category was invented. As I said in my
previous article, The Great Beauty
was heavily influenced by the works of Federico Fellini so anyone who didn't
think this category was a lock and chose The
Hunt obviously don’t know Academy voters that well.
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| Italy always wins |
The writing awards I usually have a knack for and this year
was no exception. Best Original Screenplay went to Spike Jonze and Her because
it was…original. Then 12 Years a Slave
finished the category off winning Best Adapted Screenplay. Accepting the award
was a contrite John Ridley. Not present was original scribe Solomon Northrup
who’s been dead for the last 150 years or so.
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| Pictured: Julia Roberts destroying the Iron Lady |
Now on to the awards given the most fanfare: Best Director,
Best Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor and Actress and finally Best Picture. Out
of these categories I only got one wrong and its one I’m actually glad I got
wrong. Best Supporting Actress did not go to Julia Roberts for August: Osage County
The rest was to be expected; Jared Leto and Cate Blachett
were locks for Best Supporting Actor and Best Actress respectively. I was
wavering a little for Best Actor thinking Leonardo DiCaprio was going to pull a
rabbit but he’ll have to wait at least another year before he finally gets his
statuette. Director went to Alfonso Cuaron and deservedly so. Steve McQueen
will get his due though I worry about Alexander Payne. I really hope there’s an
Oscar in his future as his films are some of my favorites of all time.
Finally there was the Best Picture showdown between Gravity and 12 Years a Slave; the movie that should win for technical merit
versus the film that ought to win because of its subject matter. I ultimately
chose 12 Years a Slave and was glad I
chose it. If you haven’t seen it I hardily recommend it and would even argue
that unlike Gravity, it will last
though the ages as one of the most important films of this generation.
Congratulations to all the winners this year and
congratulations to all those who won their office pool. Here’s to hoping next
year will be even better.
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