Ok, so for anyone that hasn’t seen The Oscar’s show yet, you may not want to read this until after you’ve been able to see it, unless you’re now reading with the intention of finding out a majority of the winners (I don’t think I can really list them all, but I know which ones I was happy about and disappointed about!). Firstly, I’d like to say that I thought it was a great ceremony, and Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin did a pretty good job of hosting together, even though at points they seemed a tad over-rehearsed. But still, funny guys that did a good job of introducing everything.
I’ll start first with Best Picture and work my way back (because that’s obviously the one that people will hear about most!). I was, quite frankly, pretty shocked when Avatar DID NOT win Best Picture. I think its fair to say that I, along with a majority of people who have seen it and know how much it’s now made worldwide, were pretty much expecting it to win. Almost as if it was purely a given. But no! The 82nd Academy Awards pretty much belonged to The Hurt Locker this year – picking up Best Picture, as well as Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing and Sound Editing/Mixing, and (almost shockingly) Best Direction. Now whilst everyone expected James Cameron to win for Avatar, this was also the first time that a woman has picked up The Oscar for Direction (AND that woman being Cameron’s ex-wife, no less!), in fairness to him I say this – if you’ve just made a film that has grossed about 1 billion worldwide, and has become the highest grossing film EVER, the amount of money that he’s made off Avatar would mean he probably doesn’t even care that he didn’t win! If someone offered him a choice between The Oscar and how much Avatar made him, he’d probably be a fool to stick with the award because that money could easily pay to make another 10 films, one of which would surely win something! But anyway, Kathryn Bigelow picked up the award for Best Director, and fair play to her being the first female to do so, blazing a trail for many more.
So, whilst The Hurt Locker managed to pick up a total of 6 Oscars and pretty much steal the show, Avatar was only able to take away 3 – all of which were for Art Direction,Visual Effects or Cinematography. Fitting, really, since Cameron mostly made Avatar to be a visually epic film, that’s exactly what it got awarded for and not much more! I’d also like to mention at this point that everyone I was sat with watching this laughed incredibly hard when Ben Stiller came out made up as a Na’Vi, though he himself seemed LESS than pleased about it, stating “this seemed like a better idea in rehearsal”. But, of course, that was probably what he was planning to say anyway, bearing in mind that this was probably a replacement for the sketch that Sacha Baron-Cohen got axed from doing. Still, it was easily the best winners announcement of the night!
Other pleasing awards of the night went to Disney/Pixar’s Up for Best Animated Film (and Best Score as well), which was completely deserved, The Cove for Best Documentary, and Star Trek for Best Make-Up – a bit of a consolation prize considering the other categories that Star Trek was also nominated in, but it’s still good that they managed to get an award amongst all the Avatar nominations! I honestly thought that, considering its popularity and many people saying how goo they thought it was, that A Prophet might well have picked up The Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, but instead it went to a film called El Secreto De Sus Ojos from Argentina (which I think translates as The Secrets of Our Eyes) which I’ve not heard of, so that was a bit unexpected.
And then after those, we move on to the awards for the Actors/Actresses. Whilst I totally had my money on Morgan Freeman for his role as Nelson Mandela in Invictus, the award for Best Actor went to Jeff Bridges for his role in Crazy Heart. Now, whilst I’ll openly admit that I have not yet been able to see Crazy Heart, it has been the kind of film that has seemed like something I would enjoy watching and should as such make an effort to see. However, I’ve had no signs of it being out at any place I’ve been able to get to recently, at a time that I would be able to see it, so it may just have to be one that I rent as soon as can! Best Supporting Actor went to Christoph Waltz for his role in Inglourious Basterds, which I already had my money put on because I thought he did a great job in that film, so I’m glad that award went to him.
Best Supporting Actress went to Mo’Nique for her role as the abusive mother in Precious. Anyone who has seen that film will probably know the story behind it – that it was originally going to be a straight-to-DVD job, but Oprah Winfrey swept in and said that she would promote it to be a full cinema release, which is why it got so popular and more people then heard about it. Mo’Nique’s role as the mother was very convincing, and she played it with plenty of emotion and sincerity, which is why I had a feeling that the award would go to her (and in her speech saying “how it CAN be about the performance and not the politics”…), but I think the award for Best Actress gong to the lead girl Gabby for her role in Precious wold have perhaps been a bit too much of an “underdog” story, especially for girl who’ first appearance was in this film! I think perhaps a lot of people were hoping for her to win, but expecting either Sandra Bullock or Meryl Streep (for Julie and Julia) to win. So it happens, the award went to Sandra Bullock for her role in true-story film The Blind Side – a role that was very emotionally driven, and she did well not to shed any tears during her speech!
And that’s it for another year! I personally may not have bumped into any celebrities, but I still managed to watch The Oscars live for the first time ever, and that was pretty awesome. Even if I was expecting Avatar to win more awards than it did, which meant I could kiss my pools money good-bye! Still, that will teach me for gambling on a “sure-win”, I guess…
My Different Take 