Friday, January 27, 2012

It's that time of the year again...


Oscars are only a month away and the excitement is building up. While waiting, I decided to dig up and dust off my re-cap of the last year's ceremony.

The 83rd Academy Awards Ceremony that took place on February 27th, 2011 sure enjoyed some more diversity in the winners than some of the previous years. While I didn’t particularly care for the opening parodies on the nominated films, the little tributes to the previous winners during the introductions of several categories were quite enjoyable. Ann Hathaway might have as well hosted the ceremony alone, for nothing particularly memorable came from James Franco (except for the sweet exchange with his grandmother in the beginning). Hathaway did a descent job though, and didn’t forget to surprise with the changes of dresses in the process.

A very well-deserved first Oscar of the evening went to Alice in Wonderland for Art Direction. It also went on to receive the Costume Design Oscar later in the evening. Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Screenplay went to The Social Network and The King’s Speech respectively. A bit of an upset came with the Best Original Score Oscar that went to Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for The Social Network. It seemed to me that either Inception or The King’s Speech was a bit more deserving. Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Cinematography and Visual Effects rightfully went to Inception.

Best Director came as a bit of a surprise as I was sure it would go to David Fincher for The Social Network as the Golden Globe did. Well-deserved for Tom Hooper though.

The winners in Best Actress/Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress/Best Supporting Actor categories came as no surprise, as they became pretty clear at the Golden Globes. Still, very well-deserved awards for Natalie Portman and Colin Firth for their title roles in Black Swan and The King’s Speech respectively, as well as some of the more interesting acceptance speeches of the evening. Melissa Leo and Christian Bale went on to receive the awards for their supporting roles in The Fighter. I have to say that Kirk Douglas' introduction of the Best Actress in a Supporting Role category was one of the most memorable and enjoyable moments of the evening. 

Here comes the most difficult one – Best Picture. While The King’s Speech is, without a doubt an amazing example of film-making and acting, it is still not quite the movie of its year. The Social Network may pale in comparison with its subject matter but it is still more relevant and is at the same level of execution. The King’s Speech and The Social Network share one similar topic, however – communication between people, and the difficulty of simply talking to a fellow human being (chatting on Facebook doesn’t count). On a lighter note, the montage with the voice over from The King’s Speech introducing the ten nominees was a very interesting and well put together way to present the category.

Staten Island’s PS 22 choir took the stage to wrap up the ceremony with their version of “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” and were later joined by all the Academy Award winners of the evening.