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Monday 28 February 2011

Oscars blog 2011

James' Oscars blog 2011






The 83rd annual Academy Awards. Hosted by James Franco and Anne Hathaway. A night of some big surprises, a few sad errors in winners and a night for Britain to triumph!


The 3 hour marathon began with hosts Franco and Hathaway sending up some of the best films of the year in a funny montage - nice to see Inception being the main theme for this. The presenters seemed very natural - well, Hathaway was any way - Franco looked a little wooden for the majority of the time. The important thing was that fresh young blood revitalised this year's Oscars and made for one of the less tedious awards ceremonies in memory.


Original screenplay went to The King's Speech - the big contender in this category being Inception; adapted screenplay went to the film that has put Facebook back on the map - The Social Network, a film that would go on to scoop 3 of the awards at the ceremony.


Inception, joint with The King's Speech in winning 4 awards, bagged the technical awards - Nolan's snub as director is still bewildering - Visual effects, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing and Wally Pfister's cinematography all triumphed for arguably the best film of the last 12 months. It was a great shame to see Roger Deakins walk away empty handed, and True Grit in general, for a beautifully shot film.


Short live action film was won by God of Love, short animated film though it should have been the quite excellent Day and Night from Pixar was actually awarded to The Lost Thing. The 4 nominated Best songs were all performed excellently during the ceremony and Randy Newman took the award for the heartfelt We belong together from the brilliant Toy Story 3. The animated masterpiece also rather unsurprisingly bagged the best animated film - any other year without Pixar's influence the sublime How to Train Your Dragon would have won this. John Powell's stunning score lost out to Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' irritating experimental score for The Social Network. This was one of the only awards of the night where I found myself getting angry.


Makeup was awarded to Rick Baker for his realistic work on The Wolfman, Foreign language film went to the Danes for In a better world. The Social Network picked up Best Editing - no real surprise there. Strangers no more took Documentary short subject and the infamous Banksy lost out in Documentary feature to Inside Job.


Costume design bagged a second Oscar for Tim Burton's mish mash of a film, Alice in Wonderland. Its other award of the evening was for Art Direction, an award I thought would certainly have gone to The King's Speech.


Onto the biggest awards of the night, Melissa Leo picked up Best actress in a supporting role for her role in The Fighter - her speech contained the only "Fuck" of the night! Actor in a supporting role went to Christian Bale also for The Fighter. Shame to see Geoffrey Rush not winning this for The King's Speech.


Everyone expected David Fincher to get Best Director for The Social Network but I'm happy to say that Tom Hooper received the award for The King's Speech. It wasn't until the last 20 minutes of the ceremony that The King's Speech found its feet. For a moment it was looking as if The Social Network might bag most of the big awards.


Actress in a leading role went to a fairly heavily pregnant, emotional and beautiful Natalie Portman for her haunting performance in Black Swan. The Oscarshave done away with the sycophantic nomination process of getting 5 actors and actresses to come out on stage and sing the praises of the nominees. This time Mr Cool Jeff Bridges awarded Natalie Portman with the golden statue. Actor in a leading role was the biggest given of the ceremony. Colin Firth triumphed for Britain with his portrayal of King George VI in The King's Speech bagging the award. His speech as always was one of the highlights. Sandra Bullock awarded Colin with the Oscar.


Finally, after a night of lots of glamour and some beautiful stage scenery with backdrops from classic Oscar winning films, The King's Speech beat the odds and won its 4th award - the most important - for Best Picture.


Overall, a night of surprises, loads of glamour and some great achievements for two of the most deserving recipients - Inception and The King's Speech.

Sunday 27 February 2011

The 83rd Academy Awards - February 27th 2011





My blog begins here. My predictions are highlighted in red. The winners will be in blue.
BEST PICTURE
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The King's Speech - WINNER
127 Hours
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter's Bone
ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Javier Bardem - Buitiful
Jeff Bridges - True Grit
Jesse Eisenberg - The Social Network
Colin Firth - The King's Speech - winner
James Franco - 127 Hours
ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Christian Bale - The Fighter
John Hawkes - Winter's Bone
Jeremy Renner - The Town
Mark Ruffalo - The Kids Are All Right
Geoffrey Rush - The King's Speech
ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Annette Bening - The Kids Are All Right
Nicole Kidman - Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence - Winter's Bone
Natalie Portman - Black Swan -winner
Michelle Williams - Blue Valentine
ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Amy Adams - The Fighter
Helena Bonham Carter - The King's Speech
Melissa Leo - The Fighter
Hailee Steinfeld - True Grit
Jacki Weaver - Animal Kingdom
ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
How To Train Your Dragon
The Illusionist
Toy Story 3 -winner
ART DIRECTION
Alice in Wonderland
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I
Inception
The King's Speech
True Grit
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Black Swan
Inception
The King's Speech
The Social Network
True Grit
COSTUME DESIGN
Alice in Wonderland
I am Love
The King's Speech
The Tempest
True Grit
DIRECTING
Darren Aronofsky - Black Swan
David O'Russell - The Fighter
Tom Hooper - The King's Speech -winner
David Fincher - The Social Network
Joel and Ethan Cohen - True Grit
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Exit Through The Gift Shop
Gasland
Inside Job
Restrepo
Waste Land
DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
Killing In The Name
Poster Girl
Strangers No More
Sun Come Up
The Warriors of Qiugang
FILM EDITING
Black Swan
The Fighter
The King's Speech
127 Hours
The Social Network - winner
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Biutiful (Mexico)
Dogtooth (Greece)
In A Better World (Denmark)
Incendies (Canada)
Outside The Law ((Hors-La-Loi) (Algeria)
MAKEUP
Barney's Version
The Way Back
The Wolfman -winner
MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)
John Powell - How To Train Your Dragon
Hans Zimmer - Inception
Alexandre Desplat - The King's Speech
A.R.Rahman - 127 Hours
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross - The Social Network
MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)
Coming Home (Country Strong)
I See The Light (Tangled)
If I Rise (127 Hours)
We Belong Together (Toy Story 3) -winner
SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)
Day and Night
The Gruffalo
Let's Pollute
The Lost Thing
Madagascar, carnet de voyage
SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)
The Confession
The Crush
God Of Love
Na Wewe
Wish 143
SOUND EDITING
Inception - winner
Toy Story 3
Tron: Legacy
True Grit
Unstoppable
SOUND MIXING
Inception - winner
The King's Speech
Salt
The Social Network
True Grit
VISUAL EFFECTS
Alice in Wonderland
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I
Hereafter
Inception - winner
Iron Man 2
WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)
127 Hours
The Social Network - winner
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter's Bone
WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)
Another Year
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The King's Speech



The History of The Oscars - Best Picture

1927 - Wings

1928 - The Broadway Melody

1929 - All Quiet on the Western Front

1930 - Cimarron

1931 - Grand Hotel

1932/33 - Cavalcade

1934 - It Happened One Night

1935 - Mutiny on the Bounty

1936 - The Great Ziegfeld

1937 - The Life of Emile Zola

1938 - You Can't Take It With You

1939 - Gone With The Wind

1940 - Rebecca

1941 - How Green Was My Valley

1942 - Mrs Miniver

1943 - Casablanca

1944 - Going My Way

1945 - The Lost Weekend

1946 - The Best Years of our Lives

1947 - Gentleman's Agreement

1948 - Hamlet

1949 - All the King's Men

1950 - All About Eve

1951 - An American in Paris

1952 - The Greatest Show on Earth

1953 - From Here to Eternity

1954 - On The Waterfront

1955 - Marty

1956 - Around the World in 80 Days

1957 - Bridge on the River Kwai

1958 - Gigi

1959 - Ben Hur

1960 - The Apartment

1961 - West Side Story

1962 - Lawrence of Arabia

1963 - Tom Jones

1964 - My Fair Lady

1965 - Sound of Music

1966 - A Man for all Seasons

1967 - In The Heat of the Night

1968 - Oliver!

1969 - Midnight Cowboy

1970 - Patton

1971 - The French Connection

1972 - The Godfather

1973 - The Sting

1974 - The Godfather Part II

1975 - One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

1976 - Rocky

1977 - Annie Hall

1978 - The Deer Hunter

1979 - Kramer Vs. Kramer

1980 - Ordinary People

1981 - Chariots of Fire

1982 - Gandhi

1983 - Terms of Endearment

1984 - Amadeus

1985 - Out of Africa

1986 - Platoon

1987 - The Last Emperor

1988 - Rain Man

1989 - Driving Miss Daisy

1990 - Dances with Wolves

1991 - The Silence of the Lambs

1992 - Unforgiven

1993 - Schindler's List

1994 - Forrrest Gump

1995 - Braveheart

1996 - The English Patient

1997 - Titanic

1998 - Shakespeare in Love

1999 - American Beauty

2000 - Gladiator

2001 - A Beautiful Mind

2002 - Chicago

2003 - The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

2004 - Million Dollar Baby

2005 - Crash

2006 - The Departed

2007 - No Country for Old Men

2008 - Slumdog Millionaire

2009 - The Hurt Locker

2010 - ?

Best Oscar moments

The History of the Oscars - The Best Moments


With the 83rd ceremony upon us in a matter of hours (8.00pm American time, Sunday Feb 27th 2011), I thought it would be good to get the Oscar talk going with some classic moments from the ceremony over the years. The Oscars is a chance to look at the glam, the sophisticated and the brilliance of Hollywood, its actors and actresses and the amazing movies brought to our attention year on year. There have been some debatable winners and losers of the prestigious golden awards over the years, but these are indisputably some of its best moments.
Firstly, one of the most deserving awards went to Spielberg for his monumental work on Schindler's List, still the director's best work to date. Just look at that standing ovation.

Next, Jack Nicholson appears truiumphant in the year that One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest picks up Best Picture by winning the Best Actor gong.
Cuba Gooding Jr picks up his award for Jerry Maguire and enjoys the moment!
The legendary James Stewart receiving an honorary Oscar from the just as legendary Cary Grant.
Saving the best till last, here is the brilliant moment that Charlie Chaplin received an honorary Oscar for his outstanding contribution to film. One of the longest standing ovations in memory.
Check back to Film Fanatic shortly for more Oscars buzz ahead of the 83rd Academy Awards.