Well there we have it folks, in what I predicted would be one of the most diverse Oscars Awards yet, there were many winner from lots of different genres of movies and no one movie walked away with everything which was nice to see. Here is a brief thought from me on each of the big winners this year.
Best Film – Argo
I think this was thoroughly deserved and although I predicted Lincoln would win it, I liked Argo a lot and it was the first nominee for the category that I saw. More importantly I think this was a deserved victory for Ben Affleck who was snubbed in the Best Director category this year for some unknown reason yet walked away with the award in almost EVERY OTHER awards ceremony this season.
Best Actor – Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln)
This was a certainty in my opinion and I was right in my prediction along with just about every other movie fan on the planet. Well done to him on making it three and although his speech was in places a little strange, he was very gracious and humble about the whole thing. Also hes British so I was pleased he won the statue.
Best Actress – Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook)
This was my highlight. I was dead chuffed for her winning this award. She has had an amazing year and out of the nominees in her category, I think her performance in Silver Linings Playbook was brilliant. Bradley Cooper looked absolutely made up for her too and his turn will definitely come soon. A great movie that deserved more at the awards, but it remains one of my movies of 2012. She made a nice speech and although stumbling on the steps to receive her award, she did not stumble over her words in making light of the situation =)
Best Supporting Actor – Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained)
The Austrian played a simply great part in Quentin Tarantino’s movie and it’s not the second time he has won in the category, both for Tarantino movies funnily enough. Always humble in his acceptance speeches, he made no bones about thanking the creator of the character for giving him the chance to bring it to life and I was glad that he won this category. I did like Tommy Lee Jones aswell in Lincoln, but Waltz nosed it for me.
Best Supporting Actress – Anne Hathaway (Les Miserables)
This was the other certainty at this year’s awards and although I don’t think the character of Fantine is on-screen enough to warrant someone getting a nomination for the role, Hathaway gave an excellent performance and surprised a lot of people with how much emotion she got out of that song. In thanking Hugh Jackman, she not only celebrated the award with someone else, she made sure that the public was aware that even the stars can get help from others, perhaps endearing her even more to the cinema going public.
Best Director – Ang Lee (Life Of Pi)
In a certain way, I am glad that Steven Spielberg didn’t win this award and someone else got it. Personally speaking, I think Ben Affleck should have been nominated in this category and he would have certainly won aswell in my opinion. Ang Lee did a very good job on Life Of Pi but overall as a film it wasn’t the best for me, but I can see why he was given the award. A lot of work went into the movie in all areas of movie making and of those that were nominated Ang Lee probably had the best shot of winning it.
Best Original Screenplay – Quentin Tarantino (Django Unchained)
I predicted it, I wanted it and I got it. If ever there was a year in this category that I was unwavered in my thoughts it was here. After seeing the movie I said he would win it and I was dead on. A great script with great characters that was brought to life by brilliant actors. He really deserved it this time around. I’m not Tarantino’s biggest fan when it comes to his movies, but he really won me over with this one and accepted his award very nicely despite signing off with “Peace, out!”
Best Adapted Screenplay – Argo
Again, I have no problem with this script winning the award. It was an exciting story, based upon true events and although much of the movie is factually incorrect according to some of the people who actually experienced the events, the story keeps us going and I think this solidified Argo’s importance at the awards this year. Well done to Chris Terrio for winning.
Best Animated Feature – Brave
I was very happy that this won. I saw the movie in the summer at the cinema and thought that the animation was some of the best I had seen in a log time, especially the slow motion clips. Yeah so okay, the story is a bit thin and it’s probably been done to death, but I think this category is as much about the technical aspect of the movie as it is the story and characters themselves and for the animation alone I thought it deserved the award. The cast was excellent and gave strong performances throughout. Lots of humour in there aswell for the adults.
Best Original Song – Skyfall (Skyfall)
On first hearing of this song, I loved it and thought it was everything that a Bond theme should be. Adele’s performance of the song was great and I will be listening to this song for some time to come on my iPod, no doubt. It is also the very first 007 theme song to win an Oscar so when you consider the greats there have been over the years, this was some achievement. A big win for Britain this one all round I think.
The rest of the awards were pretty much of little interest to me, but Life Of Pi took most of the technical awards such as Best Cinematography and Score with the awful Zero Dark Thirty (one of the WORST movies of the year in my opinion) only bagging the share of the Best Editing award. And so I move on from The Oscars to the Eurovision Song Contest in May as my next entertainment series of blogs as I do every year, but before that there is the small matter of the A-Z Blog Challenge throughout the month of April to prepare for which I hope you will come back and have a read of. I am in the process of finalising my list for the series and I hope that you will enjoy it. Thanks for reading this year’s Oscars Blog and I will be doing it all over again in 2014. =)