Your Academy Awards Debrief

Well there we go people, the 85th Academy Awards have just wrapped up. The stars gave their all in a typical night of glitz, glamour and Jennifer Lawrence, and now we sift through the results and see where we as cinema-goers, nay our society, now stand.

I have a proclaimed soft spot for the Hollywood Babylon, KNEEL BEFORE YOUR GOD!

Rest assured, it is in a better place, and for that we have to thank JLaw. Jennifer Lawrence came, saw and conquered. She's our leader now.

Magnificent.

I'm feeling generous, have a GIF.

And another.

Anyhow, yesterday I posted my picks for the Oscars ceremony, and I'm pleased to say I did better than I have in recent years. I largely attribute this to the very odd nomination choices this year (insert rant here), which invariably led the Academy to thinly spread out their awards across the board. This is good to the extent that not many films were to go home empty handed, however in the end I felt that this left us without an indication of which film the Academy considered to be the best of the year. But I nitpick. 

So of the 13 categories I covered, I had 9 correct picks. Not bad if I say so myself, but there were some definite surprises! Ang Lee picking up the gong for Best Director, Christoph Waltz trumping Tommy Lee Jones and de Niro for Best Supporting Actor, it was curve ball city in Hollywood tonight. 

Ben Affleck's well received political thriller Argo took top honors with Best Picture, being one of only 4 films to have won the award without Best Director to match. That went to Ang Lee for Life of Pi, which in turn claimed the most wins of the night with 4 Oscars, though mainly in technical categories. Lincoln, who entered with a whopper 12 nominations, came out with only 2 including Best Actor for Daniel Day-Lewis. Christoph Waltz (Best Supporting Actor), Anne Hathaway (Best Supporting Actress) and Jennifer Lawrence (Best Actress) rounded out the acting awards and in a historic moment there was a tie (the first since 1968) for Sound Editing with the award going to Skyfall and Zero Dark Thirty.

In the end I can't say that I wasn't that pleased with the choice in awards, largely due to the less than stellar nominations, so they could only live up to my already low expectations. But that so many high quality films were snubbed also spoke to what a spectacular year we had in film, which is one of the strongest in recent memory. In fact I would go as far to say that this was the best year for American cinema in the new decade, and possibly since the millennium. Additionally, the actual ceremony was well done. Seth MacFarlane was quite funny, the speeches were earnest and heartfelt (mostly) and as I said Jennifer Lawrence owned the night. So until Cannes in a few months, 2013 has a tough act to follow!

Here is the full list of categories and winners.  

• Best Picture: "Argo."

• Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, "Lincoln."

• Actress: Jennifer Lawrence, "Silver Linings Playbook."

• Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, "Django Unchained."

• Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway, "Les Miserables."

• Directing: Ang Lee, "Life of Pi."

• Foreign Language Film: "Amour."

• Adapted Screenplay: Chris Terrio, "Argo."

• Original Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino, "Django Unchained."

• Animated Feature Film: "Brave."

• Production Design: "Lincoln."

• Cinematography: "Life of Pi."

• Sound Mixing: "Les Miserables."

• Sound Editing (tie): "Skyfall," ''Zero Dark Thirty."

• Original Score: "Life of Pi," Mychael Danna.

• Original Song: "Skyfall" from "Skyfall," Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth.

• Costume: "Anna Karenina."

• Documentary Feature: "Searching for Sugar Man."

• Documentary (short subject): "Inocente."

• Film Editing: "Argo."

• Makeup and Hairstyling: "Les Miserables."

• Animated Short Film: "Paperman."

• Live Action Short Film: "Curfew."

• Visual Effects: "Life of Pi."

Long live Jennifer Lawrence, and may the odds be ever in her favor.

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