Oscars Wrap Up

Last night, the 85th Annual Academy Awards went off without a hitch. Seth McFarlane actually did a good job hosting. Aside from a short presentation by Ted (voiced by McFarlane) and Mark Wahlberg, there were no voices or references to any of his work. By now you have heard about Jennifer Lawrence's tumble, the entire cast of Les Miserables singing on stage, and Michelle Obama announcing Argo as Best Picture Winner. It was a night full of great speeches, outstanding musical numbers, and incredible pieces of work being honored by The Academy. Here are my thoughts on the outcome of the awards.

The last award of the evening is the Best Picture award. This will be the first award I will discuss. I pegged Lincoln as the winner here because I fully anticipated an award sweep. I was incorrect in my assumption. Argo ended up nabbing Best Picture even though Affleck was snubbed for a Best Director nomination. Unless I am mistaken, I believe that the Best Picture award generally goes to the film that was directed by the Best Director winner. This year, that was an impossibility. On some levels I feel that The Academy realized their gaff and awarded Affleck indirectly by selecting Argo as Best Picture. If this is the case, then Ang Lee's win for Best Director for Life of Pie feels empty. Lee has won for Best Director before with Brokeback Mountain but ultimately lost the Best Picture award to Crash. In any case, I am happy for Affleck and the rest of the cast and crew because Argo was definitely one of the best films of the year.

The award for Best Adapted Screenplay went to Quentin Tarantino for Django Unchained and I am truly happy about that. Tarantino makes some of the most innovative films of my generation and I feel he doesn't get enough credit. It was refreshing to see The Academy award the most unique film of the year. In this case, my prediction and my desired winner were one and the same and I was correct. Best Adapted Screenplay went to Argo which was one of my desired winners so I am happy about that as well.

Best Supporting Actor went to my favorite foreign actor and that is Christoph Waltz. In my predictions I said that Philip Seymour Hoffman could win but I wanted Robert DeNiro to get it. My thought process in choosing DeNiro over Waltz was this: I want to see DeNiro take more roles like the one he played in Silver Linings Playbook. I feel that had he won the award, he would be more apt to do so. That being said, I wanted Waltz to win above all. He brings such life to the characters he portrays. Hans Landa made me shiver with fear because he was so ruthless and Dr. King Schultz had me cheering because of his compassion. His acceptance speech had me in tears because he was so genuine. I really believe that Waltz enjoys making films and he truly appreciates what Tarantino does for films.

Christoph Waltz acceptance speech for Best... by dm_512b00eed8f81
Tarantino has a camp of very talented people and I know they were all happy for Waltz's win. Best Supporting Actress went to Anne Hathaway. She was a favorite to win, and I figured she would, but I thought perhaps Sally Field would edge her out. I really would've liked to see Jacki Weaver win but Hathaway's win is ok with me.

Best Leading Actor went to, surprise, Daniel Day-Lewis. I like Day-Lewis; I really do. I have no doubt that he was exceptional in Lincoln but I would've liked to see Bradley Cooper win. His role in Silver Linings Playbook is SO different from anything he's ever done so it would've been an encouragement for him to seek out these roles. Best Leading Actress went to Jennifer Lawrence and I am ecstatic about that. She was my prediction and my desired winner so I couldn't be happier.

Pixar won the award for Best Animated Feature with Brave and nobody was surprised. Pixar is the Daniel Day-Lewis of animation studios. I predicted Brave to win but it would have been nice to see Tim Burton awarded for FrankenWeenie. I enjoyed Wreck-It-Ralph a lot more than Brave and I felt that it was one of the weakest pictures to come from Disney in a while. Best Animated Short went to Paperman which played before Brave. I couldn't see any other short winning because it was just that good. See it here:


All in all, the night's winners made sense and there were no real surprises (except for Seth McFarlane doing a good job hosting). I look forward to the Oscars every year and this year was a lot of fun. There were no real undeserved winners which makes the Awards retain their legitimacy. Here's to another year of great movies!