2014 OSCAR WINNERS (And my verdict on the ceremony) BEST PICTURE American Hustle Captain Phillips Dallas Buyers Club Gravity Her Nebraska Philomena ***12 Years A Slave*** The Wolf Of Wall Street 12 Years A Slave was simply too important a movie not to win the Best Picture award. I always fancied this to win the big award of the night, even if it failed in all the other categories. A first Oscar win for Brad Pitt (serving as producer) and director/producer Steve McQueen (no, not that one). BEST ACTOR Christian Bale (American Hustle) Bruce Dern (Nebraska) Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf Of Wall Street) Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years A Slave) ***Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)*** I predicted this win back in August when the odds were 25-1, if only I had a bit of money on back then as he was odds on favourite by the night of the ceremony. Its a phenomenal performance with a heartthrob actor uglying himself up to play AIDS sufferer Ron Woodruff. Leonardo Di Caprio was being touted as a possible winner for this award but his campaign gathered momentum far too late into the voting process. Hell have more chances over the next few years. BEST ACTRESS Amy Adams (American Hustle) ***Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)*** Sandra Bullock (Gravity) Judi Dench (Philomena) Meryl Streep (August: Osage County) Cate Blanchett joins the list of actresses with two Academy Awards (her first was for Best Supporting Actress in The Aviator). Woody Allen has the Midas touch of getting Oscars for his female performers (Diane Keaton, Dianne Weist - twice, Penelope Cruz) and this award was pretty much on Cates mantelpiece the moment the movie was released. BEST DIRECTOR ***Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity)*** Steve McQueen (12 Years A Slave) Alexander Payne (Nebraska) David O. Russell (American Hustle) Martin Scorsese (The Wolf Of Wall Street) This was always Cuarons to lose. A professional auteur who tears up the rule book on directing and bring his vision to the screen in an incredibly unique way. Unbelievable that hes never been nominated in this category before. BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips) Bradley Cooper (American Hustle) Michael Fassbender (12 Years A Slave) Jared Hill (The Wolf Of Wall Street) ***Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)*** The first award dished out and one of the most predictable winners on the night for a rather important film. Jared Leto makes the most convincing portrayal of a man in drag since Robin Williams in Mrs Doubtfire. BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine) Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle) ***Lupita Nyonyo (12 Years A Slave)*** Julia Roberts (August: Osage County) June Squibb (Nebraska) Ive yet to see the movie but Ive heard nothing but good about her performance. She clearly deserved it, getting a standing ovation from the audience. BEST SCREENPLAY (ADAPTATION) Before Midnight Captain Phillips Philomena ***12 Years A Slave*** The Wolf Of Wall Street Missing out on best director, this award for 12 Years A Slaves writer was practically in the bag. BEST SCREENPLAY (ORIGINAL) American Hustle Blue Jasmine Dallas Buyers Club ***Her*** Nebraska I thought American Hustle might win this so it wouldnt go home empty handed, but it was the big loser of the night (10 nominations, no wins). It was always going to be between Hustle and Her, Spike Jonze emerging as the winning writer after previously being nominated for Best Director in 1999 for Being John Malkovich BEST ANIMATED FILM The Croods Despicable Me 2 Ernest & Celestine ***Frozen*** The Wind Rises This swept all the pre-cursor awards for Animated Film, the only thing that could have beaten it was a sentimental vote for Hayao Miyazakis The Wind Rises. BEST ART DIRECTION (PRODUCTION DESIGN) American Hustle Gravity ***The Great Gatsby*** Her 12 Years A Slave All Baz Luhrmanns movies go for visual pazazz, like 2001s Moulin Rouge, this was pretty much a lock. BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY The Grandmaster ***Gravity*** Inside Llewyn Davis Nebraska Prisoners Its unbelievable that this is Emmanuel Lubezkis first victory in this category. He should have won for Children Of Men in 2006 and looked a dead cert for The Tree Of Life two years ago. Some purists may not agree with this winner, but he did create an entire new way of filming scenes (just like the car scene in Children Of Men). BEST COSTUME DESIGN American Hustle The Grandmaster ***The Great Gatsby*** The Invisible Woman 12 Years A Slave As soon as The Great Gatsby was released in cinemas it was obvious that it was Oscar bait for this category. The 1974 version of the film also won this award for designer Theoni V. Aldredge. BEST FILM EDITING American Hustle Captain Phillips Dallas Buyers Club ***Gravity*** 12 Years A Slave I thought this was going to be Captain Phillips award but its not much of a surprise the voters went with Gravity. Director/editor Alfonso Cuaron is a true master at non-obvious editing and hidden cuts. BEST FOREIGN FILM The Broken Circle Breakdown (Belgium) ***The Great Beauty (Italy)*** The Hunt (Denmark) The Missing Picture (Cambodia) Omar (Palestine) Italys dominance in this category goes on. Paolo Sorrentinos winning film has been compared to classic Federico Fellini movies so there was no huge surprise here. BEST MAKEUP ***Dallas Buyers Club*** Jackass presents: Bad Grandpa The Lone Ranger The only feasible winner out of the 3 nominees. The techniques to feminise Jared Leto and transform Matthew McConaughey into an AIDS sufferer were very well done. BEST ORIGINAL SCORE The Book Thief ***Gravity*** Her Philomena Saving Mr. Banks One of the most uplifting musical scores of the year. Unfortunately another loss for Saving Mr. Banks composer Thomas Newman and Arcade Fire (who composed the music for Her) BEST ORIGINAL SONG Happy (Despicable Me 2) ***Let It Go (Frozen)*** The Moon Song (Her) Ordinary Love (Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom) This category rarely goes to the most successful song in the music charts, so it never looked likely that Pharrell Williams would win it for his toe-tapping song from Despicable Me 2. Disney actually had a very clever campaign for Let It Go, with a YouTube video in multiple languages doing its rounds on the internet. The songwriters have now had a clean sweep of Emmy Awards, Grammy Awards, Tony Awards and now the Oscar. BEST SOUND Captain Phillips ***Gravity*** The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug Inside Llewyn Davis Lone Survivor Gravity has been described as the most visual and auditory experience of the year. This was a very predictable result. BEST SOUND EDITING All Is Lost Captain Phillips ***Gravity*** The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug Lone Survivor The winner of this usually goes hand-in-hand with the sound mixing award, its very seldom theres a two way split. BEST VISUAL EFFECTS ***Gravity*** The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug Iron Man 3 The Lone Ranger Star Trek: Into Darkness Bookies were offering 1-500 on this. The most obvious award of the night. BEST DOCUMENTARY The Act Of Killing Cutie & The Boxer Dirty Wars The Square ***20 Feet From Stardom*** One of the categories I was incorrect with my prediction. Its always notoriously difficult to judge this category. HONORARY OSCAR WINNERS Angela Lansbury Steve Martin Very well deserved! Lansbury should have won supporting actress in 1962 for The Manchurian Candidate and Steve Martin has surprisingly NEVER been nominated. He deserved at least a nomination for All Of Me or Roxanne. JEAN HERSHOLT HUMANITARIAN AWARD Angelina Jolie Im not too sure if this is simply for adopting a load of sprogs. If so, Madonna may win it next year. Gravity was the nights big winner with 7 gongs, but the big award went to 12 Years A Slave (plus two more) with Dallas Buyers Club also winning three. American Hustle was the nights big loser, with 0/10 and Captain Phillips, Nebraska, Philomena & The Wolf Of Wall Street also failing to get any awards from their clutch of nominations. It was personally pleasing for me, getting 19/22 of my predictions correct (Original Screenplay, Editing and Documentary Feature went to my second choices). Hopefully next year Ill get perfection (and back 25-1 shots if Im sure theyre going to win) Ellen DeGeneres made a decent host, but nowhere near as quick or witty as the Oscar maestro Billy Crystal. Her best joke was over Jennifer Lawrence tripping when she won the Best Actress Oscar last year Jennifer, if you win tonight, well bring the Oscar over to you. She also did a good job keeping the intro short (it is a long night after all). As always, all the stars dressed in their Sunday best. The musical interludes of the oscar nominated songs broke up the formalities of dishing out awards well, with an energetic performance from Pharrell Williams singing Happy, getting the crowd clapping their hands while he had a little dance with nominees Lupita Nyonyo and Meryl Streep. My biggest criticism was Skys insistence on having Alex Zane once again as the UK host for the commercial breaks. How this guy has a career is beyond me.
Posted on: Mon, 03 Mar 2014 15:04:27 +0000
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