I live blogged the ceremony last night, but I figured a more guided (and brief) postmortem was in order. Seth MacFarlane did a solid job hosting the awards. I like a host who can cast a wide net of one-liners and keep the audience on their side. The last one to do that was Ellen DeGeneres back in 2007 and she also go stuck with a lot of bloated musical performances.
There were good music moments--like Shirley Bassey tearing the house down singing "Goldfinger"--and bad music moments--like the cast of Les Miserables trying really hard not to make it obvious that only the trained theater professionals had any reason to be near that score in the film--and even terrible musical moments--that ending song was really disgusting.
The worst part of the ceremony, though, was the inconsistent use of the play-off music. The Jaws theme was bad enough (actually really insulting). What was worse was that only technical category winners, like the visual effects winner putting out a call for better wages in the industry, were cut off. Everyone else got to meander and give really long, boring speeches if they chose to. Quentin Tarantino even got to come back to the mic after he finished his speech without issue. If the rules aren't going to be applied consistently, then the Academy needs to drop its holier than though attitude about what nominees can and cannot do with their films.
Here are all the winners of the 85th Annual Academy Awards.
- Best Picture: Argo
- Animated Feature: Brave
- Documentary Feature: Searching for Sugar Man
- Foreign Language Film: Amour
- Best Actress: Jennifer Lawrence,
The Hunger GamesSilver Linings Playbook - Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
- Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables
- Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained
- Best Director: Ang Lee, Life of Pi
- Adapted Screenplay: Chris Terrio, Argo
- Original Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino, Django Unchained
- Original Score: Mychael Danna, Life of Pi
- Original Song: Adele and Paul Epworth, "Skyfall" from Skyfall
- Sound Editing (TIE): Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers, Skyfall; Paul N. J. Ottosson, Zero Dark Thirty
- Sound Mixing: Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson, and Simon Hayes, Les Miserables
- Cinematography: Claudio Miranda, Life of Pi
- Costume Design: Jacqueline Durran, Anna Karenina
- Film Editing: William Goldenberg, Argo
- Makeup and Hairstyling: Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell, Les Miserables
- Production Design: Rick Carter and Jim Erickson, Lincoln
- Visual Effects: Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan de Boer, and Donald R. Elliott, Life of Pi
- Animated Short: John Kahrs, "Paperman"
- Documentary Short: Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine, "Inocente"
- Live Action Short: Shawn Christensen, "Curfew"
Winner Tally by Film
Four Wins Life of Pi
Three Wins Argo Les Miserables
Two Wins Django Unchained Lincoln Skyfall
One Win Anna Karenina Amour Brave "Curfew" "Inocente" "Paperman" Searching for Sugar Man Silver Linings Playbook Zero Dark Thirty
I went 20/24 on my predictions. How did you guys do? Sound off with your scores and thoughts in the comments below.
