So, not having
seen any of the films in the category, I don’t feel suitably qualified to talk
about Best Live Action Short Film, Best Animated Short Film, Best Feature
Documentary, Best Short Subject Documentary, or Best Animated Feature. What I
will say though is that it didn't surprise me that Brave won this award.
In terms of the
award for Best Visual Effects there was only going to be one winner for me.
While the visual effects in The Hobbit, The Avengers and Prometheus were
incredible (and I haven’t seen Snow White and the Huntsman so I can’t comment on
that), Life of Pi absolutely eclipses anything that these films could do. This
was perhaps the most obvious winner of the night for me, and it completely
deserves its success. Life of Pi also won the award for Best Cinematography
which I thought was interesting. This was perhaps one of the closest awards of
the night, because any of the five nominees (Life of Pi, Anna Karenina, Django
Unchained, Lincoln and Skyfall) could feasibly have won. After I saw Anna
Karenina, and after slating the film because I thought it to be very weak, the
best thing I could say about it was that the cinematography was brilliant.
However, that doesn't mean that the cinematography of Life of Pi wasn't and so
this is another deserved award. In terms of Best Original Score, I thought Life
of Pi was, again, a deserving winner. The other films in this category just didn't quite match up for me, and Mychael Danna deserves the credit (and the
award) for creating the soundtrack for Life of Pi. Finally, Ang Lee won the
Best Director award for Life of Pi, and I have to say I was a bit surprised at
this. I was sure Steven Spielberg would be nailed on for this award for
Lincoln. However, having seen Life of Pi, I’m sure there are very few that
would begrudge Ang Lee his second award for Best Director.
Lincoln bagged two
awards last night, after having been nominated for 12. For many people, Lincoln
was the favourite to sweep the board and win more than it did. Now I haven’t
seen Lincoln, so I’m going to have to keep this relatively brief. In terms of
Best Production Design I’m sure the production of Lincoln was fantastic, but
Life of Pi, Les Miserables and The Hobbit are all films which are fantastically
produced. I’m sure that this decision is justified, but I need to see it to
make a judgement. Believe me, Lincoln is high up the ‘films I want to see’
list. I didn't think the decision to hand Daniel Day-Lewis the Best Actor award
was particularly surprising. At the end of the day, Bradley Cooper was never
going to win for a rom-com, and Hugh Jackman for me, didn't do enough to be
considered a deserving winner. From the bits I have seen of Lincoln, Daniel
Day-Lewis is marvellous and is definitely deserving of this award.
Ben Afleck’s film
Argo won three awards, including the big one, Best Picture. Again, I haven’t
seen Argo, but I mean to, and so my comments will have to be speculative. Best
Film Editing is probably deserved, and I didn't think that Zero Dark Thirty or
Life of Pi should have won it (as these two were the second favourites for me).
I have no major objections to Argo winning Best Adapted Screenplay, but I
thought Life of Pi was unlucky to miss out. The adaptation of Argo from the
sources that it is based on is fantastic, and likewise, Life of Pi is
fantastically adapted from the book. Now Argo was widely tipped to win the Best
Picture award, and of the front runners (I thought that Les Miserables, Life of
Pi, Lincoln and Zero Dark Thirty were all in with a shout) any of them would be
deserving winners. It is a fantastic achievement for Ben Afleck, and settles
much of the debate around the Zero Dark Thirty versus Argo arguments. This year
though there were a couple of surprises on the nominations list. Silver Linings
Playbook raised a lot of eyebrows for its inclusion, as did Amour, and I don’t
think either of these were in with a chance. Django Unchained deserved its
nomination but it was a bit too controversial to ever really win, and in the
end, Argo is probably a very good winner.
Now there are a
lot of awards that I don’t really have anything to say about at all. Anna
Karenina won Best Costume Design, and yes, the costumes were good in it. Les
Miserables won Best Makeup and Hairstyling, and yes, the makeup and hairstyling
is very good. Les Miserables also won Best Sound Mixing, which was good. Best
Sound Editing caused a bit of a stir as it was the sixth time in the history of
the Academy Awards (85 different ceremonies) that two films have been tied for an
award. Skyfall (the first Bond film to win an OSCAR) and Zero Dark Thirty won
this award, and of the other nominations (Argo, Django Unchained and Life of
Pi) I think any of them could have won, because the sound editing was very good
in all of them. Skyfall also won the award for Best Original Song, adding
another award to Adele’s growing list. This can’t have been a surprise as it
was in the charts for such a long time that it was bound to win. Amour won Best
Foreign Language Film which isn't surprising considering it was the most widely
known on the list. Anne Hathaway won Best Supporting Actress for Les Miserables
and this was so unsurprising that I’m fairly sure that if I were a bookie I
would have paid out on this before the ceremony began.
On a more positive
note, Christoph Waltz won Best Supporting Actor for his role in Django
Unchained, and I feel this is definitely deserved. He is simply glittering in the
roles that Tarantino writes for him. His mix of humour and incredible acting
means that he stands out from the other nominees as the best supporting actor
from 2012. This represents a much more light-hearted victor from the Academy,
with Tommy Lee Jones many people’s (including mine) favourite choice for the
award. Another tip of the hat goes to Quentin Tarantino and Django Unchained
for winning Best Original Screenplay. This was up against a number of excellent
films like Amour, Flight and Zero Dark Thirty, and winning this award is a move
towards a greater appreciation for the comedic yet controversial bloody movie that
Tarantino specialises in. I think Zero Dark Thirty was unlucky not to win this
award, but Django Unchained is definitely the one to lose out to.
Finally, I
thought the decision to give Jennifer Lawrence the award for Best Actress for
her role in Silver Linings Playbook was very strange. While it will guarantee her
a successful career more than her role in The Hunger Game could ever do I
thought that Jessica Chastain was fantastic in Zero Dark Thirty. Now I’m not
saying that she did not deserve the award, and I haven’t seen Silver Linings
Playbook, so I can’t possibly comment, but I guess when you have nominations
for the film in the Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, and Supporting
Actor categories the film is doing something right.
As I mentioned,
the big winner was Life of Pi with four awards. However I feel that everyone
associated with Zero Dark Thirty can be disappointed not to have won more. There
is no doubt that this year’s Academy Awards was incredibly close and many films
appeared in several different categories, meaning that one would always come
off worse. Before I finish writing I would just like to mention the In Memoriam part of the ceremony. Jack
Klugman (appeared in 12 Angry Men and Quincy ME), Ernest Borgnine (the original
voice of SpongeBob), Eiko Ishioka (winner of Best Costume Design for Bram
Stoker’s Dracula in 1992), Richard Zanuck (Driving Miss Daisy) and Larry Hagman
(Dallas) all passed away this year, and all will be remembered for their
contributions to cinema. Finally, and if nothing else, spare a thought for
Michael Clarke Duncan whose most notable film is The Green Mile. He passed away
in September at the age of 54 from a heart attack, and he will be sorely
missed.
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