So you see every day, every week, every month and every year of my life, my hero's always 10 years away.
Oscar Winners 2014
That the biggest event of this year’s Oscars ceremony is a
selfie probably says it all (and that it’s already been parodied into the
ground probably says even more). Until
they get a presenter in with enough disrespect for the whole bloated behemoth
that passes for evening’s entertainment, Oscar is consigned to being an annual
damp squib/endurance test. As with last year I got the big one wrong, but a
tally of 16 out of 24 isn’t at all bad. My random guesswork may be improving
(only 11 right in 2013).
Best Picture
I called Gravity,
partly on the grounds of Cuarón being a lock for director.
Surprisingly (as in, it’s not that
common) the Academy picked a movie that didn’t get Best Director, as per last
year. The uber-rich, pampered elite soothed their troubled consciences by
giving the gong to a worthy picture this time out, one that can join the ranks
of Gandhi, Schindler’s List and er… Crash
as really being about something important. It’s the sixth winner since 1990 not
to also take Best Picture. Did it deserve the award? I don’t think it’s as
remarkable as some attest, but aside from The
Wolf of Wall Street it’s probably the closest to a good fit. Also of note,
and perhaps a harbinger of things to come, it joins last year’s Argo was a Best Picture winner amassing
only three Oscars in total. The only other Best Picture winner since 1976 to
share so few is Crash.
Best Director
As noted, a shoe-in. I think his work on Children of Men is more interesting (it
helps that it’s a much better movie), but there’s no doubting the virtual virtuoso
skill of Gravity’s director.
Best Actor
McConaughey’s on a high, and this was an easy call despite
the sterling competition. His acceptance speech was quite a feat of
self-promotion (along with God-promotion, creating nearly as many column inches), as wittily noted by The
Colbert Report.
Best Actress
The Woody worry didn’t end up losing Cate the title. With
two awards she’s probably close to sealing the deal as the new Meryl. Not that
the old Meryl’s gone anywhere.
Best Supporting Actor
This is one award I expect to do zero for the winner’s
cachet. A bit like Cuba Gooding, Jr.
Best Supporting Actress
Lupita has already gone on to bigger and better things.
Exhibit A: Non-Stop. Nice to see
Jennifer Lawrence (ain’t she adorable?) having fun with losing too.
Best Original Screenplay
I was surprised by this (I called American Hustle, which didn’t really deserve it). There haven’t
been a whole lot of really great winners in this category in the last decade
(exceptions are Eternal Sunshine of the
Spotless Mind and Midnight in Paris,
both idiosyncratic tales like this). I should go and watch it I suppose, so I
can actually give an informed opinion.
Best Adapted Screenplay
Oohhh. Controversial. Not for winning, but for the evident ill
feeling between John Ridley and Steve McQueen. Never incur a writer’s wrath.
Although, unless you’re writer-director, it’s kind of inevitable.
Best Cinematography
Winner: Gravity
Lubezki’s sixth nomination, so a win is well overdue. I’d
have given it to him for The Tree of Life
or Children of Men (or both).
Best Costume Design
Shiny pretty duds won out. Not a great shock.
Best Sound Mixing
What’s to say? Space is a noisy place.
Best Film Editing
Good editing here, even when there isn’t any (like one long,
continuous take). I went with Captain
Phillips. Big mistake.
Best Sound Editing
For Gravity, see
Sound Mixing above. For my pick, see Film Editing above.
Best Visual Effects
But of course.
Best Make-up
A reward for invention on a ridiculously low budget, which
is always nice to see.
Best Production Design
Winner: The Great Gatsby
More shiny, shiny, pretty, pretty.
Best Original Song
Winner: Frozen
Apparently smart money was on Bono’s borefest (he looked
nonplussed) I thought it would be Pharrel Williams. Instead they went for
Disney by-numbers. It seems as if they always bag it, but the last example was Tarzan in ’99 (from baldy Collins no
less). Prior to that it was just embarrassingly regular (’89, ’91, ’92, ’94,
’95).
Best Original Score
Winner: Gravity (Steven Price)
Price’s first nom and first win there.
Best Animated Short
Disney didn’t get it! Count me shocked, if I could muster
such a response in the animated feature category.
Best Documentary Short
Winner: The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life
Always bet on the Holocaust.
Best Live Action Short
Winner: Helium
The Voorman Problem
lost out to heartwarming. Heartwarming’s good, I guess.
Best Documentary Feature
Winner: 20 Feet from Stardom
Fuck knows what happened here. Perhaps the Academy thought
they’d done their bit for worthy subject matter and wanted to celebrate something
close to their entertainment marrow. Or perhaps they tried to make it through
the director’s cut of The Act of Killing.
Best Foreign Language Film
Winner: The Great Beauty
I’ve seen this now, and it very much is the Academy’s idea of a European art movie; an easy choice to festoon
with garlands. It is actually very good, though.
Best Animated Feature
Winner: Frozen
Perhaps shockingly, perhaps not (since the award has only
existed since 2001) this is the first “straight” Disney winner (rather than
Pixar). One in the eye (that would be Mike Wazowski’s cyclopean eye) for Lasseter
land, since Monsters University
(rightly) didn’t even get nominated.