Well, it wasn't the worst Oscar show. Seriously though the Academy Awards ceremony was very subpar this year. Before I get to that let me tell you about my predictions.
The awards were predictable, but there were a few surprises. Colin Firth, Christian Bale, Natalie Portman, and Melissa Leo won in their categories. This is not a big surprise considering all of the other awards these four got before the Oscars. Colin Firth and Natalie Portman were definite locks. In supporting Actor category, Christian Bale was going to win, but there was the possibility of The King's Speech winning in this category. However, this did not happen and it's for the best. Christian Bale was so marvelous in The Fighter that it would have been a crime if he didn't win.
In the Best Supporting Actress category Melissa Leo took home the statuette. In her speech she dropped the F-bomb, which was one of the highlights of the evening. I was actually hoping that Hailee Steinfeld would take home the award, as she was the best thing about True Grit. She really knocked the role out of the park. Still, this is her debut performance and the Academy tend not to give out Oscars to first time actors/actresses. Steinfeld is a talented actress and she will be back. It's only a matter of time.
I knew The King's Speech was going to win Best Picture. I didn't think it was the best film of the year, but the Academy goes nuts over period pieces. Once you combine that with a historical figure trying to overcome a great obstacle and we have Oscar gold. IMHO, The Social Network was the best film of the year. It's a landmark film that defines a generation and talks about how a simple social networking site can lead to shattered bonds, excessive greed, and loneliness. It's a 21st century version of Citizen Kane. It was robbed of the award and I think it will be remembered more in the long run than King's Speech. For example there are great films like Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Taxi Driver, The Shawshank Redemption, Pulp Fiction, and Citizen Kane that never won Oscars, but are still remembered after decades. I believe The Social Network is going to be one of those films.
I also felt sour that David Fincher didn't win Best Director for The Social Network. Instead Tom Hooper won for The King's Speech. I was hoping that Fincher, the veteran director, would take home for the prize. Fincher has done some amazing work (Fight Club, Se7en, Benjamin Button) and I'm sure that his work will be rewarded one day.
Toy Story 3 won Best Animated Feature, which shouldn't surprise anyone. It was the best animated film of the year despite being the weakest in the Toy Story trilogy. It was a great year for animation though. How to Train Your Dragon, Tangled, and Despicable Me exceeded my expectations. It's a shame the latter two did not receive Oscar nominations.
The screenplay categories were very easy to predict. The Social Network won Best Adapted Screenplay and The King's Speech won Best Original Screenplay. I was hoping that Inception might snag Best Original Screenplay since it did win the WGA award, but the script for The King's Speech wasn't eligible for the award. That's the only way Nolan won the WGA. Unfortunately that didn't translate into Oscar gold.
As far all the other categories go, it was hit-or-miss. I never saw Alice in Wonderland, but from what I heard it was an awful piece of !@#$. However, people did say the visuals and costumes were fantastic. So I figured it would win Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design, and it did! Best Cinematography went to Inception, which shocked me as I thought True Grit would get it. At first I thought Inception would get it, but a lot of Oscar prediction articles said that True Grit would get it. Even Roger Ebert said True Grit was his pick so I changed my decision and went with it. Plus the cinematographer for True Grit was Roger Deakins, who has worked with the Coen Bros on almost all of their films. He has been nominated eight times without a win, so maybe next time.
Inception was in line of my other predictions as it won for Visual Effects, Sound Editing, and Sound Mixing. The Social Network won Best Score and Best Editing, Toy Story 3 also for won Best Song, and The Wolfman won for Best Makeup. Yes that's right, The Wolfman. If a terrible film like that can win an Academy Award then maybe it is time to abandon this category. Still, I have to give props to Rick Baker as this is his seventh win for Best Makeup.
Inside Job won Best Documentary Feature and In a Better World Won Best Foreign Feature. The Best Foreign Feature always throws me off because it is so random. It is one of the hardest ones to predict. First of all, countries can only submit one film to the Academy and sometimes a country doesn't even send a film. For example, I thought The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo would have been a lock for Best Foreign film, but Sweden didn't even submit it. Second, it is hard to predict because the majority of voters probably haven't seen all of the nominated films, so it's like blind voting. This year In a Better World won, but I was hoping that Incendies would be a potential upset.
Best Short Film went to God of Love, Best Animated Short went to The Lost Thing, and Best Documentary Short went to Strangers No More. I got both of those wrong, but there was no way to find these shorts so I just had to pick one and hope for the best.
Well I got 16 out of 24, which is better than last year. However, I was hoping to reach for at least 20 correct.
As far as the overall show goes it wasn't as horrible people said it was, but it was still pretty bad. James Franco and Anne Hathaway were chosen as the hosts for this show. I'm pretty sure they were the youngest actors/actresses to host show. This was done to bring in the younger demographic, but it failed miserably. The pre-taped skits shown at the beginning of the Awards looked decent, but then it collapsed after that. James Franco seemed spaced out and acted like he didn't want to be there. IMO, I thought he smoked that Pineapple Express before the show to relax. Anne Hathaway had plenty of energy, but it felt like she was trying to hard. However, she was carrying Franco on her back the whole time so she had to put in double the effort. It was a forgettable awards shows with only a few semi-big surprises, but at least there were some good movies nominated. Well, until next year.
P.S. Sorry that this post is way late. I wrote it the day after the Oscars and completely forgot about it until today. I think that proves how the forgettable this year's Oscars truly were.
