The 87th Academy Award Winners for the 2015 Oscars
Yesterday it was finally the day of the most anticipated event of the cinema industry. Hollywood was ready to celebrate all the achievements in this fantastic, marvellous art, and I for once was not disappointed with the results. Most of my predictions became true and this morning at 5.30 I went to sleep with a smile on my face, even though the event was not that entertaining.
When it was confirmed a while ago that Neil Patrick Harris was going to replace Ellen DeGeneres as this year's Oscars host I was excited and I could not wait to see what this amazing funny actor was going to come up with to top Ellen's performance, which was brilliant.
Unfortunately, while in the winners department I was satisfied with the results, I found NPH's performance quite disappointing. The introduction number was exciting, well-rehearsed, engaging and entertaining enough. The show was starting on the right foot. Unfortunately, everything capitulated quickly. Harris' jokes were juvenile, childish and sometimes not so adequate. His presence was not strong enough and he failed in engaging both with the famous crowd and the audience at home. The only good moment was when he re-enacted the Birdman scene in which Riggan has to walk almost naked through Time Square because he closed himself off the theatre.
For all these reasons, in my opinion, the event ended up being long, exhausting and quite dull.
However, I am writing this post to list the winners of this years' Academy awards and give an overall opinion on why I believe they all deserved their prize.
The big winners of the evening were clearly The Grand Budapest Hotel and Birdman, surprising everyone who though that Boyhood was going to win it all.
Birdman was one of my favourites this year and I was satisfied beyond measures when Iñárritu's movie brought home, Best picture, achievement in cinematography, directing and original screenplay. To see the extraordinary effort of this great visionary director receive the highest recognition made me happy, because finally for the first time the real effort and attention to every spectacular detail were awarded. Many are saying that directing and best picture should have gone to Boyhood, however, in my opinion shooting a project for 12 years is not enough if the movie is lacking passion, intensity and is not able to make you empathise with the characters and the story.
For actor and actress in a leading role I was hoping to see Julianne Moore, Still Alice, and Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything, win for their portray of two extraordinary people battling with two very different but just the same crippling diseases. They both became their characters, they completely lost themselves in them. Eddie went through a physical change and the evolution of Steven's disease was rehearsed as a dance changing step by step all his body and movements. Julianne, instead, understood the challenge of portraying a disease that has no physical manifestation but inexorably traps you inside your body, eating away all that you have and all that you are, leaving behind just a shell of what you used to be. To me their win was a well-deserved and obvious one.
Another movie that received its rightful recognitions was Whiplash. J. K. Simmons was awarded as best actor in a supporting role. His win was not a surprise since he already won several awards for this role throughout this season. His performance was intense and it was the reason why I felt a deep connection with Miles Teller's character and his need to be perfect and impress his teacher. Simmons' stare was enough to make me feel the pressure and anxiety felt by Andrew. I was also satisfied with the achievement in sound mixing and film editing that the movie received because this movie was paying close attention to every small detail. The close ups in the movie were poignant and always on point.
As I said before the other big winner of the night was The Grand Budapest Hotel. This rare pearl was awarded for costume design, makeup and hairstyling, music, with Desplat finally earning an award after being nominated 8 times, and production design. Wes Anderson was profusely acknowledged by each and every member of his crew and collaborators who went on stage to receive the award, showing what a great leader he is and what an amazing well-oiled environment he can provide to create an exquisite movie.
The surprise of the night was the best adapted screenplay awarded to the young Graham Moore for The Imitation Game. His speech was moving and slightly different from the others. He told everyone that being different and weird is not something bad, but something that needs to be cherished because being different is what makes us unique. Patricia Arquette also used her moment to give a shot out to women in Hollywood telling them that now is the time to fight for gender equality and equal wage and yesterday she not only won an Oscar for best actress in a supporting role in Boyhood, but she also received an enthusiastic supporting cheer from Meryl Streep.
These, along Lady Gaga's musical tribute to Julie Andrews, were the highlights of the night and, all in all, it ended up being a great night in Hollywood, even though some of the jokes fell short and it felt like the awards were dragging. Maybe next year the Academy will bring back Ellen and we will all forget about Harris' bad jokes.
Till next time,
Fred
Here all the winners of the 87th Academy Awards:
BEST PICTURE
“American Sniper” – Clint Eastwood, Robert Lorenz, Andrew Lazar,
“Birdman” – Alejandro G. Iñárritu, John Lesher and James W. Skotchdopole
“Boyhood” – Richard Linklater and Cathleen Sutherland
“The Grand Budapest Hotel” – Wes Anderson, Scott Rudin, Steven Rales and Jeremy Dawson
“The Imitation Game” – Nora Grossman, Ido Ostrowsky and Teddy Schwarzman
“Selma” – Christian Colson, Oprah Winfrey, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner
“The Theory of Everything” – Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Lisa Bruce and Anthony McCarten
“Whiplash” – Jason Blum, Helen Estabrook and David Lancaster
BEST ACTRESS
Marion Cotillard, “Two Days, One Night”
Felicity Jones, “The Theory of Everything”
Julianne Moore, “Still Alice” *WINNER
Rosamund Pike, “Gone Girl”
Reese Witherspoon, “Wild”
BEST ACTOR
Steve Carell, “Foxcatcher”
Bradley Cooper, “American Sniper”
Benedict Cumberbatch, “The Imitation Game”
Michael Keaton, “Birdman”
Eddie Redmayne, “The Theory of Everything” *WINNER
BEST DIRECTOR
Wes Anderson, “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
Alejandro G. Inarritu, “Birdman” *WINNER
Richard Linklater, “Boyhood”
Bennett Miller, “Foxcatcher”
Morten Tyldum, “The Imitation Game”
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Jason Hall, “American Sniper”
Graham Moore, “The Imitation Game” *WINNER
Paul Thomas Anderson, “Inherent Vice”
Anthony McCarten, “The Theory of Everything”
Damien Chazelle, “Whiplash”
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr. & Armando Bo, “Birdman” *WINNER
Richard Linklater, “Boyhood”
E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman, “Foxcatcher”
Wes Anderson; Story by Wes Anderson and Hugo Guinness, “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
Dan Gilroy, “Nightcrawler”
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Alexandre Desplat, “Grand Budapest Hotel” *WINNER
Alexandre Desplat, “Imitation Game”
Hans Zimmer, “Interstellar”
Gary Yershon, “Mr. Turner”
Jóhann Jóhannsson, “Theory of Everything”
BEST ORIGINAL SONG
“Everything is Awesome” – The Lego Movie
“Glory” – Selma *WINNER
“Grateful” – Beyond the Lights
“I’m Not Gonna
“Lost Stars” – Begin Again
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
“Citizen four
“Finding Vivian Maier” – John Maloof and Charlie Siskel
“Last Days in Vietnam” – Rory Kennedy and Keven McAlester
“The Salt of the Earth” – Wim Wenders, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado and David Rosier
“Virunga” – Orlando von Einsiedel and Joanna Natasegara
BEST FILM EDITING
Joel Cox and Gary D. Roach, “American Sniper”
Sandra Adair, “Boyhood”
Barney Pilling, “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
William Goldenberg, “Imitation Game”
Tom Cross, “Whiplash” *WINNER
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Emmanuel Lubezki, “Birdman” *WINNER
Robert Yeoman, “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
Lukasz Zal and Ryszard Lenczewski, “Ida”
Dick Pope, “Mr. Turner”
Roger Deakins, “Unbroken”
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
“The Grand Budapest Hotel” *WINNER
“Imitation Game”
“Interstellar”
“Into the Woods”
“Mr. Turner”
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
“Big Hero 6″ – Don Hall, Chris Williams and Roy Conli *WINNER
“The Boxtrolls” – Anthony Stacchi, Graham Annable and Travis Knight
“How to Train Your Dragon 2″ – Dean DeBlois and Bonnie Arnold
“Song of the Sea” – Tomm Moore and Paul Young
“The Tale of the Princess Kaguya” – Isao Takahata and Yoshiaki Nishimura
BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM
“The Bigger Picture”
“The Dam Keeper”
“Feast” *WINNER
“Me and My Moulton”
“A Single Life”
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
“Captain America: The Winter Soldier”
“Dawn of the Planet of the Apes”
“Guardians of the Galaxy”
“Interstellar” *WINNER
“X-Men: Days of Future Past”
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Patricia Arquette, “Boyhood” *WINNER
Keira Knightley, “The Imitation Game”
Emma Stone, “Birdman”
Meryl Streep, “Into the Woods”
Laura Dern, “Wild”
BEST SOUND EDITING
Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman, “American Sniper” *WINNER
Martin Hernández and Aaron Glascock, “Birdman”
Brent Burge and Jason Canovas, “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies”
Richard King, “Interstellar”
Becky Sullivan and Andrew DeCristofaro, “Unbroken”
BEST SOUND MIXING
John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff and Walt Martin, “American Sniper”
Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño and Thomas Varga, “Birdman”
Gary A. Rizzo, Gregg Landaker and Mark Weingarten, “Interstellar”
Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño and David Lee, “Unbroken”
Craig Mann, Ben Wilkins and Thomas Curley, “Whiplash” *WINNER
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
“Crisis Hotline” *WINNER
“Joanna”
“Our Curse”
"The Reaper”
"White Earth”
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Robert Duvall, “The Judge”
Ethan Hawke, “Boyhood”
Edward Norton, “Birdman”
Mark Ruffalo, “Foxcatcher”
J.K. Simmons, “Whiplash” *WINNER
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Milena Canonero, “Grand Budapest Hotel” *WINNER
Mark Bridges, “Inherent Vice”
Colleen Atwood, “Into the Woods”
Anna B. Sheppard and Jane Clive, “Maleficent”
Jacqueline Durran, “Mr. Turner”
BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
“Foxcatcher
“The Grand Budapest Hotel” *WINNER
“Guardians of the Galaxy”
BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
“Aya”
“Boogaloo And Graham”
“Butter Lamp”
“Parvaneh
“The Phone Call” *WINNER
BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM
“Ida” (Poland) *WINNER
“Leviathan” (Russia)
“Wild Tales” (Argentina)
“Timbuktu” (Mauritania)
“Tangerine” (Estonia)
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