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The Birdman team wins Best Picture. |
Birdman prevailed in a close race with Boyhood, whose Best Picture loss was foreshadowed when the twelve-years-in-the-making project lost Best Film Editing to the conventional (if intensely jazzy) Whiplash, but the real surprise of the night was how few surprises popped up in a field that most Oscar watchers were calling the closest crop of contenders across the board. The only big upset was Disney’s Big Hero 6 topping Dreamworks’s odds-on favourite How to Train Your Dragon 2, so the biggest surprise wasn’t who won, but what the winners had to say.
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After host Neil Patrick Harris kicked off
the show with one of the best and most entertaining opening numbers the Oscars
have seen in years, heavy favourite J.K. Simmons (Whiplash) won the first award and gave a bizarre (if enjoyably
spontaneous) bit of rambling on how kids should call their parents. Pawel
Pawlikowski (Ida) gave the longest
and most rambling give him the hook
moment of the night upon accepting the award for Best Foreign Language Film for
Ida and encouraging friends in Poland
to have a drink, while Matt Kirby, whose The
Phone Call won Best Live Action Short, plugged some free donuts before
getting his bearings and thanking the cast and crew. Many of the other big
winners used their moments to get political and sometimes it worked and
sometimes it didn’t. (More on those later.)
Host Neil Patrick Harris similarly had a
streak of hits and misses, but his jokes were on the mark more often than not.
The opening number about why we love movies was a grand overture for the show:
lots of fun theatricality with nods to the nominees themselves and a few jabs
at the industry with some help from Anna Kendrick and Jack Black, respectively.
Harris also wasn’t afraid to acknowledge some of the biggest controversies of
the season by welcoming “the whitest, er, brightest” in the industry and by
chirping “Oh, now you love him” when the audience clapped for Selma snubbee David Oyelowo. Harris’s
running bit with an envelope of Oscar predictions guarded under the watchful
eyes of a game Octavia Spencer ran out of steam quickly though, and it kept on
slugging through the night and inspired a few Tweets of #FreeOctavia. His Birdman backstage spoof featuring Whiplash’s Miles Teller on the drums
redeemed him, however, as did his gag that nominee Marion Cotillard was the
only person in the room who could correctly pronounce escargot (or, as he said, ess-car-git),
which funnily mirrored all the red carpet interviews with Marion that basically
began with interviewers stating, “So, you’re foreign...”
The night itself was lots of fun at an Oscar
party hosted by one of my friends where we mostly rooted for Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel. Both films were well represented on the
impressive Oscar-themed potluck (our best so far), which consisted of spicy Birdman wings, drumsticks for Whiplash (both chicken and the ice cream
kind), popcorn with Glosette raisins (also for Whiplash), ‘Tits up’ peas and potatoes (The Theory of Everything), cold mush cookies (Wild), white cupcakes with
gummie worms to rep the most infamous Oscar snubs (Cake’s Jennifer Aniston, the Selma
team and Nightcrawler), and Courtesan
au chocolats straight from Zubrowka to rep The Grand Budapest Hotel. There was even the ballin’ addition of
caviar, which we agreed could stand in for Russia’s Leviathan, but I doubt anyone would have minded had we been unable
to pair it with a nominee. (It was tasty!)
The fine spread made for a really fun
evening with Birdman’s win offering a
nice final course. Here are the highs and lows of Oscars 2015:
At first I rolled my eyes when Boyhood’s Patricia Arquette accepted her
very much deserved Oscar for Best Supporting Actress and whipped out the same
scripted speech she’s being using all season. “How dull, I thought,” but then
she took a new page and got political by demanding equal wages for women in
America. Political plugs usually make the Oscars awkward, but Arquette got a
roaring response from the crowd. Meryl Streep’s particularly inspired ‘You go
girl!’ reaction brought the house down everywhere from our apartment to the
Twittersphere. This is why she’s Meryl F---ing Streep!
Highlight of award season by far.
High:
Julianne Moore finally wins an Oscar!
Julianne Moore netted a well-deserved Oscar
for Still Alice on her fifth
nomination. She was the best and hardest working actress without an Oscar going
into the ceremony, and it was really nice to see her finally get her due,
especially for such a strong performance. Her giddy speech was both exciting
and heartfelt as she used the opportunity to acknowledge those who, like her
character Alice, are suffering with Alzheimer’s, and she made an especially
touching nod of thanks to directors Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland, who
continue their passion of making movie in spite of Glatzer’s diagnosis for ALS.
This win capped off a banner year for Moore that began with a Best Actress win
at Cannes for Maps to the Stars for
which she is nominated for Best Actress at the upcoming Canadian Screen Awards.
High:
Graham Moore encourages us to “Stay weird, stay
different.”
In perhaps the most unexpected moment of
the night, frontrunner Graham Moore accepted his prize for Best Adapted
Screenplay for The Imitation Game and
used the sad story of subject Alan Turing to reveal his own attempt at suicide
at the age of sixteen. It was one of those great, candid moments when one
really felt the significance of the film and the win for the person on stage,
as well as for all the people he had in mind while writing it.
High and low: "In Memoriam"
Meryl Streep highlight number two of the night was her sincere and moving eulogy for all the dearly departed members of the film community we lost this year. As she paid tribute to some of the best and most inspiring talents who moved us, it was hard not to think that Streep was saying goodbye to her long time collaborator Mike Nichols (Silkwood, Postcards from the Edge) with whom she had a project in development at the time of his passing in November. Fittingly enough, the tribute reel ended with Nichols, who won an Oscar for directing The Graduate.
★Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything
★ J.K. Simmons, Whiplash
★ Whiplash
★Interstellar
★ "Glory," Selma
★ Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1
Laura Dern: Great in grey even if she didn't get the gold.
Amazing [Amy]
High and low: "In Memoriam"
Meryl Streep highlight number two of the night was her sincere and moving eulogy for all the dearly departed members of the film community we lost this year. As she paid tribute to some of the best and most inspiring talents who moved us, it was hard not to think that Streep was saying goodbye to her long time collaborator Mike Nichols (Silkwood, Postcards from the Edge) with whom she had a project in development at the time of his passing in November. Fittingly enough, the tribute reel ended with Nichols, who won an Oscar for directing The Graduate.
However, the “In Memoriam” sequence
featured a glaring snub by failing to acknowledge the loss of Joan Rivers, who
arguably made the Oscars the buzz-worthy event they are today. The queen of the
red carpets deserved a nod of thanks for her years of getting audiences excited
about the glitz and glamour of the event. While she wasn’t known for making
movies, Rivers’ name is indeed synonymous with the Oscars. They just weren’t
the same without her. (The Academy has responded by noting Rivers’ inclusion
on their website alongside other peers who weren’t included due to time
restraints.)
It disappointed me that frontrunner Citizenfour took the prize for Best
Documentary Feature and easily became the weakest winner in the category in
over a decade. (The film boasts an important subject matter in its scoop with
Edward Snowden, but there’s nothing remarkable about Laura Poitras’s attention
to film form or argumentation. It’s a hunk of raw, unattractive footage.) The Citizenfour team added insult to injury
by bringing subject Glenn Greenwald onstage, who ironically clutched an Oscar and
revelled in the moment just two years after his own reckless charade at
journalism caused one of the most appalling Oscar controversies of all time.
Greenwald notoriously assassinated Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty by putting the film in the crosshairs at The
Guardian, erroneously arguing that the film was pro-torture. The uproar in
response to his piece stalled the Zero Dark
Thirty’s momentum and tainted the
frontrunner as it went into wide release when Greenwald himself actually
admitted that he hadn’t even seen the film. The man embodies the very worst of
Oscar campaign ugliness, and seeing him on stage at the Oscars was one of the
lowest points not just for the night, but for Oscar history.
Cutest shot of the night!
High:
Lady Gaga sings!
Forget “Poker Face”! The Oscars were alive
with the sound of music! Pop sensation Lady Gaga showed a wholly unexpected side
of herself with her classically-trained pipes as she belted out a medley of
songs to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Best Picture winner The Sound of Music. It’s too bad that
the segment came so late in the evening, but Julie Andrews’ genuine reaction to
Lady Gaga’s performance alone made it a special night.
High:
Alexandre Desplat wins an Oscar!
Julie Andrews upstaged everyone by
pronouncing “Budapest” correctly while presenting the Oscar that has long
eluded Grand Budapest Hotel composer
Alexandre Desplat. Desplat went into the show with his seventh and eighth nominations
(he was also up for The Imitation Game)
and thankfully didn’t cancel himself out. Now can Roger Deakins please win next
year?
High:
“Glory”
The showstopper of the night, however, was
the performance of the Oscar winning song “Glory” by Common and John Legend.
Powerful, stirring, and grand, the song brought the emotional scope of Selma to show. How many Oscar
performances have brought that many stars to tears? This performance made their speech, which, like 'Glory', tied Selma to contemporary race relations in America, made the moment doubly relevant.
High:
Birdman wins!
I’ve said it already, but it was so
exciting to see such a maverick work take home Best Picture. Well done,
Academy!
High: The Winners!
Best Picture:
Best Director
★ Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Birdman
Best Actor
Best Actress
★ Julianne Moore, Still Alice
Best Supporting Actor:
Best Supporting Actress
Best Original Screenplay
★ Birdman – Alejandro
G. Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Armando Bo
Best Adapted Screenplay
★The Imitation Game – Graham Moore
Best Film Editing:
Best Cinematography:
★ Birdman
Best Costumes:
Best Production Design:
Best Score:
★ The Grand Budapest Hotel – Alexandre Desplat
Sound Mixing:
Sound Editing:
Visual Effects:
Best Make-up
Best Song:
Best Documentary Feature:
Best Foreign Language Film:
★ Ida - Poland
Best Animated Film:
★ Big Hero 6
Best Animated Short:
Best Live Action Short:
★The Phone Call (watch)
Short Documentary Short:
High: the picks for the Best Dressed
Best Dressed:
Lupita
Nyong'o dazzles at the Oscars with 6,000-pearl dress. http://t.co/ruCoMKjkKP
pic.twitter.com/q4YEMnAXhs
—
Mashable (@mashable) February
23, 2015
Lupita
Nyong’o
Runners-up:
.@LauraDern on the #Oscars #redcarpet. Wearing a turquoise ring to honour her Wild character, who died of lung cancer pic.twitter.com/Sn3fcAdTIf
— FLARE Magazine (@FLAREfashion) February 22, 2015
Laura Dern: Great in grey even if she didn't get the gold.
Meryl Streep
shows up and owns the #redcarpet
in effortless sophistication. #Oscars
pic.twitter.com/AHwTNc9cIB
—
Joe Kucharski (@TyrannyOfStyle) February
23, 2015
Meryl
Streep, dressed like the boss she is.
Cate Blanchett
in a John #Galliano
for Maison Martin @Margiela
dress last night at #Oscars2015
in Hollywood <3 pic.twitter.com/LvrJIbPbxW
—
Jules (@JulesFashion) February
23, 2015
Blanchett
in black.
#JenniferAniston
looks great in this Versace. Effortlessly chic. @TheAcademy
Oscars. pic.twitter.com/gJNpFrh9ih
—
Lisa Remillard (@LisaRemillard) February
23, 2015
Jennifer Aniston,
being a real sport.
Stop everything: Rosamund Pike is red hot on the #ERedCarpet! http://t.co/lj8SQ8XDZW pic.twitter.com/3oWZUJB0sn
— E! Online (@eonline) February 23, 2015
Amazing [Amy]
Presenter Naomi
Watts walked the red carpet at the 2015 Oscars wearing an embellished #GiorgioArmani
Privè gown. pic.twitter.com/gRPr32wa7g
—
Armani (@armani) February
23, 2015
Naomi
Watts in what appears to be a sexy apron.