So...... a little award show happened just now. Wasn't a big deal or anything. You know... it's just the Oscars. The greatest holiday ever since St. Patrick's Day. So anyway, I've been blogging simultaneously with the awards ceremony which was a fair distribution of prizes as predicted.The King's Speech took home the Best Picture award along with 3 other awards in Directing, Actor in a Leading Role and Original Screenplay. Along with it was Inception packing in 4 awards all in the technical categories and The Social Network winning 3 in Music, Editing and Adapted Screenplay.
2 awards were given to Toy Story 3 for Best Animated Feature and Original Song while trashy underdog The Fighter took home awards for Melissa Leo and Christian Bale for their supporting roles. Alice In Wonderland also took home 2 awards for Costume Design and Art Direction. While Black Swan claims the Best Actress prize for Natalie Portman.The full list of winners are below. And.... GO:
BEST PICTURE
•The King's Speech
•127 Hours
•The Social Network
•Toy Story 3
•True Grit
•Winter's Bone
•Black Swan
•The Fighter
•Inception
•The Kids Are All Right
BEST DIRECTOR
•Tom Hooper- The King's Speech
•David Fincher- The Social Network
•Joel Coen and Ethan Coen- True Grit
•Darren Aronofsky- Black Swan
•David. O. Russell- The Fighter
BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
•Colin Firth- The King's Speech
•James Franco- 127 Hours
•Javier Bardem- Biutiful
•Jeff Bridges- True Grit
•Jesse Eisenberg- The Social Network
BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
•Natalie Portman- Black Swan
•Michelle Williams- Blue Valentine
•Annette Bening- The Kids Are All Right
•Nicole Kidman- Rabbit Hole
•Jennifer Lawrence- Winter's Bone
BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
•Christian Bale- The Fighter
•John Hawkes- Winter's Bone
•Jeremy Renner- The Town
•Mark Ruffalo- The Kids Are All Right
•Geoffrey Rush- The King's Speech
BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
•Melissa Leo- The Fighter
•Hailee Steinfeld- True Grit
•Jacki Weaver- Animal Kingdom
•Amy Adams- The Fighter
•Helena Bonham Carter- The King's Speech
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
•The Social Network
•Toy Story 3
•True Grit
•Winter's Bone
•127 Hours
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
•The King's Speech
•Another Year
•The Fighter
•Inception
•The Kids Are All Right
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
•In A Better World
•Incendies
•Outside the Law
•Biutiful
•Dogtooth
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
•Toy Story 3
•How to Train Your Dragon
•The Illusionist
BEST ART DIRECTION•Alice In Wonderland•Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
•Inception
•The King's Speech
•True Grit
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY•Inception
•The King's Speech
•The Social Network
•True Grit
•Black Swan
BEST COSTUME DESIGN•Alice in Wonderland
•I Am Love
•The King's Speech
•The Tempest
•True Grit
BEST FILM EDITING
•The Social Network
•Black Swan
•The Fighter
•The King's Speech
•127 Hours
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE•Inside Job
•Restrepo
•Waste Land•Exit Through the Gift Shop
•Gasland
BEST MAKEUP•The Wolfman•Barney's Version
•The Way Back
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE•The Social Network•How to Train Your Dragon
•Inception
•The King's Speech
•127 Hours
BEST ORIGINAL SONG•We Belong Together from Toy Story 3•Coming Home from Country Strong•I See the Light from Tangled•If I Rise from 127 Hours
BEST SOUND MIXING•Inception
•The King's Speech
•Salt
•The Social Network
•True Grit
BEST SOUND EDITING•Inception
•Toy Story 3
•Tron: Legacy
•True Grit
•Unstoppable
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS•Inception
•Iron Man 2•Alice In Wonderland
•Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
•Hereafter
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILM•Strangers No More
•Sun Come Up
•The Warriors of Qiugang•Killing in the Name
•Poster Girl
BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM•The Lost Thing
•Madagascar, A Journey Diary•Day & Night
•The Gruffalo
•Let's Pollute
BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM•God of Love
•Na Wewe
•Wish 143
•The Confession
•The Crush
It is slightly disappointing that misplaced heavyweights like True Grit, Winter's Bone and 127 Hours left empty handed. It's even more disappointing that The Social Network didn't win Best Picture, which was what I was hoping for. Now before anyone goes off on me about how great Speech was, let me explain.
The King's Speech is the better film, but Network is the more important one. Up until now, we haven't had a film immortalized in the Academy that captures our generation and our time. The old days had Casablanca, Lawrence of Arabia and On The Waterfront. The 60's had West Side Story, Tom Jones and My Fair Lady. The 70's had The Godfather and The Sting. The 80's had Kramer Vs. Kramer, Ghandhi and Terms of Endearment. The 90's had Titanic and Forrest Gump.
We haven't had that movie yet that people 50 years from now will look back and remember the Internet generation and technology and youth revolution. The Social Network was our movie. That was supposed to be our time. The King's Speech is just yet another fantastic British film under the shadows of other fantastic British films that will be forgotten in a year or two. Seriously, name me another British period piece that will stand the test of time longer than the likes of Raging Bull or Avatar or Tootsie.
That's just my opinion. Would love to hear comments. Anyway, congrats to the winners and I'll see ya'll next year.