Oscars 2011

Anne Hathaway and James Franco co-hosted. Their opening skit had some great special effects but I think the jury is still out on the overall value. Melissa Leo dropped the F bomb during her acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actress, apparently a first for the Academy Awards. Kirk Douglas did a presentation at the age of 94. For those who don’t know, Douglas suffered a stroke in 1996 and had to teach himself to talk all over again chronicling his experiences in the 2003 book My Stroke of Luck.

The biggie of the night was, of course, The King’s Speech. Whew! Finally the waiting is over; we now know. The conjecturing just went on and on and on. And now for the Monday morning papers as everyone dissects all the minutiae of the ceremony: who wore what; who committed a faux pas; which films should have won, etc. Admittedly, the Oscars represent quite a bit of hoopla when Hollywood rolls out its glamour and glitz however we love our entertainment so we love Hollywood.

Below is a listing of the winners showing all of the nominees. It’s good to see who lost. After all, there are some pretty good films here and selecting a clear winner is difficult. And just because somebody lost doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go see that film.

At the end, there are reviews of some of the films which will hopefully remind us of some of last year’s highlights or, if you didn’t get a chance to see a particular film, to consider doing a rental one of these fine Saturday evenings with a bowl of your finest popcorn and enjoy a couple of hours of great escapism.

Best Motion Picture of the Year

Black Swan

The Fighter

Inception

The Kids are All Right

The King’s Speech – WINNER

The Social Network

127 Hours

Toy Story 3

True Grit

Winter’s Bone

Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

Annette Bening (The Kids are All Right)

Nicole Kidman (Rabbit Hole)

Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone)

Natalie Portman (Black Swan) – WINNER

Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine)

Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

Javier Bardem (Biutiful)

Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network)

Colin Firth (The King’s Speech) – WINNER

James Franco (127 Hours)

Jeff Bridges (True Grit)

Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

Christian Bale (The Fighter) – WINNER

John Hawkes (Winter’s Bone)

Jeremy Renner (The Town)

Mark Ruffalo (The Kids are All Right)

Geoffrey Rush (The King’s Speech)

Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

Amy Adams (The Fighter)

Helena Bonham Carter (The King’s Speech)

Melissa Leo (The Fighter) – WINNER

Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit)

Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom)

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year

How to Train Your Dragon

The Illusionist

Toy Story 3 – WINNER

Best Documentary Short Subject

Killing in the Name

Poster Girl

Strangers No More – WINNER

Sun Come Up

The Warriors of Qiugang

Best Short Film (Animated)

Day & Night

The Gruffalo

Let’s Pollute

The Lost Thing – WINNER

Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary)

Best Short Film (Live Action)

The Confession

The Crush

God of Love – WINNER

Na Wewe

Wish 143

Achievement in Art Direction

Alice in Wonderland – WINNER

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

Inception

The King’s Speech

True Grit

Achievement in Cinematography

Black Swan

Inception – WINNER

The King’s Speech

The Social Network

True Grit

Achievement in Costume Design

Alice in Wonderland – WINNER

I Am Love

The King’s Speech

The Tempest

True Grit

Achievement in Directing

Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan)

David O. Russell (The Fighter)

Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech) – WINNER

David Fincher (The Social Network)

Joel and Ethan Coen (True Grit)

Best Documentary Feature

Exit through the Gift Shop

Gasland

Inside Job – WINNER

Restrepo

Waste Land

Achievement in Makeup

Barney’s Version

The Way Back

The Wolfman – WINNER

Achievement in Film Editing

Black Swan

The Fighter

The King’s Speech

127 Hours

The Social Network – WINNER

Best Foreign Language Film of the Year

Biutiful (Mexico)

Dogtooth (Greece)

In a Better World (Denmark) – WINNER

Incendies (Canada)

Hors la Loi (Algeria)

Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score)

How to Train Your Dragon

Inception

The King’s Speech

127 Hours

The Social Network – WINNER

Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Song)

“Coming Home” from Country Strong

“I See the Light” from Tangled

“If I Rise” from 127 Hours

“We Belong Together” from Toy Story 3 – WINNER

Achievement in Sound Editing

Inception – WINNER

Toy Story 3

TRON: Legacy

True Grit

Unstoppable

Achievement in Sound Mixing

Inception – WINNER

The King’s Speech

Salt

The Social Network

True Grit

Achievement in Visual Effects

Alice in Wonderland

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1

Hereafter

Inception – WINNER

Iron Man 2

Adapted Screenplay

127 Hours (Simon Beaufoy and Danny Boyle)

The Social Network (Aaron Sorkin) – WINNER

Toy Story 3 (Michael Arndt, story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich)

True Grit (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen)

Winter’s Bone (Debra Granik and Anne Rossellini)

Original Screenplay

Another Year (Mike Leigh)

The Fighter (Paul Attanasio, Lewis Colich, Eric Johnson, Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy)

Inception (Christopher Nolan)

The Kids are All Right (Stuart Blumberg and Lisa Cholodenko)

The King’s Speech (David Seidler) – WINNER

Anne Hathaway James Franco: Opening Oscar Skit 2011

[chuckles] I found this video, not the best quality, of the opening skit of the co-hosts Anne Hathaway and James Franco. I leave it to you to judge if it was good or lame but yes, the special effects were interesting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HS6_TRu8C1Q

EUX TV – Feb28, 2011

EU-backed ‘King’s Speech’ and ‘In a better world’ take Oscars in Hollywood

The European Commission on Monday did not hesitate to claim credit for its role in the success of the Oscars for the British film The King’s Speech. In a press release, the commission said it had supported this film with 562.000 euro in distribution support via the EU MEDIA fund for cinema. This money was used to promote the film outside the United Kingdom. The King’s speech earlier on Monday won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and best original screenplay. Director Tom Hooper made The King’s Speech on a shoe-string budget of less than 11 million euro. The Danish film ‘In a better world’, directed by Denmark’s Susanne Bier, won the Oscar for best foreign language film. This film was also promoted via the Media programme.

References

official web site: Oscar with all nominees plus winners

All the Nominations for Best Film
Going down the list gives me an opportunity to re-live a few of those moments parked in front of the silver screen: some great films, some not so great films but a successful attempt nevertheless to lure me into the dark and get me to cough up my hard earned dollars for that cinematic entertainment.

Black Swan – Rotten Tomatoes: 89%

The Fighter – Rotten Tomatoes: 89% 

Inception – Rotten Tomatoes: 86%
my blog: Why wasn’t this movie made in 3D? While it is visually stunning, I had a problem with the premise. Like the Matrix, we start with an idea which allows the maker to do anything he wants to twist reality. That’s a good thing and leads to some great movie scenes. Nevertheless, I found that unlike the Matrix, the supporting premise was not adequately explained and seemed just a tad convoluted for the necessary suspension of belief

The Kids Are All Right – Rotten Tomatoes: 94% 

The King’s Speech – Rotten Tomatoes: 96% 
my blog: I found this slice of history to be well done, well acted and well told.

127 Hours – Rotten Tomatoes: 93% 

The Social Network – Rotten Tomatoes: 97% 
my blog: I found the movie fascinating and would give credit to Aaron Sorkin who wrote the screenplay. That man did a fabulous job with the TV series The West Wing and once again, his writing shines. Of course, considering the story is a true story makes it all that much more interesting. Fact wins over fiction.

Toy Story 3 – Rotten Tomatoes: 99% 
my blog: Is 3D a fad or is it here to stay? Pixar once again show themselves to be excellent makers of great family entertainment.

True Grit – Rotten Tomatoes: 95% 
my blog: This is a movie which has some meat on its bones. Jeff Bridges had a colourful role, far better than Tron Legacy and much deserves his nomination.

Winter’s Bone – Rotten Tomatoes: 94% 

Other Films
There were a few other films of note in 2010 I would like to point out.

Barney’s Version was an excellent film and an excellent adaption of the book by Canadian author Mordecai Richler. You can’t take your eyes off of Paul Giamatti. This love story will tug at your heart strings.

Blue Valentine is a sorrowful tale. This love story shows us the highs of love at first sight and the lows of two people who have grown apart.

Another Year is a wonderful character study written and directed by England’s Mike Leigh. No car chase scenes but a lot of "small" action nevertheless.

I do want to add here how some documentaries proved to be some of the best if not the best films for me in 2010. Fiction is great and who doesn’t love a well told story. But what about reality? Both Inside Job and Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer deal with events surrounding the financial crisis of 2008 and taking into account just what happened to all of us, to the entire world, I found these films to be truly the most fascinating films I had seen last year. I can’t recommend them enough.

See my blog’s site map for all of my movie reviews.

Click HERE to read more from William Belle

Article viewed at: Oye! Times at www.oyetimes.com