Oscars Recap

So yesterday marked the date of the 82nd Annual Academy Awards. As the stars lined the red carpet in anticipation, a debate was brewing amongst my friends about the nominees and the likely winners. Typical, many of the favorites took home the prize and there were very few surprises. One big question was whether Avatar or The Hurt Locker would get a sweep, as each had 9 nominations! In the end it was The Hurt Locker which scored a well-deserved 6 wins including best picture, and best director. Here is my brief assessment of all the winners at the 82nd Academy Awards!

Best Picture: The Hurt Locker

Thoroughly deserved the victory. I believe it was the best film nominated, and after winning the best original screenplay and best director awards earlier this was an obvious victory.

Best Actor: Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart)

The hot favorite to win this after winning everything else. I was very happy to see Jeff Bridges receive the credit he has deserved over his fantastic career. He also delivered a great speech. Jeremy Renner and Colin Firth, despite not winning, were also well recognised by former co-stars for their career performances.

Best Actress: Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side)

Okay so i was kidding myself if i thought anyone else was going to win this! Carey Mulligan and Meryl were the contenders but this had always been Sandra's year. Her performance in The Blind Side is probably the best in her career, but it certainly wasn't a worthy performance of this award. What I admired about Sandra was that she recognised this in her speech and praised all the other nominees accordingly. She was genuinely flattered to win the award, and you can't blame her for that. I'm not unhappy, I was just a bit disgusted that a film as mediocre as The Blind Side can spawn an Oscar!

Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds)

This was set in stone and it was really a fantastic performance! Pity it was Basterds' only award for the night!

Best Supporting Actress: MoNique (Precious)

More disgraceful than the fact that MoNique won this award was her acceptance speech, praising the Academy for rewarding the best performance and not succumbing to politics. She is an arrogant bitch! Her victory is clouded with politics! It smelt of Oprah Winfrey all over! Anna Kendrick deserved this more than her, and there were some brilliant performances not even nominated, namely Marion Cotillard in Nine and Melanie Laurent in Inglourious Basterds. Precious was a disaster and I still can't believe she took home this award!

Best Director: Kathryn Bigalow (The Hurt Locker)

Yes! The most impressive work of all the nominees. The first female winner also.

Best Adapted Screenplay: Precious

I view it as an absolute travesty that Up in the Air missed out on winning a single award, and this takes the prize. The smart, funny and ultimately tragic screenplay that was Up in the Air is void of praise after the poorly performed and unmoving screaming match that is Precious takes the award. A fucking disgrace, and one of the few shocks!

Best Original Screenplay: The Hurt Locker

This was also a shock, as I expected Inglourious Basterds or possibly even Up to win! But as soon as it won, we knew it would take the sweep. A fantastic screenplay nonetheless but this was a strong category!

Best Animated Film: Up

This is also well deserved. It was the best of the nominated films and one of the best animated films of all time!

Best Cinematography: Avatar

I thought this could have gone to Inglourious Basterds or Das Weisse Band, but Avatar is understandable!

Best Music (Original Score): Up

Woohoo. Great!

Best Film Editing: The Hurt Locker

Yep. Hands down!

The rest of the awards weren't that interesting! The Hurt Locker won both sound awards, and Avatar took out best visual effects. No real surprises there!