Every year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences puts on the ultimate Hollywood production. Everyone is on their best behaviour, wearing their silkiest tuxedoes and fluffiest dresses to attend the world’s most recognized film awards show. Every joke and every move is staged to put on the most memorable show … at least until the next one.
The 83rd Annual Academy Awards featured well-deserved praise for Natalie Portman and Colin Firth, a questionable host duo of Anne Hathaway and James Franco, the unforgivable omission of Leonardo DiCaprio for his performance in Inception, a standing ovation for Billy Crystal, an awkward performance from Celine Dion, an even more awkward performance from Gwyneth Paltrow, a touching tribute to Lena Horne by Halle Berry, and the recognized technical perfection of both Inception and The Social Network.
Steven Spielberg crowned The King’s Speech with the Oscar for Best Picture, topping off the already well-awarded movie with the ultimate prize, giving it the little logo that will make your regular DVD into an all-time classic.
Natalie Portman’s acceptance speech for Actress in a leading role made me want to give her another award just for being so humble and sweet, especially when she reminisced about her first movie role as a teen in Luc Besson’s Léon. Her haunting and moving performance in Black Swan was deserving of the award. British actor Colin Firth also won Best acting honours for The King’s Speech.
But the Oscars aren’t just a red carpet and the award for Best Picture; they also deconstruct the filmmaking process. From pre-production to the screenplay, from costumes and makeup to special effects, and from cinematography to editing, the Oscars praise every working hand in the film industry and honour the lesser-known professions in cinema.
The Social Network and Inception were two major highlights of this year’s must-see movies. Both were innovative, bright, deep, and fantastically well-portrayed by their respective actors, and most importantly were rewarded for their technical achievements. The Social Network won for Editing and Best Oirignal Score, and Inception took home the prize for visual effects and sound editing and mixing.
That said, these mostly technical recognitions might not be enough to tame Inception fans’ incomprehension and anger. Viewers were disappointed by the exclusion of DiCaprio from the category of Actor in a Leading Role, and, most importantly, the scandalous leaving out of Christopher Nolan from the nominees for Best Directing.
The Hathaway-Franco hosting duo was another questionable decision by the Academy this year. Both are young and sexy, but their lack of chemistry with each other and the audience made it clear that they are definitely not up to par with hosting legend Billy Crystal, who made a cameo at the ceremony and was thanked with a standing ovation from a nostalgic and grateful crowd.
The attempt to rejuvenate the Oscars ceremony by injecting Hathaway and Franco was more obvious than the actual Botox in Billy Crystal’s cheeks, though. This is understandable considering the need to increase ratings for the telecast, but Hathaway tried too hard to compensate for Franco’s nonchalance, to the point that it looked like he wished he wasn’t there anymore.
From a Canadian, and Quebecois persepctive, in particular, it is a shame that Incendies, an outstanding film, did not win the award for Foreign Language Film. With any luck, next year’s show won’t get caught up in trying to appeal to a certain demographic and will stick to giving out well-deserved awards to interesting filmmakers.
