2011 Oscar Winners

It's 2:15 AM and the 2011 Academy Awards ceremony ended about an hour and a half ago.  The King’s Speech won Best Picture.  No one movie emerged as the big winner.  The King’s Speech and Inception had four wins apiece, The Social Network had three, and Toy Story 3, Alice in Wonderland, and The Fighter had two apiece. 

11:30 AM Edit - I should have pointed out that the four wins for The King's Speech were in four of the five "major" Oscar categories - Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Original Screenplay.  It did not win Best Actress, nor did it have anyone even nominated for that from this film.  See my set of posts on the only three movies in Oscar history to have won all five major awards - Click here for these posts

The show actually moved along pretty well.  It went a little over three hours.  For an Oscars telecast that is blazing speed.  Four hours tends to be more common.  Having presenters do two awards at a time definitely sped things up and I hope they keep it like that.  Not having montages for each of the ten nominated films also saved time.  Things still bogged down with the final four awards (Actor, Actress, Director, Picture.)  It took them over 45 minutes to hand them out when it had taken them less than two and a half hours to hand out the prior 20 awards.

As for the hosts, I thought Anne Hathaway was as charming as she was expected to be.  She might have been a little too goofy for the literati who have their noses stuck in the air.  On the other hand, James Franco seemed to either be squinting to see the teleprompter or was half asleep every time he appeared.  His lack of energy cancelled out Hathaway’s abundance of energy to equal an okay hosting job.  Sometimes I got the feeling that Hathaway was trying a little too hard to get some energy going when she was on stage with Franco.  If I were running things I would have Hathaway back next year and pair her with someone else who can keep up with her.

As for the jokes, I thought the opening sequence where they inserted the two of them into various movies was just okay.  It had been done before, but it was really that none of the jokes seemed that good.  The best might have been Hathaway’s little flirtatious wink at the future king in The King’s Speech.  They missed two great opportunities for jokes.  First, Franco was hosting and he was also in the nominated movie 127 Hours.  They should have put Hathaway in the movie beside him in the canyon, or even had her hiking with him and her being the one to convince him to go down into this little canyon. 

The second missed opportunity was with Black Swan.  They just had Hathaway as a “brown duck” who was harassing Portman.  They should have taken a page from Oscar history.  Perhaps the most infamous dress worn to the Oscars was Bjork’s “swan dress.”  They should have put Hathaway into a black “swan dress” for that segment.  I am really surprised they didn’t do this.  It would have killed.

I figured they would reference the fact that Franco was nominated and Hathaway wasn’t.  I liked her joke about “it used to be you got naked, you got nominated.  I don’t know what to believe anymore.”  That’s a reference to her movie Love and Other Drugs, which some had thought would bring her a nomination.  It’s going on sale this week.  I’m going to get it on Blu-ray.  Anne deserves nothing less than the best when it comes to image quality.  J

Hathaway sung well on her parody version of “On My Own”, but it wasn’t clear if Hugh Jackman was in on the joke or not.  It looked like he wasn’t, so that made it feel a little awkward.  I kept expecting it to be part of the joke and he would join her on stage to sing like she did with him a couple years ago when he hosted.  He never did, though. 

The bit where they pretended regular movies were musicals by running dialogue together was not funny at all until they got to Twilight.  They pretended the movie had a song about how one of the guys does not wear a shirt through most of the movie.

As for the presenters, Kirk Douglas got some good laughs when he came out to present for Best Supporting Actress.  On the other hand, Oprah Winfrey seemed to think she was the one who had to make a speech when she came out to present Best Documentary.  She ran on longer than the winners are allowed to talk. 

As for the winners, we got the first F-bomb in Oscar history when Melissa Leo let one fly during a rambling acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actress.  Christian Bale got a big laugh when he said he wouldn’t be using the word that Leo did because he “had used it quite a bit in the past” – a reference to his famous on set tirade that went viral a few years ago.  Colin Firth had the best speech, both humorous and to the heart.  Randy Newman had a funny speech after winning for Best Original Song.  Only one person, a co-winner for Best Documentary, took time out to make a point.  His was that not one of the financial people responsible for the economic meltdown a couple of years ago has ever gone to jail.  His documentary was about that, so it was kind of still on subject.

Here is what I wrote in my predictions post: “I’m posting this list so you can either be amazed at my overall movie knowledge, or so that you can ridicule me for being wrong.  Hopefully it’s more the former than the latter.  My goal is more than 50% correct, with a hope of 75% (18 of 24 categories), although that is probably not realistic.  Good or bad I will do a follow-up post on how I did.”

I got 16 out of 24 correct, which is exactly two thirds of them.  I’ll take that.  Had I not been quite so cynical on three of my choices I would have gone over the 75% mark that was my hope.  I got all four “Lock”s and all five “Likely”s correct.  I got six of ten “Educated Guess”es correct.  I got one of five of my “Wild-Ass Guess”es.  Jake Gyllenhaal made a joke during his presentation about why everyone should see all of the nominated short documentaries, live action shorts, and animated shorts – so that your percentages go up by being able to pick the right ones.  I ended up getting all three of those wrong, so maybe next year I will try to do that. 

Just as a comparison, the two major film critics for The Boston Globe got a total of 14 correct and 17 correct, respectively.  The one with 17 right got one of the three short categories correct, so that was the difference between his total and mine.

Here is the complete list of nominations and winners in all twenty-four categories.  What I would have picked is highlighted in yellow.  No highlight means I did not see any of the choices.  What I thought would win is in bold.  I said if I thought my choice was a lock, likely, educated guess, or wild-ass guess.  What actually won has an *asterisk* in front of it.

Best Picture

Black Swan

The Fighter

Inception

The Kids Are All Right

*The King’s Speech

127 Hours

The Social Network

Toy Story 3

True Grit

Winter’s Bone

Confidence – Likely

Correct Pick? – Yes

Comment – The King’s Speech is a good movie.  I just wish the Academy would have taken Toy Story 3 more seriously.

Best Animated Picture

How to Train Your Dragon

The Illusionist

*Toy Story 3

Confidence – Lock

Correct Pick? – Yes

Comment – As expected

Best Foreign Language Picture

Biutiful                         (from Mexico)

Dogtooth                      (from Greece)

*In a Better World  (from Denmark)

Incendies                      (from Canada)

Outside the Law           (from Algeria)

Confidence – Educated Guess

Correct Pick? – Yes

Comment – I will have to see this when it becomes available.

Best Documentary

Exit through the Gift Shop

Gasland

*Inside Job

Restrepo

Waste Land

Confidence – Educated Guess

Correct Pick? – No

Comment – In my predictions post I mentioned that some people might be turned off by Exit through the Gift Shop because of the question of exactly how real it is, and this may have happened.  I will watch both Inside Job and Exit through the Gift Shop when they become available.

Best Actor

Javier Bardem              (in Biutiful)

Jeff Bridges                  (in True Grit)

Jesse Eisenberg            (in The Social Network)

*Colin Firth               (in The King’s Speech)

James Franco               (in 127 Hours)

Confidence – Lock

Correct Pick? – Yes

Comment – As expected.  He had the best speech of the night.

Best Actress

Annette Bening             (in The Kids Are All Right)

Nicole Kidman              (in Rabbit Hole)

Jennifer Lawrence         (in Winter’s Bone)

*Natalie Portman      (in Black Swan)

Michelle Williams          (in Blue Valentine)

Confidence – Likely

Correct Pick? – Yes

Comment – As expected.  Her speech went into parody territory when she, in all seriousness, thanked her hair stylist and makeup people.  They let her go on until she ran down.  Notice how the “big category” winners never have the music start playing on them when they run way past the allotted time?

Best Supporting Actor

*Christian Bale          (in The Fighter)

John Hawkes                (in Winter’s Bone)

Jeremy Renner             (in The Town)

Mark Ruffalo                (in The Kids Are All Right)

Geoffrey Rush              (in The King’s Speech)

Confidence – Lock

Correct Pick? – Yes

Comment – As expected.  Good speech until his shout out of a website run by the real life Dicky Eklund, the character Bale played.  You could hear the audience react in disgust when he did it.  It’s not even an unwritten code.  There is an actual written rule that you cannot promote something in your speeches.  It’s usually to prevent people from shilling whatever movie they have coming out next, but it also includes websites.

Best Supporting Actress

Amy Adams                    (in The Fighter)

Helena Bonham Carter (in The King’s Speech)

*Melissa Leo               (in The Fighter)

Hailee Steinfeld               (in True Grit)

Jacki Weaver                  (in Animal Kingdom)

Confidence – Likely

Correct Pick? – Yes

Comment – As expected.  I’m sure most people didn’t expect her to drop the F-bomb in her acceptance speech, though.  Christian Bale had a funny reference to it in his speech.

Best Director

Darren Aronofsky         (for Black Swan)

Joel and Ethan Coen     (for True Grit)

David Fincher            (for The Social Network)

*Tom Hooper                (for The King’s Speech)

David O. Russell           (for The Fighter)

Confidence – Educated Guess

Correct Pick? – No

Comment – In my predictions I said I was going out on a limb on this one since Best Picture and Best Director usually go together.  I was too cynical.  The Academy has a reputation of rewarding people who have been around longer, doing good work for a long time.  That described David Fincher.  Tom Hooper had not really done much of note prior to this movie.  This year the voters seemed to actually pick who they thought was best, not who they thought had gone the longest without winning.

Best Original Screenplay

Another Year

The Fighter

Inception

The Kids Are All Right

*The King’s Speech

Confidence – Educated Guess

Correct Pick? – No

Comment – In my predictions I said the smart money was on The King’s Speech.  I felt that the voters would do a “make up” vote for Inception and that this would be the category.  It turned out that Cinematography was the reward vote for Inception, not this one.  I should have gone with the smart money.

Best Adapted Screenplay

127 Hours

*The Social Network

Toy Story 3

True Grit

Winter’s Bone

Confidence – Educated Guess

Correct Pick? – Yes

Comment – There were a lot of witty lines in The Social Network, so I’m not surprised at all by this winning.

Best 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)

Confidence – Likely

Correct Pick? – Yes

Comment – As expected.  This was kind of a weak year for the nominated songs.

Best Original Score

How to Train Your Dragon

Inception

The King’s Speech

127 Hours

*The Social Network

Confidence – Wild-Ass Guess

Correct Pick? – No

Comment – In my predictions I said this was a toss up between The King’s Speech and The Social Network.  I picked the wrong one because I thought Trent Reznor (of Nine Inch Nails fame) would turn off too many of the Academy voters even though his score for The Social Network was the one I would have picked.  I should have gone with my choice instead.

Best Cinematography

Black Swan

*Inception

The King’s Speech

The Social Network

True Grit

Confidence – Educated Guess

Correct Pick? – No

Comment – See my comments on Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.  This was the category where Inception got the “reward” vote and Roger Deakins (True Grit) did not get rewarded for his long body of work.

Best Editing

Black Swan

The Fighter

The King’s Speech

127 Hours

*The Social Network

Confidence – Educated Guess

Correct Pick? – Yes

Comment – I had predicted The Social Network would be the safe choice for voters.

Best Art Direction

*Alice in Wonderland

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

Inception

The King’s Speech

True Grit

Confidence – Wild-Ass Guess

Correct Pick? – Yes

Comment – I thought The King’s Speech had a chance to get this as a throw in with Best Picture, but it didn’t so I got it right.

Best Costumes

*Alice in Wonderland

I Am Love

The King’s Speech

The Tempest

True Grit

Confidence – Educated Guess

Correct Pick? – Yes

Comment – I thought The King’s Speech had a chance to get this as a throw in with Best Picture, but it didn’t so I got it right.

Best Makeup

Barney’s Version

The Way Back

*The Wolfman

Confidence – Likely

Correct Pick? – Yes

Comment – As expected.  The co-winner joked he had once dreamed of being nominated and then losing to Rick Baker, but that winning with Rick Baker was a lot better.  This is a reference to the fact that Baker is the king of this category.

Best Visual Effects

Alice in Wonderland

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

Hereafter

*Inception

Iron Man 2

Confidence – Lock

Correct Pick? – Yes

Comment – As expected.

Best Sound Editing

*Inception

Toy Story 3

Tron: Legacy

True Grit

Unstoppable

Confidence – Educated Guess

Correct Pick? – Yes

Comment – Inception did clean up the technical awards.

Best Sound Mixing

*Inception

The King’s Speech

Salt

The Social Network

True Grit

Confidence – Educated Guess

Correct Pick? – Yes

Comment – Inception did clean up the technical awards.

Best Animated Short

Day & Night

The Gruffalo

Let’s Pollute

*The Lost Thing

Madagascar, A Journey Diary

Confidence – Wild-Ass Guess

Correct Pick? – No

Comment – See my comment up above about Jake Gyllenhaal’s joke.

Best Documentary Short

Killing in the Name

Poster Girl

*Strangers No More

Sun Come Up

The Warriors of Qiugang

Confidence – Wild-Ass Guess

Correct Pick? – No

Comment – See my comment up above about Jake Gyllenhaal’s joke.

Best Live Action Short

The Confession

The Crush

*God of Love

Na Wewe

Wish 143

Confidence – Wild-Ass Guess

Correct Pick? – No

Comment – See my comment up above about Jake Gyllenhaal’s joke.

Summary of Picks by Confidence Level

(The ones I got correct are highlighted in green.)

Lock:

1. Best Animated Picture
2. Best Actor
3. Best Supporting Actor
4. Best Visual Effects

Likely

1. Best Picture
2. Best Actress
3. Best Supporting Actress
4. Best Original Song
5. Best Makeup

Educated Guess

1. Best Foreign Language Picture
2. Best Documentary
3. Best Director
4. Best Original Screenplay
5. Best Adapted Screenplay
6. Best Cinematography
7. Best Editing
8. Best Costumes
9. Best Sound Editing
10. Best Sound Mixing

Wild-Ass Guess

1. Best Original Score
2. Best Art Direction
3. Best Animated Short
4. Best Documentary Short
5. Best Live Action Short