2012 Oscar Winners – Results and Comments

It's 12:45 AM and the 2012 Academy Awards ceremony ended about an hour ago.  The Artist won Best Picture.  No one movie emerged as the big winner.  The Artist and Hugo shared the honors with five wins apiece.  The only other film to receive more than one Oscar was The Iron Lady with two.  Hugo’s wins were all in the technical categories, while The Artist won three of the five major Oscars (Picture, Director, and Actor). 

The show moved along very well.  It went three hours and 15 minutes, which is just a few minutes longer than last year.  For an Oscars telecast that is blazing speed.  Four hours used to be more common.  Last year was the first time they eliminated some of the time-consuming bits and had several presenters do two, or even three, awards while they were on stage.  These changes have cut the time down quite a bit.  Things still bogged down with the final three awards (Actor, Actress, and Picture.)  It took them 45 minutes to hand them out when it had taken them two and a half hours to hand out the prior 21 awards.  I actually thought they were going to finish in less than three hours, but they still kept the tributes to each of the five nominees in the Best Actor and Actress categories and those took up several minutes apiece.

As for the host, I thought Billy Crystal did a decent job.  He didn’t adlib, or go off on tangents as much as he had in years past.  This also helped to keep the duration down.  In eleven minutes they were already bringing the first presenters out on stage.  Crystal did his usual montage of movie scenes with him in them (something he brought with him from the Mtv Movie Awards about 15-20 years ago).  He also did a song and dance about each of the movies, like he usually does.  The sound during this sequence, and during many of the times people were speaking, came out very hollow.  They needed a better Sound person on the show.

As for the jokes, Crystal had more hits than misses.  Some of his best jokes were about the-theater-formally-known-as-Kodak.  He came back to the subject a couple of times.  (For those who don’t know – Kodak is going through bankruptcy and they want to take their name off the Kodak Theater which hosts the Oscars because it costs Kodak a mint.)  I actually don’t remember anyone referring to it as the Kodak Theater during the broadcast, either, but I wasn’t specifically listening for it.  A couple of Crystal’s misses were a fat joke at Jonah Hill’s expense and a grunting Nick Nolte impression that seemed to have Nolte asking what he did to Crystal to deserve that. 

As for the presenters, the actresses from The Bridesmaids got some good laughs when they came out to present the Short subjects.  There were the expected jokes about whether length matters or not, but the best joke was two of them participating in a drinking game every time they heard the name “Scorcese”.  They cut to Martin Scorcese right after this and he was laughing his ass off.  Other presenter skits ranged from good (Emma Stone and Ben Stiller) to okay (Sandra Bullock) to not that great (Robert Downey, Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow).  By the way, what was with all the taller women/shorter men presenter sets?  It seemed like someone almost set them up that way to try to generate some humor from it.

As for the winners, I believe we got the second F-bomb in Oscar history when the Best Documentary winners were blanked out for several seconds, then started getting the “Go Away” music, then when they didn’t take the hint, their microphone was cut off.  Melissa Leo had let the first F bomb fly just last year in her acceptance speech.  Perhaps this will be an annual thing now.  No one made too big a political speech, although the Best Documentary winners were trying to when their mike was cut off. 

Best Supporting Actor winner Christopher Plummer had the best acceptance speech of the night.  It was funny, gracious, and touching.  I loved when he held his Oscar up, said to it that it was only two years older than him, and then asked it where it had been all his life.  Almost every time there was a pair of winners they seemed to share the microphone well.  I always feel a little sorry for the second person who gets no time when the first person has used it all up thanking their hairdresser, dog walker, etc.  One of the winners for Best Adapted Screenplay spoofed presenter Angelina Jolie, who had very deliberately turned sideways and extended her leg out from under the slit in her dress.  The joke earned the guy some laughs and Jolie didn’t repeat the move when she presented the next award.

The two biggest surprises of the night were right at the beginning and the end of the show.  The biggest was Meryl Streep winning Best Actress.  The crowd gasped and Streep looked stunned.  This was my only real “Wow!” of the night.  The second biggest surprise was The Tree of Life not winning Best Cinematography.  The crowd seemed quite surprised at this.  In addition, Hugo went two for two, then four for six, then five for seven, in winning awards it was nominated for.  For the first hour or so it was starting to look like it was going to be a bigger night for Hugo than The Artist.

As for Best Dressed, I don’t notice fashion.  As I said in my “About this Blog” post, the only clothing tip you will find on my site is “If you go out in public, wear some.”  Tell you what; I’ll pick Uggie the Dog as Best Dressed.  He had a black bowtie on and it must have been a bitch for him to tie it.  That shows true dedication to fashion.

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 14 out of 24 correct, which is 58 percent of them.  I’ll take that, although it was two less than I got last year.  I got all three “Lock”s, but only four out of seven “Likely”s correct.  I got six of ten “Educated Guess”es correct.  I got one of four of my “Wild-Ass Guess”es.  Last year I got all my “Lock”s and “Likely”s, six of ten “Educated Guess”es, and none of my “Wild-Ass Guesses”.  I really should have picked Hugo in a lot more categories.

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

*The Artist

The Descendants

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

The Help

Hugo

Midnight in Paris

Moneyball

The Tree of Life

War Horse

Confidence – Lock

Correct Pick? – Yes

Comment – This was one of the few years when it was pretty much a given which movie was going to win Best Picture.

Best Animated Picture

A Cat in Paris

Chico & Rita

Kung Fu Panda 2

Puss in Boots

*Rango

Confidence – Educated Guess

Correct Pick? – Yes

Comment – This seemed to be the favorite.

Best Foreign Language Picture

Bullhead                       (from Belgium)

Footnote                       (from Israel)

In Darkness                  (from Poland)

Monsieur Lazhar          (from Canada)

*A Separation            (from Iran)

Confidence – Likely

Correct Pick? – Yes

Comment – As expected.  I will have to see this when it becomes available on DVD.

Best Documentary

Hell and Back Again

If a Tree Falls: The Story of the Earth Liberation Front

Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory

Pina

*Undefeated

Confidence – Wild-Ass Guess

Correct Pick? – No

Comment – Once again, the Academy’s documentary pick seems to defy other organizations.

Best Actor

Demian Bichir               (in A Better Life)

George Clooney            (in The Descendants)

*Jean Dujardin          (in The Artist)

Gary Oldman                (in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy)

Brad Pitt                        (in Moneyball)

Confidence – Likely

Correct Pick? – Yes

Comment – Dujardin had won most awards leading up to this, so it was not a surprise.

Best Actress

Glenn Close                 (in Albert Nobbs)

Viola Davis                (in The Help)

Rooney Mara               (in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo)

*Meryl Streep               (in The Iron Lady)

Michelle Williams        (in My Week with Marilyn)

Confidence – Likely

Correct Pick? – No

Comment – This was my one “Wow!” of the night.  It looked like it really surprised Streep, too.

Best Supporting Actor

Kenneth Branagh         (in My Week with Marilyn)

Jonah Hill                     (in Moneyball)

Nick Nolte                     (in Warrior)

*Christopher Plummer (in Beginners)

Max von Sydow            (in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close)

Confidence – Lock

Correct Pick? – Yes

Comment – Plummer gave the best acceptance speech of the night.

Best Supporting Actress

Berenice Bejo                (in The Artist)

Jessica Chastain            (in The Help)

Melissa McCarthy         (in Bridesmaids)

Janet McTeer                (in Albert Nobbs)

*Octavia Spencer      (in The Help)

Confidence – Likely

Correct Pick? – Yes

Comment – She won as expected.  She was the only winner to really freak out and start crying.  Before the Oscars I read that she was taking a prior winner’s advice and not preparing any notes in case she won.  She was just going to make it up when she got up there.

Best Director

Woody Allen                (for Midnight in Paris)

*Michel Hazanavicius (for The Artist)

Terence Malick            (for The Tree of Life)

Alexander Payne          (for The Descendants)

Martin Scorcese           (for Hugo)

Confidence – Likely

Correct Pick? – Yes

Comment – He had won the DGA award, so this was not a surprise.

Best Original Screenplay

The Artist

Bridesmaids

Margin Call

*Midnight in Paris

A Separation

Confidence – Lock

Correct Pick? – Yes

Comment – This had won everything leading up to the Oscars, so it was not a surprise.  Neither was Woody Allen not being there to accept the award.

Best Adapted Screenplay

*The Descendants

Hugo

The Ides of March

Moneyball

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Confidence – Educated Guess

Correct Pick? – Yes

Comment – This had won the WGA award, so it’s not a surprise.

Best Original Song

*Man or Muppet          (from The Muppets)

Real in Rio                 (from Rio)

Confidence – Likely

Correct Pick? – No

Comment – Nostalgia for the Muppets won out.  I didn’t even feel this was the best song from the movie.  Neither did film critics, who awarded the song Life’s a Happy Song from the film with the Critics Choice Award instead.

Best Original Score

The Adventures of Tintin

*The Artist

Hugo

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

War Horse

Confidence – Educated Guess

Correct Pick? – Yes

Comment – A score really stands out in a silent film.

Best Cinematography

The Artist

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

*Hugo

The Tree of Life

War Horse

Confidence – Educated Guess

Correct Pick? – No

Comment – This was a surprise to me, and it seemed to be a big surprise to the audience.

Best Editing

The Artist

The Descendants

*The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Hugo

Moneyball

Confidence – Educated Guess

Correct Pick? – Yes

Comment – The same guys won last year for The Social Network.

Best Art Direction

The Artist

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

*Hugo

Midnight in Paris

War Horse

Confidence – Educated Guess

Correct Pick? – Yes

Comment – The audience seemed to expect it.

Best Costumes

Anonymous

*The Artist

Hugo

Jane Eyre

W.E.

Confidence – Educated Guess

Correct Pick? – Yes

Comment – The audience seemed to expect it.

Best Makeup

Albert Nobbs

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

*The Iron Lady

Confidence – Likely

Correct Pick? – No

Comment – The audience seemed a little surprised.  I didn’t see the film, so perhaps I might have thought the makeup was great if I had.

Best Visual Effects

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

*Hugo

Real Steel

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Confidence – Educated Guess

Correct Pick? – No

Comment – Hugo started sweeping most technical categories.

Best Sound Editing

Drive

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

*Hugo

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

War Horse

Confidence – Educated Guess

Correct Pick? – No

Comment – Hugo continues winning technical categories.  I was wrong about Editing and Sound Editing going to the same film.

Best Sound Mixing

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

*Hugo

Moneyball

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

War Horse

Confidence – Educated Guess

Correct Pick? – No

Comment – Hugo continues winning technical categories.  I was right about Sound Editing and Sound Mixing going to the same film, but I picked the wrong film.

Best Animated Short

Dimanche

*The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

La Luna

A Morning Stroll

Wild Life

Confidence – Wild-Ass Guess

Correct Pick? – Yes

Comment – I can’t take credit for getting this right.

Best Documentary Short

The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement

God is the Bigger Elvis

Incident in New Baghdad

*Saving Face

The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom

Confidence – Wild-Ass Guess

Correct Pick? – No

Comment – I figured it was a coin flip between my pick and the one that won and I picked wrong.

Best Live Action Short

Pentecost

Raju

*The Shore

Time Freak

Tuba Atlantic

Confidence – Wild-Ass Guess

Correct Pick? – No

Comment – This is the last comment.  Man….lot’s of pressure to say something intelligent, or witty, or pithy, or….Sorry, I’ve got nothing.  It’s past my bedtime.

Summary of Picks by Confidence Level

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

Lock:

1. Best Picture
2. Best Supporting Actor
3. Best Original Screenplay

Likely

1. Best Foreign Language Picture
2. Best Actor
3. Best Actress
4. Best Supporting Actress
5. Best Director
6. Best Original Song
7. Best Makeup

Educated Guess

1. Best Animated Picture
2. Best Adapted Screenplay
3. Best Original Score
4. Best Cinematography
5. Best Editing
6. Best Art Direction
7. Best Costumes
8. Best Visual Effects
9. Best Sound Editing
10. Best Sound Mixing

Wild-Ass Guess

1. Best Documentary
2. Best Animated Short
3. Best Documentary Short
4. Best Live Action Short