Monday, March 8, 2010
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Monday, March 8, 2010
AWARDS SEASON
2010: The 82nd Annual Academy Awards
"The Hurt Locker" Feels No
Pain, Winning Six Oscars
Kathryn Bigelow, best director winner for "The Hurt
Locker", producer, alongside the film's other producers, the best original
screenplay winner Mark Boal and Greg Shapiro accepting for the best picture
Oscar last night at the Kodak Theater. Behind them were the film's stars:
best actor nominee Jeremy Renner, Brian Geraghty and Anthony Mackie.
Michael Yada/©A.M.P.A.S.
By
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
FOLLOW
Monday, March 8, 2010
There were few surprises last night at the 82nd Annual Academy Awards, and
despite the best efforts of Oscar show producers Bill Mechanic and Adam Shankman,
the show ran over three and a half hours. The length of the show proved to
be worth the wait for "The Hurt
Locker", which triumphed with six Oscars including best picture and Kathryn
Bigelow's history-making win for best director. The milestone was 82 years
in the making, and the award fittingly presented by Barbra Streisand, herself
omitted as a directing nominee in 1992 for "The Prince Of Tides".
"Well, the time has come," intoned Ms. Streisand, who then read Ms. Bigelow's
name.
"It's the moment of a lifetime," said Ms. Bigelow, who moments later clutched a
second 8 1/2 pound statuette, for best picture.
There was no history made in the acting categories. Everything went as
expected.
Sandra Bullock won best
actress for "The Blind Side" ("did I really earn
this or did I just wear you down?"), while
Jeff Bridges won the Best
Actor Oscar for "Crazy Heart". "Thanks
Mom and Dad, for turning me on to such a groovy profession," said Mr. Bridges,
who had been nominated four other times prior to tonight's win.
Mo'Nique won best supporting
actress for her role in "Precious". The
comedienne and talk-show host looked 70 years to the past to an historic figure
of the Oscars. "I want to thank Miss Hattie McDaniel* for enduring all
that she had to so that I would not have to," Mo'Nique said, after thanking the
Academy "for showing that it can be about the performance, not the politics."
The comment was viewed by some as an answer to those who criticized Mo'Nique for
not campaigning for Oscar. (*Miss McDaniel was the first black person to
win an Academy Award, doing so in 1940 for her supporting role in "Gone With The
Wind".)
Christoph Waltz won best supporting actor for
"Inglourious Basterds", and was grateful to
Quentin Tarantino, the film's director.
"Everybody helped me find a place. Universal and The Weinstein Company and
ICM and Quentin, with his unorthodox methods of navigation, this fearless
explorer, took this ship across and brought it in with flying colors and that's
why I'm here."
One of the night's biggest surprises was
Geoffrey Fletcher winning the
Oscar for best adapted screenplay ("Precious"). In doing so Mr. Fletcher,
like Ms. Bigelow, made history, becoming the only African-American to win a
screenplay Oscar in the show's 82 year-existence. Mr. Fletcher,
breathless, said in part, "I really don't know what to say."
Many observers expected Jason Reitman and Sheldon
Turner to win for "Up In The Air", but the film came
away empty-handed last night. "Precious" by contrast did very well,
winning twice out of its maximum four nominations.
Supporting actress winner Mo'Nique poses with her
"Precious" Oscar backstage. She paid on
stage and here to Hattie McDaniel, who won the same award 70 years ago, by
wearing the same
dress and the exact gardenia in her hair that the iconic McDaniel did at the
Oscars in 1940.
Todd Wawrychuk/©A.M.P.A.S.
In what has become a trend, the best foreign language film winner was a
surprise, with "El Secreto Des Sus Ojos" of Argentina winning. Many
expected Michael Haneke's "The White Ribbon"
(Germany) to prevail.
For all the surprises and history making, there were some ill-timed moments for
Oscar however, when a dissenting producer, Elinor Burkett, of the Oscar-winning
short film ("Music By Prudence")
bounded on stage and interrupted the speech of its director and producer Roger
Ross Williams. Additionally, the nattily-attired Sandy Powell who accepted
her third Oscar for costume design ("The Young Victoria") began her speech by
saying, "I already have two of these ...". And despite a great musical
accompaniment from the legendary James Taylor, several people were omitted from
the In Memoriam tribute, including Farrah Fawcett, Henry Gibson and Bea Arthur.
Also curious was the interpretive dance number for the original score nominees,
which was performed, while the original song nominees were scrapped this year.
Also shelved was the announcement "and the Oscar goes to...", with a return to
the more direct and exclusive "and the winner is".
Other than these anomalies the show went on and on, with
"The Cove" and
"Up" scoring wins in the documentary and animated feature categories
respectively. "Up" also won Michael Giacchino an Oscar for best original
score. "Avatar" stayed largely behind the
curtain, winning three technical awards (visual effects, art direction and
cinematography).
Complete list of winners
FOLLOW
Read more movie reviews and stories from Omar
here.
Read Omar's "Far-Flung Correspondent" reports for America's pre-eminent Film
Critic Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times -
here
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