Monday, February 28, 2011

Oscars Roundup

So unless you live under a rock, you probably know that yesterday was the Academy Awards. As someone in the film biz, I have kind of a love-hate relationship with this particular awards ceremony. I love it because an Oscar can boost a film's box office revenue by about 30%. So I'm very happy about the Oscars for Inside Job (which I have exclusively here) and In A Better World.

There are others, that on a purely personal level, I'm not so happy with. I don't think Tom Hooper should have won the Directing award for The King's Speech. With that script, and that cast, he would not have needed to do much in the way of directing. Darren Aronofsky should have won for Black Swan. That's film that really needed a strong hand at the helm.

I also don't think Sorkin should have won the Adapted Screenplay award. He's a great writer and his dialogue rocks off the screen. I admit I haven't read the source material, but the film of Winter's Bone is just as good as the book, and how often can you say that about any movie? That's the adapted screenplay that should have won.

Other than that, I think the awards were pretty well spread. I don't think The King's Speech was the best film of the year, but that's just personal opinion. And to be honest, I think having 10 nominees for Best Picture cheapens it. Go back to five.

In terms of the actual ceremony, I didn't have too much to complain about. Celine Dion singing over the obits? Blerg! But it's okay. I have a mute button on my remote. Anne Hathaway looked like she was having a good time. Shame about Franco. He looked like he wanted to be anywhere else.... But I'll put that down to nerves. It must be hard presenting when you know you're up for a Best Actor award, and that's not announced until almost the end of the event. It went on too long, but when has an Oscars night not gone on too long?

What did you think?

1 comment:

  1. I would have loved Winter's Bone to pick up at least one major award. Other than that, I couldn't get interested in the Oscars this year - they didn't have the powerful narrative arc of last year's Avatar vs The Hurt Locker plotline.

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