Well just for a change, instead of waiting it out for the evening broadcast/repeat broadcast of the Oscars here this year, I dropped the kids home at 3pm and found it was live on TV here (which it usually isn’t), so I just watched the rest of it live. That’s all the stuff that won’t be on until after midnight here, so that seems like a good idea…
And it all pretty much went as predicted, which I’m fine with. Argo won Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Editing, which makes 3 awards for the top prize winner, but that reflects how open the categories this year. I’ve only seen Argo from the main nominees, and it’s a great movie, so very impressive to see the result. Despite not predicting it back in January, it became the obvious contender after winning every lead up award since, and it was definitely what I expected to win today.
Best Director was somewhat surprising, going to Ang Lee for Life of Pi. After the Affleck semi-snub, someone else had to win, and apart from the obvious one, it seems as if Lincoln lost all supporters.
That obvious one was of course Daniel Day Lewis as Best Actor, and he became the first actor ever to win the award three times. As people seemed to become less enthusiastic about Lincoln, no one lost their enthusiasm for awarding him again.
Best Actress went to Jennifer Lawrence for Silver Linings Playbook, which was largely expected, and by all reports she’s excellent. She seems like a smart and intelligent young actress as well, and very level-headed for someone deeply successful in Hollywood right now. Not likely to be her last time up there.
Quentin Tarantino won his second Oscar, this time for Original Screenplay for Django Unchained. I’ll see that next month if it’s still on…
Brave did manage to pip Wreck-it-Ralph for Best Animated Feature, and while I had predicted/hoped for Ralph, I did like Brave as well, and suspected it might win as an artistic achievement, and because Oscars love Pixar (and really, so they should!)