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| Edited By: Blessy Chettiar,Shakti Salgaokar |Source: DNA |Updated: Nov 21, 2013, 01:44 PM IST
The 83rd Annual Academy Awards were hosted by actress Anne Hathaway and actor James Franco in Los Angeles. In what is considered Hollywood’s biggest night, both Franco and Hathway fell flat despite the occasional sprinklings of wit and humour.
Tom Hooper’s inspirational tale of Britain’s King George VI and his struggle to overcome a speech impediment, The King’s Speech walked away with four awards, including the Best Picture, Best Direction and Best Actor in a Leading Role.
Sandra Bullock, who herself won the Oscar for Best Actress last year, presented the Oscar to Colin Firth for his portrayal of a stammering monarch. Firth also took home the Golden Globe for Best Actor earlier this year. Firth was nominated last year in the same category for A Single Man. David Seidler’s heart-warming screenplay won the Best Original Screenplay and paired with confident and witty dialogue and remarkable performances, it is hardly surprising that the film won the Best Motion Picture award as well.
Jeff Bridges presented the award for Best Actress in a Leading Role to Natalie Portman for her sensuous, measured performance of ballerina Nina Sayers. Her performance which was the right blend of technique, talent and temperance, was an expected win this year.
David O Russell’s bio-drama, The Fighter ruled the performances in a supporting role. While Melissa Leo won the award for the Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her portrayal of Alice Ward, Christian Bale bagged his first ever Oscar for his phenomenal performance as Dicky Eklund. Critics all over the world were expecting Leo to lose to fifteen-year-old Hailee Steinfeld for True Grit but the Academy proved Leo’s allegations that it was an ageist organisation wrong by giving her the statuette. Christian Bale had some serious competition from Geoffrey Rush, but his physical and emotional hard work paid off and earned him his first Oscar.
While a period film won the Best Original Screenplay (The King’s Speech), The Social Network — a modern day drama based on a book called The Accidental Billionaires — earned Aaron Sorkin his first Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. The overwhelmed writer made a terrific acceptance speech by referring to an award won for the film The Network in the same category almost 39 years ago. The Social Network also bagged the Oscar for Achievement in Film Editing for Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter. With Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s win for The Best Original Score, The Social Network’s Oscar count goes up to three.
Dame Helen Mirren presented the award for Best Picture in a foreign film in chaste French. Her partner in crime, Comedian Russell Brand provided equally outrageous English translations to her words. Susan Bier walked away with the award for her Danish film In a Better World making it the third film from Denmark to win the award in the same category.
Lee Unkrichr’s touching tale of neglected toys, Toy Story 3 won the Best Animated Feature film
Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis presented the awards for short films. While Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann’s The Lost Thing won the Best Animated Short, Luke Matheny won the Best Live Action Short for God of Love.
Oprah Winfrey presented the award for Best Documentary (feature) to Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs for their insightful documentary about the worst financial crisis since The Great Depression in 1929 — Inside Job.
Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon’s Strangers No More received their award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) from Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal.
Tom Hanks explained that art direction and cinematorgraphy make a film a classic before presenting the award for Achievement in Art Direction and Set Decoration to Robert Stromberg and Karen O'Hara for Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland.
Christpher Nolan’s Inception might not have won any major categories but the film sure earned four technical awards. The film won Best Cinematography award for Wally Pfister who thanked his ‘Master’ Nolan for the award. The Award for Best Visual effects, Achievement in Sound Mixing and Achievement in Sound Editing also went into Inception’s kitty.
While the Oscar for Achievement in Make-up went to Rick Baker and Dave Elsey for The Wolfman, Colleen Atwood won her third Oscar for Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland.
Jennifer Hudson presented the Oscar for best original song to Randy Newman for 'We belong together' in Toy Story 3.
India's entry to the Oscars, AR Rahman failed to get any awards this year for his two nominations in the Best Original Score and Best Original Song categories for Danny Boyle's 127 Hours.
