The 2010 Academy Awards; Avatar Hurting from The Hurt Locker
Posted by Lucas Nochez on March 8, 2010 · Leave a Comment
Times are changing – and they are changing fast! The 82nd Annual Academy Awards seem to be another golden example of the changes that are heading straight our way. Last night, the highest-grossing film of all time was trampled on by the tiny film-that-could, The Hurt Locker. Not only did the The Hurt Locker walk away with Best Picture and a historic award for first female director winner Kathryn Bigelow, it also marched away with the most awards, including Best Original Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Sound Mixing and Sound Editing. Funny that Cameron and his ingenious “game-changing” Avatar walked away with only three awards, almost a quartar of what Cameron’s previous blockbuster snatched up back in 1997.
There was no doubt that the critics were rooting for The Hurt Locker all the way. Aside from all the hurting and locking, the night seemed to prove successful in many other aspects. For one, well, technically two, both hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin laughed their way into the hearts of millions. There was no doubt that Martin was a trained veteran on the Kodak stage when standing beside a nervous Baldwin, but both hosts prove to have learned something from their flick It’s Complicated. Although the chemistry between the two was ignited thanks to the chemistry of the incredible Meryl Streep the highlight of the hosting is undoubtly awarded to a small but ingenious spoof of the year’s sleeper hit Paranormal Activity; where the two comedians give their rendition of the scariest night of their lives sharing a hotel bed together (I swear my father peed his pants during this part).
My Favorite Speech(es)
Just because this year was one of the few years in most recent memory where the Oscars failed to connect with me on an emotional level, the best speeches of the night for me were the most emotional ones. Ironically enough, the two best speeches of the night came from the two winners of Precious; both Mo’Nique for Best Supporting Actress and first time screenwriter Geoffrey Fletcher. Fletcher, who through all the beautiful and equally disturbing dialogue in Precious, was shooting blanks on stage, thanking in the most sincere and humble way his family, brother, father, mother. On the ther hand, the confident and bold Mo’Nique swayed on stage to say perhaps the bravest and raw words in acceptance speech history, “I want to thank the Academy, for proving that awards can be about the performance, and not the politics.” But then again, this was before Sandra Bullock won her Oscar for Best Actress in the The Blind Side. Way to send mix messages Academy!
Sweetest Short Speech
This year the Academy was so intent to shortening the speeches to the winners, that they offered a new backstage “Thank-You Cam”. Although many of the winners, especially the actors, were able to give full-length versions of their speeches on stage, the simplest and most memorable words came from Singer/Song-Writer Ryan Bingham who quickly shouted, “Hunny, I love you more than rainbows”. Ahhhhhhhh.
Best Unexpected Speech
The Academy did this montage that usually winners of the ‘shorts’ categories go on to do bigger, brighter things within Hollywood, and they may be right. But the best unexpected speech came from French Oscar Winner Nicolas Schmerkin for his animated hyper-violent short, Logorama. “…no logos were harmed in the making of the project. It took, like, six years to make this 16 minutes, so I hope to come back here with a long feature film, in about 36 years.”
Best On-Stage Moment
Hands down, the best moment on-stage came when Ben Stiller showed up as a Na’vi. His tail was shaking frivilously around stage, only later to be seen attached to a fishing rod. He noted that he had Spock ears signed by Leonard Nimoy, but felt it would be too nerdy. I would have paid to see Jim Carrey and Stiller do an on-stage Na’vi tag-team parody. That reminds me, where is Jim Carrey?
Best Montage
I’m not sure what messages the Academy was trying to say with thier tribute to horror montage, nor did I get why a scene from Twilight was in the montage. And since when did John Hughes win an award for solo-montage of the year? Why was he not featured at the end of all the other deceased performers?
Humanitarian Award of the Night
Well, it seemed as though everyone who got on that stage was the most polite celebrity ever to grace the Oscar stage. From the humble and down-to-Earth Jeff Bridges…finally.
Most Nervous on Stage Winner
Christoph Waltz will join in the small list of ultimate villians along side Javier Bardem, Anthony Hopkins and Heath Ledger for his portryal of Col. Hans Landa SS. But seeing him accept his Oscar on-stage, to a group of peers who are fairly new, was quite refreshing. Seeing a man accept an award for portraying on of the most cynical men on screen shake his knees when looking at George Clooney in the face was quite amusing.
Most Bodacious Oscar Bod
Rachael McAdams. Demi Moore. Vera Farmiga. Jennifer Lopez. Kate Winslet. Gerard Butler. Bradley Cooper. Carey Mulligan. Zooey Saldana. Amanda Seyfried. Tom Ford. Collin Farrell. Barbera Streisand. I don’t need to pick one, do I?
Best Pre-E-Bay Oscar Statuette Sale
I am not sure if they are really bad ornaments to keep in your house, but seemed that three-time Costume Design winner Sandy Powell really hated winning her third little gold naked man. She seemed even bothered to be up there.
Most Awkward/Weirdest Oscar Moment of All-Time
When Producer/Director Roger Ross Williams was awarded the Oscar for Best Documentary Short Subject for his film Music By Prudence, i don’t think he thought he would be up-staged by…WHO WAS THAT? Throughout her whole acceptance speech, Williams was looking with the same eyes as Col. Hans Landa, we knew what he wanted to do. But he kept his cool and thanked…well, just thanked.
Biggest Upset
The Foreign Language film was considered a lock-down for months now, either finding a winner in France with Un Prophete, or The White Ribbon, but when the winner was Argentina’s own The Secret in Their Eyes, not even the cameramen wanted to get a close up of Haneke’s reaction.
Here is a full list of the year’s nominee’s and winners for the night. All the winners are in Bold and Italics.
BEST PICTURE
An Education
A Serious Man
District 9
Up
Up in the Air
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
The Blind Side
BEST DIRECTOR
Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker)
Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds)
James Cameron (Avatar)
Jason Reitman (Up in the Air)
Lee Daniels (Precious)
BEST ACTOR
Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart)
George Clooney (Up in the Air)
Colin Firth (A Single Man)
Morgan Freeman (Invictus)
Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds)
Stanley Tucci (The Lovely Bones)
Woody Harrelson (The Messenger)
Christopher Plummer (The Last Station)
Matt Damon (Invictus)
BEST ACTRESS
Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side)
Meryl Streep (Julie & Julia)
Carey Mulligan (An Education)
Gabourey Sibide (Precious)
Helen Mirren (The Last Station)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Mo’Nique (Precious)
Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air)
Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air)
Penelope Cruz (Nine)
Maggie Gyllenhaal (Crazy Heart)
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Up
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Coraline
The Secret of Kells
The Princess and the Frog
BEST ART DIRECTION
Avatar
Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus
The Young Victoria
Nine
Sherlock Holmes
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Inglourious Basterds
The White Ribbon
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
The Young Victoria
Bright Star
Coco avant Chanel
Nine
Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
The Cove
Food Inc.
The Most Dangerous Man in America
Burma Vj
Which Way Home
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
The Last Truck: The Closing of GM Plant
The Last Campaign of Gvernor Booth GardnerSendak
Rabbit a la Berlin
Music by Prudence
China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province
BEST EDITING
The Hurt Locker
Avatar
District 9
Precious
Inglourious Basterds
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
The White Ribbon (Germany)
A Prophet (France)
The Milk of Sorrow (Peru)
Ajami (Isreal)
The Secret of Her Eyes (Argentina)
BEST MAKEUP
The Young Victoria
Il Divo
Star Trek
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Michael Giacchino (Up)
James Horner (Avatar)
Marco Beltrami & Buck Sanders (The Hurt Locker)
Hans Zimmer (Sherlock Holmes)
Alexandre Desplat (Fantastic Mr. Fox)
BEST ORIGINAL SONG
“Take it All” (Nine)
“The Weary Kind” (Crazy Heart)
“Almost There” (The Princess & the Frog)
“Down in New Orleans” (The Princess & the Frog)
“Loin de Paname” (Paris 36)
BEST EDITING
The Hurt Locker
Star Trek
Avatar
Up
Inglourious Basterds
BEST SOUND MIXING
The Hurt Locker
Star Trek
Avatar
Transformers 2
Inglourious Basterds
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Avatar
Star Trek
District 9
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Up in the Air
An Education
Precious
District 9
In the Loop
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
A Serious Man
Up
The Messenger
BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT
The Door
Miracle Fish
The New Tenants
Kavi
Instead of Abracadabra
BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM
Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty
French Roast
The Lady and the Reaper
Logorama
A Matter of Loaf and Death
Overall, The 82nd Academy Awards kept momentum and locked its way into cinematic history. It may have hurt some Na’vi’s on the way, but the awards proved to many that sometimes, the little guys get breaks too. Plus, I am sure no one wanted to hear Cameron’s revised “I’m the King of the world…scratch that…Universe” speech.
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