Last night (Sun 7th March) the 82 Academy Award Ceremony was presented by Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin in the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, and just like at the BAFTA Awards (which took place on the 22nd Feb, a summary of which can be found here), The Hurt Locker emerged as the Academy’s clear favourite film of 2009, winning no less than six major awards.
Those include three of the most prestigious awards given out each year; Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Director (awarded to Kathryn Bigelow; the first woman to ever claim the highly sought after award); as well as awards for Sound Editing, Film Editing, and Sound Mixing.
James Cameron’s Avatar, which judging from its slightly above average Box Office performance was the bookies favourite for the majority of awards (it was nominated for nine), however clearly lost out, picking up only three minor awards for Art Direction, Cinematography, and the all but a given, Visual Effects. But Mr Cameron still looked pleased with the awards he did win, and showed no signs of jealousy towards his ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow (apart from jokingly pretending to strangle her), despite losing out on Best Picture, Best Director, Sound Editing, Film Editing, and Best Sound, to her.
Pixar’s Up claimed two awards, one for Best Animated Feature Film, and the other for Best Original Score, as did Precious (winning the Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role, which went to Mo’Nique), and Crazy Heart; which received the award for Best Original Song, and saw Jeff Bridges claim the Best Actor Prize.
The award for Best Actress went to Sandra Bullock, making her the first person in history to win a Razzie Award and an Oscar in the same year (for people who don’t know, the Razzie’s are held just before the Oscar’s every year, and are awards that nobody wants to win as they are the exact opposite of the Oscar’s, showcasing the Worst Picture, Worst Actor/Actress, Worst Screenplay etc.); claiming the Razzie for Worst Actress (for her part in All About Steve) and the Oscar for Best (for Blindside), as well as another Razzie for Worst Onscreen Couple (Along with Bradley Cooper, for their part in All About Steve).
Other noteworthy awards include Christoph Waltz’s for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Inglorious Basterds), Best Make Up (Star Trek), and Costume Design (which went to The Young Victoria). But unfortunately the Brit’s missed out on their most coveted prizes, with Colin Firth, Carey Mulligan, and Meryl Streep, all failing to lay stake to the awards for which they were nominated.
More information, as well as pictures and videos can be found at the Oscar website; http://oscar.go.com/
And for anyone who’s interested in watching Sandra Bullock’s amusing Razzie acceptance speech (yes unlike most, including Michael Bay whose Transformers 2 ‘won’ big style at the Razzie’s, she actually turned up to collect her award), it can be viewed online here.
