The Oscars 2013

The Oscars 2013

The 85^th Academy Awards took place last night on Sunday 24^th February. Below is the full list of winners from the evening with added mishaps, thrills and prestige.

Host MacFarlane. Great set of Gnashers and Dickie Bow.

Best Supporting Actor – Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained

Best Short Film (Animated) – Paperman

Best Animation – Brave, Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman

Best Cinematography – Life of Pi, Claudio Miranda

Best Costume Design – Jacqueline Durran, Anna Karenina

Best Hair and Make-up – Lisa Westcott, Les Miserables

Best Short – Curfew

Best Documentary Short – Inocente

Best Documentary – Searching for Sugar Man

Best Foreign Film – Amour, Austria

Best Sound Mixing – Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson and Simon Hayes, Les Miserables

Best Sound Editing – Zero Dark Thirty and Skyfall

Best Supporting Actress – Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables

Best Editing – William Goldenberg, Argo

Best Production Design – Rick Carte, Jim Erickson, Lincoln

Best Original Score – Mychael Danna, Life of Pi

Best Original Song – Skyfall

Best Adapted Screenplay – Chris Terrio, Argo

Best Original Screenplay – Quentin Tarrantino, Django Unchained

Best Director – Ang Lee, Life of Pi

Best Actress – Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook

Best Actor – Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln

Best Picture – Argo

Almost, if not every award was what False Fabs predicted and are pleased with the list. Honouring all those deserving and a batch of credible winners among candidates made this eighty-sixth awards bash a great contest based on talent, skill and sustained resolve. All graceful yet itching to win, we wrote in our BAFTA’s review a week or so ago on this site, about the steering towards Argo and Ang Lee’s displacements. Some may argue we are tough. Well you’re ‘wrong’ to assume this. We are highly impartial but mention the underline. As with the Oscars, Ang Lee nabbing the Director was highly deserved. Ang Lee’s sheer poignancy with piercing eye and forthcoming visuals with deep narrative structure to excel Life of Pi onto the screen was simply sensational.

Tiger Lee kisses the gold!

Argo scooped the Picture nomination and this was also deserved for the film, though Ben Affleck’s presence surrounds it. The omission of Director for Affleck was seen as unjust. We have to disagree. We respect Affleck, however the Director nomination was based solely on Affleck’s presence, not the Directing and this was lower for recognition than those nominated who made headway so for that could potentially place him in ‘sixth’ place for example, meaning only five go through, obviously. Affleck did deserve the Picture, granted, alongside the other Oscar’s so he can be happy with that, surely.

Beaming Benji! Argo a-got an Oscar for Best Picture.

As for Daniel Day-Lewis, now the first ever male to catch the triple crown for winning three Oscar’s for Actor had been a monumental achievement for the method actor, who is highly conformed to the roles he undertakes with severe precision, nobility and technique. The man thoroughly deserved to be placed as one of Hollywood’s enriched greats. Congrats to you, fine sir.

Third times a charm.

Jennifer Lawrence at the tender age of twenty-two, took home the Actress gong for Silver Lining’s Playbook. While a clear front-runner to win, Lawrence, with serenity, grace and dignified maturity has lined herself for a bright future in Hollywood, despite her fashion faux pas, tripping over her dress as she approached the podium for her honours. Her peers encouraged her recovery with respected applause. One moment of the flying birdie occurred not for the stumble, but when Lawrence spotted one photographer who was ‘THAT’ photographer to her. Done with pure style and taste, Lawrence could not be harmed whatever the outcome. Even a fabulous Dior dress could not stifle the radiant youngling.

Controversial host and Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane sang with a “We saw your boobs” which was supposed to be funny but was really rather dry and tacky. Some glaring eyes were annoyed from the audience of those actresses mentioned, while others laughed along. I get the humour, believe me, but it was rather lame and probably shouldn’t have happened. Nothing good came from it and it had no real sustained impact in delivering for the host, the audience watching and in attendance as well as an awards ceremony, though managed to follow through after with a well-rounded, unpredicted hosting duties later on in the evening.

Tarrantino, and Waltz have earned their tremendous rights to their sheers talents in what may be unconventional film settings yet both have expert understanding of one another that shines through and the pair working together also cements that precision on stage. Waltz and Quentin have BOTH received all three grand slam awards taking Golden Globes, BAFTAs and Oscar’s for their portrayal of Django Unchained. Epic.

Adele took the song for Skyfall as expected and earned. Her performance of the Bond hit with a medley from Dame Shirley Bassey and Sir Tom Jones was a joy for the show in itself.

Sassy Songstress Adele.

On a parting note, I have to give immense plaudits to ones that may not be the ‘big’ news. These include the brilliance of Les Mis and the stunning Costume Design for Anna Karenina. Impeccable visuals, sound and style make them a must see regardless.

Overall the awards were a sterling success. Gaining a nomination alone is a huge feat to receive but to take one home is the ultimate nod from Hollywood. To gain such important prestige can launch and support careers further in film, which should maintain the levels of talent in the room further along to ensure Hollywood keeps a sturdy place in producing really hot, quality films that have once again list an entire checklist for DVD’s and must see screenings for those who haven’t already seen the goods on offer, or to simply own a classic in the making.

Helena Bonham Carter in Anna Karenina

Maybe next year the Oscar’s would also send me a VIP badge to report from the luxurious carpet and backstage hobnobbing with the stars. Cheap plug, but hey, I’m good for it! 😀

Images found via search engines of other sites, though ultimately belong to ‘The Academy.’ No copyright infringement intended and credit goes to them, overall.

The Baftas 2013

The BAFTAs 2013

Below is the list of the full winners of the prestigious awards which took place this past Sunday in London.

Best Film – Argo, Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck, George Clooney

Outstanding British Film – Skyfall, Sam Mendes, Michael G.Wilson, Barbara Broccoli, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, John Logan

Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer – Bart Layton, [Director] Dimitri Dognais [Producer] – The Imposter

Film not in the English Language – Amour, Michael Haneke, Margaret Ménégoz

Documentary – Searching for Sugar Man, Malik Bendjelloul, Simon Chinn

Animated Film – Brave, Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman

Director – Ben Affleck, Argo

Original Screenplay – Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino

Adapted Screenplay – Silver Linings Plybook, David O. Russell

Leading Actor – Daniel Day Lewis, Lincoln

Leading Actress – Emmanuelle Riva, Amour

Supporting Actor – Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained

Supporting Actress – Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables

Michael Balcon (Oustanding British Contribution to Cinema) – Tessa Ross

Original Music – Skyfall, Thomas Newman

Cinematography – Life of Pi,  Claudio Miranda

Editing – Argo, William Goldenberg

Production Design – Les Miserables,  Eve Stewart, Anna Lynch-Robinson

Costume Design – Anna Karenina, Jacqueline Durran

Make up and Hair – Les Miserables, Lisa Westcott

Sound – Les Miserables, Simon Hayes, Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson, Jonathan Allen, Lee Walpole, John Warhurst

Special Visual Effects – Life of Pi, Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer

Short Animation – The Making of Longbird, Will Anderson, Ainslie Henderson

Short Film – Swimmer, Lynne Ramsay, Peter Carlton, Diarmid Scrimshaw

EE Rising Star – Juno Temple (public votes)

Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema – Tessa Ross

Fellowship – Alan Parker

Noticeable was the close up shots of the Argo crew from the beginning of the evening throughout  With the sultry, morose Ben Affleck unable to crack a smile and display melancholy mood after a snub from the Oscars, alongside wife Jennifer Garner and the whole crew there including Hollywood’s dream impregnator, George Clooney, any clever onlooker could see the transparency to unfold.

Presented by Sir Ian McKellen, accurately explaining the Director has the toughest job, rightly so, one has a pure understanding of the difficulty to act, director, plan the vision of the film and station those lieutenants to deliver good on the film from front of house actors to the staging and camera crew. Believe me, I understand to a full extent how difficult one’s job is to control everything when certain product must finally be melded together to place the final draft on screen to deliver the narrative succinctly. I am not without praise for Ben’s big BAFTA bemusement. By the end of the evening it made him smile, but the levels of credibility removed by BAFTA for molly-coddling Argo all day and seemingly caving in to make a niche opening for the ceremony to compete with the Oscars as an awards ceremony was rather saddening.

BAFTA used to and still has notoriety, but this act showed the severe levels of bull on offer. This is not a douching on Argo, but let’s face it, it wasn’t as great as it was awarded for. That’s the key issue here.To compete with Oscars, and possibly gather mainstream status in headlines, BAFTA may have placed itself in realms of slight stupidity as a credible intention.

Les Miserables also stole the show with awards, including Anne Hathaway winning the gong for Actress, deservedly so for her great portrayal in the film adaptation of the musical movie.

Daniel Day Lewis once again became the graceful and talented BAFTA owner for his expert screening in historical biopic Lincoln. Flawless and talented in every right.

Tessa Ross took the BAFTA for Outstanding contribution to British Film. Ross proved to be an exceptional woman with a piercing eye for detail and prepared to take risks on scripts and ideas on film and television to get them on screen when the idea seems too scary or awkward to undertake for mainstream companies worried of PR implications of negativity. Ross, part of Film4, placed faith in those aspirating film makers, and has produced numerous films of style, wit and integrity that wouldn’t have made it elsewhere. Exceptionally earned.

Quentin Tarrentino joined the “club” which he doesn’t usually do, but was welcome for his intense, witty and humourous offerings on screen.

Juno Temple with the now Turquoisal BAFTA

Skyfall won Best British thing. Obvious wasn’t it? An honour to recognise the staple of the James Bond franchise and mirror the box office worldwide numbers. IT did well at the Box Office, and well done for that. However, this was just a sigh of, get it over with and move on. We’ll have more on a coming Bond piece, but until then, Daniel Craig needs to be removed as Bond if the legacy is to continue for the great and sadly departed writer Ian Flemming and composer John Barry, R.I.P.

Quite frankly, Ben Affleck stole the headlines so it did its job. He used to be the Hollywood heartthrob who had a zest for life, which is now seen as moody, serious and highly altered. Try and bring the fun back out, somehow and let loose. Don’t get us wrong, we ‘like’ Ben Affleck and respect his work, but the proceedings were amok with point scoring global scales.

We felt Ang Lee should have got the Director BAFTA, but there you go. This hasn’t been a biased approach to the above responses, but Life of Pi was an exceptional work form Lee and was one of the best nominees in the category, but many not honoured make films for the reason of making film. It would be a pleasure for that to be recognised by awards than headline grabs, which the awards already makes, regardless.