Monday 8 March 2010

She did it

Kathryn Bigelow made Oscar history last night, becoming the first woman to win Best Director, one of six Oscars that The Hurt Locker deservedly came home with.

It was a mighty haul, although quite how its director of photography Barry Ackroyd lost the Best Cinematography Award to Avatar I shall never know, especially considering so much of Avatar was created in the computer. That's just plain wrong if you ask me.

There were few surprises to be had, in all honesty, with Precious' Geoffrey Fletcher winning for Best Adapted Screenplay perhaps the biggest, beating Up In The Air, and El Secreto De Sus Ojos triumphing over A Prophet and White Ribbon in the Best Foreign Language Film category.

I was thrilled that Up won Best Animated Feature and Michael Giaccchino picked up the Best Music Oscar for the film, but don't get me started on Carey and Colin.

Then again, there's always next year...

Click here for the full list of winners.

14 comments:

Matt Jones said...

The AVATAR cinematography win is truly mind-boggling. There has been so much confusion over whether performance capture should be considered for performance awards but virtual cinematography has slipped right under the radar. It's a good thing at the end of the day -PIXAR' movies have had some of the best photography in recent years.

The win for LOGORAMA in best animated short is a bit of a mystery too.

Mark Salisbury said...

Saw How To Train Your Dragon yesterday. It's fantastic and the cinematography and animation are particularly amazing. I didn't stay for all the credits but heard that Roger Deakins was involved...

As someone said to me, "It's Avatar for kids."

Mark Salisbury said...

Haven't seen Logorama. Will check it out...

I think Avatar picking up the cinematography award is a crime on the level if Children Of Men NOT winning...

Karen at Johnny Depp Reads said...

I have to agree with you all, however, my "bone to pick" is with the "popular" vote for Sandra Bullock. Please don't throw things at me, but she couldn't even maintain a consistent accent. Either have one all of the time or don't. That was so glaring to me that it distracted from her performance, which I thought was just average. I think she got the "Just because we love you" award of the night. Can't wait until next year when ALICE should be up for some awards.

Mark Salisbury said...

I really like Sandra Bullock. I've met her a few times and she's funny and smart and I hugely admire the career she's made for herself.

However, I would have to say I agree with you that she got the popular vote. Performance-wise it should have been Mulligan's...

PS. What did you think of AIW, Karen?

Unknown said...

Yeah, Mulligan shoulda won Best Actress but I guess they figure well, she's young, she's got tons of other films to nab a win with.

Still, it was great to see Bigelow win the much-deserved Best Director award. 'Bout time! It was also great to see HURT LOCKER get Best Picture as well. I really thought AVATAR was gonna get that one but I've read on various industry gossip sites that Cameron is universally loathed in Hollywood so I guess they were sending him a message last night.

I thought that the horror film montage was pretty good but including TWILIGHT and EDWARD SCISSORHANDS?!! No Argento?!! Altho, it was nice to see EVIL DEAD 2 get mentioned. Also, I was really shocked that Farrah Fawcett wasn't included in the deceased montage. Shocking...

Mark Salisbury said...

They show the Oscars in the UK on Sky Movies which is a pay channel that I don't subscribe to anymore. And so the only clips I've seen from last night have been those shown on the news or the net. There's a highlights package on another channel tonight, so I'm sure I'll be a mystified as you as to why Scissorhands is considered a horror film...

Weird about FF, too.

Karen at Johnny Depp Reads said...

I think that Farrah's death was sadly overshadowed by Michael Jackson's death and I was upset that the Academy overlooked her.

Mark, what do you think the age range is for the Dragon movie? My Godson has just turned 6 and I think this may be our next "date." :)

About Alice, OK...even though I run a Depp site, I am pretty darn critical of his work. I think Burton did a stellar job of keeping Depp reined in. Depp can often be way over-the-top (CATCF) and in turn, overshadow the story of the film. I was hesitant about the look of the Hatter as I was so afraid of the freakiness factor (also CATCF). That said, I was not overwhelmed. However I was charmed, surprised and entertained! I thought the visuals were gorgeous and the 3D effects really added to the film, rather than taking control or over powering it. I think everyone played to their character beautifully! A well defined team of actors! Helena, Anne, Johnny and Mia were great, and the actors who voiced the drawn characters were perfect too! Tim mixed a nice amount of "Disneyesque" into the film and that was a great touch. I liked that the Alice character becomes a strong leading role model for young girls! She chooses to control her own life and works with the "Underland" characters to defeat the Red Queen. I think the film could have had a few minutes snipped, including the Fudderwhack Dance. You have the character speaking in a Scottish brogue, wearing a kilt, I expected some sort of whacky jig, and instead got a bizarre CGI version of the Michael Jackson's "moonwalk" dance.

I hope you aren't sorry that you asked. ::ducking in case things go flying across the pond. ;) ::

Unknown said...

Mark: I found this article that kinda explains why she was probably cut and how hard it is to assemble this kind of montage but it still seems like a glaring omission:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/movies/2011248447_oscarmemoriam07.html?prmid=related_stories_section

Mark Salisbury said...

@ Karen

Thanks for your thoughts on Alice. The film certainly worked its magic on you. I know how they did the dance at the end, and it's interesting that people think it's all CGI...

As for How To Train Your Dragon, it's a little scary in places but it's fine for a six-year-old. In fact, I'll say right now that he'll love it.

@ JD

Thanks for the link. I shall check it out immediately.

Matt Jones said...

I've heard good things about 'Dragon'-Deakins has found a second career consulting on 'virtual' cinematography-PIXAR hired him on Wall-E before D'works nabbed him.

Mark Salisbury said...

His input is justified, the movie looks great and feels like a film. If you catch my drift.

Karen at Johnny Depp Reads said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Karen at Johnny Depp Reads said...

Thanks Mark, I'll be taking him to the dragon movie then! That's all he's talking about! ;) Sounds like Aunt Karen will like it too!

That dance wasn't CGI? Depp's notorious for not being compfortable in dancing scenes. LOL Who knew??