Review of 87th Annual Academy Awards

Sharif Paget
6 Min Read
The Oscars nominees for the Best actress (Photo from Facebook Page)
The Oscars nominees for the Best actress  (Photo from Facebook Page)
The Oscars nominees for the Best actress
(Photo from Facebook Page)

“Birdman” won top honours at the 87th annual Academy Awards, also known as the Oscars.  Along with ‘Best Picture’ the film also took home the award for best cinematographer, original screenplay, and Alejandro González Iñárritu, the Mexican filmmaker, won best director.

The ‘Best Actor’ award went to Eddie Redmayne for his portrayal of Stephen Hawkings in the biopic “The Theory of Everything”, and favourite Julian Moore won ‘Best Actress’ for her role as an Alzheimer patient in “Still Alice”.

The first Oscar of the night went to J.K Simmons for ’Best Actor in a Supporting Role’ and Patricia Arquette won for ‘Best Actress in a Supporting Role’.

Patricia Arquette made an impassioned speech in which she championed women’s rights and went on to say: “We have fought for everybody else’s equal rights. It’s our time to have wage equality once and for all and women’s right for everyone in America”.

“The Grand Budapest Hotel” won several awards, for costume design, makeup and hairstyling, production design and best original score.

“Whiplash” won two awards, for sound mixing and film editing, and “American Sniper” managed to take home only one award for sound editing.

This year, Neil Patrick Harris, star of the hit television programme “How I Met Your Mother” hosted the Oscars.  The overall consensus was that he did a great job; especially his opening number where he performed “Moving Pictures”, a montage of films from the past. He was joined by Anna Kendrick and Jack Black in his performance.

 

Statues of the Oscars  (AFP photo)
Statues of the Oscars
(AFP photo)

Lady Gaga performed songs from “The Sound of Music” and shocked everyone in attendance with her range and ease of hitting all the high notes. Gaga’s incredible talent stunned Julie Andrews, who took the stage with her.

 

This year’s winners and losers were:

Actor in a Supporting Role:

                           Robert Duvall “The Judge”

                           Ethan Hawke “Boyhood”

                           Edward Norton”Birdman”

                                Mark Ruffalo “Foxcatcher”

                           J.K Simmons”Whiplash” WINNER

 

Costume Design:

                           “The Grand Budapest Hotel” WINNER

“Inherent Vice”

“Into the Woods”

“Maleficent”

“Mr. Turner”

 

Makeup and Hairstyling:

“Foxcatcher”

                           “The Grand Budapest Hotel” WINNER

“Guardians of the Galaxy”

 

Foreign Language Film:

                           “Ida,” Poland WINNER

“Leviathan,” Russia

“Tangerines,” Estonia

“Timbuktu,” Mauritania

“Wild Tales,” Argentina

 

Live Action Short Film

“Aya”

“Boogaloo and Graham”

“Butter Lamp”

“Parvaneh”

                           “The Phone Call” WINNER

 

Documentary Short Subject

                           “Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1” WINNER

“Joanna”

“Our Curse”

“The Reaper (La Parka)”

“White Earth”

 

Sound Mixing

” Sniper”

“Birdman”

“Interstellar”

“Unbroken”

                           “Whiplash” WINNER

 

Sound Editing

                           “American Sniper” WINNER

“Birdman”

“The Hobbitt: The Battle of the Five Armies”

“Interstellar”

“Unbroken”

 

Best Supporting Actress

                           Patricia Arquette, “Boyhood” WINNER

Laura Dern, “Wild”

Keira Knightley, “The Imitation Game”

Emma Stone, “Birdman”

Meryl Streep, “Into the Woods”

 

Visual Effects

“Captain America: The Winter Soldier”

“Dawn of the Planet of the Apes”

“Guardians of the Galaxy”

                           “Interstellar” WINNER

“X-Men: Days of Future Past”

 

Animated Short Film

“The Bigger Picture”

“The Dam Keeper”

                           “Feast” WINNER

“Me and My Moulton”

“A Single Life”

 

Animated Feature Film

                           “Big Hero 6” WINNER

“The Boxtrolls”

“How to Train Your Dragon 2”

“Song of the Sea”

“The Tale of the Princess Kaguya”

 

Production Design

                           “The Grand Budapest Hotel” WINNER

“The Imitation Game”

“Interstellar”

“Into the Woods”

“Mr. Turner”

 

Cinematography

                           “Birdman” WINNER

“The Grand Budapest Hotel”

“Ida”

“Mr. Turner”

“Unbroken”

 

Film Editing

“American Sniper”

“Boyhood”

“The Grand Budapest Hotel”

“The Imitation Game”

                           “Whiplash” WINNER

 

Documentary Feature

                           “Citizenfour” WINNER

“Finding Vivian Maier”

“Last Days in Vietnam”

“The Salt of the Earth”

“Virunga”

 

Original Song

“Everything Is Awesome,” “The Lego Movie”

                           “Glory,” “Selma” WINNER

“Grateful, “Beyond the Lights”

“I”m Not Gonna Miss You,” “Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me”

“Lost Stars,” “Begin Again”

 

Original Score

                           “The Grand Budapest Hotel” WINNER

“The Imitation Game”

“Interstellar”

“Mr. Turner”

“The Theory of Everything”

 

Original Screenplay

                           “Birdman” WINNER

“Boyhood”

“Foxcatcher”

“The Grand Budapest Hotel”

“Nightcrawler”

 

Adapted Screenplay

“American Sniper”

                           “The Imitation Game” WINNER

“Inherent Vice”

“The Theory of Everything”

“Whiplash”

 

Directing

                           Alejandro González Iñárritu, “Birdman” WINNER

Richard Linklater, “Boyhood”

Bennett Miller, “Foxcatcher”

Wes Anderson, “The Grand Budapest Hotel”

Morten Tyldum, “The Imitation Game”

 

Best Actor

Steve Carell, “Foxcatcher”

Bradley Cooper, “American Sniper”

Benedict Cumberbatch, “The Imitation Game”

Michael Keaton, “Birdman”

                           Eddie Redmayne, “The Theory of Everything” WINNER

 

Best Actress

Marion Cotillard, “Two Days, One Night”

Felicity Jones, “The Theory of Everything”

                           Julianne Moore, “Still Alice” WINNER

Rosamund Pike, “Gone Girl”

Reese Witherspoon, “Wild”

 

Best Picture

“American Sniper”

                           “Birdman” WINNER

“Boyhood”

“The Grand Budapest Hotel”

“The Imitation Game”

“Selma”

“The Theory of Everything”

“Whiplash”

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