Monday 3 March 2014

The 86th Academy Awards


Last night was the annual Academy Awards, Hollywood's biggest and most prestigious movie awards. And in the ceremony's 86-year history, never has a science-fiction movie received the top honor. Sadly, history wasn't made last night, even though there were two science fiction movies vying for Best Picture, Gravity and Her.

Instead, the top honor went to 12 Years a Slave, Steve McQueen's adaptation of the memoir of the same name. The movie also won Best Adapted Screenplay, and a much-deserved Best Supporting Actress award for Lupita Nyong'o. Cate Blanchett won a Best Actress award for her role in Blue Jasmine. The other acting awards, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, went out to Dallas Buyers Club costars, Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto respectively.

But the true winner of the evening was the science-fiction masterpiece, Gravity. The movie dominated the awards ceremony with a total of seven wins out of its ten nominations. These included the ceremony's other top honor, Best Director, for Alfonso CuarĂ³n, as well as a slew of technical awards. Other notable winners included Frozen, which won Best Animated Feature and Best Song, and The Great Gatsby, which won the Best Production and Costume Design categories.

As far as losers go, the biggest losers of the evening were American Hustle, which failed to win a single one of its ten nominations, as well as Martin Scorsese's black comedy, The Wolf of Wall Street, which also went home empty-handed. But the Oscars aren't all about winning. It is about getting due recognition, and the fact that they'd been shortlisted as one of the year's finest is an honor by itself.

Still, I have to say that I am quite pleased with the results. The movies that deserved to win won, even though a part of me wishes that Gravity had also taken home the Best Picture award. It was easily the best all-round movie, one of those rare movies that transcend technical boundaries, a true technical marvel. Also, it would have been nice for a science-fiction movie to finally take home Best Picture, but I guess the wait continues.

9 comments:

  1. The awards were spread out this year, although it was a bummer American Hustle didn't get any. 12 Years a Slave is such a difficult film to watch, I was afraid it would get passed over, but it didn't.

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    1. It was indeed difficult to watch, but none the less brilliant in its execution. Lupita totally deserved to win Best Supporting Actress, although I am a bit sad that Chiwetel didn't take home Best Actor; would've been nice to see a fellow Nigerian win something as prestigious as an Oscar.

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  2. I didn't realize that American Hustle didn't win any until you pointed it out.

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    1. Yeah, kinda like what happened to Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York all those years ago.

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  3. Lupita Nyong'o's speech was wonderful in so many ways.

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    1. Yep. I can see her words becoming a beacon of hope for an entire generation.

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