After a very long and very predictable run-up, the 2012 Academy Awards are finally over, The Artist and Hugo winning five statues apiece. With Billy Crystal charming enough as host, I have to admit that I found myself wanting more of Chris Rock and that inspired Stiller/Stone pairing.
The night went without too many surprises, The Artist getting five out of the six I predicted after Editing went to The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo which was a truly fantastic moment. As expected, Michel Hazanavicius’ name was pronounced a hundred different ways during the evening and Hugo pretty much cleared up in the technical fields. But trust Lady Meryl Streep to throw a spanner in the works and deprive Davis of what most people thought was a mortal lock by this point. She looked as surprised as we all felt, but you just can’t hate her, can you.
As I laid out in my predictions yesterday, I’d gone with my heart for Visual Effects and Cinematography, with Hugo taking both when I was hoping Lubezki would finally get what is so ridiculously overdue. Luckily, I was spot on with my two Short Film predictions as well as Documentary Short Subject, so that made up for my wrong choices there.
The Weinstein Effect paid off for Undefeated, the group dropping the only F-bomb of the night and consequently getting played off, but that was one of the only real interesting parts of the night. Don’t get me wrong, it was great seeing The Muppets take something home and I rather enjoyed Ferrell and Galifianakis being, well, Ferrell and Galifianakis, but the Oscars as a ceremony could be so much more. And I kind of longed to see what sort of carnage Brett Ratner could have brought.
Also, kudos to Christopher Plummer for getting up the stairs faster than Octavia Spencer and to McCarthy and Byrne for playing Shot Scorsese.
Next year, get Michael Bay on board. He’ll have the nominees shot out of a cannon.
See my predictions here (I need to beat 75% next year) and Becca’s predictions (if you want a bit of a laugh – let’s just say she’ll need to beat 16% of pure guess-work next year) here, both of which were posted before the ceremony yesterday and check out the full list of 2012 Academy Award winners below: Continue reading →
