#21 The Results Are In! Oscar Winners!

So the Oscars are now over and thus ending the big chain of award seasons. Now the Academy Awards are over and the winners are walking away with there little golden statues, we can talk about who won and if they deserved it. Like pretty much any awards ceremony that has happened this year It was somewhat quite predictable at times. Like how ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ ran away with eight, yes that’s right, eight Oscars. Not bad for a film that was planned to go straight to DVD.

First thing that I didn’t recognise at first was that the ceremony was very, how should I say… minimalistic in comparison to other years. There where no massive plastic statues and there was a lot of TV screens use which was fantastically set out. I tip my hat to the set designer. For every time an actors award came up the previous winners came on to announce the winners which was acutely quite nice to see. A couple of parts where tacky like when Ben Stiller came on dressed as Joaquin Phoenix, It was funny don’t get me wrong I found it quit funny however it wasn’t necessary in a presides awards ceremony.

So of course ‘Slumdog-‘ has was worth something but did it need to steal the show? Other films such as ‘Curious Case Of Benjamin Button’ were total lift in the dark only picking up small awards like ‘Best Achievement In Art Direction’ and ‘Best Achievement In Makeup’. However at least it won some awards unlike Eastwood’s fantastic drama ‘Changeling’ which got not nothing. I saw this film, it was good, it was bloody good and why it won nothing is beyond me. But this just shows how many classics have come out in a small space of time. However I was glad the Danny Boyle won best director because he does deserve it after filming ‘Slumdog-‘ but part of me wanted Gus Van Sant to win because I as starting to become a big Van Sant fan after watching his great indie films like ‘Elephant’ (2003) and ‘Last Days’ (2005). Hopefully in the future (close future) Van Sant will release another film that gets him some critical apprise. When Boyle took the stage he began jumping up and down like Tiger (from Winnie the Pooh) and after everyone and had given a puzzling look to the person sitting next to them he explained his actions on stage. Aparently he had promised his children, when they where young, that he would do so.

Now with the actors awards, firstly

“The award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role goes to…”

Penelope Cruz won the Best Supporting Female award for her psycho role in Allen’s 'Vicky Christina Barcelona’. I haven’t seen the film only the trailers so I can’t comment on if she is good or not but good on her. If I got to pick who I wanted to win it would be Taraji P. Henson from ‘Curious Case-‘ . Then came Best Supporting Actor and if anyone can’t guess who won your not in for a shock.

“The award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role goes to…”

Heath Ledger. Heath’s parents and sister went on stage to accept the award whilst a tearful audience (Adrian Brody and Brad Pitt to name a few) honoured his legacy. Heath really did go out with a band however I’m curios is history will repeat its self next year if he is nominated for his last film from director Terry Gilliam ‘The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus’. We will have to see if I’m still writing by then. Continuing on, another not so surprise was the Leading female award…

“The award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role goes to…”

Kate Whinslett, so give me a second whilst I applauded her. Second over. So she won for her role in ‘The Reader’ congratulations, I guess now I have to watch it. And Lastly,

“The award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role goes to…”

Not Mickey Rourke. Even though he’s been though hell and back he didn’t get the Academy Award it went to Sean Penn for his gay ol’ role in ‘Milk’. I loved ‘Milk’ and I do think he deserves it so badly because he was completely un-mislabel in that film however I kinda felt that Rourke would win it. Even if he had upset the Academy a couple of years ago I think he should have had a chance.

For the rest of the winners head on over to Empire Online, TotalFilm.com or pretty much any film web site.

Oliver Hunt