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Oscars 2015: Year of the Birdman

You know I love Awards Season. Even when I’m sitting on my couch tweeting, taking notes and blogging.

Where do I start?

Neil Patrick Harris. I love him. It’s got to be pretty hard to follow on from Ellen—her one-liners, magic moments and interaction with the audience. I thought NPH entertained, was in excellent taste, had funny moments and had a wonderfully grand opening. I love a musical moment and being joined by Anna Kendrick (who nailed it) and Jack Black was a fantabulous kick-off.

Highlights: who or what broke Twitter

The speeches and the love from the audience.  Did you feel the love from the audience? I did. I don’t know why but it seemed different this year—lots of support, head nodding, laughter and genuine happiness. What is going on in Hollywood? I’m sure by tomorrow it will be back to normal.

My personal favourite highlight was Lady Gaga. Who knew? I mean seriously, who knew? She was incredible, amazing, emotional, fabulous and downright superb. I have not really been a fan of the Gaga but where have you been? I’d love to see more of this. I went googoo over Gaga.

My second favourite moment was John Legend & Common singing “Glory”. Great song, great performance and John Legend truly can do no wrong.

And my third favourite moment was John Travolta and Indina Menzel co-presenting. All the face-touching was very weird and awkward though I have to say.

Fashions on the Field

OK, I mean the red carpet. I have to say that Black & White—or White & Black as the case may be—was the winner of the night. Being a fan of “winter white” I love the addition of black.  Oh, and red, red rocked it. Nude (or versions of it) was another big Red Carpet trend.

So my favourite and best dressed for me was Reese Witherspoon; she’s so underrated. Margot Robbie looked stunning (I’m so proud of her) as did Naomi Watts. My biggest surprise like was Nicole Kidman. But how about Laura Dern? Wowser, she looked fabulous.

I still have to go back and study the gowns but for now my Worst Dressed goes to Marion Cotillard. Poor girl, ditch that contract with Chanel, it let you down girlfriend.

Did you see Diane Kruger at the Vanity Fair party? Oh. My. God.  she nailed it in a red jumpsuit dress one shoulder number.  Vavaboom!

I think everyone needs triple kudos this year.  I couldn’t believe the rain.  It rained all day and (unlike last year) it didn’t let up for the Red Carpet.  I’m glad I wasn’t out there trying to stay out of the rain.  I would have had a curly/frizz hair disaster.

Embarrassingly bad TV coverage

Speaking of having to go back and study the gowns what’s with the pre-shows and supposed Red Carpet shows? They are so bad it’s not even funny. Ok so you can’t get everyone to stop by your pod to be interviewed—it’s a busy walk down that red carpet but please, please, please: It’s a Red Carpet event with the objective being to see what everyone is wearing so please, please, please show us what people are wearing.  Uh huh, shock horror: SHOW US WHAT PEOPLE ARE WEARING.

Ditch the “he said or she said” on Twitter, ditch the “here’s what happened 10 years ago on the Red Carpet” and ditch the here we are on the “nowhere on the Red Carpet” and just show us everyone walking in. Get your cameras in your spot, tell us who they are and give us a good look at what they’re wearing.

 

And the winners were …

Not my predictions to start with. Fortunately I picked the important ones.

 

Best supporting actor

WINNER: JK Simmons for Whiplash

Robert Duvall for The Judge
Ethan Hawke for Boyhood
Edward Norton for Birdman
Mark Ruffalo for Foxcatcher

My pick: the winner the Farmers guy (1/1 great start).

 

Achievement in costume design

WINNER: The Grand Budapest Hotel – Milena Canonero
Inherent Vice – Mark Bridges
Into the Woods – Colleen Atwood
Maleficent – Anna B Sheppard
Mr Turner – Jacqueline Durran

My pick: Into the Woods (1/2)

 

Achievement in makeup and hairstyling

WINNER: The Grand Budapest Hotel – Frances Hannon, Mark Coulier
Foxcatcher – Bill Corso, Dennis Liddiard
Guardians of the Galaxy – Elizabeth Yianni-Georgiou, David White

My pick: Guardians of the Galaxy (1/3)

 

Best foreign-language film

WINNER: Ida – Paweł Pawlikowski
Tangerines – Zaza Urushadze
Leviathan – Andrey Zvyagintsev
Wild Tales – Damián Szifrón
Timbuktu – Abderrahmane Sissako

I skipped this one due to lack of knowledge.

 

Best live-action short film

WINNER: The Phone Call – Mat Kirkby, James Lucas
Aya – Oded Binnun, Mihal Brezis
Boogaloo and Graham – Michael Lennox, Ronan Blaney
Butter Lamp – Wei Hu, Julien Féret
Parvaneh – Talkhon Hamzavi, Stefan Eichenberger

Ditto to this one

 

Best documentary short subject

WINNER: Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1 – Ellen Goosenberg Kent, Dana Perry
Joanna – Aneta Kopacz
Our Curse – Tomasz Sliwinski, Maciej Slesicki
The Reaper – Gabriel Serra
White Earth – Christian Jensen

And this

 

Achievement in sound mixing

WINNER: Whiplash – Craig Mann, Ben Wilkins, Thomas Curley
American Sniper – John T Reitz, Gregg Rudloff, Walt Martin
Birdman – Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño, Thomas Varga
Interstellar – Gary Rizzo, Gregg Landaker, Mark Weingarten
Unbroken – Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño, David Lee

My pick: the stellar team at Technicolor and the winner: Whiplash (2/4)

 

Achievement in sound editing

WINNER: American Sniper – Alan Robert Murray, Bub Asman
Birdman – Aaron Glascock, Martín Hernández
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – Brent Burge, Jason Canovas
Interstellar – Richard King
Unbroken – Becky Sullivan, Andrew DeCristofaro

My pick: American Sniper (that’s 3/5 not bad so far)

 

Best supporting actress

WINNER: Patricia Arquette for Boyhood
Laura Dern for Wild
Keira Knightley for The Imitation Game
Emma Stone for Birdman
Meryl Streep for Into the Woods

My pick: I thought Emma Stone would just nudge out Keira Knightley (3/6)

 

Achievement in visual effects

WINNER: Interstellar – Paul J Franklin, Andrew Lockley, Ian Hunter, Scott R Fisher
Captain America: The Winter Soldier – Dan Deleeuw, Russell Earl, Bryan Grill, Daniel Sudick
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, Daniel Barrett, Erik Winquist
Guardians of the Galaxy – Stephane Ceretti, Nicolas Aithadi, Jonathan Fawkner, Paul Corbould
X-Men: Days of Future Past – Richard Stammers, Lou Pecora, Tim Crosbie, Cameron Waldbauer

My pick: So sure Guardians of the Galaxy would get the nod (3/7)

 

Best animated short film

WINNER: Feast – Patrick Osborne, Kristina Reed
The Bigger Picture – Daisy Jacobs, Chris Hees
The Dam Keeper – Robert Kondo, Daisuke “Dice” Tsutsumi
Me and My Moulton – Torill Kove
A Single Life – Joris Oprins

Didn’t pick this category

 

Best animated feature film

WINNER: Big Hero 6
The Boxtrolls
How to Train Your Dragon 2
Song of the Sea
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

Come on. First they snub the Lego Movie then How To Train Your Dragon 2 misses out (3/8)

 

Best production design

WINNER: The Grand Budapest Hotel: Adam Stockhausen, Anna Pinnock
The Imitation Game: Maria Djurkovic, Tatiana Macdonald
Interstellar: Nathan Crowley, Gary Fettis
Into the Woods: Dennis Gassner, Anna Pinnock
Mr Turner: Suzie Davies, Charlotte Watts

My pick: Hmmm seemed to have lost this category somewhere

 

Achievement in cinematography

WINNER: Birdman: Emmanuel Lubezki
The Grand Budapest Hotel: Robert D Yeoman Ida: Lukasz Zal, Ryszard Lenczewski
Mr Turner: Dick Pope
Unbroken: Roger Deakins

My pick: Back on the winning team: Birdman of course (4/9)

 

Achievement in film editing

WINNER: Whiplash – Tom Cross
Boyhood – Sandra Adair
The Imitation Game – William Goldenberg
The Grand Budapest Hotel – Barney Pilling
American Sniper – Joel Cox, Gary Roach

My pick went to Boyhood but Whiplash was a worth winner (4/10)

 

Best documentary feature

WINNER: Citizenfour – Laura Poitras, Mathilde Bonnefoy, Dirk Wilutzky
Finding Vivian Maier – John Maloof, Charlie Siskel
Last Days in Vietnam – Rory Kennedy, Keven McAlester
The Salt of the Earth – Wim Wenders, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, David Rosier
Virunga – Orlando von Einsiedel, Joanna Natasegara

Didn’t have an opinion, slack I know

 

Best original song

WINNER: Glory from Selma – Lonnie Lynn (Common), John Stephens (John Legend)
The Lego Movie – Shawn Patterson (Everything Is Awesome)
Beyond the Lights – Diane Warren (Grateful)
Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me – Glen Campbell, Julian Raymond (I’m Not Gonna Miss You)
Begin Again – Gregg Alexander, Danielle Brisebois (Lost Stars)

Back on the winning team, such deserved winners (5/11)

 

Best original score

WINNER: Alexandre Desplat – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Alexandre Desplat – The Imitation Game
Hans Zimmer – Interstellar
Jóhann Jóhannsson– The Theory of Everything
Gary Yershon – Mr Turner

Seemed to have missed this one too.

 

Original screenplay

WINNER: Alejandro González Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Armando Bo – Birdman
Richard Linklater – Boyhood
E Max Frye, Dan Futterman – Foxcatcher
Wes Anderson, Hugo Guinness – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Dan Gilroy – Nightcrawler

My pick: Getting my Birdman back on (6/12)

 

Adapted screenplay

WINNER: Graham Moore – The Imitation Game
Jason Hall – American Sniper
Paul Thomas Anderson – Inherent Vice
Anthony McCarten – The Theory of Everything
Damien Chazelle – Whiplash

My pick went to the winner (must have had an inside vibe) (7/13)

 

Best director

WINNER: Alejandro González Iñárritu for Birdman
Richard Linklater for Boyhood
Bennett Miller for Foxcatcher
Wes Anderson for The Grand Budapest Hotel
Morten Tyldum for The Imitation Game

My winning streak continues (8/14)

 

Best actor

WINNER: Eddie Redmayne for The Theory of Everything
Steve Carell for Foxcatcher
Benedict Cumberbatch for The Imitation Game
Bradley Cooper for American Sniper
Michael Keaton for Birdman

My pick: Sorry Brad Cooper you missed out but Eddie Redmayne was such a worth winner (8/15)

Best actress

WINNER: Julianne Moore for Still Alice
Marion Cotillard for Two Days, One Night
Felicity Jones for The Theory of Everything
Rosamund Pike for Gone Girl
Reese Witherspoon for Wild

My pick: Felicity Jones (9/16)

 

Best picture

WINNER: Birdman
American Sniper
Boyhood
The Imitation Game
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Selma
The Theory of Everything
Whiplash

My pick: The winner. Woohoo (10/17)

 

All in all it was a good Oscars: not mind-blowingly great or terribly bad it was a good one. Mr H was proud (as was I) that the Technicolor team got a nod and a mention—that’s great coverage for us and let’s hope those post opportunities come in thick and fast. Especially as we gear up for pilot season.

Next year I’ve got to get me that invite to the Vanity Fair party. Let’s see how that turns out.

Congrats again to all the winners. Thank you and goodnight…

xx It Started in LA xx

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