2013 Academy Award Winners + my thoughts

Well, this is it. The end of the road for awards season. As for the show itself, I enjoyed it for the most part, but it was a little hit and miss. Seth MacFarlene was a good host in my opinion. I know Twitter seemed to be pretty split on him, but I thought he was hilarious. Sure, he had a few jokes that failed, everyone does. But he had plenty that were gold. If Flight had actually been done with sock puppets, maybe I would've gone to see it.  The tributes to musicals were good, even if Catherine Zeta Jones sounded terrible in the Chicago performance. Adele killed it, obviously, but she didn't get the standing O that Jennifer Hudson did. Probably because she yelled more. Anywho, here's a list of the winners. My thoughts if needed will follow in green.


Best PictureAmour
Argo–WINNER
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Les Miserables
Life of Pi
LincolnSilver Linings PlaybookZero Dark Thirty
 There were plenty of "Ben Affleck got snubbed" jokes this evening, but I'm glad that they won the big prize. Affleck's speech was adorable and Argo is the first film in a few years that I actually agree with winning Best Picture. (Sorry The Artist, King's Speech, and Hurt Locker)


Best Actor
Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln–WINNER
Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables
Joaquin Phoenix, The Master
Denzel Washington, Flight
This was such a no brainer Meryl Streep didn't even bother opening the envelope to look at the winner. (Seriously, did she even look?)



Best Actress
Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark ThirtyJennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook–WINNER
Emmanuelle Riva, AmourQuvenzhane Wallis, Beasts of the Southern WildNaomi Watts, The Impossible
Lawrence was who I wanted to win, but after the BAFTAs I thought Riva could take it. Either way, I'm happy with the out come. Apparently Jen tripped going up the stairs, her dress was so big that I didn't even notice. At least she joked about it in her speech.


Best DirectorMichael Haneke, Amour
Ang Lee, Life of Pi–WINNER
David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook
Steven Spielberg, Lincoln
Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild
This was one that I literally had no idea who could take it. Throughout the night as Life of Pi started winning more things, I figured it would be Ang Lee.


Best Original Screenplay
Amour, Michael Hankie
Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino–WINNER
Flight, John Gatins
Moonrise Kingdom, Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola
Zero Dark Thirty, Mark Boal
Happy for Tarantino here, although I think he may have been a little high.



Best Adapted Screenplay
Argo, Chris Terrio–WINNER
Beasts of the Southern Wild, Lucy Alibar and Benh Zeitlin, 
Life of Pi, David Magee
Lincoln, Tony Kushner
Silver Linings Playbook, David O. Russell
I guessed this wrong, I thought SLP would've gotten it.


Best Original Song
“Before My Time” from Chasing Ice, music and lyric by J. Ralph
“Everybody Needs A Best Friend” from Ted, music by Walter Murphy; lyric by Seth MacFarlane
“Pi’s Lullaby” from Life of Pi, music by Mychael Danna; lyric by Bombay Jayashri
“Skyfall” from Skyfall, music and lyric by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth–WINNER
“Suddenly” from Les Misérables, music by Claude-Michel Schönberg; lyric by Herbert Kretzmer and Alain Boublil
Another no brainer, Adele was adorable, she could barely talk.


Best Original Score
Anna Karenina, Dario Marianelli
Argo, Alexandre Desplat
Life of Pi, Mychael Danna–WINNER
Lincoln, John Williams
Skyfall, Thomas Newman


Best Production Design
Anna Karenina, Production Design: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, production Design: Dan Hennah; Set Decoration: Ra Vincent and Simon Bright
Les Misérables, Production Design: Eve Stewart; Set Decoration: Anna Lynch-Robinson
Life of Pi, Production Design: David Gropman; Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock
Lincoln, Production Design: Rick Carter; Set Decoration: Jim Erickson–WINNER
I wasn't expecting Lincoln to win anything but Best Actor, so good for them.


Best Film Editing
Argo, William Goldenberg–WINNER
Life of Pi, Tim Squyres
Lincoln, Michael Kahn
Silver Linings Playbook, Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers
Zero Dark Thirty, Dylan Tichenor and William Goldenberg


Best Supporting ActressAmy Adams, The Master
Sally Field, Lincoln
Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables–WINNER
Helen Hunt, The Sessions
Jacki Weaver, Silver Linings Playbook
I still can't believe Anne Hathaway chose the dress she wore. She knew she was winning! Choose a dress that doesn't let everyone know you are nipping out. Ugh.


Best Sound Editing
Argo, Erik Aadahl and Ethan Van der Ryn
Django Unchained, Wylie Stateman
Life of Pi, Eugene Gearty and Philip Stockton
Skyfall, Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers–WINNER
Zero Dark Thirty, Paul N.J. Ottosson–WINNER
Now this was cool, I've never seen a tie before. I guess the last time it happened was in 1968? I could be wrong with the year there, but either way. It was cool to see.



Best Sound Mixing
Argo, John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff and Jose Antonio Garcia
Les Misérables, Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson and Simon Hayes–WINNER
Life of Pi, Ron Bartlett, D.M. Hemphill and Drew Kunin
Lincoln, Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom and Ronald Judkins
Skyfall, Scott Millan, Greg P. Russell and Stuart Wilson


Best Foreign Language Film
Amour, Austria–WINNER
Kon-Tiki, Norway
No, Chile
A Royal Affair, Denmark
War Witch, Canada


Best Documentary Feature
5 Broken Cameras
The Gatekeepers
How to Survive a Plague
The Invisible War
Searching for Sugar Man–WINNER


Best Documentary Short
Kings Point
Mondays at Racine
Open HeartRedemption
Inocente–WINNER


Best Live Action Short
Asad
Buzkashi Boys
Curfew–WINNER
Death of a Shadow 
Henry


Best Supporting Actor
Alan Arkin, Argo
Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook
Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln
Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained––WINNER
I'm totally pumped for Christoph here. He looked so surprised when his name was called. It would be cool if he went on a Tarantino winning streak and wins for the next movie he does with the man.


Best Animated Short
Adam and Dog
Fresh Guacamole
Head over Heels
Maggie Simpson in “The Longest Daycare”
Paperman–WINNER


Best Animated FeatureBrave–WINNER
Frankenweenie
ParaNorman
The Pirates! Band of Misfits
Wreck-It Ralph


Best Cinematography
Anna Karenina, Seamus McGarvey
Django Unchained, Robert Richardson
Life of Pi, Claudio Miranda–WINNER
Lincoln, Janusz Kaminski
Skyfall, Roger Deakins
You know, I'm not really on board with special effects driven films winning in this category. If most of Life of Pi was digital, can we really say it looked the best when other movies filmed real places? I may be in the minority on this, but that's just how I feel.


Best Visual Effects
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and R. Christopher White
Life of Pi, Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer and Donald R. Elliott–WINNER
The Avengers, Janek Sirrs, Jeff White, Guy Williams and Dan Sudick
Prometheus, Richard Stammers, Trevor Wood, Charley Henley and Martin Hill
Snow White and the Huntsman, Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, Philip Brennan, Neil Corbould and Michael Dawson
I cannot believe they played these guys off with the Jaws theme. That started out funny, but turned out to be insanely rude. That sucks.

Best Costume Design
Anna Karenina, Jacqueline Durran–WINNER
Les Misérables, Paco Delgado
Lincoln, Joanna Johnston
Mirror Mirror, Eiko Ishioka
Snow White and the Huntsman, Colleen Atwood


Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Hitchcock, Howard Berger, Peter Montagna and Martin Samuel
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Peter Swords King, Rick Findlater and Tami Lane
Les Misérables, Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell–WINNER