Comments
I am live blogging tonight’s Oscars. This should be good for the results and whatever little factlets I can dig up for you. The updates will appear in the live blog window below. If it works. This is a Bleeding Cool first, so I hope it holds up.
Sit tight, then, as the amassed Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences get ready to tell you which films are officially the best of 2012 – no ifs, not buts, no coconuts. You can’t argue, people. Your taste stops counting tonight. It’s Oscar night.
And here concludes this live blog of The Oscars. It’s after 5am in the morning for me. I can’t take it any more. I’m going home and then to bed. Good night!
Okay, so that is it. Perhaps. At least here in the UK, everything is over. There had been talk about a big finale number that would see Seth singing more but I guess not. And I am thankful.
The big snub that people are talking about right now isn’t Ben Affleck in the director category… it’s Michael Winner in the In Memoriam section. At least here in Britain, that’s got people buzzing.
And… now what? It’s not over, apparently… something is coming after these ads.
If you’ve seen Paperman you’ll know that paper planes pay a big part in it. Apparently, after winning tonight, its producer Kristina Reed started throwing planes in the auditorium and was thrown out… for a bit – http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/oscars-paperman-producer-thrown-animated-424023
And the Best Picture of 2012 has been awarded to Argo. Now we’ll have Jack Nicholson and George Clooney on stage together, so he might as well hand over the Mr. Oscar mantle here and now.
The Best Picture award is not the end of the show tonight, even though it is the last award. I’m curious as to what will happen next, but first…
Jack Nicholson is teaming up with Michelle Obama via live link-up from the White House so that they can co-present the Best Picture award. It has been a year for rather overtly political films, but this is still quite a surprise.
Daniel Day Lewis has won his third Best Actor Oscar. He won for My Left Foot and There Will Be Blood. One win in each of three decades – 80s, 00s and now 10s. I think he was making shoes during the 90s. In Italy. Unless that’s just one of those Daniel Day Lewis urban myths I hear so many of.
No, nitpickers, House at the End of the Street doesn’t count as a 2012 Jennifer Lawrence film. It falls down at the “film” part.
The award for Best Actor in a Leading Role is going to Daniel Day Lewis, right? Of course it is. He is to actors what Meryl Streep is to actresses – they’ve come to define the very Oscarness of the whole trade.
Genre films never get a look in so The Hunger Games was on a hiding to nothing, so even while I really loved Silver Linings Playbook – and I really, really loved it – I’m going to pretend this award to Jennifer Lawrence was for both of her 2012 films.
This crowd sure do like to stand up.
This year’s Best Actress is Jennifer Lawrence for Silver Linings Playbook. Hold the Harvey editorials.
Now I’m confused. Is Jean Dujardin “doing a George Clooney” or is Clooney “doing a Dujardin”?
Seems that people are getting up and nipping to the loo. Adele tweeted “I just met Daniel fucking Day Lewis!!!”
I was excited to see Suraj Sharma in the audience there. Kind of a vicarious thrill. When I saw him at the London premiere of Life of Pi he was genuinely, honestly excited.
Ang Lee has won this year’s gong for Best Director. Something of a surprise. His film was full of grand novelty and stylistic trickery, so maybe it was that.
Silver Linings Playbook is looking pretty well set for a Zero score. Cue editorials on how Harvey Weinstein’s campaign techniques just don’t work any more. Until next year.
Wow – Tarantino beat the Keyboard Cat. They started with the theme to Gone With the Wind and dialled it back down for him to continue.
Quentin Tarantino is giving a speech. If this doesn’t end in Jaws then nothing will.
And now the award for Best Original Screenplay has gone to Quentin Tarantino for Django Unchained. There was a lot of noise as his name was read out during the nominations. The boy can write, that’s for sure.
The winner for Best Adapted Screenplay has gone to Chris Terrio for Argo. I sat down and chatted with him recently and you’ll be able to read what he told me here at Bleeding Cool this week.
Terrio is pretty cool, and definitely a smart guy – and not so media trained that he just spewed a load of soundbites and nothing-nothing.
A little bit of Michel Legrand’s music from The Umbrellas of Cherbourg there. That’s actually a highlight of tonight’s show for me. Take that how you will. Check out a sample at YouTube – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7Unnx5eLbk
The winner for Best Original Song was Skyfall. Shoulda coulda would bet a sock-suck on it, but I didn’t. This has been a strong year for Bond, in Bond’s own terms.
And here comes… the theme to Top Cat? Oh, my mistake, it’s that song from Ted. The one that starts like the theme to Top Cat. And has a bit in the middle like Top Cat.
The Oscar for Best Original Score just went to Mychael Danna for Life of Pi. He’s tremendous so this one is nice. Hope it gets him the run of good projects.
On the UK coverage, we just had Alex Zane ask Colin Salmon “In one word, Colin, how important is the music to James Bond films?” Ridiculous question, but let’s humour him. Colin then spoke for three or four full sentences. Funnily enough, he only managed about one word’s worth of content, but anyway.
Well, there’s never enough time given over to recognise everybody we lost, but other than that, I think they got this bit right.
I can’t deny that the In Memoriam section always makes me cry. There’s always some people who meant a great deal to me, and collectively, they all do, hugely.
Salma Hayek is on stage telling us about the Governors Awards – D.A Pennebaker, George Stevens, Hal Needham and Jeffrey Katzenberg. And it was Katzeneberg who won the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian award. I wish they’d tell us why.
Lincoln has won for Production Design. Is this award for quantity or quality, sorry? I keep forgetting.
I bet the shippers just flipped their lids when Daniel Radcliffe and Kristen Stewart came on stage together.
I’ve been quite amused by Donald Trump’s Oscar tweets. They include such gems as “Django Unchained is the most racist movie I have ever seen, it sucked!”, “Lincoln never sounded like that!” and “Sorry, I never went bankrupt and don’t wear a wig (it’s all mine)!” – https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump
The big ties in previous Oscar ceremonies saw Wallace Beery and Frederic March tie for The Champ and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in 1932, then Katharine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand came in neck-a-neck for A Lion in Winter and Funny Girl in 1968.
Not sure when Best Best Boy and Best Script Girl are up. I think Production Design is likely to be next.
Adele singing Skyfall brings us back around to Bond. She’s not in her best voice, and it’s not her best tune. A shame that it had to be this and had to be tonight, really.
Goldenberg was also nominated for co-editing Zero Dark Thirty this year, and for Seabiscuit and The Insider in the past.
The Best Editing award has just gone to for William Goldenberg for Argo. It’s the film’s first award, which surprised me a touch.
So some student filmmakers won the opportunity to be free labour for the Academy and highlight just how ethnically diverse the Oscars are into the bargain. Congratulations!
Christopher Plummer had a pink face but purple hands. Either way, I’m rather worried about his blood pressure.
Somebody should dig out a stop watch and see if the glamourous actor types get longer before a shark attack. I would expect so.
Anne Hathaway’s acceptance speech should be filmed in a close up with no cut-aways and slightly wobbly focus. Because that’s emotional, right?
I’m prepared to put my sock on the line again for Anne Hathaway here. She must have won this, surely? EDIT: And my sock is safe. It was inevitable that Hathaway would win for that one shot if nothing else.
It’s a good night for men with long hair.
Best Sound Editing is a tie. “No BS,” said Mark Wahlberg, “We have a tie.” The first Oscar has gone to Zero Dark Thirty… and the second has now gone to Skyfall.
Les Miserables just won for Best Sound Mixing. That’s the one for sound recorded on set, right? Anyway, it won because the actors sang live and all of Hollywood knows it.
Everybody’s eye line was shifted to the monitors at the start of the Ted section, somewhat pricking the illusion. The CG work on the bear is good, though. Arguably better than in the film.
Here are Chris Pine and Zoe Saldana to recognise the Sci-Tech winners. More about them in an earlier post – http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/02/24/in-case-you-missed-them-some-of-2013s-oscars-have-already-been-handed-out/
Here in the UK, Sky don’t appear to be playing any ads between the parts of The Oscars. They preview their own stuff, have the sponsorship bumpers but then spend a lot of time with Alex Zane and some other pundits. Are they not allowed to sell ads for this show?
Glad that the Les Miserables guys are singing live, and that Samantha Bark and Aaron Tveit are getting their share of the limelight having been sidelined in the marketing.
Hugh Jackman is a proper movie star, a talented actor and great in Les Miserables. I also wish he was hosting tonight. Then again, I’d probably settle for James Franco and Anne Hathaway.
I really don’t think there’s a lot of fond nostalgia for the film version of Chicago let alone Dreamgirls. Going back to Cabaret, Wizard of Oz, Singin’ in the Rain, West Side Story, etc. would likely have seemed more contemporary because they at least still feel like going concerns.
I think we’re about to see the cast of Les Miserables lip-syncing – which is rather off-message for the famously “live” musical. Catherine Zeta Jones is definitely just miming.
Here come the cast of Les Miserables to do a medley of songs. Also, Jennifer Hudson from Dreamgirls and Catherine Zeta Jones from Chicago. It’s a tribute to musicals… from the last ten years. “The not so golden age of musicals.”
The voice over gave you half a piece of trivia there, so I’ll finish it off. Stefan Ruzowitzky’s The Counterfeiters was the one Austrian film to win the Best Foreign Language Film before.
I’ll tell you now that Amour has won Best Foreign Language Film because it’s a full-on lock. Should I be wrong, I’ll update with a video of me sucking on one of my socks. EDIT: My sock is safe. And so is my tongue.
Taking a shot at Prometheus appears to be the most popular thing MacFarlane has done all night. If that’s all it takes to get a swell of excitement, Michael Moran and I would like to invite you to the pub to hear us bitch and moan about it for hours on end.
Another jaws shark attack smoothishly segues to the music from Rocky. The message is constant, though – it’s “Get off.” I wouldn’t mind so much if MacFarlane or the musical numbers were more appealing.
The Best Documentary Feature has gone to Searching For Sugarman, the story of Sixto Rodriguez. I spoke to director Malik Bendjelloul about the film and you can read that in a previous post – http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/12/18/searching-for-sugar-man/
The Best Documentary Short is Innocente. Directors Sean Fine and Andrea Nix brought up Innocente onto the stage, the young homeless artist at the centre of their film. I found it moving to see her. You can watch the trailer online – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=008ZofyIRHo
Christensen made it off stage before a shark attack but it was looking touch and go for a moment.
Kerry Washington and Jamie Foxx have just handed out the award for Best Live Action Short to Shawn Christensen and his film Curfew. I don’t believe the whole thing is online but the trailer is – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLAVg17luqc
And that’s it for the Bond tribute. Just our Shirley. No Paul McCartney. No Sheena Easton. No Duran Duran. No Carly Simon. But Adele will be along later, as Skyfall is nominated and nigh-on guaranteed to win Best Original Song.
But now Shirley Bassey has taken the stage. Wales’ finest. She’s belting out Goldfinger. Her voice isn’t exactly in tip-top condition, but it *is* Bassey doing Goldfinger. For my generation of Bank Holiday Bond viewers, this is evocative stuff.
Here’s the 50th Anniversary of Bond tribute, which will apparently be using music to celebrate 007. I was expecting live, on stage singers but we’ve had a few minutes of clips cut together to a couple of the theme tunes… rather underwhelming.
Do note how many Brits win in the costume, hair and make-up categories year in and year out. We’re obviously so good at that stuff. As you’ll know if you’ve ever met myself or Rich in person. Smoooooth.
The Best Make Up and hairstyling Award has gone to Les Miserables. I’m not surprised – the same “singalonga close up” of I Dreamed A Dream that is going to win Anne Hathaway her award later tonight showed off some really unflattering complexion.
Anna Karenina has just won Jacqueline Durran the Best Costume award for Anna Karenina. There’s a lot of costume in that film, it was a shoo-in. Shame that Eiko Ishioka wasn’t recognised for Mirror Mirror – she has sadly since passed away and the Academy won’t get another chance now.
I spoke to Bill Westenhofer about the extraordinary FX work in Life of Pi. And I didn’t kick him out to the music from Jaws. Read his insights in a previous post – http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/12/19/life-of-pis-cg-secrets-fx-supervisor-bill-westenhofer-on-tigers-magical-skies-and-more/
Wow – the first Play Them Off of the night, getting the Life of Pi VFX team to shut up and clear out.
And it’s a pretty rude choice of music – it’s the shark theme from Jaws, getting louder and louder. It’s basically turning the Play Off into a joke at the expense of the winner. Nicole Kidman’s pouty, apologetic face said it all. She saw how cruel this was.
Now the award for Achievement in Visual FX – going to Life of Pi. For the same shots that just won it the cinematography award. Bill Westenhoffer has just explained how fake the film is, implying how little actually cinematography there is.
Incidentally, if you don’t know about the VFX protests happening outside the Oscars, you can read about it in an earlier post – http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/02/24/in-case-you-missed-them-some-of-2013s-oscars-have-already-been-handed-out/
Claudio Miranda has won for Life of Pi. As sample shots they’re using almost entirely CG images. Fake sky, fake sea, fake tiger, real boy. Well shot real boy, but still…
Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo and Samuel L. Jackson have taken to the stage and are going to give out the award for best cinematography. They’re gently ribbing each other in a safe and scripted fashion. Should have got Joss to write something for them.
It was lovely to see Brenda Chapman on stage winning an Oscar for Brave. She was replaced on the project by Mark Andrews over “creative differences.” It’s her baby, though, and the germ was all hers. Well done, Ms. Chapman.
Brave has won the Best Animated Feature award. A lot of people considered it to be minor Pixar, but I think that’s unfair. Low key, sure. But it’s very well made, and smart, and rich.
I did write a big feature on Paperman. You might want to read about it because it is a fine, fine film – http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/08/23/bleeding-cools-exclusive-look-into-disneys-pioneering-new-film-paperman/
Paperman just won Best Animated Short. All of the nominees were good, that was the best.
My love of Christoph Waltz is well chronicled all over the internet. Just google “British man arrested breaking into Christoph Waltz’s house.”
And we’re off. The winner for Best Actor in a Supporting Role is Christoph Waltz for Django Unchained. Can’t say I’m unhappy about that.
As far as rewrites of Be Our Guest go this isn’t quite See My Vest from The Simpsons. But not many things are.
Is this the third musical number in under fifteen minutes? Seth is dancing with Daniel Radcliffe and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. We had the Gay Men’s Choir of LA singing about boobs. And also Charlize Theron doing some long-limbed moves. Will they keep this barrage of song and dance coming? I believe they’re actually closing out on a big number even after the Best Picture award.
In case you’re keeping score, I just laughed, once. Seth MacFarlane made some quip about the screenplay for Django Unchained being based on Mel Gibson’s voicemails – that wasn’t it. The audience groaned, so MacFarlane threw back “So you’re on his side?”
That was it. That was funny. And I hope it made them all feel quite uncomfortable.
So this year’s Oscar officially has a theme – the relationship between music and the movies. We’ll be seeing Seth sing a lot, then. It’ll be last night at the proms all over again. With an audience.
In theory, the liveblog should refresh itself once every 1-2 minutes, you shouldn’t have to hit reload.
And… for my first update, I should point out that I can’t see the live blog quite as it appears to you. I don’t know if you need to refresh the page or not. Let me know, and I’ll pass the info on. Can’t hurt to be clear about that.
