With the third Oscar of his career that he received for "Lincoln" by Steven Spielberg, Daniel Day-Lewis wrote his own chapter in the history of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Sunday 24 February. The Irish actor is the first actor in the 85 years of the institution that manages to win three awards in the category of the first male role (ahead of his awards for My Left Foot and Blood Will Be Spilled).
"It was actually me playing Margaret Thatcher while Meryl Streep was Steven Spielberg's first choice for Lincoln," said Day-Lewis, prompted by the fact that another acting legend Meryl Streep, last year's winner for "Iron Lady" announced his name and presented him with the award.
Too bad this historic moment for those who are at least interested in the history of these awards, coincided with one of the most unpleasant, boring and tired ceremonies we have seen in recent years. Poor humor, many public relations (the thank you speeches were a non-stop copy paste in which the names were simply changed), few surprises and a new presenter, Seth MacFarlane, who quite simply could not communicate with the public.
The big favorite in the category of the best film was "Operation: Argo” by Ben Affleck and this movie, finally (as we all expected) he won. The moment was also special for the History of the Oscars because the envelope was opened at the White House by the First Lady of the USA Michelle Obama who appeared on the giant screen of the Dolby Hall having taken the floor from the actor Jack Nicholson who had gone up on stage.
Ben Affleck, whose name was absent from the category of Oscar nominees for best director, took the stage to accept his award and was joined not only by Grant Hesloff and George Clooney as co-producers of "The Operation :Argo" but also all the actors of the film who were in the room. Among them Alan Arkin (candidate for the second male role) and music composer Alexandre Desplaiss (Oscar nominee for music)
The Oscars were shared again this year. With the exception of "Mythical Creatures of the South" who won nowhere, all of the other eight films in contention for the Best Picture Oscar won an award. Quantitatively speaking, "Life of Pi" by Ang Lee is the one that won the most, that is, four: Direction, visual effects, music (Michael Dana) and photography (Claudio Miranda). Ang Lee who may be one of the kindest people in world cinema spoke with sincerity and warmth thanking all the actors of his film as well as his homeland, Taiwan, which as he said "contributed significantly to the creation of this film."
One place down, in the three awards, tie "Argo" which, in addition to best film, also won the adapted screenplay award (Chris Terio) and editing and Tom Hooper's Les Miserables musical won Best Supporting Actress (Anne Hathaway – the favourite), makeup and sound mixing.
However, this year's award is also a great moment for Austria, since two Austrian artists picked up a gilded statuette each for different films: director Michael Haneke picked up the Oscar for best foreign language film for "Love" and his compatriot, Christoph Waltz as supporting actor for Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained. It is the second to win after "Insolent Bastards", also a film by K. Tarantino.
Tarantino himself gave by far the best thank you when he took the stage to accept Charlize Theron and Dustin Hoffman's second career original screenplay Oscar for 'Django the Punisher' (the first was for "Pulp fiction"). You really felt like something was finally happening. Explosive and passionate as the dialogues he writes on paper and the images he creates on the screen, Tarantino raised his hand and made the victory sign (V) declared that it is the year of writers. "If we will remember "Django the Punisher" after 20 years this will be due to his heroes" said Tarantino far from modestly but yes, he was right.
An award was even given to "Zero dark thirty" by Kathryn Bigelow who actually shared the sound editing with "Skyfall"_ something that has happened for years at the Oscars. "Skyfall" won another Oscar for best song, exactly as expected. The live performance of "Skyfall" by Adele, it was one of the most beautiful moments of the evening.
Regarding David O.'s "Optimism Guide". Russell counted eight nominations but ultimately won only in one category* of the award's strongest: First female role for her 22 chroni Jennifer Lawrence, who on her way to the stage almost fell to the floor because of the huge off-white dress she was wearing and which definitely didn't fit her. Η Αμερικανική Ακαδημία Κινηματογράφου ξέρει πώς να στηρίζει τις νέες δυνάμεις υποκριτικής και δεν υπάρχει καμία αμφιβολία στο ότι η Λόρενς (nominated once again in the same category for "Heart of Winter" belongs to these forces.
Regarding award show host Seth MacFarlane, his humor did not seem to touch the audience in the hall judging by the minimal laughter and applause. The evil was evident from the start when in his attempt to make fun of himself as the worst host of the Oscars, MacFarlane pulled it off. Captain Kirk appeared on the hall's giant screen (William Shatner) of the legendary TV series "Star Trek" who appeared to scold him and tell him that he ruined the award. No one was laughing. Like nobody laughed when MacFarlane threw a small bottle of whiskey at George Clooney sitting in the front row.
As if that wasn't enough, Mac Farlane brought the Ted doll to the stage from the film of the same name he wrote and directed a few years ago with Mark Wahlberg as a man who is "chased" by a teddy bear. But the bear's jokes on the Oscars stage with Mark Wahlberg again belonged to another event, even if the one about the Jews of the Oscars made any sense.
On the occasion of 50 years of life of the cinematic James Bond, Shirley Bassey came on stage and sang the legendary "Goldfinger" with playback, causing rather embarrassment, something that was not done with the appearance of Barbra Streisand who to honor her friend, music composer Marvin Hamlis (he died last year) sang "The way we were" live and blew the room away.
Another shot that "sat" well at the ceremony (from the few) was the appearance of the entire cast of Les Misérables singing on stage. Because of this film, the musical had its honor at the Oscars this year with Catherine Zeta-Jones again singing "All that jazz" from "Chicago" ,a film for which he won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. And this one with playback though…
A snapshot with real meaning, which could really make you drool was 15-year-old Inocente's appearance on stage, of an immigrant who had lived for nine whole years homeless in America before she managed to escape her demons through paint and canvas. Her life became the short documentary "Inocente" by the couple Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine and this documentary won the Oscar yesterday. Innocente's appearance on stage with her directors made me feel for the first time the real world inside this year's Oscars.
All the awards
Best Movie
Business: Argo
First Male Role
Daniel Day Lewis (Lincoln)
First Female Role
Jennifer Lores (Guide to optimism)
Second Male Role
Christoph Waltz (Django the Punisher)
Second Female Role
Anne Hathaway (The Wretched)
Direction
Ang Lee (The Life of Pi)
Adapted script
Business :Argo
Script written straight for the screen
Django, the punisher
Cartoon
Brave
Best foreign language movie
Love
Photo address
Life of Pi
Montage
Business: Argo
Scenography
Lincoln
Suits
Anna Karenina
Makeup
The miserable ones
Music
Life of Pi (Michael Dana)
Song
"Skyfall" by Adele, Paul Epworth for the film of the same name
Audio mixing
The miserable ones
Sound editing
Heavy rain
Zero Dark Thirty
Visual effects
Life of Pi
Documentary
Searching for Sugar Man
Short length
«Curfew»
Short animations
«Paperman»
Short documentary
"Innocent"
