And the Oscars went to:
Multiple Oscar winners:
- Hugo: 5
- The Artist: 5
- The Iron Lady: 2
For those who are unfamiliar with me doing this, you can find previous year’s Oscarblogging at:
Updates will be (mostly) placed at the end, so scroll down.
After a few years off, it’s great to see Billy Crystal back as host, and the opening movie montage worked for me. Hey, it turns out that I’ve been doing this for more years than he has (11 versus 9). And is anyone surprised that Billy sings most of his opening monologue?
Tom Hanks comes out to give the first award, and gives a shout out to an seat filler who’s been doing it for 59 years (maybe?). He gives the Best Cinematography award to Robert Richardson for Hugo, and the Best Art Direction award to Dante Ferretti (Production Design) and Francesca Lo Schiavo (Set Decoration) for Hugo. That puts Hugo off to a big start.
Back from commercials, and we’re into a movie montage. I have no idea what these films have in common, but they’re all great moments.
Cameron Diaz and and Jennifer Lopez come out to give the award for Best Costume Design. They quote Edith Head about how women should dress, and JLo’s outfit clearly shows what not to do. Cameron looks great, though, and Mark Bridges wins for The Artist. Cameron and Jennifer start off giving the Best Makeup award turned away from the audience to show off the back of their dresses (and their butts); while I think the shtick worked (and Tom definitely approved), it appeared that the live audience didn’t think much of it. The winners are Mark Coulier and J. Roy Helland for The Iron Lady.
Sandra Bullock comes out to give the Best Foreign Film accent, and claims that she’s going to make the announcement in Mandarin—but with a German accent. Somehow, not quite. The Oscar goes to Iran for A Separation, directed by Asghar Farhadi.
Christian Bale is, sadly, wearing a tie versus a bowtie. But he’s gorgeous enough that I may give him a pass on this one. He’s giving the award for Best Supporting Actress, and it goes to Octavia Spencer for The Help. Tom and I are wondering why she needed to be helped out of her chair.
Billy Crystal shows what is ostensibly a focus group for The Wizard of Oz, proving what I’ve always thought about focus groups.
Tina Fey and Bradley Cooper—both looking gorgeous—come out to give the award for Best Editing. The winners are Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Turns out they’re all the way in back, as they weren’t considered likely to win again after their success last year for The Social Network. Good for them! Next, the Oscar for Best Sound Editing goes to Philip Stockton and Eugene Gearty and the Oscar for Best Sound Mixing goes to Tom Fleischman and John Midgley, both for Hugo.
Kermit and Miss Piggy introduce Cirque du Soleil’s “Going to the Movies.” I thought it was pretty damn impressive, although I know there was a certain amount of flack about it.
Billy starts doing bits on old age. Meh. He’d be more interesting talking about age if he hadn’t dyed his hair for the gig.
Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow come out to present the Best Documentary award, and do a whole not-terribly-funny bit about doing a “live documentary”—i.e., the news. The award goes to TJ Martin, Dan Lindsay and Rich Middlemas for Undefeated. Ooh, we get to see the tape delay in action during their thank yous!
Chris Rock comes out to present Best Animated Film. After doing a bit on how easy working on animated films is, the award goes to Gore Verbinski for Rango.
Ben Stiller and Emma Stone come out to give the award for Best Visual Effects. She’s gorgeous, but I don’t know that that dress really works for me. Something about that bow, I think. The usual cute banter ensues; she’s a lot more charming than him. The Oscar goes to Rob Legato, Joss Williams, Ben Grossmann and Alex Henning for Hugo. That’s what, five now?
Melissa Leo, who won Best Supporting Actress last year for The Fighter, gives the Best Supporting Actor award to Christopher Plummer for Beginners. Turns out that at age 82, he’s the oldest actor to win an Oscar. Me, I’m just trying to not break out into singing Climb Every Mountain.
After another so-so Billy Crystal bit, the President of the Academy comes out. Time for the bathroom break, everyone.
Penelope Cruz and Owen Wilson come out. I think without having seen all of them, she may win my best-dressed award. Why is it that so many guys still think that they can replace a tuxedo/bowtie with a black suit. Sorry, dudes; you’re just wrong. They give the award for Best Original Score to Ludovic Bource for The Artist.
Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis come out in white tie and tails and cymbals (is someone finally listening to my “appropriate dress” rant?) to give the Best Original Song award. It goes to Bret McKenzie for “Man or Muppet” from The Muppets. Are all Kiwis that nice, or does it just seem that way?
Angelina Jolie, “The Original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” comes out to present. Tom gives her dress an approving woof. The Best Adapted Screenplay award goes to Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash for the The Descendants. The Best Original Screenplay award goes to Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris who—unsurprisingly—isn’t there.
Milla Jovovich gave out the technical Oscars; once again they don’t get to attend the “real” awards show, but they do get to meet a lovely actress.
The cast of The Bridesmaids come out to give the short film awards, but apparently, only Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph get to talk. The Best Live Action Short goes to Terry George and Oorlagh George for The Shore. Okay, they only presented the first one, so they’re doing them two-by-two. The Best Documentary Short goes to Daniel Junge and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy for Saving Face, and the Best Animated Short to William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg for The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.
Michael Douglas comes out to give the Best Director award, which goes to Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist. I’m surprised; I really thought it would go to Scorsese.
Meryl Streep comes out to talk about the Governor’s awards. There’s only three Oscars left—are they skipping the in memoriam montage? That would be wrong. And… the voiceover tells me that it’s coming up.
Props to the Academy for including Steve Jobs—it’s easy to just think of him as the co-founder of Apple, and I’m glad they didn’t overlook how his years at Pixar helped to revolutionize how animation is made.
Natalie Portman comes out to give the Best Actor award. I would love her dress more if it wasn’t a print—black polka-dots on red are more appropriate for a swimsuit than a formal dress. She does a great little introduction to each actor and their movie, and the Oscar goes to Jean Dujardin for The Artist.
Colin Firth does the same for Best Actress, which goes to Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady. There’s another surprise; Tom and I both expected it to go to Viola Davis for The Help. But with seventeen nominations and three Oscars, it’s amazing to realize the range of roles she’s played.
Tom Cruise comes out (wearing a tux but no bowtie) to give the Best Motion Picture award, and the Oscar goes to The Artist.
While The Artist and Hugo both received 5 Oscars, it’s clear that the former was tonight’s big winner with three of the four biggest awards.
Overall, no big flubs or gaffes, but no truly wonderful moments either. Billy Crystal did a serviceable job as host; he wasn’t as bad as some of the Twitter sniping would have it, but he didn’t make me think he had it sewn up for the rest of his life, either.
Till next year!


