the2scoops 2008 Oscar Wrap-Up

Like many parties around town and in Hollywood, the end of the writer's strike came too late to plan any proper Oscar get-together. The party I usually go to was cancelled, leading to my first Oscars spent at home in years. The two-weeks notice may have contributed to what felt like, to me, a leaner meaner Oscars. The production numbers were few and host Jon Stewart didn't stray from the stage to perform any "bits" like Ellen DeGeneres did.

Some thoughts on the show and some moments:

No Country For Old Men came in as the frontrunner and claimed a number of prizes, including taking both Best Director for Joel and Ethan Coen (the first co-winners of the award) and Best Picture. I can't recall the last time a picture won both top categories. Javier Bardem and Daniel Day Lewis were the favourites in the Actor categories, while the surprises came from the Actress side with Marion Cotillard winning Best Actress for her portrayal of singer Édith Piaf in the French language film La Vie En Rose, and Tilda Swinton winning Best Supporting Actress for her role in Michael Clayton. Cate Blanchett went home empty-handed, but that happens when you're nominated in both Best Lead and Best Supporting - it splits the votes. It was an Oscar sweep as all four acting awards went to non-American actors - two from Britain, one French and one Spanish. Kind of funny in a year when a lot of the talk was bout exclusion in the Foreign Film categories saw foreign actors taking top acting honours.

I love that Glen Hansard (from the Irish rock band The Frames) and Czech musician Markéta Irglová won for Best Song from the film Once. A truly sweet moment as they took the stage, and a really classy act was to follow: Glenn spoke first and the band played the duo off before Markéta could speak. After the commercial, the show director had Jon Stewart bring Markéta back out to speak. Don't think I've ever seen that before, so really class act there. Story and speech linked here to AP:

"The fact that we're standing here tonight, the fact that we're able to hold this, it's just proof that no matter how far out your dreams are, it's possible," Irglova said during take two. "And, you know, fair play to those who dare to dream, and don't give up. This song was written from the perspective of hope, and hope, at the end of the day, connects us all, no matter how different we are." - Markéta Irglová

This is a really sweet reward for this little film. You're all urged to go rent it now. Once is a 2006 Irish musical film set in Dublin, but it's not musical comedy like Hairspray. It takes a naturalistic approach to storytelling with musicians Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová telling the story of two struggling performers, set against song composed and performed by them. And there's something nice about a pair of indie musicians beating Disney's film Enchanted.

Speaking of Enchanted, while I enjoyed the performance of Amy Adams, I was surprised the production for "Happy Work Song" was so low-key, with only Amy singing on stage - where are all the happy helping animals and interpretive dancers? But that song from August Rush was well done.

A couple of great moments came in the acting categories: Best Supporting Actor winner Javier Bardem (No Country For Old Men) giving most of his speech in Spanish to his mother, and in one of the few surprises of the night, Marion Cotillard (La Vie en Rose) won Best Actress and gave a speech she thanked life and love and seemed truly blown away by the moment. If Wikipedia is to be believed, Marion Cotillard's win marks the first time an Academy Award has been given to a French-language performance.

Terrific that Daniel Day Lewis won Best Actor, but his speech just reminded how deeply he disappears into his roles. There was no trace of Daniel Plainsview (There Will Be Blood.) or Bill The Butcher (Gangs of New York) as this sweet man thanked his father, grandfather, and sons. He is scary good.3

Despite some rumours, there was no tribute singling out Heath Ledger career as he was included in the annual necrology collage.

Bourne Ultimatum won a number of technical awards: Film Editing, Sound Mixing and Sound Editing.

The Academy awarded Juno screenwriter Diablo Cody with Best Original Screenplay, which was pretty cool of them. Best Original Screenplay tends to be the "cool award", typically seen as the "you did something cool, your film won't win any big awards, but you earned/deserve something" award. See previous winners: Almost Famous - Cameron Crowe, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - Charlie Kaufman and Little Miss Sunshine - Michael Arndt. No, literally go see them, there all favourites of mine. I'll wait here until you're done.

ALOTT5MA has their annual Academy Awards wrap-up here. They had some good ideas for improving the show, such as dropping some of the technical award presentations off the broadcast and introducing some viewer friendly categories like Best Debut (actor) and Best First Film (director). Might I re-new my plea for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture like they have at several awards including the Screen Actors Guild? I also agree with Adam that we could have used fewer clips from past awards and more exposure for the nominated Best Pictures.

And that's about it until next year. It was a pleasantly low-key show with no real risk-taking but some amusing moments. Maybe two-weeks notice is all we should give Oscar producers from now on? Drop any thoughts in the comments.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

2008 Oscar Winners and Nominees