Another awards year ended last night. The big winner of the night was this time more of a foregone conclusion, as Slumdog Millionaire's success was already expected, the only remaining question being how many awards it would amass. The answer: 8 wins (out of 10 nominations). Benjamin Button only gets 3 wins out of all its 13 nominations, while Dark Knight and Milk each went home with 2 awards. On my predictions I was correct 18/24 getting almost every technical category right, hoping for a miracle on one category (Best Actor), trying too much to guess a surprise win on another (Supporting Actress) and surprised by the only true surprise (excuse the repetition) of the evening: Departures winning Foreign Film category.
Now onto the gossip...
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Hugh Jackman's started up the evening with an opening act that brought the audience to a standing ovation, a feat that I can't recall happening in recent years. His tribute to 2008's movies was both refreshing and funny, culminating with dragging Anne Hathaway on stage where she had to play... Nixon in a Frost/Nixon sequence. Easily one of the top 5 moments of the evening.
The follow-up was going to reveal the "new format" that the organizers were announcing they would use to liven things up. Each of the acting awards was introduced by 5 previous winners on stage, each presenting the work of one of the nominees. While this brought interesting moments (Sophia Loren!), it was overall quite uneven - some former winners doing a great job at praising the current nominees while others stumbling through their lines and trying to sound excited while obviously not giving a damn.
Alas, this was not the only misstep of the evening. Daniel Craig and Sarah Jessica Parker stayed onstage for 10 painful minutes introducing no less than 3 different awards, one more awkwardly than another. Simon Beaufoy, in his acceptance speech thanks Dev and... Latika. One is an actor's name, the other is... a character. Kate Winslet's speech seemed as fake as everyone expected, except she did admit she was waiting for it ever since she was a little girl.
Harshest joke of the night was Jack Black explaining his success making money by playing animated roles: each year he features in a Dreamworks movie, then takes the money he earns and bets it all on Pixar at the Oscars. Ouch. So true though.
In the only major awards with no clear winner, Penelope Cruz deservedly grabbed the win for her role in Vicky Cristina Barcelona, a win for her strong performances in the past, a win that she dedicated to all Spanish actors and to Pedro Almodovar who helped her become the strong actress that she is. In the mens duel, Sean Penn edged out the wild Mickey Rourke echoing the political feelings of the vast majority of the voters. Of course, as expected, after Dustin Lance Black's genuine and heartfelt speech, Penn could only live up to his reputation of activist speeches. Which he did, but at least he admitted he knows how hard he makes it for others to appreciate him.
Biggest surprises of the night came in the animated short category where Pixar's Presto lost to La maison en petits cubes and especially in the Foreign Film category where everyone expected Waltz with Bashir to edge out The Class. Instead the win went to Japanese entry Departures. I am definitely interested in watching the winning movie now. Perhaps it is a matter of how many (read: few) people actually saw all nominated movies in order to be eligible to vote. Perhaps it is really a strong movie, although I can't imagine it can be stronger than Waltz or Class.
On the other hand, a year when the biggest surprise of the awards comes in the Foreign Film category... is really not one worth much talking about.
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