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Once again, after all the pageantry and paraphernalia, the buzz is finally beginning to subside over the 83rd Academy Awards. With the victors (as usual) having been revealed as being both predictable and unadventurous, the Academy’s traditional inability to move outside of its own self-imposed boundaries has been continued and all the major awards went to the same mix of what are largely comfortable dramas.
The biggest winner this year is of course The King’s Speech, with success in Best Picture, Director, Actor and Original Screenplay, attaining awards in all the significant categories that it was eligible for. Yet, far too much has been made of this as a triumph for British cinema when, in fact, it’s more of a glorious success for the powers of persuasion that work at the heart of the Weinstein company and their extremely expensive Oscar campaigns that have helped gain the film this success. Admittedly, it was always going to do well, as it is indeed a finely made costume drama about royalty, with a genuinely uplifting central theme and message at its core. The film had been touted as a favourite since late last year, when I personally predicted that it would go toe-to-toe with the vastly superior The Social Network for Best Picture (as indeed it did). What The Social Network lacked was a certain “comfort factor,” it is a much harsher, darker tale with a lot more say and great intelligence rather than a the gentle uplifting tale like The King’s Speech. With this considered, perhaps the most incompetent decision of this year’s Oscar decisions (and the most surprising), was Tom Hooper’s (The King’s Speech) Best Director victory for what is largely an actor’s piece, not a directorial one. Unlike The Social Network or Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan, films with extremely strong acting performances that crucially have a clear and distinct directorial style that dominates the films and, out of the nominees, were clearly the most deserving.
In terms of other awards, there really were not any big shocks with the favourites winning out - Aaron Sorkin’s Best Adapted Screenplay win for The Social Network and Toy Story 3’s Best Animated Feature success were practically foregone conclusions. The same is also of true of Natalie Portman’s Best Actress win for her tour-de-force in Black Swan. Inception suffered from being both a summer hit and a science fiction film, but picked up four technical awards such as Best Special Effects (again, no surprise whatsoever).
Possibly the biggest surprise overall is not so much what won but what did not win, most notably in the case of True Grit (a film that was nominated for ten Oscars, yet failed to claim any). This is remarkable, as it is an extremely strong western, which many (including myself) hoped would take home the Best Supporting Actress award for Hailee Steinfeld, something she may well have lost because the nomination was clearly for the wrong category.
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