Mar 10 2010
blinkbox loves the Oscars
Awards season came to a close this weekend as stars gathered in their finest attire for the biggest show of them all – the Oscars!
With all the glitz and glamour you would expect, Hollywood’s finest sashayed up the red carpet, or in some cases lingered in the hustle to appear in as many photos as possible, revelling in the glory in what is, comparative with us mere mortals, the last day of the movie world’s annual leave.
Fashion and the red carpet aside, nominees were hoping for the ultimate nod of approval from their peers by bagging a little golden statue for themselves. So, who triumphed on the night?
Well, in a minor shock, Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker took home the night’s biggest prizes bagging Best Picture, Best Achievement in Direction, Best Screenplay, and a few techie awards. With a US box office of only $15m dollars, The Hurt Locker now has the dubious honour of being the least commercially successful Best Picture winner ever, although it’s now going from strength to strength on the back of its recent award success.
So, despite keeping half the industry in gainful employment for the next year or so, little old Avatar went home with only a few special effects awards, and the Cinematography trophy, from its nine nominations. You have to think back to 1997 when James Cameron’s 13 times nominated Titanic left empty handed from the Baftas for a comparatively light haul. However, I’m sure Mr. Cameron will be sufficiently comforted by Avatar’s $2 billion plus box office.
As predicted, the acting awards went to the expected, and not undeserving, nominees – Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart, Sandra Bullock for The Blind Side, Mo’nique for Precious, and Christoph Waltz for Inglourious Basterds. Equally as predictable, the Best Animated Film was awarded to Pixar’s Up.
Perhaps the biggest surprise, although probably the least noticed, was that both A Prophet and The White Ribbon, widely seen as the favourites, were over-looked for Best Foreign Language Film with the little known Argentinean film El Secreto De Sus Ojos triumphing. One to look out for!
Organisers made a concerted effort this year to make the show more exciting to Oscar show newcomers (i.e. younger cinemagoers) as viewing figures, and consequently advertising dollars, had been dropping in the past few years. So, ‘young Hollywood’ was courted to present awards on the night, including Twilight stars Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner, and Zac Efron. This seems to have worked as indications are that the show was a huge success. And with awards going out to a cover-all-bases mix of box office successes and critically acclaimed movies, it seems Oscar is back on track!
So after all the hoopla, and with all the awards presented to their new owners, the stars took to the night and celebrated into the wee hours at a multitude of fabulous events including the Governors Ball (the official Oscars after party), Elton John’s AIDS benefit party, the annual Vanity Fair party and the E! Oscar party. I’m sure there were a few sore heads in LA-LA land on Monday morning!
And for those of you aching to know the results of the anti-Oscars, The Razzies, Worst Actor was awarded to all three Jonas Brothers, Transformers 2 bagged two honours, Worst Picture and Worst Director for Michael Bay, and Sandra Bullock was awarded Worst Actress for All About Steve, admirably turning up to collect the award in person and promising that it will take pride of place in her home – alongside the Oscar, of course.
So there we have it, the party is over, Kathryn Bigelow can probably get just about anything green-lit (at least for the next year), and most importantly, it’s time for the backslapping to end and for Hollywood to get back to work entertaining us!

