Results and Recap of the 85th Annual Academy Awards

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Stars dazzled on the Oscars red carpet Sunday night in Los Angeles for the 85th Annual Academy Awards at the Shrine Auditorium. There, Oscars host Seth MacFarlane opened the show to an crowd of Hollywood’s biggest stars. Far from what I expected from the famed Family Guy creator, the show’s opening was filled with bad jokes, bad songs and dancing. Thankfully after 18 painful minutes, it was over and the show went on…

In the first prize of the night, 56-year-old Austrian actor Christoph Waltz won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar on Sunday for his role as a dentist turned bounty hunter in Quentin Tarantino‘s blood-spattered western Django Unchained. Waltz beat fellow nominees Alan Arkin for Argo, Robert De Niro for Silver Linings Playbook, Philip Seymour Hoffman for The Master and Tommy Lee Jones for Lincoln in what was one of the biggest tossups of the night. This is Waltz’s second Oscar, after winning Best Supporting Actor in 2010, also with Tarantino, in Inglourious Basterds.

The Oscar for Animated Feature Film went to Pixar’s Brave – a cartoon set in the Scottish Highlands and featuring the voices of Billy Connolly, Emma Thompson and Julie Walters. The win extends Pixar’s domination of the category, marking its seventh win since the award was first given out in 2002.

Ang Lee’s Life of Pi headed into the awards with 11 nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director, of which he won the latter title puling a major upset, taking the prize over Steven Spielberg who had been favored for Lincoln. “Thank you, movie god,” the Taiwanese filmmaker said as he collected his trophy and bowed before the standing, cheering audience. “Thank you for taking the leap with me,” he said to the Fox execs who backed the costly CGI film. Pi marks Lee’s second Academy Award win as director, having won seven years ago for Brokeback Mountain. Claudio Miranda won the Cinematography award for his stunning camera work in the 3D movie on the film based on Yann Martel’s award-winning novel. The film also picked up the Oscar for Visual Effects.

Quentin Tarantino walked away with the Best Original Screenplay award for Django Unchained, saying he was especially honored to win this year because of the quality of the writing in both the original and adapted screenplay categories. “This is the year of the writer!” he exclaimed!

The award for costume design went to Jacqueline Durran for her immaculate work in Anna Karenina. Though she’s never won before, she’s been twice nominated in this category for her previous work. Durran’s period costumes for Karenina took home top honors at the Costume Designer Guild Awards last week as well as the BAFTA in the same category earlier this month.

While the Sound Editing category would regularly get little more than a mention on a recap list, this year is a little different as there was a tie in the category which was shared between Zero Dark Thirty and Skyfall. If a nominee is three or less votes behind the winner, a tie is declared and the Academy will award two Oscars, one to each nominee. This has happened only two times in the history of the Academy Awards, and well, tonight makes three.

As expected, Anne Hathaway sung her way home to Best Supporting Actress the award. Upon winning Hathaway emotionally responded saying “it came true” and thanked her co-stars including Jackman. Referring to her Les Misérables character Fantine, who was forced into prostitution, she said she hoped for a future in which “the misfortunes of Fantine will only be found in stories and nevermore in real life.” We hope so too.

Jennifer Lawrence nabbed the Best Actress award for her incredible role as troubled Tiffany in Silver Linings Playbook. At just 22, Lawrence is the second-youngest woman to win best actress, behind Marlee Matlin, who was 21 when she won for Children of a Lesser God. Lawrence also is the third-youngest best-actress contender ever, earning her first nomination at age 20 two years ago for her breakout role in the acclaimed Winter’s Bone –  role that took her from a virtual unknown to one of Hollywood’s most sought-after starlets. She won Best Actress at both the Golden Globes and SAG awards, and tied Emmanuelle Riva at the Los Angeles Critics Choice Awards, for this performance as well.

Daniel Day-Lewis won by a landslide for Best Actor for his title-role playing the nation’s 16th president in Steven Spielberg’s epic Lincoln. Day-Lewis, 55, becomes the first actor to win three lead Oscars. Katharine Hepburn won four in the lead actress category. Jack Nicholson, Meryl Streep, Ingrid Bergman and Walter Brennan have also won three golden statues in a mix of lead and supporting categories.  The British-born actor also won Best Actor titles at the Golden Globes, SAG Awards and BAFTAs for his leading role.

And the most coveted award of the evening, Best Picture, went to a well-deserved Argo. The award was announced by First Lady Michelle Obama — via satellite from the White House. The film won three Oscars, including Best Adapted Screenplay for Chris Terrio and Film Editing for William Goldenberg. It’s only the fourth time that a film has won the best picture Oscar without its director being nominated. Hats off to Mr. Affleck who may have been snubbed in the Director category, but stil won the big one.

 

 

And the Oscar goes to…

Best Picture

Beasts of the Southern Wild
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty
Lincoln
Les Miserables
Life of Pi
Amour
Django Unchained
WINNER: Argo

 

Best Actor

Bradley Cooper - Silver Linings Playbook
Joaquin Phoenix - The Master
WINNER: Daniel Day-Lewis - Lincoln
Denzel Washington - Flight
Hugh Jackman - Les Miserables

 

 

 

Best Actress

Jessica Chastain - Zero Dark Thirty
Quvenzhané Wallis - Beasts of the Southern Wild
WINNER: Jennifer Lawrence - Silver Linings Playbook
Naomi Watts - The Impossible
Emmanuelle Riva - Amour

 

 

 

Best Supporting Actor

WINNER: Christoph Waltz - Django Unchained
Philip Seymour Hoffman – The Master
Robert De Niro – Silver Linings Playbook
Alan Arkin – Argo
Tommy Lee Jones – Lincoln

 

Best Supporting Actress

Sally Field - Lincoln
WINNER: Anne Hathaway - Les Miserables
Jacki Weaver - The Silver Linings Playbook
Helen Hunt - The Sessions
Amy Adams - The Master

 

 

 

Best Animated Picture

WINNER: Brave
Frankenweenie
Wreck-It Ralph
ParaNorman
The Pirates! Band of Misfits

 

Best Director

David O. Russell – Silver Linings Playbook
Michael Haneke – Amour
WINNER: Ang Lee – Life of Pi
Benh Zeitlin – Beasts of the Southern Wild
Steven Spielberg – Lincoln

 

 

Adapted Screenplay

WINNER: Chris Terrio - Argo
Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin - Beasts of the Southern Wild
David Magee - Life of Pi
Tony Kushner - Lincoln
David O. Russell - Silver Linings Playbook

 

 

Original Screenplay

John Gatins – Flight
Mark Boal – Zero Dark Thirty
WINNER: Quentin Tarantino – Django Unchained
Michael Haneke – Amour
Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola – Moonrise Kingdom

 

Best Foreign Language Film

WINNER: Amour, Austria
Kon-Tiki, Norway
No, Chile
A Royal Affair, Denmark
The War Witch, Canada

 

Production Design

Sarah Greenwood (Production Design); Katie Spencer (Set Decoration) - Anna Karenina
Dan Hennah (Production Design); Ra Vincent and Simon Bright (Set Decoration) - The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Eve Stewart (Production Design); Anna Lynch-Robinson (Set Decoration) - Les Miserables
David Gropman (Production Design); Anna Pinnock (Set Decoration) - Life of Pi
WINNER: Rick Carter (Production Design); Jim Erickson (Set Decoration) - Lincoln

 

Achievement in Cinematography

Seamus McGarvey - Anna Karenina
Robert Richardson - Django Unchained
WINNER: Claudio Miranda - Life of Pi
Janusz Kaminski - Lincoln
Roger Deakins - Skyfall

 

 

Best Costume Design

WINNER: Jacqueline Durran - Anna Karenina
Paco Delgado - Les Miserables
Joanna Johnston - Lincoln
Eiko Ishioka - Mirror Mirror
Colleen Atwood - Snow White and the Huntsman

 

 

Best Documentary Feature

5 Broken Cameras
The Gatekeepers
How to Survive a Plague
The Invisible War
WINNER: Searching for Sugar Man

 

 

Best Documentary Short Subject

WINNER: Inocente
Kings Point
Mondays at Racine
Open Heart
Redemption

 

 

Achievement in Film Editing

WINNER: William Goldenberg - Argo
Tim Squyres - Life of Pi
Michael Kahn - Lincoln
Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers - Silver Linings Playbook
Dylan Tichenor and William Goldenberg - Zero Dark Thirty

 

 

Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling

Howard Berger, Peter Montagna and Martin Samuel - Hitchcock
Peter Swords King, Rick Findlater and Tami Lane - The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
WINNER: Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell - Les Miserables

 

 

Best Original Score

Dario Marianelli - Anna Karenina
Alexandre Desplat - Argo
WINNER: Mychael Danna - Life of Pi
John Williams - Lincoln
Thomas Newman - Skyfall

 

 

 

Best Original Song

“Before My Time” from Chasing Ice
“Everybody Needs A Best Friend” from Ted
“Pi’s Lullaby” from Life of Pi
WINNER: “Skyfall” from Skyfall
“Suddenly” from Les Miserables

 

 

Best Animated Short Film

Adam and Dog
Fresh Guacamole
Head Over Heels
Maggie Simpson in “The Longest Daycare”
WINNER: Paperman

 

 

Best Live Action Short Film

Asad
Buzkashi Boys
WINNER: Curfew
Death of a Shadow
Henry

 

 

Achievement in Sound Editing

Erik Aadahl and Ethan Van der Ryn - Argo
Wylie Stateman - Django Unchained
Eugene Gearty and Philip Stockton - Life of Pi
Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers - Skyfall (tie)
Paul N.J. Ottosson - Zero Dark Thirty (tie)

 

 

Achievement in Sound Mixing

John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff and Jose Antonio Garcia - Argo
Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson and Simon Hayes - Les Miserables
Ron Bartlett, D.M. Hemphill and Drew Kunin - Life of Pi
Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom and Ronald Judkins - Lincoln
Scott Millan, Greg P. Russell and Stuart Wilson - Skyfall

 

Achievement in Visual Effects

Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and R. Christopher White - The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer and Donald R. Elliott - Life of Pi
Janek Sirrs, Jeff White, Guy Williams and Dan Sudick - The Avengers
Richard Stammers, Trevor Wood, Charley Henley and Martin Hill - Prometheus
Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, Philip Brennan, Neil Corbould and Michael Dawson - Snow White and the Huntsman

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