The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has just finished presenting the winners of The 87th Annual Academy Awards, resulting in Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s masterpiece Birdman taking four Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Cinematography. Wes Anderson’s quirky comedy The Grand Budapest Hotel also came out a big winner, taking four Oscars of its own, including Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup & Hairstyling, and Best Original Score.
As usual, we had a few surprise upsets along the way, including Big Hero 6 besting assumed frontrunner How to Train Your Dragon 2 for Best Animated Feature, in addition to Whiplash swiping Best Film Editing away from Boyhood (the winner of the American Cinema Editors’ award for Drama). The latter was particularly surprising because it was assumed that the Academy would, at the very least, give it the two awards it was expected to get (Supporting Actress and Film Editing). But, as we’ve clearly seen throughout the guild awards, Boyhood just didn’t have the same popularity that it did with the critics, leaving it with just Best Supporting Actress for Patricia Arquette (ironically a performance that I thought was not very deserving).
The only big gripe I had with this year’s results is that Michael Keaton got robbed for his brilliant performance in Birdman. His performance is a very large part of why the film stands out as the best of the year, so not to honor it just seems somewhat insane. As I’ve said, Eddie Redmayne did a great job in The Theory of Everything, and his win was certainly not the worst thing that could have happened, but Keaton’s ability to create his character and make him so utterly convincing (his was the only performance not based on a real-life character) was mesmerizing and will be looked back on as not only his finest work, but the stand-out performance of the year.
That being said, there’s not really anything else to complain about. A great film has walked away with top honors and shows that the Academy does indeed still have the ability to choose something that is deserving of the title “Best Picture.” With that, we end what has been a truly exciting awards season. Critics went one way while the guilds and ultimately the Academy went another, showing you that you can never be too sure just what will come out on top until the very end. And so, until December roles around once again, we wait patiently for the next invigorating awards season to start…
Please see below for a complete list of tonight’s winners:
Best Picture: Birdman
Best Director: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Birdman
Best Actor: Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything
Best Actress: Julianne Moore, Still Alice
Best Supporting Actor: J.K. Simmons, Whiplash
Best Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Best Original Screenplay: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Nicolas Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, and Armando Bo, Birdman
Best Adapted Screenplay: Graham Moore, The Imitation Game
Best Film Editing: Whiplash
Best Cinematography: Birdman
Best Production Design: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Costume Design: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Makeup and Hairstyling: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Animated Feature: Big Hero 6
Best Documentary Feature: Citizenfour
Best Foreign Language Film: Ida
Best Original Score: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Original Song: “Glory,” Selma
Best Visual Effects: Interstellar
Best Sound Mixing: Whiplash
Best Sound Editing: American Sniper
Best Animated Short: Feast
Best Documentary Short: Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1
Best Live-Action Short: The Phone Call
Predictions: 20/24