The big winners

Spectacular show

On Monday morning, many Bangaloreans were glued to their television boxes to watch the 86th Annual Academy Awards unfold before them.

And they were not disappointed as Ellen DeGeneres, who hosted this year’s Oscars, was her usual funny self, walking around in a fairy costume and forcing people to tip a pizza delivery guy.  Benedict Cumberbatch photo-bombed U2’s group photograph and everybody is going to remember how Jennifer Lawrence ‘repeated’ her
legendary fall this year too.

Steve McQueen’s ‘12 Years A Slave’ took home ‘Best Picture’, ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’, ‘Best Actress in a Supporting Role’ for Lupita Nyong’o while Jean-Marc Vallée’s ‘Dallas Buyers Club’ saw Matthew McConaughey winning ‘Best Actor in a Leading Role’, Jared Leto winning ‘Best Actor in a Supporting Role’ and also the award for ‘Makeup and Hairstyling’. Cate Blanchett bagged ‘Best Actress in a Leading Role’ for ‘Blue Jasmine’. But it was Alfonso Cuaron’s ‘Gravity’ that
dominated the Oscars, which not only won him ‘Best Director’ but also ‘Best Film
Editing’, ‘Best Visual Effects’, ‘Best Sound Editing’,
‘Best Sound Mixing’, ‘Best Original Score’ and ‘Best
Cinematography’. Baz Luhrmann’s ‘The Great Gatsby’ won the awards for ‘Best Production Design’ and ‘Best Costume’.

“This year, the memorable moments were far and few between like Ellen DeGeneres’ Twitter breaking selfie, Lupita Nyong’o’s heartwarming speech and Bill Murray’s wonderful tribute to Harold Ramis. Apart from that, it was a fairly ordinary ceremony with nothing much to write home about,” opines Abhin Shetty, a movie
enthusiast.

   “I personally wanted ‘Gravity’ to take home ‘Best Picture’ but it was completely justified that ‘American Hustle’ went home with nothing because it was an over-hyped film. And ‘12 Years A Slave’ was a wonderful film but it’s no ‘Schindler’s List’,” he adds.
Akanksha Arya, a film-maker, found it disappointing that the Oscars didn’t even consider ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’, which she feels was ‘a spectacular piece of cinema’. “I’m glad that ‘Gravity’ won as many Oscars as it did because it’s a splendid film in terms of research and technicalities.

But I was shocked that ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’ only got nominated for cinematography and sound mixing,” she says.

Abhinav Krishnaswamy, however, was happy with the results.
   “The ‘Best Original Song’ should have been ‘The Moon Song’ (from ‘Her’) but the awards for the best actor, film, director, supporting actor and supporting actress were all well-deserved.”

“I figured that McConaughey and Jared Leto would win for ‘Dallas Buyers Club’ because they were simply phenomenal. If Meryl Streep had won anything, I’d have screamed into a pillow out of frustration,” jokes Abhinav. Sashank Manohar, an avid film watcher, also feels that it was a good choice of winners for the top spots.

“2013 was a great year for Hollywood and I’m glad that films like ‘Gravity’, ‘12 Years A Slave’ and ‘Her’ were given due credit. I’m also glad that ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ didn’t win ‘Best Picture’ and Bono didn’t win ‘Best Original Song’. The ceremony itself was entertaining except for some unbearable speeches. Ellen DeGeneres and Jamie Foxx were both
hilarious!” he says.