Well, the Awards season for 2010 is finally over. Thank Goodness! It's been a long, arduous see-saw season that left even the most hardened pundits confused. That being said, the final push of momentum saw The Kings Speech over the line, beating out early favourite The Social Network. I've never seen a season where a film dominated the first half of the awards, literally trumping all opposition, only to be overtaken in quite an extraordinary turn around of fortune. After Network triumphed at the Globes, I felt certain nothing would stand in its way.
But I was wrong.
From a personal view point, I was happy The Kings Speech walked off with the big prize. It came down to a choice between Kings Speech and Network, and to be frank, Speech is a better more satisfying movie. But maybe I wanted it to win mainly because I didn't want to see Network win. If it were my choice, I would've given out the Best Picture award to Toy Story 3, with Inception being a close second. However, the Academy refused to embrace the animated genius, and opted for the more conventional choice.
I made my predictions this year in the hope of trying to get 20/24, which is a difficult feat because of the smaller film categories (like Live Action Short Film, which is a gamble). Added to that the close races in some categories, and the odd surprises that come up every year, getting a 80% successs rate is hard.
The night started terribly for me as I got none of the first four awards! So in order to get my aim, I would have to get every award right for the rest of the night. I knew I wasn't, but in the end my total added up to 17/24. Not a bad effort.
My take on the awards? Well, the show was pretty boring as usual. The hosts simply didn't click: James Franco, whilst a fine actor and my choice for Best Actor of the year, looked asleep half the time; and Hathaway's cheerful presence did seem to slightly grate some people. Billy Crystal was great in his short apperance, and I wish the Academy would bring him back. Or Steve Martin. Or how bout giving someone like Conan O'Brien a chance? He hosted the Emmys in 2007 and was hysterical.
The awards itself? Well, I predicted a sweep for The Kings Speech, but it didn't quite dominate the technical categories as I thought it would, losing awards such as Art Direction, Costume and Score. The big surprise for me was seeing Inception win Best Cinematography over True Grit, which was the universal favourite for this one. Toy Story 3 of course picked up Animated Feature, and it was nice to see Randy Newman take the Best Song award. Inception garnered 4 technical awards, as I knew it would, in the Visual Effects and the two Sound categories. The Fighter took home Best Supporting and Best Supporting Actress awards for Christian Bale and Melissa leo respectively. I was glad to see Bale win because he was great in his role and has had a fantastic career. Of the major categories, Leo's win was the only one I got wrong. In retrospect I should've gone with her as she was the favourite, but I had a hunch she may have lost friends in some quarters due to her personal campaign methods. I was wrong. Personally, I was not happy to see Leo win as I felt she didn't deserve it. My personal pick would've been Amy Adams who was much more convincing, and if not her then Hailee Steinfeld. I correctly predicted Original Screenplay to go to The Kings Speech and Adapted Screenplay to go to The Social Network, whose only other prizes was Editing and Score (which was a bit of an upset as I thought Speech would take this).
Firth and Portman won Best Actor and Best Actress - no surprises there. But the award that was the most interesting of the night was definitely Best Director. In fact, I was on the verge of thinking: "Oh my word, Social Network is going to take this!". I thought this because Speech wasn't sweeping the tech categories like I thought, and Fincher was kind of the 'favourite' for the award. However, when they read Hooper's name, I knew it was all over. Spielberg stepped up and announced the Best Picture for 2010 as "The Kings Speech". Harvey Weinstein has the final laugh. And the King is crowned.
There will be a long debate as the years go by as to the legitimacy of The Kings Speech's "Best Picture" win. Many will cry that The Social Network was snubbed, and will cry foul. I, however, think that BOTH these pictures weren't the best of the year. But, history can't be changed.
Network fans can take comfort as they fall into the category of The Shawshank Redemption, Apocalypse Now, Pulp Fiction, Goodfellas, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull (and many many others) of films that didn't win Best Picture...
As Spielberg said, "That's not bad company" to be in... don't you think??
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