Oscars 2011: the winners (and the losers!)

Bookie's favourite 'The King's Speech' is 2011's Best Picture

A mere two years after Danny Boyle nabbed Oscar glory for the UK with his ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, Tom Hooper has miraculously pulled off the same trick with his much-loved tale of blue blood triumph over adversity, ‘The King’s Speech’. The film picked up three of the top awards: Best Picture, Best Director (for Hooper) and Best Actor for Colin Firth. Firth's win tops off a seemingly nonstop run of victories from various critics' societies and international awards bodies (including Bafta), and many have noted a certain irony in the fact that he's a dab hand at witty acceptance speeches.

And yet, while we don’t want to be the ones to rain on Hooper’s award-lined parade, we can’t help but spare a thought for the likes of Darren Aronofsky, David Fincher, David O Russell and the Coen brothers, all of whom would have been worthy (worthier?) recipients of the award for Best Director. Fincher, especially, has the right to be miffed: a gong at this year’s ceremony would have been recognition for a near 20-year directorial career that has  given us some of the most thoughtful and challenging American movies of recent times.

Beyond ‘The King’s Speech’, props too go to Natalie Portman who was rightly honoured with the Best Actress Award for her turn in Aronofsky’s high-wire ballet psychodrama ‘Black Swan’. Her win is doubly impressive when considered against robust competition from the likes of Annette Bening (for ‘The Kids Are All Right’), Michelle Williams (for ‘Blue Valentine’), Nicole Kidman (for ‘Rabbit Hole’) and Jennifer Lawrence (for ‘Winter’s Bone’). ‘The Fighter’ cleaned up in the Supporting Actor stakes, with Melissa Leo and Christian Bale picking up awards. This will be especially sweet for Leo, as it comes just two years after she was nominated for Best Actress for her superb turn in American indie ‘Frozen River’.



The other big story of the evening was the fact that ‘Inception’ – Christopher Nolan’s multi-dimension dream thriller – picked up four technical awards (earning the same amount of brassware as ‘The King’s Speech) after many pundits complained that it was something of a travesty that Nolan hadn’t been nominated for Best Director. Perhaps this was a backhanded way for the Academy to admit they may have boobed, as the film carried off trophies for Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Visual Effects and Cinematography.

Danish director Susanne Bier won Best Foreign Language Film for her ‘In a Better World’, which London audiences will get a chance to preview at the Bird’s Eye View Film Festival on March 13, 14 and 15. The controversy over Banksy’s suggested attire for the ceremony (ie No monkey masks) came to nothing when his ‘Exit from the Gift Shop’ lost out in the Best Documentary Feature category to Charles Ferguson for his penetrating econo-doc ‘Inside Job’, while it was no surprise whatsoever to see ‘Toy Story 3’ win Best Animated Feature.

And the winners in full are...

Best Picture: 'The King's Speech'

Best Actor: Colin Firth for 'The King's Speech'

Best Actress: Natalie Portman for 'Black Swan'

Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Christian Bale for 'The Fighter'

Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Melissa Leo for 'The Fighter'

Best Director: Tom Hooper for 'The King's Speech'

Best Adapted Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin for 'The Social Network'

Best Original Screenplay: David Seidler for 'The King's Speech'

Best Foreign Language Film: 'In a Better World' (Dir Susanne Bier)

Best Animated Feature: 'Toy Story 3'

Best Documentary Feature: 'Inside Job'

Best Documentary Short: 'Strangers No More'

Best Short Film (Animated): 'The Lost Thing'

Best Short Film (Live Action): 'God of Love'

Best Art Direction: Robert Stromberg and Karen O'Hara for 'Alice in Wonderland'

Best Cinematography: Wally Pfister for 'Inception'

Best Costume Design: Colleen Atwood for 'Alice in Wonderland'

Best Make-up: Rick Baker and Dave Elsey for 'The Wolfman'

Best Film Editing: Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter for 'The Social Network'

Best Original Score: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for 'The Social Network'

Best Original Song: 'We Belong Together', music and lyrics by
Randy Newman, for 'Toy Story 3'

Best Sound Editing: Richard King for 'Inception'

Best Sound Mixing: Lora Hirschberg, Gary A Rizzo and Ed Novick for 'Inception'

Best Visual Effects: Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and
Peter Bebb for 'Inception'

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