For the first time since the Best Picture field expanded in 2009, all nominees in the category won at least one Oscar, but only one of eight could win the big one. If you managed to stay awake during the marathon that was the 87th Academy Awards, you saw Alejandro G. Inarritu’s Birdman of (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) win Best Picture.
The film won four Oscars in total, tying with Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel, another Best Picture nominee. Both films were distributed by Fox Searchlight, so whoever was at their Oscar party certainly had a good time.
Three of Birdman’s wins went to Inarritu. The film won Best Original Screenplay, Best Director, Best Cinematography and Best Picture. By winning Director and Picture, it broke the two-year streak of a split in those two categories.
Inarritu also becomes the second consecutive Mexican director to win Best Director, following Gravity’s Alfonso Cuaron. Coincidentally, Emmanuel Lubezki also shot Gravity, so he won Best Cinematography for the second straight year.
Birdman’s win also means that the Academy is falling into a nasty habit of honoring movies about show business. So many of today’s stars also work on Broadway and three of the last four Best Picture winners have been on the subject. Of course this could just be a coincidence or we might end up seeing more art films about art.
It was definitely a disappointing night for Richard Linklater and the crew behind Boyhood. While Patricia Arquette won Best Supporting Actress, as expected, Linklater’s 12-year filmmaking journey was nearly shut out. It was just a few months ago that it seemed like the film had Best Picture sewed up. Personally, I thought it would still win, but I was proven wrong. The Birdman train was too strong to stop.
However, it wasn’t strong enough to keep Eddie Redmayne from winning Best Actor for The Theory of Everything. It would have been nice for Birdman’s Michael Keaton to win, but seeing Redmayne’s joy at winning the award made you realize instantly why the Oscars are still a thing. Redmayne graciously accepted the award, as he has all season.
One huge surprise was Whiplash making off with more wins than just Best Supporting Actor for J.K. Simmons. There was a split in the sound categories, so Whiplash won Sound Mixing, while American Sniper won Sound Editing. The incredible film’s third award was for Tom Cross’ intense editing.
The other surprise was Sniper’s lack of surprise. I guess a lot of Oscar watchers - myself included - thought Clint Eastwood’s film was going to pull off a big surprise somewhere. But it didn’t. The sound award was expected, but Bradley Cooper went home empty handed for a third straight year.
The animated Feature category provided another stunner on the night. Disney’s Big Hero 6 beat out DreamWorks Animation’s How To Train Your Dragon 2. That’s another bit of bad news for DWA, which has had an awful year.
Overall, the awards themselves weren’t too shocking, if you’ve been following the awards season. Thankfully, it’s all over now, so Hollywood can start focusing on the real moneymakers: summer blockbusters!
Check out the full list of winners here.
images courtesy of Jennifer Graylock/INFphoto.com