Birdman Flies High at The Oscars

22 Feb, 2015

Birdman took flight at this year’s Oscars, winning four awards including best picture.

“It’s great to be here, who am I kidding?” said star Michael Keaton. “This has been a tremendous experience. This guy is as bold as bold can be.”

He was paying homage to Alejandro G. Iñárritu, who took original screenplay and best director honors at the 87th Academy Awards. Birdman also won best cinematography.

Eddie Redmayne’s role as the theoretical physicist in The Theory of Everything won him the best actor trophy, and the excited British actor dedicated his Oscar to the entire Hawking family. “I will be its custodian and I promise I will look after him.”

Julianne Moore took home best actress for Still Alice, in which she plays a woman with early-onset Alzheimer’s. “I read an article that winning an Oscar could lead to living five years longer,” she said. “If that’s true, I’d really like to thank the academy because my husband is younger than me.”

The Grand Budapest Hotel picked up four trophies: costume design, production design, makeup/hairstyling, and original score.

“Wes, you’re a genius. It is good. You offered me a great view from the Grand Budapest,” composer Alexandre Desplat said of director Wes Anderson.

Stars used the Oscar stage not only as a place to accept awards but also to take a stand.

Glory, a call-to-arms anthem by Common and John Legend written for the civil-rights drama Selma, won for best original song. When accepting the Oscar, Legend said it’s a musical symbol to the continued racial struggles in America. “When people are marching with our song, we want to tell you we are with you, we see you, we love you and march on.”

Common recalled a time where he and Legend sang Glory on the same Alabama bridge where Martin Luther King Jr. marched 50 years ago. “This bridge was once a landmark of a divided nation but now is a symbol for change. The spirit of this bridge transcends race, gender, religion, sexual orientation and social status.”

Boyhood star Patricia Arquette, whose portrayal of a struggling single mom garnered her the trophy for best supporting actress, gave her thanks and then spoke out for gender equality.

“To every woman who gave birth to every taxpayer and every citizen of this nation, we have fought for everybody else’s equal rights. It’s our time to have wage equality once and for all and equal rights for women in the United States of America.”

Others spoke of family bonds. He might have freaked out a young drummer on screen in Whiplash, but J.K. Simmons didn’t scare off Oscar voters — they awarded him best supporting actor for his acclaimed portrayal of a brutal jazz teacher.

When Simmons accepted his Oscar — the first in the character actor’s career — he was all about his family, thanking his parents as well as his wife and “above-average” kids. “You are extraordinary human beings, smart, funny, kind, loving people, and that’s because you are a reflection of your mother.”

The movie also picked up the awards for sound mixing as well as film editing for Tom Cross, who thanked Whiplash writer/director Damien Chazelle  “for never throwing a chair at my head.”

Adapted screenplay went to Graham Moore for The Imitation Game, the box-office behemoth American Sniper won for sound editing and Interstellar took home the Oscar for visual effects.

Disney had a one-two punch in the animated categories, with the Boston terrier-starring Feast winning for short and the superhero flick Big Hero 6 winning for feature.

“Once upon a time there was a freckled-faced little boy who told his mom and his dad that one day he was going to work at Walt Disney Animation, and they did something amazing: They supported him and believed in him,” said Big Hero 6 co-director Don Hall. “And from the bottom of his heart, he thanks them.”

The Oscar for documentary feature went to CitizenFour, which centered on Edward Snowden’s whistleblower role in an NSA spying scandal. “The disclosures that Edward Snowden reveals don’t only expose a threat to our privacy but to our democracy itself,” said producer Laura Poitras. “When the most important decisions being made affecting all of us are made in secret, we lose our ability to check the powers that control.”

Poland garnered its first win for best foreign language film with director Pawel Pawlikowski’s Ida.

“We made a film about the need for silence and withdrawal from the world and contemplation, and here we are, at the epicenter for noise and world attention,” Pawlikowski said. “Life is full of surprises.”

List of winners at Sunday’s 87th annual Academy Awards presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Best picture: “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance).”

Actor: Eddie Redmayne, “The Theory of Everything.”

Actress: Julianne Moore, “Still Alice.”

Supporting actor: J.K. Simmons, “Whiplash.”

Supporting actress: Patricia Arquette, “Boyhood.”

Directing: Alejandro G. Inarritu, “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance).”

Foreign language film: “Ida.”

Adapted screenplay: Graham Moore, “The Imitation Game.”

Original screenplay: Alejandro G. Inarritu, Nicolas Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris Jr. and Armando Bo, “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance).”

Animated feature film: “Big Hero 6.”

Production design: “The Grand Budapest Hotel.”

Cinematography: “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance).”

Sound mixing: “Whiplash.”

Sound editing: “American Sniper.”

Original score: “The Grand Budapest Hotel.”

Original song: “Glory” from “Selma.”

Costume design: “The Grand Budapest Hotel.”

Documentary feature: “CitizenFour.”

Documentary (short subject): “Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1.”

Film editing: “Whiplash.”

Makeup and hairstyling: “The Grand Budapest Hotel.”

Animated short film: “Feast.”

Live action short film: “The Phone Call.”

Visual effects: “Interstellar.”

USA Today

Image @EW Twitter

Mentioned In This Post: