2015 Oscars Wrap Up

^The only moment that matters from last night

"Birdman" soars away with the Oscar and so ends another long award season. My final predictions tally came in at 17/24, or 71%. As expected, I got best director wrong. But I told you I would be glad to be wrong on that one. You did predict Inarritu, didn't you?

Most of the awards went according to plan. The biggest surprise is probably "Big Hero 6" stealing the Animated Feature trophy. After failing to win the animated race since the category's inception, Disney now has two in a row. Perhaps we all should have put more stock in the film. Given that there was no clear frontrunner with "The LEGO Movie" absent, Disney's brightly colored Marvel toon was probably the most widely seen.

I'm also kicking myself for not going with my gut on wins for Tom Cross in Editing and "Crisis Hotline" for Documentary Short. I should have seen both of them coming. Flashy editing has an increasing habit of taking the award, and the editing is showy and essential to "Whiplash". Invisible editing fights an uphill battle when the entire Academy is voting instead of individual branches. Thus, Sandra Adair stayed in her seat and "Boyhood" was represented with just a single (deserving) win for Patricia Arquette.

"Birdman" upped its expected award tally by claiming the Best Original Screenplay prize. I guess the thought of the academy splitting Picture, Director, and Writing among its three beloved auteurs (Inarritu, Linklater, and Anderson) was just wishful thinking on my part. I had a feeling the film would pick up an extra win somewhere, but I guessed that sound mixing was a more likely place for it to surprise. Having multiple writers on the ballot usually makes winning unlikely, but it didn't matter this year. "Birdman" put artists and the changing nature of Hollywood as the center of the universe. Its an irresistible setup for the Academy.

In case you somehow missed it, here is the complete list of winners for the 2015 Academy Awards:

BEST PICTURE: "Birdman"
DIRECTOR: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, "Birdman"
LEAD ACTOR: Eddie Redmayne, "The Theory of Everything
LEAD ACTRESS: Julianne Moore, "Still Alice"
SUPPORTING ACTOR: J.K. Simmons, "Whiplash"
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Patricia Arquette, "Boyhood"
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Inarritu et al, "Birdman"
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Graham Moore, "The Imitation Game"
FILM EDITING: Tom Cross, "Whiplash"
CINEMATOGRAPHY:Emmanuel Lubezki, "Birdman"
PRODUCTION DESIGN: "The Grand Budapest Hotel"
COSTUME DESIGN: "The Grand Budapest Hotel"
MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING: "The Grand Budapest Hotel"
ORIGINAL SCORE: Alexandre Desplat, "The Grand Budapest Hotel"
ORIGINAL SONG: Common and John Legend, 'Glory' from "Selma"
SOUND EDITING: "American Sniper"
SOUND MIXING: "Whiplash"
VISUAL EFFECTS: "Interstellar"
ANIMATED FEATURE: "Big Hero 6"
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: "Citizenfour"
FOREIGN FILM: "Ida"
LIVE ACTION SHORT: "The Phone Call"
DOCUMENTARY SHORT: "Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1"
ANIMATED SHORT: "Feast"

Biggest Winners
"Birdman" - 4
"Grand Budapest Hotel" - 4
"Whiplash" - 3

I will point out that in each category I got incorrect, the film I placed in second took the award. So I didn't lead anyone too far astray if you copied my picks. No angry emails y'all!

Final Thoughts

• "The LEGO Movie was perfectly represented with 'Everything is Awesome'. Will Arnet's Batman even took the stage. The Lego Oscars going out to the nominees in the crowd was a great touch

• How good was Gaga? Maybe it was just the straightforward style of performance that we arent used to seeing from her which had everyone surprised, but she nailed it. Flawless vocals. And thankfully left the gloves off the stage. 

• John Travolta was up there trying to make a moment happen. And Idina was all "please stop touching me now, Im trying my best to smile through this". It was awkward.

• It was a night of great speeches. Graham Moore (who is apparently NOT gay?) gave the most moving one for my money. Patricia Arquette killed it while demanding equal pay/rights for women (and more importantly gave us the best reaction shot/meme of the night from Meryl and JLo). JK Simmons was heartfelt and touching. Eddie Redmayne's excitement was fun to watch. And Julianne Moore was so classy. Good job people, thank you for coming prepared. 

• Except you Mr Inarritu. You knew you were going to win at least one trophy: write something down! 

• I think this is the most beautifully designed Oscars I've ever watched. The set looked gorgeous decorated with all those light bulbs. The animations on the opening number backdrop looked great. The title cards of each category were done in a cool and classy way. And the watercolor look to the In Memoriam segment made it somehow even more heartbraking to see those names up there.

• Speaking of: where the hell were Joan Rivers, Elaine Stritch, and Harold Ramis? Either have a definite set of rules dictating what qualifies a person to be included, or just include everyone. These omissions are occurring way too often. 

• Fun trivia: this is the first time since the Best Picture nominees expanded to more than 5 that each film up for Picture took home a trophy. Perhaps this is why we should have seen Graham Moore winning over Damien Chazelle in screenplay? Everyone got lovin' somewhere.

• NPH did a mostly good job as host. I liked the opening number, even if he did let Jack Black steal it from him. Some jabs such as "Hollywood's whitest...I mean brightest" were great. Others ("you could eat her with a spoon"...seriously who wrote that?) not so much. He knows how to infuse the night with energy, and though I already saw him in his skivvies at Hedwig I certainly wasn't saying no to seconds during that "Birdman" skit. Ultimately though, the music performances and classy speeches had more of an impact than his hosting. 

Til next year, dear awards nerds.