Kings, Toys, and Kirk Douglas Win Big at the Oscars

Sunday, the 83rd Academy Awards were held at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles. The Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences presents the awards to the best films of the previous year. The red carpet was rolled out for a veritable “who’s who” of stars, directors, producers and other members of the Hollywood elite. 

The big hook this year was the Academy’s attempt at making the awards appeal to a younger audience. Accordingly, hosting responsibilities were given to Anne Hathaway and James Franco, two of the biggest up-and-coming stars. Additionally, many of the presenters were of the younger Hollywood generation, including Justin Timberlake, Russell Brand, Scarlett Johansson and Mila Kunis. 

I could appreciate the effort behind appealing to teens and young adults, but the final result came off as forced and insincere. The two cohosts kept referencing the fact that they were there to make the Oscars seem hip, and their efforts made for a rocky performance.

The evening was partially salvaged by Billy Crystal (himself an Oscar hosting veteran), introducing a segment about Bob Hope’s 18 appearances as host. If the technical crew was able to project Bon Hope behind a podium in order to introduce the next set of presenters, I could not help but wonder what stopped them from just letting the virtual Hope host the entire show.

Ironically, my favorite presentation of the night was when a 94-year-old Kirk Douglas presented the Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. Despite his age and having suffered a stroke, Douglas made his way to the podium and had the crowd laughing with his hammy performance and deliberate delays in reading the winner’s name.

As for the awards themselves, there were no major surprises. The British historical drama The King’s Speech took home the Oscar for Best Picture. The film won three more of its 12 nominations, including Best Actor for Colin Firth’s performance as King George VI, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay.

Perhaps one of the bigger disappointments of the Awards was the underperformance of The Social Network. Despite its eight nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor, the Facebook biopic ended the evening with only three wins: Best Film Editing, Best Original Score and Best Adapted Screenplay.

The Oscar for Best Actress went to Natalie Portman for her role in the dark, psychological thriller “Black Swan.” Portman’s win was not a complete surprise, but to see a first-time nominee beat esteemed actress Nicole Kidman and Annette Bening made for a good race.

Then there were the categories and films that I followed out of personal interest rather than sheer cinematic prestige.  Most notably was the Oscar for Best Animated Feature that went unsurprisingly to Pixar’s Toy Story 3.  While Dreamworks’ How to Train Your Dragon and Sylvain Chomet’s The Illusionist were excellent films, they simply did not stand a chance to one of most universally acclaimed films of 2010. 

With the passing of the Oscars, award season officially comes to a close. Now, we have an entire year of films to look forward to and can begin guessing which ones will qualify for next year’s awards.