Academy Awards 2014 Highlights

It’s fair to say that this year’s Academy Awards marked a departure from previous years. Despite Ellen DeGeneres’ humour falling slightly flat at times, the event was considerably less of a snooze/cringe/misogyny-fest  in comparison to 2013’s We Saw Your Boob’s, the cast of Les Miserables’ ensemble performance and general hosting fail by Seth MacFarlane. The atmosphere – both viewing at home and in the audience, was a much more relaxed affair. Here are a few of the highlights:

The big winners were Gravity (7 awards) and 12 Years A Slave (3)

 Meaning that Alfonso Cuarón was the event’s first Mexican recipient of the Best Director award, and Steve McQueen its first black Best Picture winner.

Lupita Nyong’o won Best Supporting Actress, meaning that J-Law can resume being adorable, as she did when attempting to steal Lupita’s gong.

 Despite having 10 nominations, American Hustle walked away empty-handed.

This made The Wolf of Wall Street’s losses a lot more tolerable.

Cate Blanchett gave an inspiring acceptance speech – calling out Hollywood for its denial that women-led films can’t be box-office hits, saying:

I’m so very proud that Blue Jasmine stayed in the cinemas for as long as it did. And thank you to Sony Classics, to Michael and Tom for their extraordinary support. For so bravely and intelligently distributing the film and to the audiences who went to see it and perhaps those of us in the industry who are still foolishly clinging to the idea that female films with women at the center are niche experiences. They are not. Audiences want to see them and, in fact, they earn money. The world is round, people.

Lupita, Meryl and Amy got their dance on.

And erm, Ellen achieved the most retweeted selfie of all time.

Winners:

Best Picture – 12 Years a Slave

Best Actor – Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)

Best Actress – Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)

Best Supporting Actor – Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)

Best Supporting Actress – Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave)

Best Adapted Screenplay – 12 Years a Slave (John Ridley)

Best Original Screenplay – Her (Spike Jonze)

Best Animated Feature – Frozen

Best Cinematography – Gravity (Emmanuel Lubezki)

Best Costume Design – The Great Gatsby (Catherine Martin)

Best Directing – Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón)

Best Documentary Feature – 20 Feet from Stardom (Morgan Neville, Gil Friesen, Caitrin Rogers)

Best Documentary Short – The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life (Malcolm Clarke, Nicholas Reed)

Best Film Editing – Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón, Mark Sanger)

Best Foreign Language – FilmThe Great Beauty (Italy)

Best Makeup and Hairstyling – Dallas Buyers Club (Adruitha Lee, Robin Mathews)

Best Original Score – Gravity (Steven Price)

Best Original Song – Let It Go – Frozen

Best Production Design – The Great Gatsby (Catherine Martin, Beverley Dunn)

Best Animated Short Film – Mr. Hublot (Laurent Witz, Alexandre Espigares)

Best Live Action Short Film – Helium (Anders Walter, Kim Magnusson)

Best Sound Editing – Gravity (Glenn Freemantle)

Best Sound Mixing –  Gravity (Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead, Chris Munro)

Best Visual Effects – Gravity (Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, Dave Shirk, Neil Corbould)

Best of the Golden Globes 2014

Oh to live the lives of the rich and famous/beautiful. But still, the Golden Globes are a fun ceremony, and this year’s proved to be no different.

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler continuing to perform a top-notch hosting job, poking fun numerous times at the Hollywood double standard:

Julia Louis-Dreyfus sitting with the film crowd instead of the lowly TV actors (she was nominated twice):

Julia Louis-Dreyfus eating a hot-dog:

Joaquin Phoenix showing up, and looked like he was having a genuinely good time:

A drunk Emma Thomson took her cocktail onstage before throwing her Louboutin’s away:

Awkward moment between Bono and Diddy:

Bono quite happy to share a moment with Amy Poehler:

(who then won in her category):

The crew of Breaking Bad’s Best TV Drama acceptance speech:

Leo DiCaprio finally wins something (his last GG was for The Aviator in 2005 – in Dicaprio terms, that’s a long time…is an Oscar finally on the cards?):

So did Matthew McConaughey, who also gave an amazing acceptance speech:

Having up until now been overlooked in such a promising list of nominations, Steve McQueen and 12 Years A Slave walked away with Best Picture – Drama: