The 2009 Academy Awards

Not a lot of surprises on the winners front. Hugh Jackman was a competent host but I missed the humour of the previous ceremonies. The 2007 show was my favorite. Ellen Degeneres as the host was funny and pleasantly irreverent. Plus there were some killer sequences by the shadow dance group (if you could call them that) Pilobolus; if you haven’t seen them check them out on youtube- they are freaking amazing.

I’m sure having 5 previous winners introduce the nominees in the acting categories seemed like a good idea on paper- it didn’t translate that well on the stage though. The process seemed sickeningly indulgent not to mention time consuming. I’d have preferred to have complete versions of the nominated original songs even though the medley was pretty good.

In any other year Slumdog Millionaire wouldn’t have won Best Adapted Screenplay- being one of the film’s low points. But I guess with the bunch of screenplays nominated this year, it seemed like the best choice: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was too much like Forrest Gump, both written by Eric Roth; Doubt adapted from a play which can be considered easier that adapting from a book; Frost/Nixon again adapted from a play and is almost a verbatim representation of the interviews it is based on; The Reader was a story many people couldn’t sympathise with. Add the fact that Slumdog went on to win the Best Picture Award, the screenplay award was pretty obvious.

The biggest surprise for me was Departures winning the best foreign language film- I thought Waltz with Bashir was a sureshot winner with Cannes winner The Class as a possible longshot. Sean Penn’s win, though not entirely unexpected, was also a “huh???” moment for me. And it was fun to see Danny Boyle jumping on stage “in the spirit of Tigger”, Kate Winslet’s dad whistling for her to make out where he was seated and the entire Slumdog team on stage for the Best Picture Award. If only the Academy had decided to nominate Wall E and The Dark Knight in the Best Picture category, Slumdog Millionaire would’ve had tough competition. Wall E was arguably the best film last year but the Academy conveniently relegated it to the animation category. As for Dark Knight, if it’s leading man was not a superhero but an ordinary conflicted person it would’ve struck Oscar gold or at least a nomination. Guess a record-breaking blockbuster comic book movie didn’t seem serious enough for the Academy members.

The best moment of the show was when Philip Petit, the man who walked the tightrope across the 2 towers of the WTC and the subject of the winning documentary feature Man on Wire bounced on stage, did a disappearing coin trick and then balanced the Oscar statuette on his chin. That’s one spontaneous performer.