NextMovie » 2011 Academy Awards

Oscar Party Pics Worth Talking About

Breanne L. Heldman — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 22:35:56 +0000

The Best and Worst Moments from the 2011 Academy Awards

Kim Potts — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 05:36:37 +0000

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Um ... awwwk-ward. That's the single best word to describe this year's Oscar experiment, er, telecast.

What was supposed to be a younger, hipper show, thanks to hosting duo James Franco and Anne Hathaway, turned out to be an oddly-paced few hours of jokes that fell flat, awards that offered no surprises and Gwyneth Paltrow continuing to insist we pretend she's a country singer.

The highlights: Colin Firth, as always, was a class act, Melissa Leo had a potty mouth, Trent Reznor won an Oscar and Kirk Douglas became the Betty White of the 2011 Academy Awards.

BEST
Kirk Douglas FTW. Say what you will about that Kirk Douglas appearance ... wow. Can we all agree that he practically stole the moment for Best Supporting Actress winner Melissa Leo? Which is kinda ironic, considering since she paid so much for it.

QUOTABLE
"When I watched Kate [Winslet] two years ago, it looked so f***ing easy." -- Best Supporting Actress winner Melissa Leo, accepting her statue for "The Fighter" and dropping the F-bomb that made Twitterers proclaim her the new owner of the word.

WORST

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But enough about me... What do you think of me? The opening clip, in which hosts James Franco and Anne Hathaway interacted with actors/characters in several of this year's Best Picture nominees (plus Alec Baldwin and Morgan Freeman), was fun. But the sequence quickly devolved into a self-referential clunker when the duo took the stage and began riffing on lesbians in this year's movies and saying hello to their family in the audience. It was like a weird, awkward flashback to a '70s Sonny and Cher variety show.

QUOTABLE
"Melissa ... I'm not gonna drop the F-bomb like she did. I've done that plenty before." -- Best Supporting Actor winner Christian Bale, referencing the acceptance speech of his "The Fighter" costar Melissa Leo and, of course, his infamous "Terminator: Salvation" rant.

BEST
Grandmas are this year's God. From James Franco giving a shoutout to his nana in the audience to "Toy Story 3" director (and Ed Helms lookalike) Lee Unkrich thanking his while accepting the award for Best Animated Feature, grannies finally got some Oscar props.

QUOTABLE
"I have a feeling my career just peaked," -- Best Actor winner Colin Firth accepting his statue for his performance in Best Picture winner "The King's Speech."

BEST
And moms aren't so bad, either. Best Director winner Tom Hooper gave a shout out to his mom while accepting his Oscar for "The King's Speech," since she brought the story to his attention after seeing a reading of an unproduced play version of it. "She came home, she rang me up and said, I think I’ve found your next movie,” he said. "The moral of the story is, listen to your mother."

QUOTABLE
"The weird thing is, I just got a text message from Charlie Sheen." -- James Franco, walking onstage while dressed as Marilyn Monroe.

BEST
Maybe Joaquin Phoenix can win a rap Grammy someday. Awesome is the fact that industrial rocker Trent Reznor winning an Oscar. Slightly disconcerting is the fact that industrial rocker Trent Reznor now looks like an agent at CAA.

WORST
Must be a full moon. "Wolfman" wins more Oscars than "127 Hours," "True Grit," "The Kids Are All Right" and "Winter's Bone" combined.

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BEST
See, Hollywood can take a joke. Co-presenters Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr. referenced Downey's colorful, drug-fueled past while doling out Oscars for Visual Effects and Editing. Yes, Ricky Gervais did it first, and better. But as with "The Office," some audience members seem to like the American version better.

QUOTABLE
"My father always said to me, I would be a late bloomer ..." -- "The King's Speech" screenwriter and first-time Oscar winner (Best Original Screenplay) David Seidler, 73

BEST
Original Songs that shoulda been. It's an auto-tuned world, and the Oscar montage of made-up songs, using auto-tuned dialogue from flicks like "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," "The Social Network" and "Twilight: Eclipse" was one of the few times when producers made good on their promise to make this a younger, hipper Oscars.

WORST
How ironic that the first award was for Art Direction. Because those "virtual" sets flashing digital scenes onto the Kodak Theater, like the one for "Gone With the Wind," didn't look like sets. They looked like video projections, which is what they were. Fail.

WORST
Corey Haim dissed... again. The Screen Actors Guild Awards left Corey Haim out of their in memoriam montage earlier this year, and the Oscar peeps, sadly, followed. The good news: It gives Corey Feldman a reason to be interviewed tomorrow. But c'mon, Hollywood. The dude was legitimately a movie star in his day.

'King's Speech,' Firth Win Royal Honors at Oscars

Scott Harris — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 04:48:24 +0000

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Hollywood's biggest night turned into a royal affair for "The King's Speech," with the acclaimed period drama taking home four Oscars at Sunday's 83rd Annual Academy Awards. The film won Best Picture, Best Director for Tom Hooper, Best Actor for Colin Firth and Best Original Screenplay.

In the other major acting categories, Natalie Portman won the Best Actress Oscar for "Black Swan," with "The Fighter's" Christian Bale winning Best Supporting Actor and Melissa Leo winning Best Supporting Actress, spicing up her acceptance speech with a quickly censored F-bomb. There were no big surprises in any of the six major categories.

Though it lost the top prize, "The Social Network" also had a decent showing, winning Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing and Best Original Score for Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor.

The popular Coen Brothers western "True Grit," however, was shockingly shut out despite being nominated in a whopping 10 categories.

While fellow Best Picture nominee "Inception" was also shut out in the major categories, Christopher Nolan's mind-bending blockbuster dominated the technical categories, winning Oscars for Cinematography, Visual Effects, Sound Mixing and Sound Editing (its four trophies tied "King's Speech" for the night's most). Tim Burton's blockbuster "Alice in Wonderland," meanwhile, topped the artistic categories, with wins for Art Direction and Costume Design.

"Toy Story 3" won the Best Animated Feature award, topping "How to Train Your Dragon" and "The Illusionist" in perhaps the most fiercely contested animated competition since the award was introduced 10 years ago. The Pixar hit, which was the highest grossing film of 2010, also took home the Oscar for Best Original Song for Randy Newman's "We Belong Together."

First time Oscar co-hosts James Franco and Anne Hathaway kicked off the show with a crowd-pleasing, pre-recorded piece riffing off "Inception," with the two traveling through former Alec Baldwin's dreams in search of insight into this year's Best Picture field. They were later upstaged, however, by a surprise appearance from film legend 94-year-old Kirk Douglas, who had the audience in stitches while presenting the Best Supporting Actress award.

Other major awards included Susanne Bier's Danish drama "In a Better World" for Best Foreign Film, the recession-themed "Inside Job" for Best Documentary, and "The Wolfman" for Best Makeup.

You can check out the complete list of winners here.

And the Oscar for Best Dressed Goes To...

Breanne L. Heldman — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 04:00:32 +0000

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Anne Hathaway and James Franco hosting the 83rd annual Academy Awards wasn't the only thing young and hip about this year's ceremony. The fashions were totally now and the ladies wearing them totally youthful.

Sure Gwyneth Paltrow and Halle Berry brought it as usual, but it was the stunning upstarts that impressed us most. The red hot starlets were literally red hot -- four of our top nine wore shades of scarlet.

Doubt the young'uns could bring the appropriate elegance an evening with Oscar requires? Click through our NextMovie 9 Best Dressed and see for yourself.

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Complete List: 2011 Academy Award Winners

NextMovie Staff — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 01:44:56 +0000

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The 83rd Annual Academy Awards are finally here. Keep this URL handy; we'll be updating the list as each winner is announced.

Best Picture
"The King's Speech" (winner)
"The Social Network"
"Black Swan"
"The Fighter"
"Inception"
"True Grit"
"The Kids Are All Right"
"Winter's Bone"
"Toy Story 3"
"127 Hours"

Best Actor
Colin Firth, "The King's Speech" (winner)
Jesse Eisenberg, "The Social Network"
James Franco, "127 Hours"
Javier Bardem, "Biutiful"
Jeff Bridges, "True Grit"

Best Actress
Natalie Portman, "Black Swan" (winner)
Annette Bening, "The Kids Are All Right"
Nicole Kidman, "Rabbit Hole"
Jennifer Lawrence, "Winter's Bone"
Michelle Williams, "Blue Valentine"

Best Director
Tom Hooper, “The King’s Speech” (winner)
Darren Aronofsky, “Black Swan”
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, “True Grit”
David O. Russell, “The Fighter”
David Fincher, “The Social Network”

Music (Original Song)
"We Belong Together" from "Toy Story 3" (winner)
"Coming Home" from "Country Strong"
I See the Light" from "Tangled"
"If I Rise" from "127 Hours"

Film Editing
"The Social Network" (winner)
"Black Swan"
"The Fighter"
"The King's Speech"
"127 Hours"

Visual Effects
"Inception" (winner)
"Alice in Wonderland"
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1"
"Hereafter"
"Iron Man 2"

Documentary (Feature)
"Inside Job" (winner)
"Exit through the Gift Shop"
"Gasland"
"Restrepo"
"Waste Land"

Short Film (Live Action)
"God of Love" (winner)
"The Confession"
"The Crush"
"Na Wewe"
"Wish 143"

Documentary (Short Subject)
"Strangers No More" (winner)
"Killing in the Name"
"Poster Girl"
"Sun Come Up"
"The Warriors of Qiugang"

Costume Design
"Alice in Wonderland" (winner)
"I Am Love"
"The King's Speech"
"The Tempest"
"True Grit"

Makeup
"The Wolfman" (winner)
"Barney's Version"
"The Way Back"

Sound Editing
"Inception" (winner)
"Toy Story 3"
"Tron: Legacy"
"True Grit"
"Unstoppable"

Sound Mixing
"Inception" (winner)
"The Social Network"
"Salt"
"True Grit"
"King's Speech"

Music (Original Score)
"The Social Network" (winner)
"How to Train Your Dragon"
"Inception"
"The King's Speech"
"127 Hours"

Best Supporting Actor
Christian Bale, "The Fighter" (winner)
Mark Ruffalo, "The Kids Are All Right"
Jeremy Renner, "The Town"
Geoffrey Rush, "The King's Speech"
John Hawkes, "Winter's Bone"

Foreign Language
"In a Better World" (winner)
"Biutiful"
"Dogtooth"
"Outside the Law"
"Incendies"

Best Screenplay
"The King's Speech" (winner)
"Another Year"
"The Fighter"
"The Kids Are All Right"
"Inception"

Best Adapted Screenplay
"The Social Network" (winner)
"127 Hours"
"Toy Story 3"
"True Grit"
"Winter's Bone"

Best Animated Film
"Toy Story 3" (winner)
"How to Train Your Dragon"
"The Illusionist"

Short Film (Animated)
"The Lost Thing" (winner)
"Day & Night”"
"The Gruffalo"
"Let's Pollute"
"Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary)"

Best Supporting Actress
Melissa Leo, "The Fighter" (winner)
Amy Adams, "The Fighter"
Helena Bonham Carter, "The King's Speech"
Hailee Steinfeld, "True Grit"
Jacki Weaver, "Animal Kingdom"

Cinematography
"Inception" (winner)
"Black Swan"
"The King's Speech"
"The Social Network"
"True Grit"

Art Direction
"Alice in Wonderland" (winner)
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1"
"Inception"
"The King's Speech"
"True Grit"