28/02/2011

Wags say that films with physical impediments win Oscars, as do films with British royalty. Therefore it was no surprise that The King's Speech [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Tom Hooper
film profile], which has both, won the top prizes at the 83rd annual Academy Awards.

Colin Firth expectedly won Best Actor, Tom Hooper Best Director, David Seidler Best Original Screenplay and the ultimate crown, that of Best Picture, also went to The King’s Speech.

Firth said backstage after winning his statuette, “Quite obviously speech therapists, and people who have difficulties with their speech of whatever kind, have responded to it, and that is very powerful to me to be on the receiving end of that kind of feedback because what we do is very often, it’s justifiably judged as completely and utterly frivolous. I think frivolity is also very important. That's a whole other argument.

But the fact is that it overlaps with something that has connected with or resonated with people who’ve, you know, feel they've been heard about something for the first time. It’s probably the most valuable thing of all to me. I don’t think it sent a message. I just think maybe it shines a light on something, which badly needed it.”

Hooper said onstage, “I know there's been a lot of thanking of mums, but this is slightly different because my mum in 2007 was invited by some Australian friends, she’s Australian in London, to a fringe theatre play reading of an unproduced, unrehearsed play called The King’s Speech. Now she’s never been invited to a play reading in her entire life before, she almost didn’t go because it didn’t sound exactly promising, but thank God she did because she came home, rang me up and said, ‘Tom, I think I found your next film.’ So with this tonight, I honour you, and the moral of the story is listen to your mother.”

British thespian Christian Bale won Supporting Actor for The Fighter and Susanne Bier’s In a Better World [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Denmark) won Best Foreign Language Film.

Full list of winners

Best Actor in a Leading Role
Colin Firth (The King’s Speech)

Best Actress in a Leading Role
Natalie Portman (Black Swan)

Best Director
Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech)

Best Picture
The King’s Speech - Iain Canning, Emile Sherman and Gareth Unwin

Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Christian Bale (The Fighter)

Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Mellisa Leo (The Fighter)

Best Original Screenplay
David Seidler (The King’s Speech)

Best Adapted Screenplay
Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network)

Best Art Direction
Robert Stromberg, Karen O’Hara (Alice in Wonderland)

Best Cinematography
Wally Pfister (Inception)

Best Animated Short Film
The Lost Thing - Shaun Tan, Andrew Ruhemann

Best Animated Feature Film
Toy Story 3 - Lee Unkrich

Best Foreign Language Film
In a Better World - Denmark, Susanne Bier

Best Original Score
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (The Social Network)

Best Sound Mixing
Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick (Inception)

Best Sound Editing
Richard King (Inception)

Best Make Up
Rick Baker and Dave Elsey (The Wolfman)

Best Costume Design
Colleen Atwood (Alice in Wonderland)

Best Documentary Short
Strangers No More - Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon

Best Live Action Short Film
God of Love - Luke Matheny

Best Documentary Feature
Inside Job - Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs

Best Visual Effects
Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb (Inception)

Best Film Editing
Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter (The Social Network)

Best Original Song
‘We Belong Together’ (Randy Newman, Toy Story 3)