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 Director Alejandro G. Inarritu's story of a washed-up, former
superhero actor attempting an improbable comeback on Broadway
won four Oscars in its nine nominations, including best
director, the second consecutive win in that category for a
Mexican filmmaker.
Acclaimed for looking like one continuous shot through a
Broadway theater and mixing reality with fantasy, the movie,
Inarritu said, came from learning to be fearless in filmmaking.
"Fear is the condom of life. It doesn't allow you to enjoy
things," Inarritu said backstage at the 87th Academy Awards.
The reward for the Fox Searchlight satire hews to an Academy
tradition of awarding films that honor the entertainment
industry, such as "Argo" and "The Artist" in recent years.
Britain's Eddie Redmayne won best actor with his painstaking
portrayal of physicist Stephen Hawking in "The Theory of
Everything", robbing "Birdman" lead and former superhero actor
Michael Keaton of a big comeback moment.
Each of the eight best picture nominees went home with at least
one award, but it was a disappointing night for "Boyhood,"
Richard Linklater's unprecedented 12-year endeavor to depict the
simple story of a boy growing up, using the same actors. It won
one Oscar out of its six nods.
Wes Anderson's colorful caper, "The Grand Budapest Hotel" proved
popular among the 6,100 members of the Academy of Motion Picture
Arts and Sciences who vote for the Oscars, winning four awards
on its nine nominations.
"Whiplash," the independent film about an aspiring jazz drummer
and his tough mentor from young director Damien Chazelle, won
three Oscars.
The only box office blockbuster among the eight, the Iraq war
drama "American Sniper" from director Clint Eastwood, also fell
short with one win.
It was a night in which the controversy over the lack of
diversity among this year's nominees was front and center.
First-time host Neil Patrick Harris opened the telecast with a
quip: "Tonight we honor Hollywood's best and whitest, sorry
brightest."
But the race theme resonated in a more serious way too, when
Common and John Legend got a standing ovation and made many in
the audience cry with their performance of "Glory" from the
1960s civil rights drama "Selma."
It won best song, delivering the sole victory to "Selma," the
film at the center of the diversity debate sparked by the
exclusion of actors of color from the four acting categories.
The nominations prompted a backlash on Twitter with the hashtag
"#OscarsSoWhite.
"'Selma' is now, because the struggle for justice is right now,"
said Legend in the aftermath of recent racially charged protests
in America.
ACTRESSES MOORE, ARQUETTE PREVAIL
All four acting award winners celebrated their first Oscars.
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Redmayne, who won critical acclaim for his depiction of the various
stages of disability endured by Hawking, who suffers from the motor
neuron disease known as ALS.
"I am fully aware that I am a lucky, lucky man," Redmayne said.
"This Oscar belongs to all of those people around the world battling
ALS."
Five-time nominee Julianne Moore won best actress, also for her
portrayal of an illness, as a middle-aged woman suffering
Alzheimer's in "Still Alice."
"I read an article that said that winning an Oscar could lead to
living five years longer," said the 54-year-old Moore. "If that's
true, I'd really like to thank the Academy because my husband is
younger than me."
Patricia Arquette won best supporting actress for her role as a
struggling single mother in "Boyhood" and made an appeal for equal
pay and rights for women in America in her acceptance speech.
J.K. Simmons, after decades as a character actor, won the best
supporting actor as a monstrous music teacher in "Whiplash".
For the biggest televised event outside the sports world, the
Academy aimed to attract young viewers who may not care much about
the films but who could tune in for the musical acts.
A bridge between the young and old, pop diva Lady Gaga received a
standing ovation for her medley of tunes from "The Sound of Music"
before introducing that film's star, Julie Andrews.
Harris got laughs with his brave appearance in white underwear, a
spoof of Keaton's opening scene in "Birdman." But some of his jokes
fell flat and his debut got mixed reviews.
Ratings for the ABC telecast might also suffer because the show ran
past midnight on the U.S. East Coast.
Poland's "Ida" clinched best foreign-language film, and director
Pawel Pawlikowski pushed the 45-second acceptance speech boundary to
thank "my Polish friends who are in front of the TV, the crew who
were in the trenches with us and who are totally drunk now, and you
were fantastic."
Best documentary went to "Citizenfour," director Laura Poitras'
feature about National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden,
the former government contractor who detailed the secret mass
surveillance programs.
"The subject of 'Citizenfour,' Edward Snowden, could not be here for
some treason," joked Harris.
(Additional reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy, Eric Kelsey, Alex
Dobuzinskis and Tim Reid; Writing by Mary Milliken; Editing by Ken
Wills)
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