MUMBAI: On Oscar night the ‘Argo‘ juggernaut which had been building ever since the Oscar nominations came out proved unstoppable. The Ben Affleck directed film won three Oscars – Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay and Editing. It was the first time in over two decades that a film won the Best Picture Oscar without the director being nominated. It also beat four films that had more nominations which has also not happened in a long time. Michelle Obama made the announcement of the winner in the Best Picture category from the White House. Obama‘s appearance was a big surprise as were some of the musical numbers that were performed.
Ang Lee won the Oscar for Best Director. His movie ‘Life of Pi‘ was considered to be the directorial achievement of the year by many film fans since it was adapted from a novel that many felt was ‘unfilmmable‘. ‘Life Of Pi‘ also marked the first time that the director of a 3D film won.
Lee thanked his crew in Taiwan and India. After accepting the trophy, signed off with a ‘Namaste‘ and said (while he was backstage), "Here‘s the thing. I think it‘s a miracle I could make this movie. I carried the anxiety for a very long time. For four years. It‘s a philosophical movie and an expensive one."
‘Life Of Pi‘ won four Oscars, the most for any film, including trophies for visual effects, score, director and cinematography. The technical wins were expected. But to win director Lee had to beat stiff competition from Steven Spielberg for ‘Lincoln‘ which had a most disappointing evening. While it got the most nominations – 12 it only won for Best Actor Daniel Day Lewis which was expected and also for production design.
That was the trend through the Oscar season where at previous awards shows like the Baftas ‘Lincoln‘ got the most nominations but only kept winning for Daniel Day Lewis. He is the first actor to win the Oscar three rimes for Best Actor In a Leading Role. Apart from ‘Lincoln‘ also faring poorly was ‘Silver Linings Playbook. It only got one Oscar for Best Actress Jennifer Lawrence despite hectic Oscar campaigning.
The independent film ‘Beasts of the Southern Wild‘ did not get anything. Kathryn Bigelow‘s ‘Zero Dark Thirty‘, the film about how the CI.A. hunted Osmama Bin Laden, luckily survived a similar fate when it tied for a sound award with Skyfall‘. Adele who sang the song for the Bond film also won. ‘Amour‘ like ‘Zero Dark Thirty‘, also had a disappointing showing with just one win for Best Foreign Film. The film‘s female lead Emmanuelle Riva was considered a hefty candidate for the Best Actress category.
Faring better was ‘Les Miserables‘ which had the second most wins behind ‘Life of Pi‘ – three including for supporting actress Anne Hathaway. "There are so many people whose support and generosity is the reason I‘m standing here right now," Hathaway said. Quentin Tarantino won for original Screenplay for ‘Django Unchained‘. He said that 2012 was the year of writers. The movie also picked up the award for Best Supporting Actor – Christoph Waltz. This was his second Oscar. His first win also came from a Tarantino film ‘Inglourious Basterds‘ a few years ago.
