In an apparent move to tighten the length of the ceremony, certain things were absent from this season’s Academy Award ceremony. The thing I noticed most was the absence of the clips shown periodically throughout the night showcasing the nominees for the big award: Best Picture. Also gone was the full performance of Best Original Song nominees by the artists who either originally performed or wrote the song.
One new addition to the show was the way in which the acting awards were presented. Normally, the winner of the previous year’s award presents. This year, groups of past winners stood on stage and announced each nominee in turn. I thought this was a nice touch to pass the torch.
As always, we had the somewhat needless montages centering on various film genres of the past year: Love, Comedy, and Action to name a few. They seriously do get old.
I really enjoyed the showmanship of Hugh Jackman as host. Anyone who knows him only as Wolverine or from his other cinematic roles got a treat as he performed in two very cool musical numbers. He even poked fun at his own flop at the box office, Australia.
Not a big fan of Hugh Jackman’s singing voice, although he did much better at hosting than I thought he would. If they had cut out some (or all, please!) of those dumb montages, maybe people could have gone home and to bed before it became the day on which they had to get up for work! Need to re-tool our little prize game for that very reason for next year… otherwise, very fun evening.
After yesterday’s rehearsal, I was tired hungry and cranky. I didn’t watch any of the award show. Today, I’m sorry I missed the Oscar party, but last night I really didn’t care. Sleep was what I needed, and what I got.
Who won what?
Slumdog Millionaire was def. the big winner of the night (although it did not capture any acting awards). It won most of the other BIG awards. Sean Penn won Best Actor for Milk. Heath Ledger won Best Supporting Actor. Kate Winslet (EGAD… but I did vote correctly) won Best Actress. Penelope Cruz won Best Supporting Actress. Those were the major ones.
We missed you, too j. It was a fun evening, for the most part. The hosts attempted to give the prize they had won Saturday night away in the Oscar prize table… along with the prize that I contributed last year.