Oscar moments: The Governor's Ball

Pictures from Governor's Ball. An Oscar being polished // Best actor in a supporting role winner Christian Bale // The Fighter's Mark Walbergh and Amy Adams // Best actress winner Natalie Portman // Best adapted screenplay winner Aaron Sorkin for The Social Network // Best actor winner Colin Firth // Helena Bonham Carter and Tim Burton // Best documentary feauture winners Charles Ferguson & Audrey Marrs for Inside Job // True Grit's Jeff Bridges & Hailee Steinfeld // True Grit's Josh Brolin & Jeff Bridges.

Last Sunday the 83th Academy Awards took place in the traditional Kodak Theatre. There was a lot of expectation around the youthful essence the Academy wanted to imprint in the ceremony, from having chosen Anne Hathaway and James Franco as hosts, both actors belonging to a young generation , to the inclusion of social networks such as Twitter and the official livestream of the Red Carpet. The introduction of the ceremony was a refreshing touch, although very reminiscent to those MTV Movie Awards scketches. Unfortunately, the lack of chemistry between Hathaway and Franco and the latter's constant boredom (or should I say, drug trip?) took the ceremony to a monotonous pace. We all could have loved Hathaway's eight dresses or even her obvious enthusiasm but not even that saved the ceremony to be quite boring at the end.

About the awards, there were several surprises. Inception finally went home with the techincal recognition it deserved in the categories of Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Visual Effects, & Cinematography; whoever ignores why Inception took this awards home I suggest to really pay attention to the Paris sequence, that scene where everything explodes while Cobb and Ariadne are in the café is superb. 

The best score award for Trent Reznor's music for The Social Network and the Best Picture award for The King's Speech over the almost predictable The Social Network were other surprises as well. Perhaps the most waited surprise didn't happen at all, since Banksy didn't win Best documentary, and we will never find out if a guy in a black hoodie with a monkey mask was going to receive the award at all.

Besides that, almost every other category was already decided. Natalie Portman and Colin Firth were predictably the winners in the best actress and actor in a motion picture categories. Melissa Leo and Christian Bale went home with their awards in the same categories only in a supporting role. Perhaps the only disappointment was the lack of recognition towards True Grit, which went home empty handed as well as Biutiful and The Kids Are All Right. 

It doesn't matter if the Academy decides to have as hosts Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber (PLEASE DON'T) but they won't shake away that feeling that the Oscars are a very well planned ceremony that still recognizes only your typical Oscar material (wars, biopics,  british history, powerful men with disabilities) and rarely include independent films, or get out of that Oscar safety zone. Of course we have to recognize that this year's movies were way much better by far than last year's, and even some of the awards were very well deserved (Portman & Firth for sure) but even though this time we could say there was quality in the nominations, truth is many movies (good movies) go unnoticed at the end. Maybe it's not all about the who's hosting and what type of techonology you're using, but it's also about what type of movies are winning too. 

Images via NYTimes