Welcome Back, Oscar? A Look at the 2010 Academy Awards

If you’ve been reading my blog, you know that I criticized the Academy Awards in analysis and also posted my picks for this year’s honors. As you more than likely already saw in every news outlet on TV or the internet, the Oscars were held Sunday night. I thought it was worth following up on this subject by quickly running through the outcome of each award as it compared to my picks. Perhaps more interestingly, I thought I’d also take a look at this year’s awards and how they followed or diverged from my previous criticisms and open the discussion up to my readers.

Let’s start by reviewing the nine awards of which I posted my picks of the winners and how those picks compare with the outcomes.


Best Visual Effects: My Pick – Avatar
Winner – Avatar


I believe this category was populated by only sci-fi films. With its astounding CGI innovation and the occasionally effective 3D camera effects, Avatar was the no-brainer champion here.



Best Original Screenplay: My Pick – Inglorious Basterds
Winner – The Hurt Locker


I was quite convinced that with its brilliant dialogue and depth, Inglorious Basterds would be a lock for this award – possibly being the film’s only award. I was proved wrong. What’s interesting is the screenplay for The Hurt Locker, while better than others, isn’t what made it great. Some also consider this award often to be an indication of what will win Best Picture.



Best Animated Feature: My Picks – Up or Fantastic Mr. Fox
Winner – Up


Yes, I gave two possible picks. My first choice was Up, simply because it had the emotional center that Fantastic Mr. Fox lacked. That made me care more about the characters and have an easier time sticking with them through their wild third-act adventure.



Best Supporting Actress: My Picks – Mo’Nique or Up in the Air gals
Winner: Mo’Nique


Perhaps the performances by Anna Kendrick and Vera Farmiga were of such equal magnificence that they would make impossible awarding one over the other. But in a year that has a performance like Mo’Nique’s, it becomes a moot point. I picked Mo’Nique even before seeing Precious and after seeing it I wrote that she delved into some really dark and psychologically messed up places. Like the Best Supporting Actor winner, Mo’Nique took what would normally be a one-dimensional monster and made something quite extraordinary out of it.



Best Supporting Actor: My Pick – Christoph Waltz
Winner – Christoph Waltz


Have I seen any other performance? No. But I’ve listened to enough analyses of the performances by Harrelson, Tucci, and Damon to understand there wasn’t a character that compared to the brilliance, craftiness, dimension, or villainy of Waltz’s so-called ‘Jew Hunter’. Look out for Mr. Waltz in the future; he is a staggering talent.


Best Actress: My Picks – Carey Mulligan or Gabourey Sidibe
Winner – Sandra Bullock


I have nothing to say about this. I don’t mean that out of stubborn bitterness. I’ve already said so much about this award that the only thing I can do right now is watch The Blind Side and compare the performances before saying anything more. I will note I listed my initial two picks less in order of preference than alphabetically; Gabourey was my top pick.



Best Actor: My Picks – Jeremy Renner or George Clooney
Winner – Jeff Bridges


I missed Crazy Heart, having to make the difficult Sophie’s Choice between it and Precious one night and have yet to get another opportunity to see it. This is too bad for me, because everybody spoke highly of this performance as they did of Mo’Nique in Precious and I wanted to see how he compared to Renner’s human time bomb in The Hurt Locker. I look forward to catching Crazy Heart on DVD next month.



Best Director: My Picks – Kathryn Bigelow or James Cameron
Winner – Kathryn Bigelow


This was great to see. Cameron achieved a lot, but perhaps he’s already had his moment of glory what with the media attention and blockbusting box office wins for two months. It was Bigelow’s turn and she deserved it because if anything made The Hurt Locker what it was, it was its direction.



Best Picture: My Picks – The Hurt Locker or Inglorious Basterds
Winner – The Hurt Locker


This was such a relief! It seemed that once Oscar night finally arrived, everyone was talking about either Avatar or The Hurt Locker winning this award. No one was even considering anything else as they had a month ago, which is too bad in a way because Inglorious Basterds is a great film and should not get lost in the shuffle or forgotten by anybody. Between The Hurt Locker and Avatar the best film won.


So, six out of nine of my picks won. I don’t think that’s as much an indication of my genius as it is of how predictable the awards were this year if you’ve seen the nominees. But was it predictable because the popular nominees won, as with the Golden Globes? Or because the best nominees won?

In my essay about the Best Picture award, I observed the decline of the award’s integrity over the years: “Little by little, we’ve seen the movies that everybody saw take home the Oscar”. I noted the highest-grossing film of the year, Avatar, was nominated this time – and it subsequently appeared to have been a front-runner. I also acknowledged that other circumstances such as particular stories and genres, political and business influences sometimes come into play.

Yet, if you take another look at the winners listed above (with possible exception of Sandra Bullock’s win), can it be claimed that any of these circumstances played a role this year? Did the most popular nominees win or the best ones?

I think it’s important to note that in a year when the movie that knocked Best Picture winner Titanic off its box office throne was nominated for the same award, one of the lowest-grossing nominees won instead. The Hurt Locker took in a total $14.7 million (according to Box Office Mojo). That’s over $278 million less than the second-highest grossing nominee, Up, and only five million more than the lowest-grossing nominee, A Serious Man (which has enjoyed a popular month on DVD). This is the first time one of the bottom-grossing nominees won Best Picture since 1987’s The Last Emperor won.

I ask you, the reader, after taking all this in consideration, did it matter that the Best Picture award was expanded to ten nominees?

And more importantly, after over a decade of questionable integrity, did Oscar redeem himself Sunday night and honor the best in film artistry this year?

Please write your thoughts below in the comments section and tell me what you think about these questions and this year’s Academy Awards.