Oscars 2015: The Sequel.

This should be read as a direct continuation of this; http://watchitdie.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/the-oscars-2015.html

Having looked at the most talked about films of the year it's probably time to talk about the awards themselves and who won what.

Best Foreign Language Feature: From a political perspective this is the most important award of the night and is so competitive that there are actually qualifying rounds. Although the UK frequently uses its shared language to sneak into the other categories it is this award that provides most other nations their only opportunity to join the Oscars party and all its coded discussions. The price they have to pay for that access is that they have to produce films that make bold statements about their country of origin.

The early favourite was the Russian film "Leviathan." This tells the story of a man who has to battle the corruption that is sadly endemic within modern Russia in order to save his home. Obviously the film touches on a very sensitive issue within Russian politics and the films liberal use of bad language has given the Russian board of film classification an absolute nightmare in terms of editing it so it is fit for release.

As a result Leviathan was widely expected to win in order to give Russia a big slap in the face over its opposition to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and the Nazi coup that has been carried out in Ukraine in support of ISIL.

However the Oscars went in a different direction and gave the award to the Polish film "Ida." This tells the story of a Polish Catholic novice nun Ida who suddenly discovers that she is in fact Jewish and her parents were murdered during the Nazi genocide. As part of her efforts to understand her new found national identity Ida is befriended by Wanda who fought as part of the Soviet resistance against the Nazis.

This is hugely relevant to the current situation in Ukraine because during the Nazi genocide Ukraine's western states were considered part of Poland. The reason why the current Ukrainian regime meet every year in Lviv to celebrate their role in the Nazi genocide is that it is close to the scene of the Pidkamin Massacre. This saw some 600 people massacred by the Grey Wolves of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UIA) and what has become the Ukrainian National Army (UNA) as they sought shelter in a Catholic monastery.

Best Documentary Short: Dealing with real-life issues the documentary categories always deal with political issues. This year's winner "Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1" deals with the Veterans Affairs crisis hotline which helps US veterans deal with what are often emotional crisis' brought about by Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). So while the lynch mob may have robbed "American Sniper" of its best picture award it is clear that the Oscars were not going to allow the wider issues to go unnoticed.

Best Documentary Feature: This went to "CitzenFour" which documents journalist Laura Poitras' meeting with Edward Snowden in a hotel in Hong Kong in the aftermath of his release of the NSA's "Prism" spy program.

This struck me as an odd choice because as with Julian Assange to people in the business what Snowden leaked is actually pretty pedestrian. So rather then being a hero who fought bravely against US intelligence Snowden was actually working for US intelligence - although he may not have realised it - in an effort to harass Russia over its opposition to ISIL during the Rihanna Diamonds World Tour (DWT) operation. As CitizenFour doesn't examine this aspect of the story at all it is a pretty terrible documentary. In a year when the fictional "Selma" was snubbed for laking factual accuracy it seems strange that the Oscars would give US intelligence a platform to perpetuate this nonsense.

However I suppose that with the Sony Pictures cyber-attack the US' role in computer hacking has been big news in Hollywood recently and very literally putting people like Glen "CIA" Greenwald in the spotlight does provide people like me with an opportunity to talk about the real Snowden story.

Best Picture: This went to "Birdman" which is very much a film about acting and the nature of fame. Filmed using some very inventive techniques it centres around Micheal Keaton's "Riggan Thomson" as he makes final preparations for a serious Broadway play that he hopes will help him escape from the role of "Birdman" a superhero in tacky blockbuster movies. In the opening scene Thomson is seen levitating so you're not quite sure if he actually has Birdman's ability to fly or whether this is how he sees himself or how he is seen by his fans. This issue of typecasting is obviously one close to the hearts of all actors and having watched both seasons of the BBC's "The Fall" one that star of "50 Shades of Grey" Jamie Dornan has really got to be worrying about.

Best Director: This went to Alejandro González Iñárritu for Birdman. Last year Iñárritu was the director of cinematography on "Gravity" which won multiple awards for its revolutionary approach to film-making. Birdman very much continues in that tradition with the film giving the appearance of being one long, continuous scene. This forced Iñárritu to almost completely re-conceive of the way films are made with two years of script preparation and extensive rehearsals with only around 6 weeks of actual filming and editing. As with Gravity a lot of the techniques Iñárritu developed for Birdman are likely to be used in future films and he has really helped to advance the art form. Reflecting this Birdman also picked up awards for Achievement in Cinematography and Original Screenplay.

Best Actor in a Leading Role: This went to Eddie Redmayne in "The Theory of Everything." As a young British actor Redmayne is fast getting a reputation as being very good at his craft. The role of Stephen Hawking was particularly challenging because it forced Redmayne to not only portray a man moving from youth to late middle age but also show the progression of a crippling physical disability. As a result Redmayne was clearly a worthy winner.

I though would have been tempted to snub him in response to the UK's neediness and instead give the award to Micheal Keaton for Birdman. That way Keaton would have won his first Oscar, Birdman would have won the same number of Oscars while American Sniper would have been free to take best picture.

Best Actress in a Leading Role: This went to Julianne Moore for her role in "Still Alice." In this Moore plays a woman who is suffering form early onset Alzheimer's. This is a disease that destroys the parts of the brain that encode and recover memories. As a result sufferers are left not only unable to recognise faces and recall people's names but also unable to comprehend what every day objects like a table are. This is actually quite difficult to get your head around let alone portray accurately on screen. As a result Moore was quite clearly the best actress in a leading role this year.

I also quite liked Still Alice because it seems a cheeky riposte to the UK's terrible twins. The UK of course will tell anyone who will listen that its horrific mis-treatment of my grandmother was part of a research project into Dementia. The UK's seeming inability to grasp that Alzheimer's and Dementia are two completely different things should act as a clue to how effective that research project has been.

Also I used to date a girl called Alice until she one day disappeared witness protection style likely with the help of the intelligence services. However rumours persisted that with her new identity she was trying to break into acting which left casting directors across the land wondering; "Is this Alice?!" Eventually the BBC did a production of "Parades End" in 2012 starring Benedict Cumberbatch that absolutely hammered my Alice who was being portrayed through the Valentine Wannop character.

So although I don't think there was any depth to the in-joke I got the impression that Still Alice was really trying to wind up the UK. The recent British Academy of Film and Television (BAFTA) awards certainly took the bait heaping attention on Still Alice.

17:50 on 23/2/15 (UK date).

Edited at around 20:10 on 23/2/15 (UK date) for a bit of a tidy up and to add;

Best Actor in a Supporting Role: This went to J.K Simmons for his role in "Whiplash." If you were to now go back and re-watch some of your favourite movies and TV Shows from the last 20 years there's a good chance you'll suddenly realise that J.K Simmons is in most of them. However you probably would have missed him the first time around because he's capable of inhabiting a character to such an extent that you just accept it rather then questioning whether it is an actor pretending to be someone. This is obviously something that all serious actors aspire to.

Apart from having a huge body of work Simmons also tends to favour small, less well paid independent projects that are both challenging and risky. The one I'm going to choose to focus on is the HBO series "Oz" that ran from 1997 to 2003 in which Simmons played seriously unpleasant neo-Nazi Vern Schillinger. Taking its name from "The Oswald Maximum Security Correctional Facility" where it is set Oz makes lots of little references to gay-icon film "The Wizard of Oz" and features a lot of realistic violence, full frontal male nudity, gay storylines and male rape. As a result even today it would be a challenge getting a show like Oz on TV but when it started back in 1997 it didn't so much open the door for realistic gay characters on TV as blew a fricking hole in the wall.

However I think the reason why Simmons won the Oscar this year is that although supporting his role in Whiplash is much larger then he is used to allowing him to really show off the talents he brings to pretty much every role.

Best Actress in a Supporting Role: This went to Patricia Arquette for her role in "Boyhood." Whereas Eddie Redmayne had the challenge of playing a man as he grows Boyhood addressed the issue of time passing by simply making the film over the course of 12 years by filming for a couple of weeks every year. As apparently no-one in the US has heard of the British "Up Series" of documentaries alongside Birdman this was considered a revolutionary approach to film-making rather then an idea that is almost 50 years old. Therefore I think Arquette won the Oscar to help acknowledge a film that didn't quite make it in other categories and to recognise her 12 year commitment to the part.

Providing one of the big talking points of the night Arquette used her acceptance speech to campaign for equal pay for women in America. Pay inequality and age-bias are particularly pressing issues in Hollywood because although great strides have been made to close the gender gap in recent years the film industry is still probably more sexist then wider society and the women working in the industry right now certainly wish that a lot more progress had been made.

However I have a small issue with Arquette's speech because back when production for Boyhood started Arquette was hot Hollywood property. Shortly afterwards though her career took a bit of a nosedive with her being forced into TV with shows like "Medium" before that was fashionable leaving her role in Boyhood as Arquette's only real claim to being a movie star. Therefore it would be incredibly easy to take the cheap shot of suggesting that rather then complaining how much she's been paid Arquette should be grateful she's working at all at her age.

However that may well have been part of the performance by producing an example of the type of prejudice women face in Hollywood. The Obama administrations decision to immediately leap on the issue that was a bit above its pay-grade seemed decidedly amateurish though.

One thing that reassured me that Arquette knew exactly what she was doing was the fact she had decided to wear a dress that was roughly 50% black and 50% white. This seemed to call attention to the big fashion trend of the year which saw women wearing all white dresses which seemed to be a protest against the Oscars perceived racist snubbing of Selma - Too much white at the Oscar's etc.

One of the worst offenders was Reese Witherspoon who also started a little campaign for women to be asked about more substantive issues then their dresses during red carpet interviews. Although I have a great deal of respect for Witherspoon as an actress and think she was unlucky not to win best leading actress it must be said that in my experience when you mis-read the more substantive issues that badly silence is definitely your friend.

At 21:15 on 23/2/15 (UK date) I am finally finished.

Edited at around 12:15 on 25/2/15 (UK date) to add;

I would have liked to have dropped subtle little hints about this throughout the awards season. Unfortunately I discovered that I lacked the talent. Therefore I had a choice between staying silent and seeming smug or ruining it for everyone.