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The Oscars are clearly, and arbitrarily, the most important of all the award ceremonies yet coming as they do after a dozen of similar awards are given out to the same winners, by the time the Oscars finally arrive we are suffering from award season fatigue. This is where the desire for surprising winners comes in, despite The Artist, Meryl Streep, Christopher Plummer and Octavia Spencer all being worthy winners writing about them winning the awards they were tipped to win isn’t all that exciting.

But is that the point? The Artist really was the best film of the past year and deserves to win all the awards it won, the list of winners is not surprising but for the first time in years it is hard to disagree with any of the choices. Let’s not gripe about predictability and just be happy that worthy winners won awards and that Eddie Murphy wasn’t the host.

I am happy that The Artist won five Oscars (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Costume Design and Best Score) leaving Hugo to pick up all the technical awards. I am happy that A Separation won Best Foreign Language Film for being an amazing drama and that Rango won Best Animated Film despite being semi-grown-up. I’m happy that Woody Allen won an Oscar for the screenplay for Midnight in Paris and showed that he remains a relevant film-maker. I’m happy that Jim Rash co-won an award for co-writing The Descendants leaving amazing-but-almost-cancelled-sitcom Community with an Oscar winner amongst its cast. I’m happy that The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore won Best Animated Short Film because, as we all know, it is damned adorable.

What I am most happy about is Bret McKenzie won the Oscar for Best Original Song for “Man or Muppet”. There has never been a more obvious (there was only one other nominee for a start) yet deserving win.

So there you have it, the 2012 Oscar awards have made me happy but weren’t very exciting. It was the award ceremony equivalent of eating a trifle (for me at least).

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Hopefully by now you’re further along in your preparation for this year’s Oscars, there’s only two weeks to go. Assuming you’ve dutifully watched the animated short films I gathered together for you, it’s time to swat up on the Best Foreign Language Film category.

Luckily for anyone living in London, the Tricycle cinema in Kilburn is running a ten-day run of screenings covering a wide range of the films submitted for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, though sadly not all of the final five nominees. The screenings include one UK premiere, two advance preview screenings and some special guests; plenty to get excited about.

Tickets only go as high as £8.50 and can be bought online at www.tricycle.co.uk or by phoning the Tricycle box office on
020 7328 1000. The Tricycle is a lovely cinema and only down the road from me (hence the plug), so pop in for a cup of tea while you’re in the area.

The full screening schedule is below: Read more »

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Early this morning the Oscars happened! Wahey!

We, unfortunately, were fast asleep and then had to rush out into the world early today to sit an exam that you have no interest in. Some would say that this makes us unqualified to comment on the ceremony, but we won’t let that stop us.

Both Natalie Portman and Colin Firth gave charming speeches, each touching and funny enough to make them seem like genuinely nice people. Neither took themselves too seriously, which is always a nice surprise.

While some were expecting it to be The King’s Speech all night it was refreshing to see The Social Network and The Fighter get a look in. Sorkin may come off as a little self-important at times but he did write one hell of a screenplay.

Inception didn’t do too badly in its technical categories, and certainly wormed its way into plenty of Franco’s and Hathaway’s material. The hosts themselves were entertaining, but we could definitely benefit from a comedian hosting next year.

Toy Story 3 was an inevitable winner, but Pixar may have to pass on the crown next year when Rango enters the ring.

As with every year the show was in parts entertaining, and in a bigger way incredibly dull. One thing that really stood out/totally underwhelmed was Banksy’s appearance/absence. At least we can all stop speculating about whether he’d show up or not.

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Just kidding, I’ve totally run out of things to be indignant about.

As I have to be awake and coherent on Monday morning Mild Concern will be the least up to date on the internet when it comes to the Oscars. If you are wise enough to be spending the night awake and online I’d recommend checking out Ultra Culture who normally has a live feed going, and his twitter will provide suitably amusing commentary.

You should also go to www.livestream.com/picturehouses where the witty hosts of The Picturehouse Podcast will be live streaming their own brand of commentary if you don’t fancy what Sky have to offer.

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Hold on a moment, I’ve not gone completely delusional. I do realise that this geek orgasm of a film has no chance at winning any of the big awards at a respectable show like the Oscars, no matter how much Edgar Wright directed the bejeezus out of the beast. But from a technical stand point it surely deserves some nominations for doing things a little differently and at a high level of quality and creativity.

There was a time when the film almost made it into the nominees for Best Visual Effects, rubbing shoulders with the far less original likes of Iron Man 2, but it wasn’t to be. Sadly the most visually exciting film of 2010 was not deemed worthy of a nomination.

Another area I could conceive of the film getting a nod is in sound editing/mixing (who outside the profession knows the difference?) as Scott Pilgrim is the only film in the past year where sound design has been so integral. Watch any scene and you’ll find that every eye movement or head turn is accompanied by the subtle sound of some reverb or a coffee maker steaming. Beautiful stuff!

Let’s not even get started on how the huge amount of original songs like the below got ignored in favour of Dido.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World – ‘Black Sheep’ Music Video from Louis S on Vimeo.

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