There were some amusing moments during this year’s Academy Awards ceremony. I thought it was cute when Kunio Kato added “Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto” to the end of his thank you speech for Best Short Film (Animated), La Maison en Petits Cubes. And, I absolutely loved it when high wire walker Phillippe Petit thanked the Academy for believing in magic then did the magic trick. That was also as good as him balancing the Oscar on his chin. That made me want to see Man on Rope.
Of course, the big winner of the night was Slumdog Millionaire. It took home eight of the ten Oscars it was nominated for, including Best Director (for Danny Boyle), Best Screenplay (for Simon Beaufoy), and Best Picture.
A.R. Rahman won Best Song for “Jai Ho” from Slumdog Millionaire. I liked that he said in his acceptance speech that his whole life he had to choose between hate and love and he chose love. He was actually a double winner last night – talking home the Oscar for Best Music Score. He now has a really, really nice pair of bookends. I had to snicker when he started his speech with “Before coming, I was excited and terrified. The last time I felt like that was during my marriage.”
There were a few parts of the ceremony for which I didn’t care. Queen Latifah sang during the In Memoriam part was just wrong. How can we have a moment of silence to remember those who have passed on if someone is singing? And, the jumpy camera thing during that almost made me sick to my stomach, not to mention you couldn’t read names or what the person did. Add to that the fact that the Academy forgot to mention Brad Renfro and the whole thing just came off as tacky.
I wasn’t too crazy about the five past winners talking about the nominees for acting awards. Yes, it is nice to see them all on stage, but I didn’t get to see many of the films and I missed seeing a clip that featured at least part of the performance.
I am also afraid the humor of Ben Stiller’s parody of Joaquin Phoenix (which was also done the night before at the Independent Spirit Awards) may have been lost on much of the world wide audience.
Did you watch the ceremony? What did you think?