14 DAY TRIAL // The 2015 edition of the Academy Awards, or the Oscars as they’re officially known now, wrapped a short while ago: it was a night of celebration for the film industry, its biggest in the entire year, packed with surprises, touching speeches and tributes, and plenty of instances of amazing fashion.
The Oscars represent the culmination of the awards season and are the highest accolade in the industry. They might not always resonate with the mainstream public in terms of nominees and winners, but they’re still the top industry awards show.
This year wasn’t without a couple of upsets that not even industry insiders had predicted.
The winners
J.K. Simmons and Patricia Arquette have done tremendous work in last year’s critically acclaimed “Whiplash” and “Boyhood,” respectively, for which they received recognition in the Best Supporting categories.
Since they won pretty much every award out there for Best Supporting Actor and Actress throughout the latest awards season, they were shoo-ins for the Oscars: sure enough, the Academy did not disappoint and they both walked home with one of the much coveted statuettes in hand.
Julianne Moore was also the awards season’s favorite for Best Actress for her role as a linguist who is diagnosed with early-stages Alzheimer’s in “Still Alice,” co-starring Alec Baldwin and Kristen Stewart. She capped off an extraordinary year by adding her first-ever Oscar to her already impressive collection of industry awards.
“Birdman” won Best Picture, beating strong competitors “Boyhood,” “The Imitation Game,” “American Sniper,” “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” “The Theory of Everything,” “Selma” and “Whiplash.”
In fact, this film tied with “The Grand Budapest Hotel” in the number of awards won, each with 4. In the case of the latter film, those were mostly in categories that aren’t considered “main,” but that doesn’t mean that they’re not important: Best Original Score, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Costume Design and Best Production Design.
The biggest upsets of the evening
Speaking of “Birdman,” even though it won Best Picture, it did not help Michael Keaton land an Oscar for Best Actor. In what was perhaps the biggest upset of the evening, that award went to young British actor Eddie Redmayne, for his portrayal of Stephen Hawking in “The Theory of Everything.”
Redmayne had been an early favorite with most industry insiders, but in the weeks leading up to the gala, it was believed that Keaton would end up winning after all.
Another upset came when the winner’s name in the Best Director category was called out: as with every year, competition was fierce in this category, but estimates had it that Richard Linklater would win for “Boyhood,” if only for the fact that it took him 12 years to film it.
Instead, the award went to Alexandro G. Iñárritu for “Birdman,” a beautiful film but far less ambitious in terms of the actual production.
Surprisingly, two other favorites were almost completely shut out despite being nominated in plenty of categories, including the main ones. “The Imitation Game” and “American Sniper” collected awards in the more technical categories: “TIG” won Best Adapted Screenplay, while the latter won Best Sound Editing.
Below is the complete list of winners at the Oscars 2015. Check it out to see if your favorite won anything.
Best Picture: “Birdman” Best Director: Alexandro G. Iñárritu, “Birdman” Best Actor: Eddie Redmayne, “The Theory of Everything” Best Actress: Julianne Moore, “Still Alice” Best Supporting Actor: J.K. Simmons, “Whiplash” Best Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette, “Boyhood” Best Animated Feature: “Big Hero 6” Best Foreign Language Film: “Ida” Best Adapted Screenplay: “The Imitation Game” Best Original Screenplay: “Birdman” Best Original Score: “The Grand Budapest Hotel” Best Original Song: “Glory,” “Selma” Best Cinematography: “Birdman” Best Film Editing: “Whiplash” Best Makeup and Hairstyling: “The Grand Budapest Hotel” Best Costume Design: “The Grand Budapest Hotel” Best Production Design: “The Grand Budapest Hotel” Best Sound Editing: “American Sniper” Best Sound Mixing: “Whiplash” Best Visual Effects: “Interstellar” Best Documentary - Feature: “Citizenfour” Best Documentary - Short: “Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1” Best Animated Short: “Feast” Best Live Action Short: “The Phone Call”