Celebrities gathered at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on Feb. 24 for the 85th Academy Awards hosted by “Family Guy” creator and “Ted” star Seth MacFarlane.
This was the first time in history that Academy Awards have had a theme and that theme was “Music in Film”. This was demonstrated throughout the night beginning with MacFarlane’s opening act.
In the opening, William Shatner channeled his role from “Star Trek” by telling MacFarlane what the 2013 Oscars headlines were in the future. MacFarlane did a number of musical acts trying to redeem him for future Oscar headlines. MacFarlane tried many different things in his opening monologue. He sang a song about seeing actresses’ breasts in films, which struck many critics the wrong way. Then he did a dance with Charlize Theron and Channing Tatum, followed by a dance number with Daniel Radcliffe and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. The opening ended with an extravagant performance to the song “Be Our Guest”.
While the opening ends with great reviews, headlines about MacFarlane’s performance have been rather unfavorable.
Christoph Waltz took home the Oscar for Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance in “Django Unchained.” This film also awarded Quentin Tarantino an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
The cast of “The Avengers”, the most successful film of 2012, took the stage to present the Achievement in Cinematography award to Claudio Miranda for “Life of Pi”. “Life of Pi” won the most Oscars of the night. In addition to Achievement in Cinematography, the film won for Best Director, Best Original Score, and Best Visual Effects.
Halle Berry hosted a tribute to the 50th Anniversary of the legendary “James Bond” films. Tying this tribute back to the theme of the event, “Music in Film”, they took a look at the thrilling and heart pounding music of past “James Bond” films including a live performance by Shirley Bassey.
Jennifer Lawrence, who was voted best dressed by ABCs twitter vote, graced the stage to present “Amour” with the Oscar for Foreign Language Film. This was the second movie from Austria to win an Oscar under this category.
John Travolta began the tribute to the best musical movies of all times. The tribute began with Catherine Zeta-Jones performing a song from the hit movie “Chicago” and was followed by Jennifer Hudson performing a song from “Dreamgirls.” Perhaps one of the most memorable moments of the night was when the cast of “Les Miserables,” including Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway and Amanda Seyfried, dazzled the audience with a live performance.
One of the funniest moments of the night was when Mark Wahlberg and America’s favorite teddy bear, Ted, graced the stage. They presented “Les Miserables” with an Oscar for Sound Mixing. “Les Miserables” received two other Oscars including Best Makeup and Best Supporting Actress for Anne Hathaway.
Wahlberg and Ted also announced a tie for Sound Editing, which went to “Zero Dark Thirty” and “Skyfall”. It was the only win for “Zero Dark Thirty” of the evening, however Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth won Best Original Song from “Skyfall”. Adele not only won Best Original Song for “Skyfall”, but she captivated the audience by singing it live.
Kristen Stewart limped onstage accompanied by Daniel Radcliffe making his first Academy Awards appearance. They presented Production Design to Jim Erickson of “Lincoln”. “Lincoln” received another big win when Daniel Day-Lewis won Best Actor.
George Clooney introduced the “In Memoriam” tribute to those who have passed away. The tribute included a performance from Barbra Streisand.
One of the most talked about stars of the night was Quvenzhané Wallis of “Beasts of the Southern Wild” for being the youngest actress nominated for an Oscar. However, to no surprise, Jennifer Lawrence won Best Actress. Although Lawrence tripped while making her way to the stage, she brushed it off jokingly in her acceptance speech.
The moment that everyone had been waiting for was the award for Best Picture. Jack Nicholson took the stage to present the winner, a job that is usually done solo. However, he threw a curve ball at the audience when First Lady Michelle Obama popped on the screen from the White House. After a quick speech about the importance of the arts, Michelle opened the envelope and announced “Argo” as Best Picture.
Unlike the appearance of Michelle Obama, “Argo” winning Best Picture was no surprise because it won Best Drama at the Golden Globes. “Argo” also won Oscars for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film Editing.
Kristen Chenoweth, who hosted the pre-show on ABC, joined MacFarlane on stage to close the 2013 Academy Awards by singing an ode to all of the people who waited through the three and a half hour long event and walked away without an infamous Oscar.
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