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The night of the 87th Academy Awards was the annual burst of stars, a touch more stylish and elegant than usual. There was an awkward moment though. The otherwise nattily dressed host of the evening Neil Patrick Harris suddenly took the stage clad only in spanking white underwear. He was parodying a scene from Birdman (which eventually won top Oscar).
Far more importantly, heart and soul were lent to the 2015 Oscars by the collection of inspiring films that made the nominations. The majority were on human concerns and social issues, those that affect character, brain and mentality and so call for more attention, care and understanding.
About half a dozen films stole the show and most of the awards.
Mexican director, Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu's Birdman took the four top awards: Best Film, Best Director, Best Original Script, Best cinematography. Birdman is set in Hollywood and shot in long winding, twirling takes. It tells of a faded middle-aged actor who stakes everything to regain lost glory by staging a play.
J K Simmons was declared Best Supporting Actor in Whiplash, a scathing satire on how craving for centre-stage supremacy becomes a manic game between a jazz tutor and his ambitious drummer pupil. Julianne Moore was awarded the Best Actress Oscar for Richard Gleatzer and Wash Westmoreland’s Still Alice,on how early onset of Alzheimer’s affects a renowned linguistics professor and her family. She dedicated her award to those who have the disease saying they “deserve to be seen so we can find a cure”.
A special decibel of applause greeted the Best Actor award going to the enormously talented Eddie Redmayne as Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything. The film is on how Hawking copes with the crippling effects of ALS and does not let an atrophied body affect his visionary astrophysics. Redmayne is the eighth-youngest award winner in Oscar history.
Wes Anderson’s romp through stately homes and snowy landscapes in The Grand Budapest Hotel took three awards, Best Production, Best Original Score and Best Make-up and Hair Styling.
One Oscar each went to Graham Moore’s The Imitation Game (Best Adapted Screenplay) and Alan Robert’s American Sniper (Best Sound Editing). Game is a salute to another genius who breaks the German Enigma Submarine Code and thus (some say) won World War II for the Allies Soon after, he was ruthlessly pursued by Police for being a homosexual, which in all probability led to his suicide. American Sniper looks at double standards in times of war. An American soldier has to kill innocent families and children in the Middle East but at home is the conquering hero. Finally, Selma, the film on the slain activist leader Martin Luther King got one award – for its song, Glory, which had the audience in tears.
Ida took Best Foreign Language Film home to Warsaw beating high-powered contenders from Russia, Estonia, Mauritania, and Argentina. The favourite, arguably, was Abderrahmane Sissako’s Timbuktu, which premiered in Cannes last year.
The one film that many feel was sidelined unjustly was Richard Linklater’s remarkable Boyhood. Its single award went to Patricia Arquette as Best Supporting Actress. The film is an amazing cinematic achievement, shot in sequence across 12 years and over 39 filming days. It is about the growing pains of its protagonist, a gifted child growing into troubled adulthood because he is made to feel he is the odd one out in a normal world. He is, therefore, socially at risk.
These films mostly on people marginalized because they are ‘different,’ out of the ordinary in some way make this particular Oscar year a pointedly political one. Several of the awardees made impassioned acceptance speeches.
Patricia Arquette spoke up eloquently on equality for women. Director, screenwriter, film producer and composer, Alejandro Iñárritu (Birdman), appealed for justice to Mexican immigrants. The Imitation Game screenwriter, Graham Moore, urged people to stay “weird” if that was their nature, and spoke about gay rights. Common and John Legend, co-singers of the Oscar-winning song Glory appealed for civil rights. He said the US was still far from the liberal country it claims to be.
India was not onscreen or onstage this year, except for Indian origin Dev Patel, jubilant at every mention of his film, The Grand Budapest Hotel. The film won the Oscar for best original music score (collected by Alexandre Desplat) and three others: best production design, best costume design, best hairstyling and make-up.
There was another oblique reference. On the Red Carpet, highly regarded Mexican-Kenyan actor and director Lupita Nyong'o said she will be starring in Mira Nair’s next film. Last year, she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Patsey in Steve Mcqueen’s 12 Years a Slave.
