2015 Oscars: Hollywood's winners and losers – Birdman beats Boyhood
A Mexican's surrealistic backstage drama triumphs over the critics' favourite
The Mexican-written and directed Birdman won best picture at the 87th Hollywood Academy Awards, collecting Oscars for best director, cinematography and original screenplay along the way.
Although far from a box office hit, Birdman mixes elements of fantasy and radical techniques that made it a favourite within the industry.
The film is shot in one apparent camera take while the story concerns a washed up former superhero star who is trying to revive his career with a self-revelatory Broadway play.
However, lead actor Michael Keaton, who has played Batman, was pipped for that award by Eddie Redmayne as scientist Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything.
The critics' favourite, Boyhood, which was filmed with the same cast over 12 years, scored just one Oscar, Patricia Arquette as Best Supporting Actress, while the New Zealand arthouse box office hit of last year, The Grand Budapest Hotel, picked only technical awards.
The main Kiwi hopes rested on three films: The Theory of Everything, for which screenwriter Anthony McCarten was nominated for his adaptation of a book by physicist Stephen Hawking’s first wife and Queenstown-born Tim Bevan as one of the film's producers; Dawn of the Planet of the Apes for visual effects by a team from Miramar-based Weta Digital (Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, Daniel Barrett, Erik Winquist); and best sound editing for The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (Brent Burge and Jason Canovas).
Apes lost out to Interstellar, the space epic. Theory missed out, too, in favour of The Imitation Game, as did the third Hobbit film to the biggest surprise of the Oscars, Whiplash.
However, the winning short live action film, The Phone Call, has a Kiwi connection, the co-producer James Lucas having lived in Christchurch as a boy.
Scroll down the list to check winners (in bold):
Best Picture
Birdman, Boyhood,
Selma,
American Sniper,
The Grand Budapest Hotel,
The Imitation Game,
The Theory of Everything,
Whiplash
Best Director
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Birdman;
Richard Linklater, Boyhood;
Wes Anderson, The Grand Budapest Hotel;
Bennett Miller, Foxcatcher;
Morten Tyldum, The Imitation Game
Best Actor
Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything; Michael Keaton, Birdman;
Steve Carell, Foxcatcher;
Bradley Cooper, American Sniper;
Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game
Best Actress
Julianne Moore, Still Alice;
Felicity Jones, The Theory of Everything;
Marion Cotillard, Two Days, One Night;
Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl;
Reese Witherspoon, Wild
Best Supporting Actor
JK Simmons, Whiplash;
Robert Duvall, The Judge;
Ethan Hawke, Boyhood;
Edward Norton, Birdman;
Mark Ruffalo, Foxcatcher
Best Supporting Actress
Patricia Arquette, Boyhood;
Laura Dern, Wild;
Keira Knightley, The Imitation Game;
Emma Stone, Birdman;
Meryl Streep, Into the Woods
Best Original Screenplay
Alejandro Inarritu, Nicolas Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris Jr, Armando Bo, Birdman;
Richard Linklater, Boyhood;
E Max Frye and Dan Futterman, Foxcatcher;
Wes Anderson, The Grand Budapest Hotel;
Dan Gilroy, Nightcrawler
Best Adapted Screenplay
Graham Moore, The Imitation Game; Jason Hall, American Sniper;
;
Paul Thomas Anderson, Inherent Vice;
Anthony McCarten, The Theory of Everything;
Damien Chazelle, Whiplash
Best Animated Feature
Big Hero 6,
The Boxtrolls,
How to Train Your Dragon 2,
Song of the Sea,
The Tale of Princess Kayuga
Best Foreign Language Film
Ida (Poland),
Leviathan (Russia),
Tangerines (Estonia),
Timbuktu (Mauritania),
Wild Tales (Argentina)
Best Documentary – Feature
Citizenfour,
Finding Vivian Maier,
Last Days in Vietnam,
Salt of the Earth
, Virunga
Best Documentary – Short
Crisis Hotline,
Joanna,
Our Curse,
The Reaper,
White Earth
Best Original Score
Alexandre Desplat, The Grand Budapest Hotel;
Alexandre Desplat, The Imitation Game;
Hans Zimmer, Interstellar
; Gary Yershon, Mr Turner;
Johann Johannsson, The Theory of Everything
Best Original Song
John Legend and Common, Glory (Selma); Shawn Patterson, Everything Is Awesome (The Lego Movie);
Diane Warren, Grateful (Beyond the Lights);
Glen Campbell, I’m Not Gonna Miss You (Glen Campbell…I’ll Be Me);
Gregg Alexander and Danielle Brisebois, Lost Stars (Begin Again)
TECHNICAL AWARDS
Best Sound Editing
American Sniper,
Birdman,
The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies,
Interstellar,
Unbroken
Best Sound Mixing
Whiplash, American Sniper,
Birdman,
Interstellar,
Unbroken,
Best Production Design
The Grand Budapest Hotel,
The Imitation Game,
Interstellar,
Into the Woods,
Mr Turner
Best Cinematography
Birdman (Emmanual Lubezki),
The Grand Budapest Hotel,
Ida,
Mr Turner,
Unbroken
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Frances Hannon and Mark Coulier, The Grand Budapest Hotel; Bill Corso and Dennis Liddiard, Foxcatcher;
Elizabeth Yianni-Georgiou and David White, Guardians of the Galaxy
Best Costume Design
The Grand Budapest Hotel,
Inherent Vice,
Maleficent,
Mr Turner,
Into the Woods
Best Film Editing
Whiplash, American Sniper,
Boyhood,
The Grand Budapest Hotel,
The Imitation Game,
Best Visual Effects
Interstellar, Captain America: The Winter Soldier,
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes,
Guardians of the Galaxy,
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Best Live Action Short
The Phone Call, Aya,
Boogaloo and Graham,
Butter Lamp,
Parvaneh,
Best Animated Short
Feast,
The Bigger Picture,
The Dam Keeper,
Me and My Moulton,
A Single Life
Nevil Gibson
Mon, 23 Feb 2015
Mon, 23 Feb 2015
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2015 Oscars: Hollywood's winners and losers – Birdman beats Boyhood
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