Even though I haven’t seen it, I found the success of Kathryn Bigelow’s film The Hurt Locker at the Oscars last Sunday to be reassuring. It proves that while big budgets and stunning visual effects may fill the cinema seats and help your film rake in the technical awards, they do not guarantee that your film will bring home the big awards.
James Cameron’s Avatar, also known as the most successful film of all time — which I did see, in glorious 3D — won for Art Direction, Cinematography and Visual Effects. However, for all of Avatar’s floating mountains and lush alien foliage, it didn’t win Best Picture or Best Director; those honours went to Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker.
The?Iraq War thriller also picked up statues for Original Screenplay, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, and Film Editing.
I stuck my head outside at about 12:02 on Monday morning and heard a collective sigh of relief from aspiring filmmakers across North America when The Hurt Locker — which had a budget less than one-twentieth of Avatar’s – won for Best Picture.
I am more of an action, horror, and comedy film fan; I don’t generally go out of my way to watch the dramatic period films that are typically Oscar fare. Heading into the ceremonies I had only seen three films nominated for awards, and two of those were Inglourious Basterds and Star Trek — not exactly academy darlings. That’s why I was so surprised to see Christoph Waltz win Best Supporting Actor for his role in Inglourious Basterds, and Star Trek win for Best Makeup both well deserved wins that prove I do have excellent taste after all.
I have some predictions for next year’s Oscars. First, even though Pixar has won Best Animated Feature five out of the last seven years, and even though their next effort, Toy Story 3, is directed by Lee Unkrich (who directed the Oscar-winning films Monsters Inc. and Finding Nemo) and written by fellow Pixar heavyweight Andrew Stanton, I don’t think?Toy Story 3 will win for Animated Feature. The Academy already passed on the last sequel. Expect it to do well in the Original Song category.
Second, after watching Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland over the weekend I’m sensing some déjà vu. Like Avatar, it’s a runaway box office sensation, making over $100 million in its opening weekend. Also, some very beautiful costumes and visual effects will definitely earn Burton’s picture a few nominations at the 83rd Oscars. But if Cameron couldn’t win Best Picture in Pandora, Burton definitely won’t win in Wonderland.