'King's Speech' takes top Oscars
Source: Agencies |
March 1, 2011, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
BRITISH film "The King's Speech" was crowned best picture at the Academy Awards ceremony, with the monarchy drama leading as expected with four Oscars and predictable favorites claiming acting honors.
Colin Firth as stammering British ruler George VI in "The King's Speech" earned the best actor prize on Sunday, while Natalie Portman won best actress as a delusional ballerina in "Black Swan."
The boxing drama "The Fighter" captured both supporting acting honors, for Christian Bale as a boxer-turned-drug-abuser and Melissa Leo as a boxing clan's domineering matriarch.
"The King's Speech" also won the directing prize for Tom Hooper and the original screenplay Oscar for David Seidler, a boyhood stutterer himself.
"I have a feeling my career has just peaked," Firth said. "I'm afraid I have to warn you that I'm experiencing stirrings somewhere in the upper abdominals which are threatening to form themselves into dance moves."
Among those Portman beat was Annette Bening for "The Kids Are All Right." Bening has now lost all four times she's been nominated.
"Thank you so much. This is insane, and I truly, sincerely wish that the prize tonight was to get to work with my fellow nominees. I'm so in awe of you," Portman said.
Network censors bleeped Leo for dropping the F-word during her speech. Backstage, she conceded it was "probably a very inappropriate place to use that particular word."
"Those words, I apologize to anyone that they offend. There is a great deal of the English language that is in my vernacular," Leo said.
Bale joked that he was keeping his language clean. "I'm not going to drop the F-bomb like she did," he said. "I've done that plenty of times before."
But the Oscars, being a global affair, were telecast elsewhere in the world with Leo's words uncensored. Viewers who watched the show on Star Movies, a major channel available throughout Asia, heard the F-word loud and clear.
The best picture win for "The King's Speech" was the first for its distributor, the Weinstein Co, founded by savvy awards campaigner Harvey Weinstein and his brother Bob after they left Miramax, their old outfit. At Miramax, Weinstein oversaw best picture wins for "Chicago," "Shakespeare in Love" and "The English Patient."
"The King's Speech" had been the heir-apparent for Hollywood's highest honor since late January, when it seized the awards momentum with 12 Oscar nominations and a sweep of top prizes from influential actors, directors and producers guilds.
Before that, the Facebook drama "The Social Network" had looked like the front-runner, dominating awards from key critics' groups and winning best drama at the Golden Globes.
The Oscar for adapted screenplay went to Aaron Sorkin for "The Social Network," a chronicle of the birth of Facebook based on Ben Mezrich's book "The Accidental Billionaires." "The Social Network" also won for musical score for Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, and for film editing.
The science-fiction blockbuster "Inception" tied "The Kings Speech" with four Oscars, all in technical categories: visual effects, cinematography, sound editing and sound mixing.
"Inside Job," an exploration of the 2008 economic meltdown, won as best- -documentary, which proved an uncommonly lively category this time.
"Toy Story 3," last year's top-grossing release, won the fourth-straight animated feature Oscar for Disney's Pixar Animation. Pixar has produced six of the 10 Oscar recipients for animation since the category was created.
Colin Firth as stammering British ruler George VI in "The King's Speech" earned the best actor prize on Sunday, while Natalie Portman won best actress as a delusional ballerina in "Black Swan."
The boxing drama "The Fighter" captured both supporting acting honors, for Christian Bale as a boxer-turned-drug-abuser and Melissa Leo as a boxing clan's domineering matriarch.
"The King's Speech" also won the directing prize for Tom Hooper and the original screenplay Oscar for David Seidler, a boyhood stutterer himself.
"I have a feeling my career has just peaked," Firth said. "I'm afraid I have to warn you that I'm experiencing stirrings somewhere in the upper abdominals which are threatening to form themselves into dance moves."
Among those Portman beat was Annette Bening for "The Kids Are All Right." Bening has now lost all four times she's been nominated.
"Thank you so much. This is insane, and I truly, sincerely wish that the prize tonight was to get to work with my fellow nominees. I'm so in awe of you," Portman said.
Network censors bleeped Leo for dropping the F-word during her speech. Backstage, she conceded it was "probably a very inappropriate place to use that particular word."
"Those words, I apologize to anyone that they offend. There is a great deal of the English language that is in my vernacular," Leo said.
Bale joked that he was keeping his language clean. "I'm not going to drop the F-bomb like she did," he said. "I've done that plenty of times before."
But the Oscars, being a global affair, were telecast elsewhere in the world with Leo's words uncensored. Viewers who watched the show on Star Movies, a major channel available throughout Asia, heard the F-word loud and clear.
The best picture win for "The King's Speech" was the first for its distributor, the Weinstein Co, founded by savvy awards campaigner Harvey Weinstein and his brother Bob after they left Miramax, their old outfit. At Miramax, Weinstein oversaw best picture wins for "Chicago," "Shakespeare in Love" and "The English Patient."
"The King's Speech" had been the heir-apparent for Hollywood's highest honor since late January, when it seized the awards momentum with 12 Oscar nominations and a sweep of top prizes from influential actors, directors and producers guilds.
Before that, the Facebook drama "The Social Network" had looked like the front-runner, dominating awards from key critics' groups and winning best drama at the Golden Globes.
The Oscar for adapted screenplay went to Aaron Sorkin for "The Social Network," a chronicle of the birth of Facebook based on Ben Mezrich's book "The Accidental Billionaires." "The Social Network" also won for musical score for Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, and for film editing.
The science-fiction blockbuster "Inception" tied "The Kings Speech" with four Oscars, all in technical categories: visual effects, cinematography, sound editing and sound mixing.
"Inside Job," an exploration of the 2008 economic meltdown, won as best- -documentary, which proved an uncommonly lively category this time.
"Toy Story 3," last year's top-grossing release, won the fourth-straight animated feature Oscar for Disney's Pixar Animation. Pixar has produced six of the 10 Oscar recipients for animation since the category was created.
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