83rd Academy Awards Winners

The biggest night in Hollywood has come and gone for another year as the awards were handed out for all 24 categories at the 83rd Academy Awards. The ceremony was hosted by the very charming Anne Hathaway and Oscar-nominee James Franco, and themes of the night were paying homage to Hollywood past, recognition for unlikely and championed films, thanking wives and inspiring words sent to daughters.

This was a very even split year with no films sweeping the awards, although the top two films were split between the high-profile awards and more tech-centric awards. I'm talking about the two films that took home 4 awards each: The King's Speech (Best Film, Director - Tom Hooper, Actor - Colin Firth and Original Screenplay) and Inception (Cinematography, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing and Visual Effects). Then we had The Social Network with Adapted Screenplay, Original Score and Editing. We also has several films take home two awards a piece with The Fighter (Supporting Actress - Melissa Leo, Supporting Actor - Christian Bale), Toy Story 3 (Song and Animated Film) and Alice in Wonderland (Costume Design & Art Direction). The fourth acting award was Best Actress which went to Natalie Portman for Black Swan.

No huge upsets of the evening, and I think I was most surprized by Tom Hooper for The King's Speech - not that I didn't like the film, but I just really expected it to go to either David Fincher or Darren Aronofsky. Perhaps the biggest surprize was True Grit not winning any awards after getting 10 nominations.

That the hard and fast information, but I think a lot of the best moments of the awards are in the speeches and unexpected moments. Here are some of my favourites:

• Dresses: Mila Kunas' Lavender flowy low cut yet creatively covering dress, Sharon Stone's black feathery glam goodness and Nicole Kidman in a white and sparkly number.
• Melissa Leo dropping the F-Bomb during her heartfelt acceptance speech.
• Christian Bale saying "I'm not going to drop the f bomb like she (Melissa) did, I've done that plenty before."
• Justin Timberlake saying he was Banksy.
• Swoon worthy matching outfit presenting duos of both Josh Brolin & Javier Bardem and Robert Downey Jr. & Jude Law.
• The writer’s speech, this is terrifying” and “My father said to me, I would be a late bloomer” - David Seidler accepting for Original screenplay for The King's Speech.
• Original screenplay montage where the words on screen for Inception do not exactly match what Ellen Page says.
• Susanne Bier very sweet, verklempt acceptance speech for Foreign Film for In a Better World – Denmark.
• Cate Blanchett saying “That’s gross” after The Wolfman clips shown for Achievement in makeup. Then The Wolfman won for Achievement in makeup.
• “Oh my gosh, I should have gotten a haircut” - Luke Matheny upon accepting the award for Best live action short film or God of Love.
• Randy Newman’s noting that it was his 20th nomination and just 2nd win plus saying “Couldn’t they find a fifth song?”
• "The moral of the story is, listen to your mother" - Tom Hooper
• “I have a feeling my career just peaked" - Colin Firth in his lovely, humble acceptance speech for Best Actor for The King's Speech
• Anne Hathaway for making the most out of an awesome fringe dress and also looking like she was about to burst with joy when introducing Stephen Spielberg
• The fact that we can now all say: "Academy Award Winner Trent Reznor"

And the sweetest quote of the night goes to Christian Bale "To my little girl, who has taught me so much more than I'll ever be able to teach her". Gotta love him.

83rd Academy Awards Winners
in the order in which they were presented

Art Direction
Alice in Wonderland - Robert Stromberg (Production Design), Karen O'Hara (Set Decoration)

Achievement in Cinematography
Inception - Wally Pfister

Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Melissa Leo in The Fighter

Best animated short film
The Lost Thing – Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann

Best animated feature film of the year
Toy Story 3

Adapted screenplay
The Social Network - Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin

Original screenplay
The King's Speech - Screenplay by David Seidler

Best foreign language film of the year
In a Better World – Denmark – Susanne Bier

Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Christian Bale in The Fighter

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original Score)
The Social Network - Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

Achievement in sound mixing
Inception - Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick

Achievement in sound editing
Inception - Richard King

Achievement in makeup
The Wolfman - Rick Baker and Dave Elsey

Achievement in costume design
Alice in Wonderland - Colleen Atwood

Best documentary short subject
Strangers No More – Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon

Best live action short film
God of Love – Luke Matheny

Best Documentary Feature
Inside Job - Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs

Achievement in visual effects
Inception - Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb

Achievement in film editing
The Social Network - Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original Song)
We Belong Together from Toy Story 3 - Music and Lyric by Randy Newman

Achievement in directing
Tom Hooper for The King's Speech

Performance by an actress in a leading role
Natalie Portman in Black Swan

Performance by an actor in a leading role
Colin Firth in The King's Speech

Best motion picture of the year
The King's Speech - Iain Canning, Emile Sherman and Gareth Unwin, Producers

The 83rd Academy Awards were hosted by Anne Hathaway and James Franco, and broad casted live Sunday February 27, 2011 starting at 8pm EST on ABC.