The King's Speech Takes Best Picture; Natalie Portman wins 'Best Actress'

Ok, so this report is a day late, but I've been so busy.  So unless you've been living in a hobbit hole, this will be nothing new.

The King's Speech, took the overall top wins at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards Sunday night. It grabbed 'Best Original Screenplay' by David Seidler as well as taking the 'Best Director' win by Tom Hooper.

The second big winning films were The Social Network and The Fighter.  The Social Network was recognized with 'Best Adapted Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin, Achievement in Music Written for Motion Picture (Original Score)' and 'Film Editing'. While the Fighter's actors got recognition.

Alice in Wonderful took the costume, makeup category, and art direction categories, while Inception hit a handful of the remaining tech categories: 'Achievement in Cinematography', Wally Pfister and 'Visual Effects', and it also won the sound editing and mixing categories.

Toy Story 3 took the win for Best Animated Feature. It's 'Original Song' "We Belong Together, Randy Newman, took the award in that category.

Natalie Portman was positively glowing as she accepted her 'Best Actress' Oscar for her role in Black Swan.  In her acceptance speech, she thanked a handful of people, as well as thanking, partner, Benjamin Millepied for "giving her the best role of her life"- her soon to be role of motherhood.

Other winners in the acting categories were Colin Firth won 'Best Actor' for The King's Speech.  Christian Bale won the award for 'Supporting Actor'.  Perhaps the closest category (other than picture) Sunday night was , 'Supporting Actress'.  Melissa Leo had been the favorite earlier in the season, but Hailee Steinfeld was garnering a lot of recognition in more recent awards celebrations. There was also the apparent issue that Melissa Leo had taken out some personally funded ads in her campaign, which caused lots of commotion in Hollywood. Anyway, not too surprisingly, Melissa Leo took the category.

All in all, it was a wonderful awards ceremony, with lots of special treats.  Gwyneth Paltrow sang her hit "Coming Home". Other performers included, Mandy Moore, Randy Newman, a fitting tribute to stars that had passed, and the Orchestra played highlights from several classic films.  The finale of the show, was the PS22 Chorus, led by Gregg Breinberg  (simply known as Mr. B) singing 'Over The Rainbow' in a heartwarming sendoff ...

83 Annual Academy Awards this Sunday Night (February 27)

It's that time again.  The 83rd Annual Academy Awards will be broadcast live on ABC 8/5 this Sunday night, February 27.  The pre-show (live from the red carpet) as usual will start at 7/4.

The expansion of the Best Picture category in recent years has allowed animated favorite, Toy Story 3 and another what would have been unlikely nomination, Inception to take deserved credit in that category. Best Picture nominees this year include:  The King's Speech, Black Swan, The Fighter, True Grit, The Social Network, 127 Hours, Inception, Toy Story 3, The Kids Are All Right, and Winter's Bone.  The King's Speech seems to be a marginal favorite for the win in this category, with the most nominations (12 total) of the night.  Other big scorers include True Grit (with 10 nominations), Social Network and Inception are tied at 8 (though Nolan has been snubbed again in the Best Director category).

According to Kenneth Turan over at The Envelope, prognosticators' favorites are Colin Firth for 'Actor in a Lead Role' for his portrayal of King George VI of Britain in The King's Speech.  Natalie Portman is the shoo-in for 'Actress in a Leading Role' for her portrayal in the Black Swan.  Another highly probable win will be Christian Bale for his supporting performance in The Fighter.

 'Actress in a Supporting Role' is harder to pinpoint with newcomers, Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit) being the youngest, at only 15 and Melissa Leo (The Fighter) in contention.  Other strong nominees in that category are Amy Adams (The Fighter), Helena Bonham-Carter (The King's Speech), and Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom).

The other major category (one of contention) is Best Director.  Darren Aronofsky has been nominated for Black Swan, David Fincher for The Social Network, Tom Hooper for The King's Speech, Joel and Ethan Coen, for True Grit, and David O. Russell for The Fighter.  Right now, though,  it's anyone's guess as to which one will take the award. Nolan seems to have been left out altogether, as he was snubbed a second time.


Tune in Sunday night to find out who will win.