85th Annual Academy Awards Results and Commentary (2013)
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- Date of Ceremony: Sunday, February 24, 2013
- For films released in: 2012
- Host(s): Seth MacFarlane
08:30 pm
And we’re off…host Seth MacFarlane strolls out. “And the quest to make Tommy Lee Jones laugh begins now.” And TLJ does.
“Winning an Oscar leads to a long successful career. Last year Jean Dujardin won for The Artist and now he’s everywhere.”
Referring to Daniel Day-Lewis staying in character, Seth says, “If you bumped into Don Cheadle on the studio lot, did you try to free him?”
A screen drops down with William Shatner as Captain Kirk. He tells Seth to stop before he ruins the Oscars. We then get a song “We Saw Your Boobs” listing all the actresses who have gone topless.
08:39 pm
Charlize Theron and Channing Tatum join him onstage as they dance to “The Way You Look Tonight.”
We then get a look at the film Flight as done by sock puppets.
Next Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Daniel Radcliffe join Seth for some softshoe to “High Hopes.”
Another song and dance song “Be Our Guest.”
08:47 pm
Seth walks Octavia Spencer to the mic as she prepares to present Best Actor in a Supporting Role. And the Oscar goes to Christoph Waltz for Django Unchained.
“We participated in a hero’s journey — the hero here being Quentin. And you scale the mountain because you’re not afraid of it. You slay the dragon because you’re not afraid of it and you cross through fire because it’s worth it. I borrowed my character’s words so sorry… couldn’t resist. Thank you.” – Christoph Waltz
08:55 pm
Seth intros Paul Rudd and Melissa McCarthy riff on voiceover work before presenting Best Short Film (Animated). And the Oscar goes to Paperman and John Kahrs.
“To Kristina Reed my producer, the cast and crew, everyone who helped on it. They made it so much better than I could ever have hoped.” – John Kahrs
Paul and Melissa then present Best Animated Feature to Brave. Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman accept.
“I’d like to give a shout-out to my wonderful, brave, strong daughter Emma, who inspired Brave into being.” – Brenda Chapman
09:01 pm
Reese Witherspoon introduces the clips for three Best Picture nominees, Les Miserables, Life of Pi, and Beasts of the Southern Wild.
09:04 pm
Seth mentions that Quvenzhané is the youngest nominee ever. “So to all the nominees, you’ve done something a 9-year-old could do.”
Next up, several of The Avengers cast (Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo and Samuel L. Jackson) present Best Cinematography after riffing on each other. And the Oscar goes to Life of Pi’s Claudio Miranda. His acceptance speech reminds me of the Fred Armisen character who can’t finish his thoughts.
“Oh, gee, wow. This movie was quite a beast to make. We did it, and the thing what I had, was so much, was so great that everyone was just really, totally there and supportive. I mean, I was really into Ang and the beautiful world that we created. It was like one challenge, when you’re a cinematographer and there’s one thing, when you have your eyes and just kind of go up and up and up and you just kind reach this thing. They get really excited, there’s exciting scenes for me that I love, like the candles and the things that we did that was nuts.” – Claudio Miranda
They then present the award for Visual Effects. And the Oscar goes to Life of Pi’s Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer and Donald R. Elliott. The speech goes long. Ouch, the playoff music was the theme from Jaws.
“The irony is not lost on any of us up here that in a film whose central premise is to ask the audience what they believe is real or not real, most of what you see is, well, it’s fake. That’s the magic of visual effects.” – Bill Westenhofer
09:16 pm
Seth says, “Of our next two presenters, only one is honest about being a former exotic dancer: Jennifer Aniston and Channing Tatum.” They present Achievement in Costume Design. And the Oscar goes to Anna Karenina’s Jacqueline Durran.
“…and my children for bearing with me. They’re completely oblivious to this. They’re fast asleep in England.” – Jacqueline Durran
Jen and Channing then present Best Makeup and Hairstyling. And the Oscar goes to Les Misérables’ Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell.
“I must pay a huge tribute to the team who worked so incredibly hard and were so talented. And I feel that I own only a little bit of this and the rest goes to them.” – Lisa Westcott
09:21 pm
Seth intros Oscar-winner and Bond Girl Halle Berry to introduce the tribute to James Bond’s fiftieth anniversary. After a series of clips, Shirley Bassey comes out to sing the theme to Goldfinger. She gets a standing ovation.
09:32 pm
Seth intros Django Unchained co-stars Jamie Foxx and Kerry Washington. They present the nominees for Best Short Film (Live Action). And the Oscar goes to Curfew and Shawn Christensen.
“My co-star, 12-year-old co-star, Fatima Ptacek, her performance was so incredible. Nobody even remembers I’m in the film because of you, you are incredible.” – Shawn Christensen
They then present Best Documentary (Short Subject). And the Oscar goes to Inocente. Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine accept.
“And most of all, we want to thank this young lady who was homeless just a year ago and now she’s standing in front of all of you and she’s an artist and all of you are artists and we feel like we need to start supporting the arts. They’re dying in our communities.” – Sean Fine
09:37 pm
Seth intros Liam Neeson, who presents the clips for Best Picture nominees Argo, Lincoln and Zero Dark Thirty.
09:41 pm
“I would argue that the actor who really got into Lincoln’s head was John Wilkes Booth. Really? Too soon? The first time I saw Ben Affleck with all that facial hair, I thought ‘Wow, the Kardashians have made the jump to film.’”
Ben Affleck then comes out to present Documentary Feature. And the Oscar goes to Searching for Sugar Man.
“Rodriguez isn’t here tonight because he didn’t want to take any of the credit himself and that just about says everything about that man and his story that you’d want to know.” – Malik Bendjelloul
09:49 pm
“It’s Sunday and everyone’s dressed up. It’s like church except with more praying,” says Seth. Jennifer Garner and Jessica Chastain then come out to present Best Foreign Language Film. And the Oscar goes to Austria’s Amour. Director Michael Haneke accepts.
“Thank you to my wife, she was a member of the crew. She’s supporting me since 30 years. You are the center of my life. And thank you above all to my both main actors, Emmanuelle Riva and Jean-Louis Trintignant because without them I will not stay here.” – Michael Haneke
09:52 pm
Seth intros the orchestra, who are actually playing in the Capitol Records building. John Travolta then introduces performances from movie musicals. First off, we get Catherine Zeta-Jones singing “All That Jazz” from Chicago. Jennifer Hudson then sings “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” from Dreamgirls. Finally, the cast of Les Miserable sings “One Day More.”
10:08 pm
Chris Pine and Zoe Saldana are here now to talk about the Scientific and Technical Awards, which were handed out a couple of weeks ago.
Seth then introduces Mark Wahlberg and the talking bear, Ted. They present Sound Mixing. And the Oscar goes to Les Misérables’ Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson and Simon Hayes.
“What an amazing honor to receive this tonight — the night that Oscar celebrates musicals. It’s fantastic.” – Andy Nelson
Seth and Ted then present Sound Editing. And the Oscar goes to…wait, it’s a tie. The first winner is Zero Dark Thirty’s Paul N.J. Ottosson.
“I was fortunate to be here a few years with The Hurt Locker. I was awarded two of these. I woke up in the morning, 7:00 and our son said, ‘One for mommy, one for daddy.’ And he looked at me and said, ‘Where’s mine?’” – Paul N.J. Ottosson
The next winner is Skyfall’s Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers.
“This is so cool. We always wished we could work on a Bond movie and we never quite thought that was going to happen. But it did, and we just want to thank Michael and Barbara for inviting us to the family. Then we got Sam Mendes as the director and that just made it even sweeter.” – Per Hallberg
10:19 pm
After a bit of von Trapp family schtick, Christopher Plummer comes out to present Best Supporting Actress. And the Oscar goes to Anne Hathaway.
“Here’s hoping that someday in the not too distant future the misfortunes of Fantine will only be found in stories and never in real life. Thank you.” – Anne Hathaway
10:29 pm
Seth introduces AMPAS President Hawk Koch. He discusses the plans for the Academy museum and then introduces the students that have been helping to hand out the statuettes tonight.
10:31 pm
Seth introduces Sandra Bullock. She’s here to present Film Editing. And the Oscar goes to Argo’s William Goldenberg.
“…I want to thank our great producers, George Clooney and Grant Heslov. And Chris Terrio for writing an editor’s dream for a screenplay. And Ben, I share this with you. You’re my brother, I love you. And thank you for this.” – William Goldenberg
10:34 pm
Jennifer Lawrence comes out to introduce Adele singing “Skyfall.” The performance is a little underwhelming and I love Adele.
10:43 pm
Nicole Kidman introduces the final three Best Picture nominees: Silver Linings Playbook, Django Unchained, and Amour.
10:47 pm
“He’s a boy wizard and she’s a girl vampire. So pretty much everything the Christian right says is wrong with Hollywood,” says Seth as he introduces Kristen Stewart and Daniel Radcliffe. They’re presenting Production Design. And the Oscar goes to Lincoln’s Rick Carter and Jim Erickson.
“All of us who worked on this movie of Lincoln, I think in our own ways tried to be worthy of a legacy that’s way beyond all of us, especially Steven and Kathy and Tony and Sally, but of course, Daniel, who actually convinced us that he was Lincoln.” – Rick Carter
10:50 pm
Salma Hayek talks about the Governors Awards, which were handed out in December.
10:57 pm
George Clooney introduces the In Memoriam segment. It ends with the late Marvin Hamlisch and now Barbra Streisand sings Hamlisch’s “The Way We Were.”
11:08 pm
Seth introduces the cast of Chicago “because the show isn’t gay enough yet.” They’re here to present the Oscar for Original Score. And the Oscar goes to Life of Pi’s Mychael Danna.
“I share this wondrous award with our visionary captain, Mr. Ang Lee. There he is, we’re playing this game again. You’ve guided a truly global cast and crew in the telling of this wondrous, beautiful story that transcends culture and race and religion. In the same spirit, musicians from around the globe came together to breathe life into this music and I hold this award on their behalf.” – Mychael Danna
The quartet then present Original Song. After seeing some video of the other nominees, Norah Jones sings the Seth MacFarlane-penned song from Ted. And the Oscar goes to Skyfall’s “Skyfall” by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth.
“And most of all I’d like to thank Adele for being the best person I’ve ever worked with. She’s absolutely amazing.” – Paul Epworth
11:22 pm
Charlize Theron and Dustin Hoffman are presenting the writing awards. First, the nominees for Adapted Screenplay. And the Oscar goes to Argo’s Chris Terrio.
“Thank you, Ben Affleck. Ben, 15 years ago you were up here with the first screenplay you got made and now you made this film that’s brought me up here and it’s a gift and I can never repay it.” – Chris Terrio
Dustin and Charlize then present Original Screenplay. And the Oscar goes to Django Unchained’s Quentin Tarantino.
“I would like to say it’s such an honor to get it this year because I have to say in both the original and the adapted categories, the writing is just fantastic. This will be the writers’ year, man.” – Quentin Tarantino
11:32 pm
Jane Fonda and Michael Douglas walk out arm-in-arm. They’re tasked with presenting Best Director. And the Oscar goes to Ang Lee for Life of Pi. Lee gets a standing ovation.
“Everybody who worked with me on Life of Pi. I want to thank you for… I really want to thank you for believing in this story and share this incredible journey with me. I need to to thank Yann Martel for writing this incredible, inspiring book.” – Ang Lee
11:41 pm
Jean Dujardin is here now to present Best Actress. And the Oscar goes to Jennifer Lawrence for Silver Linings Playbook. She trips on her way to the stage.
“This is nuts. Thank you to the Academy and thank you to the women this year. You were so magnificent and so inspiring and not just those of you in my category. And it’s been so amazing getting to know you and you’ve been so nice and you’ve made this experience unforgettable.” – Jennifer Lawrence
11:45 pm
“Our next presenter needs no introduction,” says Seth as he walks off. Meryl Streep then presents Best Actor. And the Oscar goes to Daniel Day-Lewis for Lincoln, the first actor in Oscar history to win Best Actor three times. Daniel jokes about Streep.
“It’s a strange thing because three years ago before we decided to do a straight swap, I had actually been committed to play Margaret Thatcher. And Meryl was Steven’s first choice for Lincoln. And I’d like to see that version. And Steven didn’t have to persuade me to play Lincoln but I had to persuade him that perhaps if I was going to do it that Lincoln shouldn’t be a musical. My fellow nominees, my equals, my betters, I’m so proud to have been included as one amongst you.” – Daniel Day-Lewis
11:52 pm
Jack Nicholson is here to present Best Picture. But first we go by satellite to the White House where Michelle Obama talks about the power of movies to lift the human spirit. Nicholson then announces the nominees. Mrs. Obama announces the winner. And the Oscar goes to Argo. Ben Affleck, George Clooney and Grant Heslov take to the stage with the cast and Chris Terrio. Among others, Affleck thanks the people that believed in him and gave him a second chance when his career appeared to be drifting.
“And it doesn’t matter how you get knocked down in life because that’s going to happen. All that matters is you gotta get up.” – Ben Affleck
12:02 am
Kristin Chenoweth joins Seth to sing a song about the losers.
And that’s it folks. Thanks for joining us!