The Oscars are as famous for getting it wrong as often as they get it right.
Al Pacino might have been the dead heart at the centre of the first two Godfather movies but wasn’t honoured with a statuette until he made the rather less brilliant Scent of a Woman decades later. And while I bow to no man in my love of the Rocky movies, even I can appreciate that Taxi Driver and All the President’s Men would have been far worthier Best Picture winners in 1977 than the Italian Stallion’s first cinematic outing.
So how did the Academy do in 2015?
The story of the night was Birdman beating Boyhood to the big prizes, taking home the gongs for both Best Picture and Best Director forAlejandro Gonzlez Irritu.
Hollywood loves itself so a darkly comedic tale of a washed-up actor seeking redemption after a career spent playing a superhero was always going to do well, particularly with the meta twist of casting a leading actor whose most famous role remains Batman.
Unfortunately for Michael Keaton, he came up against Eddie Redmayne in the Best Actor category for his performance as Professor Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything. If there’s one thing Hollywood loves more than self-congratulation, it’s actors playing characters with debilitating illnesses.
That meants that not only was Sunday a good night for Redmayne, it was also one for Julianne Moore. She picked up the Best Actress award for playing a character with early-onset Alzheimer’s in Still Alice. She was then claimed on behalf of Scotland by the Scottish Government’s very own Minister for Europe and International Development, Humza Yousaf:
Congrats 'Scotland's own' @_juliannemoore on Oscar victory! 3types of ppl – Scots, those who wish to be Scottish & those with no ambition!
— Humza Yousaf (@HumzaYousaf) February 23, 2015
Perhaps the man who will be asking himself exactly what he has to do to win an Oscar will be Steve Carrell, who was nominated in the Best Actor category for Foxcatcher. In any other year a comic actor doing a serious turn and wearing a prosthetic nose would have been a shoe-in for the top prize. This year, however, he wasn’t even at the races.
The great JK Simmons won Best Supporting Actor for Whiplash, a film where he plays an ill-tempered drum instructor who physically and psychologically tortures his students. Few would begrudge Simmons the award but it’s hard to fathom why he was nominated in the Supporting Actor category when the entire film hinges on his performance.
Patricia Arquette deservedly landed the Best Supporting Actress prize for Boyhood. Although heavily-touted before the Oscars, in the end this was the only prize given to Richard Linklater’s labour of love.
The Grand Budapest Hotel picked up four Oscars in technical categories but it was Birdman’s night all the way.
However, it wasn’t any of the nominees who were making waves on social media after the Oscars.
John Travolta’s rather hands – and lips – on performance as a presenter is what many people were talking about the morning after.
Most awkward photo of the night definitely goes to John Travolta. Scarlet's not happy is she?! #Oscars2015 pic.twitter.com/i1nKTzPyFw
— Zazu Ents (@Zazuents) February 23, 2015
Full list of winners:
Best picture: Birdman
Actress in a leading role: Julianne Moore
Actor in a leading role: Eddie Redmayne
Supporting actress: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Supporting actor: JK Simmons, Whiplash
Directing: Alejandro G Inarritu for Birdman
Original screenplay: Birdman
Adapted screenplay: The Imitation Game
Costume design: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Makeup and hairstyling: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Foreign language film: Ida
Documentary (short subject): Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1
Live action short film: The Phone Call
Visual effects: Interstellar
Animated short film: Feast
Animated feature film: Big Hero 6
Production design: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki for Birdman
Film editing: Tom Cross for Whiplash
Documentary feature: Citizenfour
Original song: Glory from Selma
Original score: Alexandre Desplat for The Grand Budapest Hotel