By Sarah Bellal
Courier Staff Reporter
One of the most memorable aspects of the Oscars ceremony is the presenters—whether it’s their comedic timing or ironic stagefright, they can make or break the show atmosphere. Now it’s my turn to present—specifically, I present to you the highlights of the 87th Annual Academy Awards.
First, a quick recap of the Oscar recipients in the most prestigious categories: “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)” received the Oscar for best picture, winning a total of four Oscars this years including ones for cinematography, best director and best original screenplay. Julianne Moore won best actress for her role as a woman with Alzheimer’s disease in the movie “Still Alice”. Eddie Redmayne won best actor for his role as renowned scientist Stephen Hawking in “The Theory of Everything”. “CitizenFour”, a film about Edward Snowden, won the best documentary category.
Several people were upset that “American Sniper” didn’t win best picture. FOX News anchor Sean Hannity tweeted out on Sunday night, “AMERICAN Sniper snubbed by liberal hwood Predictable. #CluelessOscars”. Many others, however, were elated that what they considered to be a very racist movie did not receive any further recognition.
This year’s awards ceremony showed some rather emotional musical performances. Singer John Legend and rapper Common sang their song “Glory” from the movie “Selma”, for which they won best original song. Later on, Lady Gaga performed songs from the classic film “The Sound of Music”, showing a departure from the style of performance that she is known for. After Gaga’s performance, actress Julie Andrews, who starred in the original 50s film, came out onto the stage and hugged Gaga before announcing the next category.
Due to the lack of actors of color nominated this year, the hashtag “#OscarsSoWhite” began trending on Twitter. The race discussion was far from absent from the ceremony; In their acceptance speech for best song, Common and John Legend spoke about the remnants of institutional racism that was in portrayed in the movie “Selma”. Legend stated, “There are more black men under correctional control today than were under slavery in 1850.” (via Washington Post ) Race also found it’s way into actor Sean Penn’s announcement of the winner for best director, however not in the most tasteful way. When presenting the Oscar to Alejandro González Iñárritu, the director of best picture winner “Birdman”, who is also of Mexican ethnic and national origin, Penn said, “Who gave this son of a b*tch his green card?” In a heavily negative response, critics asked why the citizenship of any of the Australian or British actors present was never questioned, arguing that Penn was enforcing anti-Chicano stereotypes.
While Hollywood is no stranger to discriminatory practices, there is always hope for change in the coming years. The full list of winners can be found at http://oscar.go.com/nominees.
Sources:
https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/569725145767661568
