82nd Oscar Results: Sandy Powell Shoots and Scores

Really though, there were no big surprises in the 82nd Annual Academy Awards. Apart from The Hurt Locker winning Best Picture, that was huge.

As this is a movie costume website, however, we shall start with that. It was BAFTA/CDG all over again as Sandy Powell won Best Costume Design for The Young Victoria. Well, we did say there were no big surprises.

Cannot fault Sandy Powell and her team for their incredibly detailed work on a movie that, frankly, demanded it, but when will the Academy reward costume design that isn’t period? Do casual moviegoers even realise that ‘costume’ is whatever a character wears, and that does not have to include breeches or a petticoat?

Sandy Powell understands the situation, so we will let her classy acceptance speech do the explaining:

“Well, I already have two of these, so I’m feeling greedy. I’d like to dedicate this one to the costume designers who don’t do films about monarchs and musicals, the designers who do contemporary films. This is for you – but I’m going to take it home tonight.”

Not to take one iota of praise away from Powell, who can sit at home with a cup of tea and a biccie (she is from England), content that she took all the big three costume gongs and deserved them. However, as the lady herself admitted, exceptional costume design does not have to be period; in fact most times it won’t be. So let’s reward all the other hardworking brothers and sisters some day too, eh?

Okay, if you have gotten this far we shall cover the rest of the winners:

Best Picture then was shock of the night. Although Kathryn Bigelow was widely tipped to win Best Director, James Cameron’s Avatar was always going to be Best Picture. Instead Bigelow scooped both. Fair play. The Hurt Locker is was what producer Robert Evans might describe as a ‘little picture that could’.

Every other major category was a given. Sandra Bullock’s speech for Best Actress was unexpectedly warm and funny (no disrespect to her as the precedent for this award is not great). Jeff Bridges took the not-before-time Best Actor statuette accompanied by zero gasps, same with Mo’Nique for Best Supporting Actress and Christoph Waltz for Best Supporting Actor. Best Animated Feature was Up – a popular choice.

Check out the full list of winners below. Don’t worry though; you guessed them all bar one:

Costume Design – Sandy Powell, The Young Victoria

Best Picture – The Hurt Locker

Directing – Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker

Actor In A Leading Role – Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart

Actor In A Supporting Role – Christoph Waltz, Inglorious Basterds

Actress In A Leading Role – Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side

Actress In A Supporting Role – Mo’Nique, Precious

Animated Feature Film – Up

Writing (adapted screenplay) – Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire

Writing (original screenplay) – The Hurt Locker

Art Direction – Avatar

Cinematography – Avatar

Documentary Feature – The Cove

Documentary Short – Music by Prudence

Film Editing – The Hurt Locker

Foreign Language Film – The Secret in Their Eyes (El Secreto de Sus Ojos) Argentina

Makeup – Star Trek

Music (original score) – Up

Music (original song) – The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)

Short Film (animated) – Logorama

Short Film (live action) – The New Tenants

Sound Editing – The Hurt Locker

Sound Mixing – Paul NJ Ottosson and Ray Beckett, The Hurt Locker

Visual Effects – Avatar

If this must be twisted into an international sporting fixture, we should note that the Brits did not do well in all the headline friendly categories. Carey Mulligan and Colin Firth lost out for Acting, as did director Nick Park for Best Animated Short. This is presumably revenge for 2007 when all non-Americans nabbed the main acting awards and upset precisely no one. Or maybe, just maybe, the best people won on the night? You decide. All kudos to Sandy Powell however. She scored the costume hattrick.

Source: Sky News and Empire Live Blog.