So, I got a grand total of 14 out of 24, which I guess is not bad, but could be a lot better. The Artist lost Best Editing and won Best Actor and Best Costume Design, an award I was certain would go to Hugo. Instead, Hugo won everything else below the line, including both sound categories, ending the night tied with The Artist for the most wins of any movie with five.
In all honesty: I still like my Oscar ballot. Evidently the Academy like Hugo a lot more than I expected them to, giving it awards both deserved (Art Direction) and undeserved (Visual Effects). I took calculated gambles on one or two categories (Best Actor, Cinematography, Visual Effects), but the surprises came in other categories, like Editing and Best Actress.
Someone was complaining today about some of the awards that were handed out that I agreed with: can we agree that even though it was easy to predict, it’s nonsense to have The Iron Lady win for Best Makeup over a film like Harry Potter? That movie had dozens of artists making people into very convincing goblins and werewolves and half-dead wizards, while Iron Lady made Meryl Streep look like Meryl Streep in makeup.
And sure, no one wants to give an Oscar to a Transformers movie, but isn’t Transformers 3 clearly a more impressive piece of special effects than Hugo? Sure, Hugo is a much better movie than Transformers 3, but this isn’t the award honoring that. Why do we feel the need to give Hugo an honorary Oscar in a category that it obviously isn’t the best nominee in?
Well, that’s the way these things work. Lesson learned. Other lesson learned: I really should’ve picked the short film starring Ciarán Hinds that was directed by the guy who did Hotel Rwanda. That was an oversight.