Sharing the spoils

Oh no, her again?

Poor Meryl Streep. After all, being the favourite and actually winning can probably get a bit boring. But if people have Meryl fatigue, it’s probably because she’s been nominated 17 times — this is actually “only” her third win, after Kramer Vs Kramer and Sophie’s Choice, 30 years ago! In a nod to the transformational role that won her the award, she thanked her make-up artist J. Roy Helland, who has worked with Streep since 1982. “I thought I was so old and jaded, but they call your name and you just go into a sort of white light,” she said backstage after winning. “It was like [I was] a kid again. I was a kid when I won this, like, 30 years ago. Two of the nominees were not even conceived,” she added, referring to Rooney Mara, 26, and Michelle Williams, 30.

An ‘Artist-ic’ first

Michel Hazanavicius’ black-and-white, silent film starring relative unknowns shared the highest number of awards with Martin Scorsese’s Hugo, and, unsurprisingly, scored a number of firsts. Jean Dujardin, whose cheeky grin has won over the world, took home the first Best Actor award for a Frenchman, while the film itself grabbed the first best picture award for a silent movie in 83 years — and since the Oscars are 84 years old, that’s a pretty big deal. It also garnered three other awards, matching Hugo’s haul — Scorsese’s film, also an ode to early cinema, nailed the technical categories.

A first for Iran

A Separation won the Oscar for best foreign language film, becoming the first Iranian movie to win the honour. It was the second Iranian film to be nominated for an Oscar.

“At this time, many Iranians all over the world are watching us and I imagine them to be very happy,” director Asghar Farhadi said.

“At a time of talk of war, intimidation and aggression is exchanged between politicians, the name of their country, Iran, is spoken here through her glorious culture, a rich and ancient culture that has been hidden under the heavy dust of politics.

“I proudly offer this award to the people of my country, the people who respect all cultures and civilisations and despise hostility and resentment,” he added.

Farhadi made the movie under Iranian censors who impose strictures on filmmakers in the name of Islamic morality and national morale. But he has said he was not confronted with censorship.
The director said he was unsure how the Iranian government would respond to his Oscar honour.

“The Iranian government is not unanimous at all. When this film was nominated, some were happy, some were silent, some not happy at all,” Farhadi told reporters after winning.
“I can’t predict what’s going to happen,” he add. “So I’m going to wait until they respond.”

Yesterday morning, Iran’s state TV described the country’s foreign film Oscar win as a victory over Israel, saying the award succeeded in “leaving behind” a film from the “Zionist regime”, a reference to the country’s arch-foe Israel.

Two nights before the Oscar ceremony, Israeli and Iranian artists came together in a show of peace, said Lior Ashkenazi, a star of the Israeli foreign language Oscar entry Footnote.

A first for Pakistan

Pakistani filmmaker and first-time Oscar nominee Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy won an Academy Award for her documentary about acid attack victims, a first for a Pakistani director.

Her victory shines a spotlight on a subject which affects thousands of women in Pakistan and elsewhere, but is seldom discussed at home. Speaking exclusively to Reuters via telephone from backstage, Chinoy dedicated the award to the women of Pakistan.

The women’s “bravery and resilience in the face of adversity inspires me every single day”, she said. “They are the true heroes of Pakistan.”

Saving Face chronicles the work of British Pakistani plastic surgeon Mohammad Jawad, who performed reconstructive surgery on survivors of acid attacks in Pakistan.
“To win... and with such a subject — it’s such an honour,” he said.

More than 100 people, mainly women and girls, are disfigured in acid attacks every year in Pakistan, although groups helping survivors say many more cases go unreported.

In her acceptance speech, Chinoy thanked one of the women featured in the film, 25-year-old Rukhsana, whose husband threw acid on her, and her sister-in-law doused her in gasoline before her mother-in-law lit a match and set her on fire. Her story was left unfinished in the film.

“I spoke with Rukhsana before I left,” Chinoy said. “She is trying to make enough money to build her own home for herself and her children without her husband. She’s awaiting her final surgery.”

Where’s Woody?

Like Streep, Woody Allen ended a long Oscar drought. The 76-year-old writer-director took home his first Academy Award in more than 20 years for his original script for Midnight in Paris, but not even his fourth win could lure the filmmaker to the show. “I tried for a little bit to get him to come, but he thinks it’s all...” said Tom Bernard, whose Sony Pictures Classics distributed Allen’s time-travelling comedy. “He thinks the best movie of the year is A Separation.” Despite his wins, he has never attended the show. Allen, who is not a member of the Academy, reportedly only responded to them when they said they would stop asking him to join if he made a donation. The money was apparently swiftly transferred.

Still Undefeated

This was definitely one of the night’s lamer moments. Sure, everyone gets nervous, but when documentary filmmaker T.J. Martin dropped the F-word while accepting his award, it smacked of attention-grabbing rather than a slip. He said it would be “f***ing awesome” if all of the other nominees in the category could also come on stage. He apologised immediately. “It was out of spontaneity. It was completely accidental,” he said backstage.

Helping herself to gold

Many of the winners seemed too moved to even speak, let alone run over their allotted 45 seconds. Octavia Spencer needed all her time — but mainly to sob and shake, as she took the prize for best supporting actress for her role as a black maid in segregated Mississippi. “Thank you, world!” she cried.

Proof of life

James Earl Jones, posing for photos backstage with his Governor’s Award for lifetime achievement, paused to ask a worker, “Whose name is on this?” “Yours,” he was told. “My name is on it,” a beaming Jones told Oprah Winfrey when she showed up to collect her own Governor’s Award.

Adults at play

Rango, with Johnny Depp providing the voice of a desert lizard that becomes a hero to a parched Western town, won for best animated feature. “Someone asked me if this film was for kids, and I don’t know. But it was certainly created by a bunch of grown-ups acting like children,” said director Gore Verbinski, who made the first three of Depp’s Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

Never too old

At 82, Christopher Plummer became the oldest performer ever to win an acting Oscar, taking the supporting actor honour for playing an elderly man who comes out as gay following his wife’s death in Beginners. “You’re only two years older than me, darling,” the actor said, holding up his statuette. “Where have you been all my life?”

Bret’s a fan

I was genuinely starstruck when I met Kermit the Frog. Like many stars here tonight, he’s a lot shorter in real life,” said Bret McKenzie, who won best original song for Man or Muppet, from The Muppets.

Mama’s boy

Alexander Payne said he brought along his mother to the Oscars, and that she had demanded a shout-out if he made it onstage. “She made me promise that if I ever won another Oscar I had to dedicate it to her just like Javier Bardem did with his Oscar. So mum, this one’s for you. Thank you for letting me skip nursery school so we could go to the movies.”