The Academy this year isn’t in the mood for big-budget spectacles. It is all art and great character journeys. The Oscars this year gave out kudos to Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel in four categories while Whiplash fought it out in three.
The final list of all winners of the 87th Academy Awards. While Birdman and Grand Budapest Hotel bagged four Oscars each; Whiplash won three. > Read here
Here's our minute-by-minute coverage of Hollywood's biggest event. > Read here
There was a slight show of colour. Anna Kendrick was in a coral silk-and-chiffon gown with a jewelled halter collar by Thakoon, and Sienna Miller was the first on a major carpet to wear Peter Copping for Oscar de la Renta, a brooding dark blue with thin straps. >Read about who-wore-what at the Oscar Red Carpet
The Hindu: Welcome to the live chat with The Hindu's cinema critic Sudhish Kamath on Oscars 2015
5:00
The Hindu: “Birdman” captured Hollywood’s top honour at the Academy Awards on Monday, where the jazzy, surreal comedy about an actor fleeing his superhero past won best picture .
5:01
Sudhish Kamath: I'm here. How are the boys feeling? I bet Team Bird is happier.
5:02
Comment From Prakash
Sure We are ! Kudos to the Spot on predictions, sir.
Sudhish Kamath: Well, it was an easy guess. And there were no upsets. Even I am surprised. Here's my take on the results. Just blogged. :) https://www.thehindu.com/opi...
5:03
Comment From Poongkundran
Why does the Academy put person who plays disabled/medically challenged above all?
Sudhish Kamath: I think 1. It's always difficult to portray an illness. 2. A big actor portraying an illness creates awareness on the illness, especially if it is a true story that could inspire. Eddie Redmayne owes his Oscar to Stephen Hawking and the love people have for him.
Comment From Prakash
However, i would like to throw some light on the prediction of Best Actor Award, the takes on Eddie Redmayne performances were a little undermined in the prediction article, Not that i'm saying it now since he has won it. He gave More life to the role for a melodramatic run of the Mill film. It's noteworthy to mention that his performance as Hawking was much better than Benedict as Hawking in the BBC Documentary. The takes on Redmayne were pretty hollow, although having said that, predictions were spoton for Focusing on Emma stone losing out narrowly to PAtricia and Ethan hawke to JK Simmons.
Comment From senthil
Why no love for boyhood? Thought Linklater at least deserved the best director award for the body of work he has produced.
Sudhish Kamath: I think we are forgetting that Boyhood was an experimental part-time indie effort that emerged as the biggest challenger for Birdman, a phenomenal film that pushed boundaries of storytelling, performance, music etc. The fact that it did come so far is a triumph indeed. I would have liked Linklater to pick up something too but I think the number of nominations compensated for the big award given that it was a small simple intimate heartbreakingly beautiful portrait of the loss of innocence.
Comment From mourya
@the_hindu @SudhishKamath do u think eddie redmayne deserves for the best actor award i hoped benedict cumberbatch will win
Sudhish Kamath: Well, the Academy thinks he deserved it but I suspect this has to do with their love for Hawking and to give an inspiring true story its due. Awards not always for performance. They are mostly political too - and the statement made was that the Academy wants to salute a real life hero who overcame disability. Redmayne was good, not the best in my book. I love Cumberbatch but he played it just like he played Sherlock. And by that I don't mean to take away anything from how convincing the portrayal was. Some actors interpret all characters at an internal level and lend their own body language to the personalities they are portraying. Cumberbatch is one of them. Naseeruddin Shah is another. Shah Rukh Khan too. :)
Comment From PipingHotViews
Considering the wide-spread hatred for the Oscars generally as being rigged/studio-oriented, do you think any other Awards is transparent and worthy enough to follow?
Sudhish Kamath: Hahahaha! Nope, I don't think they are rigged. But I do believe lobbying and public mood plays a huge role in how voters are influenced. Also length. Boyhood was three hours long. The Academy voters are over 62. Chances are that Boyhood lost to bladder control than any sort of rigging.
Comment From Poongkundran
Why was Lego not even nominated when it deserved to win the Best Animated film? Academy seems to only recognize animated films that are made for kids and children. Probably because Lego made fun of certain famous Hollywood characters?
Sudhish Kamath: Lego at the end of the day is a brand. A product. It's the finest product placement or extension we have seen in modern day history. I love that movie and I think it's a true triumph in animation. But it is possible that they didn't want to be seen as total sellouts. And then realised the backlash and made amends by making Lego give out Lego Oscars. So Lego did get its due because even those who didn't win went home with a Lego Oscar.
Comment From Team Bird
When the nominations were announced, it looked like the American Sniper, which seemed like a propaganda film touted to win some awards. It got marred by some bad press towards Feb. Has it ever happened before ? I was disappointed when a propaganda movie like Hurt Locker fetched a ransom , i'm so glad it wasn't the case this time
Sudhish Kamath: Yes of course, it depends on when the controversies break loose. In the case of American Sniper, it has been mired in controversies for months, ever since its release. Also the fact that it made tons of money made it all the more evil. It's not a bad film at all. It's a film that does full justice to the subject matter. And we need to understand that filmmakers are not always responsible for the moral choices made by their characters. Depiction is NOT always endorsement. So this sort of outrage makes very little sense to me. But yes, structurally, I didn't find American Sniper all that exciting. It was like a videogame with increasing levels of difficulty with every tour.
5:24
Comment From birdman
Why didn't Gone Girl win?
Sudhish Kamath: Gone Girl was crowd-pleasing pulp fiction. No matter how exciting pulp is, it's still not considered high art. It wasn't even nominated in the first place, so how could it have won? :)
Comment From Vaishnavi
What about Selma? and the popular adage of #OscarsSoWhite ?
Sudhish Kamath: No, I would stand by the Oscars on that one. Selma is not the best made film. It had a great performance by David Oyelowo but the storytelling was very sloppy. Those FBI transcripts superimposed were downright silly, like a part of a terribly written conspiracy theory. To stop King, let's mess with his domestic life!! Wow! Hahaha! It did get the token nomination to avoid that sort of criticism though. I don't think that film even deserved that Best Picture nomination.
Comment From Abhishek Anand
Sudhish, it seemed you were not too happy with Steve Carell as Mr. DuPont. I found his portrayal of narcissism brilliant. But, I am more disappointed for Michael Keaton. He should have won best actor.
Sudhish Kamath: I love Steve Carell but that nose made it a gimmick for me. I couldn't see beyond that mask and throughout I thought he was going to take that mask off and burst out laughing as Michael Scott. I only meant I would have liked to SEE his performance minus that nose. Keaton should have won but the fact that he didn't just makes his meta character even more likeable and heartbreaking. He might have lost the Oscar but won many hearts. At least he's not hated as much as Eddie Redmayne is now.
Comment From I was really hoping for a screenplay/director/picture split b/w budapest, boyhood and birdman but mr innaritu took all three...bit sad for wes and linklater but its ok..
I was really hoping for a screenplay/director/picture split b/w budapest, boyhood and birdman but mr innaritu took all three...bit sad for wes and linklater but it's ok..
Sudhish Kamath: Yes, if we look at the final tally, both Birdman and Budapest did take home a haul. I feel bad for Boyhood and Linklater too but I really think the fact that it got this far is its biggest triumph. We are forgetting that this is not a new thing. TV sitcoms have done time-capsule storytelling. Angus T Jones, the kid from Two and a Half Men has spent 12 years too on the sets of that show and probably for a much longer period of time. We cannot get carried away by how much time it has taken to tell a story. :)
Comment From Prakash
What do you think about India's chances in the future, do you think India should stop trying too hard for vying for the Foreign film categories and hope for the best possible verdict in an unassuming way ? Where do the Indian Talents currently rank amidst the illustrious Foreign films
Sudhish Kamath: We do not make films for the Academy. We make it for our people. And that's how it should be. But someday I think we will make a film that will crossover and please them too but an Indian film is primarily targetted at the Indian market. So it is kind of unfair to expect the Academy to like the kind of films we like in our country. Look at our 100 crore films. That's who we are. You can't blame the filmmakers. It's easy to complain but how many of you watched Qissa when it released on Friday? It's also available online. So there is no excuse for not watching it. The truth is that we prefer the star based cinema even today. Yet, we prefer to blame filmmakers and say there's no Indian talent.
Comment From Poongkundran
When will the Academy start to recognize Science fiction and Fantasy films? The only fantasy film that went on to win the best picture was Lord of the rings: Return of the king, and no Science fiction film has won the best picture yet. Is it because Science fiction and Fantasy do not have acting scope as much as the drama? It all started with Space odyssey, then E.T, (Attenborough upon winning the best picture for Gandhi said ET deserved more) then Inception, and now Interstellar. Fantasy films and Science fiction are reserved just these three awards: Visual effects, Sound mixing, and Sound editing.
Sudhish Kamath: Well, it shouldn't be too surprising that technology-driven films end up winning tech awards. But yes, Star Wars, Matrix, Avatar, Inception, even Interstellar did get nominated and won rich in the tech categories and you are forgetting Gravity and Life of Pi that all won some big Oscars. It depends on how emotional the film is. Interstellar had that emotionality but I suspect that it only lost because this year the Academy was in a mood to celebrate the arthouse.
Comment From Prk
Do you personally feel Inarritu made the whole movie premise on the account of being frustrated on the Superhero movies making more waves in general than the performance oriented movies? Would he have expected a Snub in the end from the Academy anyway
Sudhish Kamath: Inarritu made some fantastic critically acclaimed films that did get widely celebrated but I think this time, he wanted to get out of his comfort zone and do something that was exactly the opposite of what's expected out of him. If all his films are non-linear, this one is completely linear to the extent of being seamless. If all his films are bleak and dark, this one is full of hope and optimism. If all his films are about tragedies, this one is an all out comedy. I think he just wanted to stop catering and pandering to an arthouse audience and wanted to make a brutally honest film that insulted everyone - audience, artists, critics, industry... It was an anti establishment film. Like a roast of Hollywood. Luckily, the Academy was able to laugh and applaud.
Comment From PipingHotViews
Apologies for putting you in a spot here, but do you think with the right lobbying, our Qissa, Lunchbox, Fandry, Njaan Steve Lopez, Paan Singh Tomar, Katiyabaaz, Ship of Theseus, Court, Killa etc can mix it with the foreign films that are being nominated for the past 2 years?
Sudhish Kamath: Each of those films you mentioned would require a vastly different strategy even if they stood a chance. But getting an Oscar nomination depends on a lot of factors, not just quality of the film. It has everything to do with context, relevance, politics and market, of course. To think that a good film alone can make it to the Oscar race maybe a little naive. It's a combination of factors really. You are only thinking about the right film. But it's always Right film at the right time at the right place in the right race. And you cannot control a lot of these factors.
Comment From Poongkundran
Do you think the Academy has become so predictable nowadays? Everyone knew either Boyhood or Birdman was going to win the best picture, same was the case with the Best director category,
Sudhish Kamath: Well, every year it's a race between two or three films which have the most nominations. So once the nominations are out, you kind of know it's going to one of these top two or three films. And the kind of nominations also suggest chances of who would win. So that way they are predictable but could people be 100 per cent sure? Nope. If they were, there wouldnt be so much outrage about the Boyhood snub.
Comment From Prakash
Agreeable that Indian talents don't get the support from audience, seeing the meta thought behind Birdman as an outburst of a Director, i was actually reminded of an Outburst article of Travails of being a Filmmaker from You, when you had made GNGM :) ! Do you think an outburst captured in a movie could reach out in India? Such a movie could also give us some food for thought into Quality Cinema. Sorry for excessive questions , but i feel that i had to ask this to round off the lovely chat to the Predictable Oscar2015 indeed
Sudhish Kamath: Well, films about films and filmmakers are too personal for general audience to care as passionately about. In India at least, we are happy with the kind of entertainment we get and are still getting used to the idea of paying for arthouse. Torrents are still the preferred mode of viewing for movie buffs. Those who care about the alternative or offbeat cinema do not want to spend and those who can spend, prefer to spend their money on escapist entertainment. So no point really cribbing about people. I've realised over the years that this is a conscious choice I have made to cater to a few instead of catering to many. It's something I have introspected a lot about after Birdman. And it is no exaggeration to say that film changed my life. I no longer care for the custodians or patrons of high art. I don't feel like I owe them anything. I don't need validation. I want to focus on telling stories in a way they reach out to many and not just a few. By which I don't mean that I want to do the same kind of stuff that the market is used to but see how I can tell the stories I want to tell in a way that the audience connects to it. I think Birdman has the answer for every filmmaker introspecting about his choices.
Comment From Nani
Did you see Still Alice? It is said that the Julian Moore won her Oscar because she lost 5 times before but i do feel her performance was very heart breaking.What do you have to say about Gaga's performance and the legendary Julie Andrews appearance after many years?
Sudhish Kamath: Julianne Moore was phenomenal in Still Alice. So scarily real. Mental illness has never been portrayed with so much grace and dignity and realism onscreen before and I am so glad she won. Gaga was a revelation!! I was watching that with friends who were singing along. One of the high points of the Oscars certainly. :)
6:05
Sudhish Kamath: Ok, it's six. Shall we wrap and call it a night?! :)
6:05
The Hindu: Thanks a bunch to all the folks who took the time to ask questions :)
6:06
Sudhish Kamath: We can continue the discussion on Twitter. I'm at @sudhishkamath and it was fun chatting.
6:06
The Hindu: Please do keep posting your queries to @the_hindu and @sudhishkamath
Sudhish Kamath: For those who missed the chat, here's my take on the Oscars: https://www.thehindu.com/opi...
