Maddie Shannon
There is one day out of the entire year I look forward to most. It’s not Christmas, not my birthday, not Arbor Day (you see, I’m vegan). My favorite day of the entire year is Oscar Day.
And what a day it was! For the first time in more than 80 years, the Academy Award for Best Picture went to a silent, black-and-white film (something that hasn’t happened since the very first Academy Awards in 1929). While I was rooting for The Artist all the way, I did notice that there were a couple of movies that were overlooked in certain categories. This year, and in years past, the Academy overlooked someone who was, at the very least, nominee material.
One classic example is Gene Kelly, who, despite his enormously successful career in movies and music, only received one Academy Award, an honorary one rewarding his mix of theatrical skills as actor, singer, dancer and choreographer for one of his most famous films, “An American in Paris.” His other films, such as “Singin’ in the Rain” and “Anchors Aweigh,” never brought him another Oscar.
Fast forward nearly 50 years later and “Waste Land,” which was nominated for Best Feature Documentary last year, chronicled a Brazilian artist’s journey to create the portraits of trash pickers with the trash they picked in urban Rio de Janiero. Ultimately, “Waste Land” lost to Charles Ferguson’s and Audrey Marrs’ documentary, “Inside Job.”
Speaking of art, “Hugo” took home the Oscar this year for best Art Direction, a category that “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows: Part 2” was nominated for. While the production and set design in “Hugo” was among the best I’ve ever seen, “Harry Potter” should’ve been the one to take the Oscar home this year. It was a tough call for The Academy. For Best Art Direction, “Hugo” and “Harry Potter” were up against “The Artist” ”” no easy feat when you’re trying to decide which one was, artistically, the best.
For those who are avid Oscar watchers like me, the general consensus is that it was a good year for the Oscars. Previous years have been far worse. In 2006, Three Six Mafia’s “It’s Hard Out Here For A Pimp” won the Oscar for Best Original Song, arguably the lowest point the Oscars have ever seen in its 84-year history.
Fortunately, this year proved that culture has not died. With the resuscitation of the black-and-white silent film and Meryl Streep’s win for her role in “The Iron Lady,” the Academy and its members pulled off the single best Academy Awards I’ve seen since “Chicago” swept the house in 2003. The only thing I’m waiting for now is for the Academy to institute The Golden Collar Award (Go Uggie!).
Maddie Shannon is a former arts & entertainment editor for The Collegian who now writes a fortnightly column for The Collegian.