The 87th Academy Awards, more commonly known as the Oscars, took place Feb. 22. Hosted this year by actor Neil Patrick Harris, the annual ceremony honors the past year’s movies and the people who had a hand in them, from the actors to the costume designers.
This year, eight films were up for the Best Picture Award, each film very different from the others. The nominees included Wes Anderson’s comedy, “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” that tells the story of a concierge (Ralph Fiennes) who is framed for murder, as well as director James Marsh’s biopic of Stephen Hawking, “The Theory of Everything.” But perhaps the two most anticipated movies to win big at the award ceremony were “Boyhood” and “Birdman.“
Directed by Richard Linklater, “Boyhood” follows a young boy over the course of 12 years as he grows up with divorced parents. What makes this film unique, however, is the fact that the movie was actually shot over a 12-year period, from 2002 to 2013. Actor Ellar Coltrane played the main character of the movie throughout those years, but was not nominated for any Academy Awards.
However, actress Patricia Arquette was up for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Coltrane’s mother in the movie. Arquette was seen as a favorite to win since she practically swept the previous award ceremonies, from the Golden Globes to the Screen Actors Guild Awards. And it seemed as though she proved everyone right, nagging the Oscar and beating out actresses such as Meryl Streep (“Into the Woods”) and Keira Knightley (“The Imitation Game”).
Ultimately, it was “Birdman” that took home the Oscar for Best Picture. Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, the film is about a washed-out actor (Michael Keaton) who tries to revive his career and fix his family and himself. Iñárritu also won for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay while Emmanel Lubezki won for best cinematography, giving “Birdman” a total of four Oscars.
The film failed to take home any awards for its actors, however. “Birdman” lead Michael Keaton lost for Best Actor, while actress Emma Stone, who plays Keaton’s daughter in the movie, lost to Arquette for Best Supporting Actress.
Instead, actor Eddie Redmayne won Best Actor for his portrayal as Stephen Hawking in “The Theory of Everything.” Actress Julianne Moore won Best Actress for her portrayal of a linguistics professor who is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimers in the movie “Still Alice.” Both Redmayne and Moore were favorites to win, as they won practically all the honors for their roles during this award season.
Neither Clint Eastwood’s “American Sniper” nor Morten Tyldum’s “The Imitation Game” won any major awards that night, but the two films won Best Sound Editing and Best Adapted Screenplay, respectively.
The film “Selma,“ which depicts the 1965 voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, was among the eight films nominated for Best Picture and left with the award for Best Original Song. Written by John Stephens and Lonnie Lynn, the song “Glory” was performed by musicians Common and John Legend at the awards ceremony.
Other notable wins that night included the movie “Big Hero 6″ for Best Animated Feature. The Disney movie beat out films like Dreamworks’ “How to Train Your Dragon 2” for the award. This is the only honor the film has won this season, losing to “How To Train Your Dragon 2″ at the Golden Globes and “The Lego Movie” at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards.