The 85th Annual Academy Awards didn’t have a lot of surprises — it was widely expected that “Argo, ” Jennifer Lawrence and Daniel Day-Lewis would win and they did — but let’s take another look what Oscar voters declared 2012’s best in film.
It starts with “Argo, ” the Best Picture winner, which overcame the nomination morning snub of Ben Affleck in the Best Director category to dominate pretty much all of Hollywood’s award season. In doing so, “Argo” became only the fourth movie in history to win a Best Picture Oscar without at least receiving a Best Director nomination. “Argo” also claimed wins in the Best Film Editing and Best Adapted Screenplay categories.
But “Argo” was not the night’s most honored film. That was Ang Lee’s visually dazzling literary adaptation “Life of Pi” which took home four Oscars: Best Director for Lee, Best Visual Effects, Best Cinematography and Best Original Score. Lee’s directing prize is the Taiwanese-born filmmaker’s second Oscar in the category. He previously won in 2006 for “Brokeback Mountain” (which also went on to lose the Best Picture Oscar — to “Crash”). Lee was first nominated as Best Director for 2000’s “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, ” which brought him a Best Foreign Language Film prize.
This year’s winner of Best Foreign Language Film was Austria’s “Amour, ” directed by Michael Haneke. The win was widely expected since “Amour” earned additional nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Actress (Emmanuelle Riva).
Although some thought Riva might score an upset victory (the oldest ever nominee for Best Actress, Riva actually celebrated her 86th birthday on the same day as the Oscar ceremony), Best Actress ultimately went to frontrunner Jennifer Lawrence of “Silver Linings Playbook.” The rising star of “The Hunger Games” had previously been nominated in 2011 for “Winter’s Bone, ” which was her breakout film as an actress.
The evening’s other female acting winner — Anne Hathaway for “Les Miserables” — also collected her first Oscar on her second acting nomination. Hathaway had previously been nominated for Best Actress in 2009 for “Rachel Getting Married.”
