Oscars 2015

The 87th Academy Awards

Each January, the entertainment community and film fans around the world turn their attention to the Academy Awards. Interest and anticipation builds to a fevered pitch leading up to the Oscar telecast in February, when hundreds of millions of movie lovers tune in to watch the glamorous ceremony and learn who will receive the highest honors in film making. The Oscars is also the oldest entertainment awards ceremony; its equivalents, the Emmy Awards for television, the Tony Awards for theater, and the Grammy Awards for music and recording, are modeled after the Academy Awards.

The 87th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2014 and took place on February 22, 2015, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. During the ceremony, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented Academy Awards in 24 categories. Actor Neil Patrick Harris hosted the ceremony for the first time.

Birdman or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance and The Grand Budapest Hotel won the most awards, tying with four each. Birdman ’​s awards included the Best Director, Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay for Alejandro González Iñárritu, while The Grand Budapest Hotel ’​s awards included Best Original Score for Alexandre Desplat. Whiplash, the only other film to win multiple awards, won three including the Best Supporting Actor for J. K. Simmons. The other winners were The Theory of Everything, Still Alice, Boyhood, The Imitation Game, Big Hero 6, Ida, Citizenfour, Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1, The Phone Call, Feast, Selma, American Sniper, and Interstellar.

Patricia Arquette for Boyhood (Best Supporting Actress), Eddie Redmayne for The Theory of Everything (Best Actor), Julianne Moore for Still Alice (Best Actress) and J.K. Simmons for Whiplash (Best Supporting Actor).

All of the films competing for Best Picture received at least one award in other categories, making it the first time this has occurred since the Academy expanded the category to more than five nominees in 2009. Alejandro González Iñárritu became the second consecutive Mexican winner for Best Director, with the statue having been awarded the previous year to Alfonso Cuarón for Gravity.

Iñárritu was the most awarded individual of the ceremony, winning each of his three nominations. Emmanuel Lubezki became the 4th consecutive recipient of Best Cinematography award after winning for Birdman as he also won for Gravity last year, and second Mexican winner of ceremony. Ida became the first Oscar winner for Poland in the Best Foreign Language Film category, with an overall ten nominations since 1963.

The Oscar statuette has stood on the mantels of the greatest filmmakers in history since 1929.

The Oscar Statuettes

There has been criticism of the predominantly white Oscar nominees & winners. For the third time since 1995, the 20 Academy Award acting nominations were only for white actors and actresses. Social media is already buzzed over all of the surprises – and snubs – of the 2015 Oscar nominations. In typical Twitter fashion, a special hash tag – #OscarsSoWhite – was trending .

However, the telecast garnered nearly 37.2 million viewers in the United States. The show received a mixed reception from media publications. For the most part, the show’s main accomplishment was avoiding embarrassing low points.

“Bottom line: It’s the work that counts with members of the Academy.”