Eddie Redmayne was thrust into Hollywood stardom when he won the leading actor Oscar at the 87th Academy Awards held at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, USA.
The star, lauded for his performance as Professor Stephen Hawking in The Theory Of Everything, saw off competition from big names including Bradley Cooper and his friend - and fellow Brit - Benedict Cumberbatch.
Accepting his award from Cate Blanchett, a shocked Redmayne said: "I don't think I'm capable of articulating quite how I feel right now. I'm fully aware that I'm a lucky, lucky man".
He dedicated the award to "all of those people around the world battling" motor neurone disease - the illness that left Professor Hawking in a wheelchair.
Clutching his Oscar, Redmayne said: "I will be its custodian and I promise you I will look after him, I will polish him, I will answer his beck and call and wait on him hand and foot " and thanked the Hawking family and his wife, Hannah.
Redmayne, who has also won a Golden Globe, Bafta and Screen Actors Guild for the performance, also thanked his "staggering partner in crime Felicity Jones" who lost out on the leading actress Oscar to Julianne Moore.
Moore - like Redmayne - was widely tipped to win before the ceremony began.
Accepting her award for her performance as a woman with Alzheimer's in Still Alice, she said: "Thank you so much. I read an article that said that winning an Oscar could lead to living five years longer. If that's true I'd really like to thank the Academy because my husband is younger than me."
The actress added: "I'm so happy. I'm thrilled actually that we were able to hopefully shine a light on Alzheimer's disease. So many people with this disease feel isolated and marginalised."
The big hit of the night was Birdman which won best picture, original screenplay and best director for Alejandro G Inarritu.
On a night peppered with political point scoring, Inarritu joked the academy should bring in "immigration rules" after his win followed Alfonso Cuaron's success last year with Gravity.
He said: "Two Mexicans in a row, that's suspicious I guess".
Inarritu also raised the plight of Mexicans inside and outside the US, saying: "I pray for my fellow Mexicans, to have the government they deserve"
The tone was set early by Patricia Arquette who brought the house down with a speech demanding "equal rights for women".
The actress, named best supporting actress for her role in Boyhood, accepted her award from last year's best supporting actor Jared Leto.
In a highly political speech, she said: "To every woman who gave birth, to every taxpayer and citizen of this nation, we have fought for everybody else's equal rights. It's our time to have wage equality once and for all and equal rights for women in the United States of America."
The event at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles was hosted by How I Met Your Mother star Neil Patrick Harris.
The actor started with a satirical welcome for "Hollywood's best and whitest - sorry brightest" before launching into a song that paid paid tribute to legends include Charlie Chaplin and Marilyn Monroe.
But his confident opening faded and his script never quite seemed to totally win over his audience - and there was no attention-grabbing moment to rival last year's selfie with then-host Ellen DeGeneres.
Whiplash star JK Simmons was the night's first winner, picking up his award for best supporting actor from Lupita Nyong'o.
The Oscar for best original song went to Glory from the Martin Luther King biopic Selma.
Collecting the award, John Legend said the song was written for a film based on events 50 years ago, but he added: "We say that Selma is now because the struggle for justice is right now."
He added: "We know that right now the struggle for freedom and justice is real. We live in the most incarcerated country in the world.
"There are more black men under correctional control today than there were under slavery in 1850."
One of the night's most powerful speeches was made by Graham Moore who won the Oscar for best adapted screenplay for The Imitation Game which stars Cumberbatch as Alan Turing.
Moore told the audience he tried to commit suicide aged 16 because he "felt weird" and "different" and told the TV audience: "Stay weird, stay different and when it's your turn and you're standing on this stage, please pass on this message".
The award for best documentary feature went to Citizenfour, about whistleblower Edward Snowdon, and director Laura Poitras dedicated the win to Snowdon and other whistleblowers, and journalists "exposing truth".
In a nod to the controversy over the release of The Interview, Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs told the assembled audience they had "a responsibility to protect freedom of expression".
The film, about a plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, had its US release cancelled late last year following a hacking plot of the Sony Pictures studio in which terror threats were made against cinemas planning to screen it.
It was at the centre of an international controversy after the FBI insisted the online attack was carried out by North Korea and, after much political and celebrity pressure, the film was eventually shown online and in a limited number of cinemas.
The Grand Budapest Hotel failed to win any of the big prizes, but carried off Oscars for costume design, make-up and hair-styling and production design.
The Oscar for best foreign language film was presented to the Polish film Ida, while Londoner Mat Kirkby won the Oscar for best live action short film for The Phonecall, telling the audience: "Crikey O'Reilly. Crikey, these are big buggers."
The film, starring Sally Hawkins, is set in a crisis hotline centre, as is the film that won the documentary short category - Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1.
The Oscar for sound mixing went to Whiplash, and American Sniper won the Oscar for achievement in sound editing and Interstellar picked up the Oscar for visual effects.
Big Hero 6 picked up the Oscar for best animated feature, and Birdman's Emmanuel Lubezki won the Oscar for cinematography.
The Oscar for film editing went to Tom Cross for Whiplash, and he thanked the film's stars Miles Teller and JK Simmons for "delivering gold to the cutting room every day".
Scarlett Johansson introduced Lady Gaga who took to the stage for a tribute to The Sound Of Music, before Julie Andrews arrived on stage to present the Oscar for best original score to Alexandre Desplat for his work on The Grand Budapest Hotel.
Dusplat was also nominated for his work on The Imitation Game.
The full list of winners:
The full list of winners at the Oscars:
Best picture: Birdman
Actress in a leading role: Julianne Moore
Actor in a leading role: Eddie Redmayne
Supporting actress: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Supporting actor: JK Simmons, Whiplash
Directing: Alejandro G Inarritu for Birdman
Original screenplay: Birdman
Adapted screenplay: The Imitation Game
Costume design: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Makeup and hairstyling: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Foreign language film: Ida
Documentary (short subject): Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1
Live action short film: The Phone Call
Visual effects: Interstellar
Animated short film: Feast
Animated feature film: Big Hero 6
Production design: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki for Birdman
Film editing: Tom Cross for Whiplash
Documentary feature: Citizenfour
Original song: Glory from Selma
Original score: Alexandre Desplat for The Grand Budapest Hotel
No comments:
Post a Comment