Archive notice: This article was originally published on February 23, 2015. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Alongside the usual celebrity stuff, the Oscars for best VFX, best editing and best animated film went to the following workflow heroes tonight:
Best Animated Feature Film
Big Hero 6 prevailed over Dragons 2 and – our secret favourite Song of the Sea. Don Hall, Chris Williams and Roy Conli shared the stature – although Chris Williams had already been nominated with "Bolt". You can read more about the film in the current DP; you can see the three winners above.
Best Cinematography
Birdman. The sequence shot rocked, Rodeo FX anyway, and Emmanuel Lubezki was able to take home his second golden bald head – he had previously bagged the trophy for Gravity and had already been nominated for Tree of Life, Children of Men, The New World, Sleepy Hollow and A Little Princess. Here is Keaton on the red carpet – we have all seen the trailer too often already.
Best Editing
Whiplash brought Tom Cross his first award – if you haven’t seen the film: Dead Poets Society in reverse (evil drives instead of cuddly inspiration), at a music school. Also drums and romance.
Best VFX
As expected, Interstellar prevailed over Captain America 2, Planet of the Apes, Guardians and X-Men. Malicious tongues claim that the other works were all not serious with enough striking message – fans claim that Interstellar was simply better with its eco-message. Decide for yourselves. Be that as it may: congratulations to Paul Franklin (previously won for Inception and nominated for Dark Knight), Andrew Lockley (also Inception), and Ian Hunter and Scott Fisher.
Best Animated Short Film
Patrick Osborne and Kristina Reed delivered a solid film with a nice story – one that warms the heart. Even if we have to say that we were only moderately enthusiastic about the look. Just a usual Disney mini-production.
For the sake of completeness, here are the remaining, VFX-poor categories:
- Best Picture: Birdman (issue DP 2015_02)
- Best Screenplay: Birdman. What else.
- Best Foreign-Language Feature Film: Pawel Pawlikowski, "Ida"
- Best Director: Alejandro G Inarrito, Birdman
- Best Documentary: Laura Poitras, Mathilde Bonnefoy & Dirk Wilutzky, CitizenFour
- Best Documentary Short: Ellen Goosenberg Kent & Dana Perry, Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press1
- Best Makeup and "nice hair": Frances Hannon & Mark Coulier, Grand Budapest Hotel
- Best Costume Design: Milena Canonero, The Grand Budapest Hotel
- Best Music: Alexandre Desplat, Grand Budapest Hotel
- Best Adapted Screenplay: US Military Propaganda Film 3, er, American Sniper.
- Best Actor: Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything
- Best Actress: Julianne Moore, Still Alice
- Supporting Actor: J.K. Simmons, Whiplash
- Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
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