2015 Oscar Winners Overview

A night usually filled with surprise, witty entertainment and tearful speeches lacked all but the latter. Neil Patrick Harris took to the stage as host and started off in fine form, a song and dance with charisma to kill. But as the night went on, he seemed to lose his way and confidence. The atmosphere in the theatre changed and felt extremely lackluster; this was saved by some impressive performances from John Legend and Lady Gaga, but still never fully recovered. As for the awards, there were no huge surprises, and although we were 5 off with our predictions, the names that did take the prizes were still very much amongst the favourites.

There was always only going to be one winner for the first award of the night, as J.K. Simmons deservedly picked up Best Supporting Actor for his turn in Whiplash. We were then delighted to see Patricia Arquette beat Emma stone to Best Supporting Actress, but very disappointed with Boyhood’s failures from then onwards. Moore’s award for Best Actress was a formality, and Eddie Redmayne seemed more surprised than the public to see his name called out for Best Actor. But ultimately it would prove to be a night for Alejandro González Iñárritu and Birdman, as he collected the Best Original Screenplay and Directing awards, and the icing on the cake was beating Boyhood to Best Picture, much to our disapproval.

So an underwhelming ceremony saw Grand Budapest Hotel and Birdman tied at the top of the leaderboard with 4 Oscars apiece. While Whiplash sat narrowly behind with 3. All in all, it was probably not worth rolling out the red carpet for.