Despite what whoever was pressing the "Jaws" theme button last night believes, the highlights of the annual Academy Awards tend not to be the montages and dance numbers, but the speeches. It's the moment where an actor or artist is rewarded by their peers, and thanks the Academy with wit, graciousness, charm, enormous egotism, or perhaps a bit of all the above.
We're going to be covering last night's Academy Awards all day here at The Playlist, but to get you started, in case you missed the ceremony, below you'll find the major speeches of the night, from Ben Affleck and Grant Heslov accepting Best Picture, to Michael Haneke taking Best Foreign Film. The quality isn't great right now, but we'll update as soon as official/better versions become available. Which was your favorite?
Ben Affleck
Ang Lee
Daniel Day-Lewis
Jennifer Lawrence
Christoph Waltz
Anne Hathaway
Chris Terrio
Quentin Tarantino
Michael Haneke
Adele
Loved Daniel Day Lewis (and his speech) but Joaquin Phoenix deserved it! It was a great portrayal of Lincoln but Phoenix created a character so distinct and original and mad.
Same with Christoph Waltz but Hoffman sooooo should have gotten that. He was so charismatic and subtly embodied a revered leader soooo well. Although Waltz was good, his performance was showier and a little more wink-wink-nudge-nudge. I little too similar to Landa imo. But the real truth tellers rarely win at these things. Oh well.
I thought the following was quite interesting:
http://vfxsoldier.wordpress.com/2013/02/24/an-open-letter-to-ang-lee/
Ben Affleck speech is the best one from this year awards season.