The Oscars

The 81st Annual Academy Awards
The 81st Annual Academy Awards opens with host Hugh Jackman showing a wacky side of him by singing a song of the top best films nominees to win an Oscar. The comical performance surprises his audience and leaves them laughing as a good start for the best night of many actors and actresses. Comparing to previous Oscars, the 81st awards was only three hours and thirty minutes. It was still too long, but all of the awards were worth mentioning. One very meaningful award is Best Supporting Actor awarded to Heath Ledger for his performance in “The Dark Night” as the joker. On behalf of Ledger, his family accepted the award giving a nice speech of gratitude.

“Slumdog Millionaire” steals the attention when wining the Adapted-Screenplay Award for Simon Beaufoy, Best Cinematography for Anthony Dod Mantle, film-editing and sound-mixing, plus Best Motion Picture by Christian Colson. The entire cast and crew happily joins Colson on the stage to accept the award. The film also wins an award for Best Score and Best Song “Jai Ho” by A.R. Rahman, which he was able to perform together with John Legend singing best song nominee from the film Wall-E.

Accepting the award for Best Original Screenplay is Dustin Lance Black for the film “Milk” giving a great speech of how the case of Harvey Milk inspired him to write the movie. Winning the award for Best Actor is Sean Penn for his role as Harvey Milk, also giving a momentous speech by thanking America for voting for President Obama and for giving the gay community their corresponding rights.

In between the ceremony, there is great entertainment by host Jackman and Beyonce Knowles with another performance of mix songs of musical films, such as “Mamma Mia” and “Hairspray,” which kept the crowd awake.

Celebrities presenting the awards were actually funny. The usual Jack Black, Ben Stiller, and Seth Rogen are enjoyable. A very humorous short clip that is very interesting was Seth Rogen and James Franco as their characters in “Pineapple Express” acting hilariously foolish while watching a clip of the films of 2008. It is a good gesture for them to present these clips during the Oscars, because most Oscars tend to get painful to watch, especially since it's so long.

The setting of the Oscars was magnificently put together, showing shiny crystals and floor lighting with different colors. The architecture of the theater includes not just the stage but the audience as well, which was clearly seen with a quick scan after commercial breaks.

Two of the most uplifting moments are when Penelope Cruz wins Best Supporting Actress for “Vicky Cristina Barcelona" and Kate Winslet wins Best Actress in the leading role of “The Reader,” followed by very impressive speeches. Cruz felt very honored and, speaking in her native language, dedicates the award to all her people in Spain. Winslet, surprised to be under the same category as Meryl Streep says, "You're going to have to suck this one up Meryl," in a "finally" tone which is understood considering it is her first time winning an Oscar award. Both Cruz's and Winslet's excitement are emotional and touching.

Even though host Jackman hardly appeared and must have been “taking a nap,” according to Will Smith, the ceremony still went smoothly and most importantly, was not as boring as previous ones.