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2013 Academy Awards

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at WMU chapter.

 

I’m sure a lot of you were watching ABC last night to catch the 2013 Oscar Awards. I’m also sure that almost half of those who tuned in stopped watching it after the first hour or so. Although the award ceremony was great all the way through, it was a lot to get through. The show started at 8:30pm and ended at midnight. And just like any other year, the same movies were the nominees for almost every category. Even the host cracked a joke about its length by saying, “because we have been here so long, we will start the 2014 Oscars right after.”

Though the Oscars can seem somewhat dry or boring to some, the point of them is to celebrate the beautiful movies that have been made within the last year. I myself will admit that I have not seen all the movies that were nominated, but I will also admit that I now want to see all of the movies that were mentioned, especially Life of Pi which received 11 academy nominations.

The host of this year’s Oscars was Seth Macfarlane. He actually did a great job as a host. He was funny and sometimes inappropriate, which is how most hosts are. He also did a little singing himself, since this year the Oscars had a theme of music in film.

That being said, there were a couple of performances during the award ceremony. There was a performance and slideshow of movie clips in celebration of 50 years of James Bond in motion pictures. After that, three performances introduced and honored movie musicals, which were presented by John Travolta. First, Catherine Zeta Jones performed a piece from Chicago, and then Jennifer Hudson performed a piece from Dream Girls. After this, most the cast of Les Misérables performed a number together. All three performances were excellent, but my favorite performance was towards the end when Adele sang her song from Skyfall, which later won Best Original Song. As always, she gave me chills with her immaculate voice.

It wasn’t just the performers that were shining at the Oscars. Everyone looked amazing all dressed up and I have to admit I had a hard time picking out “bad” dresses. I would say for the most part, every one (and/or their stylist) did a great job with their red carpet outfits. It really was a wonderful Oscar Awards. Even Michelle Obama got to present an award from the White House!

I’ll admit, it was entertaining to watch Seth Macfarlane cross the line with his controversial jokes, to see Kristen Stewart limp in her dress because she should’ve been on her crutches, to watch Jennifer Lawrence trip over her dress to receive her award for Best Leading Actress, and to listen to people get cut off to the music from Jaws when their acceptance speeches got too long. But I think the best part of the Oscars was when Quentin Tarantino won Best Original Screenplay for his movie Django Unchained. Even though I thought this movie was brilliant for its twisted humor and dark thrill, this is not the only reason why I liked Tarantino’s moment the best. Yes, it has something to do with the fact that he said “peace out” as he walked away from his mic, but what I liked the most about this moment was the fact that he said that 2013 will be the writers’ year.

I think it’s important to remember Tarantino saying this, because every year should be the writer’s year! Unfortunately, writers do not receive as much praise as they should so this normally doesn’t happen. So I am curious to see if Tarantino is right, mostly because I would love for his statement to be true.

Anyway, if you are anything like most of the people who flipped the channel halfway through the Oscars, then here are the winners from the major categories (or at least the ones that people care about the most) that you missed, along with other popular celebrities rocking their red carpet outfits.

BEST LEADING ACTOR

Daniel Day Lewis -Lincoln

 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Christoph Waltz-Django Unchained

 

BEST LEADING ACTRESS

Jennifer Lawrence- Silver Linings Playbook

 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Anne Hathaway-Les Misérables

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

” SkyFall” from Skyfall Music and Lyrics by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth 

 

BEST PICTURE

Argo-Producers: Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck and George Clooney

BEST DIRECTOR

Ang Lee- Life of Pi

BEST CINAMATOGRAPHY

Claudio Miranda- Life of PI

 

 

 

 

Now you want to see how some people were dressed right?

 

Seth MacFarlane

Bradley Cooper

Jamie Foxx

Channing Tatum

Halle Berry

Kristen Stewart

Kerry Washington

 

Naomi Watts

Kelly Rowland

Sandra Bullock

Zoe Saldana

Katie King is a senior at Western Michigan University majoring in journalism and minoring in anthropology and gender and women's studies. This will be her second year writing for HerCampus and before that she wrote for the Western Herald. She also wrote for L7 women's magazine in the summer of 2012. In her spare time Katie likes to hang out with friends, watch reruns of old shows and talk about why Chicago is better than Michigan. When she graduates she hopes to move to New York with her tabby cat, Ellie and write for a fashion magazine. However, she changes her mind quite often so who knows where she will end up!