"The King's Speech" Sweeps Big Awards

Written by FrumForum News on Monday February 28, 2011

img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-72014" title="kings speech" src="/files/wxrimport/2011-02/kings-speech.jpg" alt="" width="205" height="105" /><The New York Times reports:

LOS ANGELES — “The King’s Speech, ” the period drama about King George VI of Britain and his vocal coach, won best picture and three other trophies at the 83rd Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday night. But in many ways the Oscars played out like the more populist and less prestigious Golden Globes: veering in multiple directions as voters sprinkled their attention among a half-dozen pictures, with no film walking away with a commanding sweep.

“The King’s Speech” did not make its presence felt until late in the night, with an unexpected victory for Tom Hooper as best director. David Seidler won for his original screenplay for this film, while Colin Firth took the best-actor prize.

“I have a feeling my career’s just peaked,” said Mr. Firth, who went on to joke that he was “experiencing stirrings” somewhere in the upper abdominal region, “which are threatening to transform themselves into dance moves.”

Inception,” the blockbuster about dream invaders, also won four trophies, mostly in technical categories like sound mixing, while “The Social Network,” a contemporary story about the founding of Facebook, took three awards, including adapted screenplay for Aaron Sorkin.

A pregnant Natalie Portman won best actress for her role as a demented ballerina in “Black Swan,” that film’s lone prize. “The Fighter” and “Alice in Wonderland” each won two awards; even Universal Pictures, virtually AWOL through the Oscar season, won one: its “Wolfman” took the make-up prize, for the work of Rick Baker and Dave Elsey.

A victory for “The King’s Speech” put the Oscar in the hands of a team of producers — Iain Canning, Emile Sherman and Gareth Unwin — from Britain and Australia. But the triumph belonged to Harvey Weinstein, a master campaigner whose Weinstein Company distributed the film in the United States. Mr. Weinstein, who left Miramax Films in 2005 with his brother Bob to form the Weinstein Company, last had a best picture with the musical “Chicago,” released by Miramax in 2002.

Mr. Firth made a deep verbal bow in the direction of Mr. Weinstein. “Of course, Harvey, who first took me on 20 years ago when I was a mere child sensation,” he said in extending his thanks.

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