Birdman, director Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s story of an actor betting it all on a career comeback, finished off its sweep of the awards season by taking the Best Picture honors at the Academy Awards. Iñárritu also took home the Oscar for Best Director. The film also won prizes for Best Original Screenplay and Cinematography.
From the moment that the nominations for this year’s Academy Awards were announced, Birdman had been neck and neck in a race with Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel for Oscar gold as the two films each had nine nominations. And Grand Budapest Hotel tied Birdman for the number of wins as well, winning Oscar statues in the Best Costume, Makeup, Production Design and Original Score categories.
Surprisingly, Birdman lost out in the three acting categories it was nominated in – Best Actor for its star Michael Keaton, Best Supporting Actor for Edward Norton and Best Supporting Actress for Emma Stone. Instead those prizes went to Eddie Redmayne for The Theory Of Everything, J. K. Simmons for Whiplash and Patricia Arquette for Boyhood.
Here is the complete list of winners –
Best Motion Picture
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Performance By An Actor In A Leading Role
Eddie Redmayne in “The Theory of Everything”
Performance By An Actor In A Supporting Role
J.K. Simmons in “Whiplash”
Performance By An Actress In A Leading Role
Julianne Moore in “Still Alice”
Performance By An Actress In A Supporting Role
Patricia Arquette in “Boyhood”
Best Animated Feature Film Of The Year
Big Hero 6
Achievement in Cinematography
“Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)” Emmanuel Lubezki
Achievement in Costume Design
“The Grand Budapest Hotel” Milena Canonero
Achievement in Directing
“Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)” Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Best Documentary Feature
“CitizenFour” Laura Poitras, Mathilde Bonnefoy and Dirk Wilutzky
Best Documentary Short Subject
“Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1” Ellen Goosenberg Kent and Dana Perry
Achievement in Film Editing
“Whiplash” Tom Cross
Best Foreign Language Film of the Year
“Ida” Poland
Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling
“The Grand Budapest Hotel” Frances Hannon and Mark Coulier
Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score)
“The Grand Budapest Hotel” Alexandre Desplat
Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Song)
“Glory” from “Selma”
Achievement in Production Design
“The Grand Budapest Hotel” Production Design: Adam Stockhausen; Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock
Best Animated Short Film
“Feast”
Best Live Action Short Film
“The Phone Call”
Achievement in Sound Editing
“American Sniper” Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman
Achievement in Sound Mixing
“Whiplash” Craig Mann, Ben Wilkins and Thomas Curley
Achievement in Visual Effects
“Interstellar”
Adapted Screenplay
“The Imitation Game” Written by Graham Moore
Original Screenplay
“Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)” Written by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr. & Armando Bo
