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Awards season concluded last night with Birdman clinching the top honours at the 87th Annual Academy Awards ceremony.
The showbusiness satire, which stars Michael Keaton as a former superhero actor trying to rebuild his career on Broadway, won the coveted Best Picture award as well as landing Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Cinematography.
Early favourite Boyhood could only score one victory for Patricia Arquette who comfortably won Best Supporting Actress for her role in the epic family drama.
There were no shocks in the other major acting categories as British star Eddie Redmayne deservedly won Best Actor for his brilliant portrayal of renowned physicist Stephen Hawking in the British biopic The Theory of Everything.
Julianne Moore finally landed an Oscar at the fifth attempt for her role as an Alzheimer’s sufferer in the family drama Still Alice while J.K Simmons cruised to the Best Supporting Actor award for his performance as bullying music teacher Terence Fletcher in the musical drama Whiplash.
The other big success of the night was Wes Anderson’s crime caper The Grand Budapest Hotel which clinched four gongs for Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup & Hairstyling and Best Original Score for composer Alexandre Desplat. Whiplash itself enjoyed a good evening with victories in Best Editing and Best Sound Mixing.
For only the fourth time since 2000, all the Best Picture nominees won an award with American Sniper (Best Sound Editing), The Imitation Game (Best Adapted Screenplay) and Selma (Best Original Song) each receiving an award on the night.
The rest of the winners included a Best Visual Effects accolade for Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi epic Interstellar while the Polish drama Ida won Best Foreign Language Film.
There was a shock in Best Animated Feature as Disney’s Big Hero 6 clinched the award ahead of initial favourite How to Train Your Dragon 2.
The ceremony was hosted by comedian / singer Neil Patrick Harris who impressed many with his opening number “Moving Pictures” as well as spoofing Birdman and Whiplash in a comical sketch.
There was also a witty reunion between John Travolta and “Let It Go” singer Idina Menzel which came a year after the actor had mispronounced her name during the 2014 show while Lady Gaga performed her own rendition of songs from the musical classic The Sound of Music.
The full list of Oscar winners are below:
BEST PICTURE
Birdman
BEST DIRECTOR
Alejandro Gonzalez. Iñárritu – Birdman
BEST ACTOR
Eddie Redmayne – The Theory of Everything
BEST ACTRESS
Julianne Moore – Still Alice
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
J.K Simmons – Whiplash
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Patricia Arquette – Boyhood
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Birdman – Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr & Armando Bo
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
The Imitation Game – Graham Moore
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
The Grand Budapest Hotel
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Birdman
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
The Grand Budapest Hotel
BEST MAKEUP
The Grand Budapest Hotel
BEST EDITING
Whiplash
BEST SOUND MIXING
Whiplash
BEST SOUND EDITING
American Sniper
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Interstellar
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Alexandre Desplat – The Grand Budapest Hotel
BEST ORIGINAL SONG
Selma – “Glory”
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Big Hero 6
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Ida
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Citizenfour
DOCUMENTARY SHORT
Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1
ANIMATED SHORT
Feast
LIVE ACTION SHORT
The Phone Call