Aug 16, 2011
The 79th Academy Awards ceremony was the most cosmopolitan in history, with a broad representation of theater artists from around the world and a strong Hispanic presence, although the top prizes have gone to American films.
The Departed , a bloody police and mafia thriller directed by Martin Scorsese, won four statuettes on Sunday, two of the most prestigious categories: Best Picture and Best Director, in an Oscar night has come to gather up to nine nationalities only in the category of actors.
The voters of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences chose to grant the statuettes “their”, as creators of cinema from all corners of cheering, smiling, “the joy of participating in this festival,” according the Mexican actress Adriana Barraza ( Babel ), who lost the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress Jennifer Hudson ( Dreamgirls – In Search of a Dream ).
The Departed hit film multicultural Babel directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, shot in three continents and spoken in four languages.
“It’s not a big surprise that Americans win when Americans vote,” said Lew Harris, director of site specializing in the entertainment industry movies.com.
“On the other hand, is very encouraging that there have been indications of such diversity,” he added.
While Babel took only one of seven Oscars to which he aspired, the work of fantasy by Mexican Guillermo del Toro, Pan’s Labyrinth left the party with three statuettes, conquered Hollywood rejected this film because its support was not set in Nazi Germany, nor was shot in English, but in postwar Spain and Spanish, said its director.
“In the end, Babel was the little movie that could not go higher, “said Harris.
The four actors were also prizes for Anglophones to: three of them American – Forest Whitaker, Alan Arkin and Jennifer Hudson – and British – Helen Mirren.
“These are the most international Oscars in history, is very important,” said Ellen DeGeneres host the ceremony at the opening of the festival with a special salute to the Mexican and Spanish delegations, which together with the Argentinean Gustavo Santaolalla totaled 18 people .
Only four categories of actors in nine nationalities stood out among the 20 listed: Mexican, Canadian, Spanish, Japanese, Australian, Irish, Benin, British and American.
For technical Oscar, was shown in Argentina, the musician Gustavo Santaolalla, winner for the soundtrack of Babel , dedicated his second Oscar and fifth of his country, and French, Danish and Chinese distinct categories in the Best Foreign Film .
Despite the three statues of Del Toro for Pan’s Labyrinth , the party was not complete because the movie, favorite in the category of Best Foreign Film, it lost the award to the German The Lives of Others .
But beyond the awarding of prizes for either film, Harris stressed that the border between the foreign language films and “Hollywood” is not as palpable as in the past.
” Babel is not an American film, yet it has Brad Pitt as an actor. Even more interesting is (having) a Clint Eastwood filmed in Japan, which tells the battle of Iwo Jima from the Japanese point of view and was nominated for Best film, it is somewhat surprising, “said Harris.