85th Academy Awards – winners

The Academy of Motion Pictures of Arts and Sciences held the Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2012 tonight at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center. The gala was hosted by Ted writer/director and Best Song nominee Seth MacFarlane.

Ben Affleck's Argo led the night winning Best Picture as well as Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Editing. Both Affleck and writer Chris Terrio acknowledged Canada and Iran in their speeches.

Life of Pi by Ang Lee won the most awards, however. Lee upset Steven Speilberg for Best Director as he did in 2005 when his work on Brokeback Mountain won over Spielberg's for Munich (coincidentally, both times Lee eventually lost Best Picture which was presented by Jack Nicholson). Canadian composer Mychael Danna won for Music – Original Score. The magical-realist film also won for Cinematography and Visual Effects.

The musical Les Misérables by Tom Hooper also captured three awards. Anne Hathaway won Best Supporting Actress, and the film also was recognized for Sound Mixing and Makeup / Hairstyling.

The two slavery-themed films each won a pair of awards. Daniel Day-Lewis won Best Actor for Lincoln to go with Production Design, won by Rick Carter and Canadian Jim Erickson. Both wins by Django Unchained were somewhat surprising – Quentin Tarantino for Original Screenplay and Christoph Waltz for Supporting Actor. Though I like Waltz, I thought that was a disappointing and wasted choice because he already won that same award for essentially the same (non-supporting) role in Tarantino's last film Inglourious Basterds, .

Skyfall was also a double-winner, taking Best Song and in a rare tie, sharing Sound Editing with Zero Dark Thirty. That was the latter film's only award. It was Oscar's sixth tie ever after 1932 Best Actor – Wallace Beery and Frederic March; 1949 Documentary Short Subject – A Chance to Live, So Much for So Little; 1968 Best Actress – Katharine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand; 1986 Documentary Feature – Artie Shaw: Time Is All You've Got, Down and Out in America; and 1994 Live-Action Short – Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life, Trevor.

Nominations for the 85th Academy Awards


Complete list of winners for the 85th Academy Awards

Best Picture
Argo: Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck and George Clooney, Producers

Directing
Life of Pi, Ang Lee

Actress in a Leading Role
Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook

Actor in a Leading Role
Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln

Actress in a Supporting Role
Anne Hathaway, Les Misérables

Actor in a Supporting Role
Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained

Writing (Adapted Screnplay)
Argo, Screenplay by Chris Terrio

Writing (Original Screnplay)
Django Unchained, Written by Quentin Tarantino

Animated Feature Film
Brave, Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman

Documentary Feature
Searching for Sugar Man, Malik Bendjelloul and Simon Chinn

Foreign Language Film
Amour, Austria

Documentary Short Subject
Inocente, Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine

Short Film (Animated)
Paperman, John Kahrs

Short Film (Live Action)
Curfew, Shawn Christensen

Cinematography
Life of Pi, Claudio Miranda

Costume Design
Anna Karenina, Jacqueline Durran

Film Editing
Argo, William Goldenberg

Makeup and Hairstyling
Les Misérables, Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell

Music (Original Score)
Life of Pi, Mychael Danna

Music (Original Song)
Skyfall, Skyfall, Music and Lyric by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth

Production Design
Lincoln, Production Design: Rick Carter, Set Decoration: Jim Erickson

Sound Editing – TIE
Skyfall, Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers
Zero Dark Thirty, Paul N.J. Ottosson

Sound Mixing
Les Misérables, Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson and Simon Hayes

Visual Effects
Life of Pi, Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer and Donald R. Elliott

Previously-announced Honorary Awards

Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award
Jeffrey Katzenberg

Honorary Award
Hal Needham

Honorary Award
D.A. Pennebaker

Honorary Award
George Stevens Jr.

Award of Merit
Cooke Optics