by Wilfred Okiche

The Academy Awards now fully renamed The Oscars were handed out last night and while the lucky ones smiled or cried home with the little naked guy, others were not so favoured and made do with host Seth MacFarlane and Kirsten Chenowith’s consolation song at the end of the telecast.

We present our assessment of the real winners and losers of this year’s Oscar cycle.

Winners

Ang Lee

‘Life of Pi’ was a labor of love for Ang Lee, taking the grueling job after at least two other top directors had passed on the project. Over 4 years and millions of dollars in production budget later, he produced a visually dazzling spectacle and was wisely rewarded for his labour, trumping Steven Spielberg in the process.

Anne Hathaway

Ms Hathaway has long been considered a lock for Best Supporting actress and had swept all the precursor awards so her ultimate win was no surprise to anyone. It was completely deserving.

Ben Affleck

Ben Affleck was officially crowned Hollywood’s golden boy, the comeback kid. He successfully parlayed a Best Director snub into awards season glory and ‘Argo’s’ Best Picture triumph was the perfect comeback story.

Daniel Day Lewis

Three wins, five nominations. The greatest living actor of his generation. Enough said.

James Bond

This year, one of cinema’s most popular franchises turned 50. The latest film in the series, ‘Skyfall’ was a box-office behemoth and for a change, an awards season magnet. The Academy celebrated with a tribute session introduced by former Bond girl Halle Berry and featuring performances from Adele (who also won Best Original Song for the Skyfall theme)and Dame Shirley Bassey (who proved she’s still got the pipes).

Jennifer Lawrence

She may have tripped on her gown, completing a long season of hit and miss moments but 22 year old Jennifer Lawrence rebounded with a charming acceptance speech and became the second youngest Best Actress winner in Oscar history.

Music and musicals

It was a big night for musicals and the music inspired by motion pictures as music from Oscar friendly pictures; ‘Les Miserables, Dreamgirls and Chicago’ were performed live by famous faces such as Jennifer Hudson, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Hugh Jackman. Channing Tatum, Charlize Theron and Daniel Radcliffe were also brought in for musical gigs.

Quentin Tarantino

The writer-director had a big night, scoring wins for Django Unchained’s Original screenplay as well as a second acting win for Christoph Waltz. His speech may have been long-winded and befuddling but hey it’s Oscar night

Quvenzhene Wallis

The 9 year old charmer may have lost Best actress but her record will probably be around for a long long time. Plus she has been tapped to play little orphan Annie in an upcoming project.

Seth MacFarlane

The boob song, the lewd jokes, the singing, the dancing. It is fair to announce Ted’s Seth MacFarlane put up a pretty good show.

Losers

Beasts of the Southern wild

Truth be told no one expected this little film to win anything of note but the fact that of the nine best pic nominees, it was the only one that didn’t win at least one trophy sort of sticks out.

Kristen Stewart

While her Hunger games colleague was crowned Best Actress, Twilight’s Kristen Stewart made do with the Razzie for worst actress earlier in the day. Proof how in Hollywood, two similar careers can take completely divergent routes

Leonardo Dicaprio

Another year, another Leonardo Dicaprio snub. Who is surprised?

Lincoln

Spielberg’s history lesson on America’s most respected president was the film to beat. Up until it wasn’t. What went wrong? We are still asking.

Silver Linings Playbook

A fun film dealing with serious mental health issues that was the first to score nominations in all 4 acting categories in about 30 years was widely seen as having an outside chance to sweep the board. It didn’t and only Jennifer Lawrence smiled home with a Best Actress trophy.

Steven Spielberg

He is king of Hollywood but seems to be having some difficulty picking up his third directing Oscar. Maybe next time.

The Master

Paul Anderson’s film polarized audiences and critics alike and the academy wisely balked. Noms for it’s lead and supporting actors did not translate into a win.

Zero Dark Thirty

Critics may have been blown away by Kathryn Bigelow’s CIA hunt thriller but it appears the allegations that the film favours torture as a means of extracting information hurt it greatly. It shared it’s only win, a technical award with ‘Skyfall’.

Do you agree, did we leave anyone out?