The King's Speech dominated Oscar night in the most polite way possible in taking home four of the most prestigious Oscars of the night: Best Original Screenplay, Best Director, Best Actor for Colin Firth and Best Picture.
Full list of winners
For much of the subdued ceremony it looked like The Social Network was gathering momentum with its wins for Best Score, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Editing while Inception swept the technical awards with prizes for Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Visual Effects and a surprise victory for Wally Pfister in the Best Cinematography category, but once Tom Hooper name was called out instead of David Fincher for Best Director there seemed no doubt that The King's Speech would be getting the shiny naked fellow to put beside its golden BAFTA masks.
Natalie Portman, Christian Bale and Melissa 'I just dropped the first F-bomb in Oscar history' Leo rounded off the most predictable quartet of acting winners in many a year with the only surprises being that a very pregnant Portman managed to keep her hormones - which had been rampant at the Globes - in check, and the often aloof and aggressive Bale giving a self-deprecatory, English accented speech that ultimately yielded to unexpected tears at its climax.
Anne Hathaway and James Franco had kicked off the ceremony with an elaborate but underwhelming Inception pastiche featuring Alec Baldwin and Morgan Freeman, before - for reasons we can't work out - going 'Back to the Future' and arriving at the Kodak Theatre to deliver their tongue-in-cheek though still slightly annoying opening monologue. Later Anne sang a song about one-time-host Hugh Jackman and James turned up in drag but there was none of the much touted dancing and Franco himself remained oddly slit-eyed and deadpan for the entirity of the show. We hope they were both paid hansomely because it can't have done much for either of their careers and we weren't alone in being left hoping that Robert Downey Jr. - on stage to present a pair of technical prizes - showed those who missed his performance at the Globes that he is the unlikely but natural successor to Bob Hope (who himself made a surprise, holographic CGI appearance)... perhaps the Academy short start saving up for his no doubt astronomical fee.
The only other deeply cringy moments of the night involved Céline Dion singing, Alice in Wonderland winning two Oscars, The Wolfman winning one and the orchestra daring to try to drown out The Social Network writer Aaron Sorkin's speech which - we must admit - was meandering slightly and was nowhere near as impressive as we hoped it would be. In contrast, Colin Firth's acceptance speech was charming and eloquent from start ("I have the feeling my career's just peaked") to finish ("now if you'll all please excuse me I have some impulses I have to tend to backstage") and represented the only genuinely memorable moment of a low-key night.
Were you surprised by The King's Speech's victory, disappointed at the Academy rewarding Natalie Portman's hammy performance in Black Swan, or gutted that we weren't given the chance to see what Banksy might have had in store for an audience of a billion when he didn't win for Exit Through the Gift Shop? Just let us know in the comments box below.
Source: Screenrush
