'Argo,' 'Pi' Top Oscar Honors

25 Feb, 2013 By: John Latchem

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After the 85th Academy Awards were handed out Feb. 24, Argo had taken the big prize of Best Picture, while Life of Pi won the most awards, taking four to Argo’s three.

Argo, released on DVD and Blu-ray by Warner Home Video Feb. 19, a week before the Hollywood ceremony, also won for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Editing. Life of Pi, which is available now digitally before a March 12 DVD and Blu-ray release from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, won Best Director for Ang Lee, Best Visual Effects, Best Original Score and Best Cinematography.

That marks two directing Oscars for Lee, after winning for 2005’s Brokeback Mountain, which also was shut out for Best Picture. Lee may have been the beneficiary of the Academy’s failure to nominate Argo director Ben Affleck, who won the Director’s Guild Award. However, as producer of Argo (with George Clooney and Grant Heslov), Affleck still managed to take home gold.

The musical adaptation Les Misérables, which hits DVD and Blu-ray March 22 from Universal Studios Home Entertainment, also won three Oscars — Best Supporting Actress for Anne Hathaway, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, and Best Sound Mixing.

Skyfall capped off a triumphant 50th anniversary year for the James Bond films by winning two Oscars, with Adele’s title tune taking Best Original Song, and the film winning another for Best Sound Editing (in a tie with Zero Dark Thirty).

The wins doubled the all-time total for the franchise, which hadn’t won a trophy since 1965’s Thunderball took the visual effects award 47 years ago (Goldfinger had won Best Sound Effects Editing the year before). It’s also the first song win for the Bond series, for which music has been a defining trait throughout the years (three previous Bond songs had been nominated). Skyfall, the 23rd movie in the official franchise, already was the most commercially successful Bond film after a $1.1 billion global box office haul ($304 million domestically), and topping the home video sales charts its first week in stores following after Fox released the DVD and Blu-ray Feb. 12.

Joining Skyfall with two awards each were Lincoln (Best Actor for Daniel Day-Lewis and Best Production Design) and Django Unchained (Best Supporting Actor for Christoph Waltz and Best Original Screenplay for Quentin Tarantino). Lincoln has yet to be announced for home video, while Django arrives April 16 from Anchor Bay.

For Day-Lewis, the win is an unprecedented third trophy in the Best Actor category. Waltz and Tarantino each won their second Oscar. Tarantino previously won for writing 1994’s Pulp Fiction, while Waltz had won Best Supporting Actor for Tarantino’s 2009 film Inglourious Basterds.

Among the six features with one win apiece, two are not yet available or announced for disc: Silver Linings Playbook, which won Best Actress for Jennifer Lawrence, and Best Foreign-Language Film winner Amour. Best Animated Feature winner Brave is available on disc from Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment; Anna Karenina, which won for Best Costume Design, is available from Universal; Best Documentary went to Searching for Sugar Man, on DVD and Blu-ray from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment; and Zero Dark Thirty, which tied Skyfall for Best Sound Editing, hits DVD and Blu-ray March 19 from Sony Pictures.

Disney's Paperman, the winner for Best Animated Short, will be included with the March 5 DVD and Blu-ray release of Wreck-It Ralph.

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