Oscars 2013: “Amour” grabs best foreign film trophy.

By Gael Masengi

Written and directed by the Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke, “Amour” or “Love” has once again triumphed by winning the best foreign film Oscar at the 85^th Academy Awards this Sunday in Los Angeles, beating Canada’s “War Witch”, a Congo-made film and three other contenders.

A moving French-language drama, Amourtells the story of an elderly Parisian couple Anne (Riva) and Georges (Jean-LousTrintignant), facing up to a sudden turn in their lives. When Anne has stroke that leaves her partially paralyzed, their world is upended.

Emmanuelle Riva, the French actress who wowed film critics by flawlessly portraying the dying Anne became the oldest woman to ever get an Oscar nomination. At 86 Riva not only received an Academy Award nomination but also won a handful of other mainstream accolades, notably the Bafta Award for best actress in a leading role, European Film Award and recently the Cesar Award in the same category. While this year’s Academy Awards saw the oldest actress nominee, it also did crown the youngest one, a 9 years-old American Quvenzhane Wallis for her stunning performance as Hushpuppy in Beasts of Southern Wild.

Ang Lee surprised many, film critics as well as fan, who bet on Steven Spielberg for the best director award. The Taiwanese born Lee is however not stranger to the Oscars, he has won it twice before for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Best foreign Film) and as a director in 2005 for Brokeback Mountain. As anticipated by almost everyone, the British actor Daniel Day Lewis walks away with the statuette for his perfect portrayal of the former American president Abram Lincoln in Lincoln, Day-Lewis becomes the sole 3× Oscar winner for best actor category.

"Thank you. You guys are just standing up because you feel bad that I fell and that's really embarrassing but thank you." said Jennifer Lawrence who tumbled while climbing the stairs to accept her Oscar for best actress. Best documentary went to Searching for Sugar Man, a feature highlighting the efforts of two fans from Cape Town, South Africa, Stephen Segerman and Craig Bartholomew on journey to find out if the rumoured death of an American musician Sixto Rodriguez was true.

All the winners from the Oscars 2013:

Best Picture:                      Argo

Best Director:                    Aang Lee (Life of Pi)

Best Actor:                         Daniel Day Lewis (Lincoln)

Best Actress:                     Jennifer Lawrence (The Silver Linings Playbook)

Best Supporting Actor:      Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained)

Best Supporting Actress:    Anne Hathaway (Les Miserables)

Best Adapted Screenplay: Chris Terrio (Argo)

Best Original Screenplay:   Quentin Tarantino (Django Unchained)

Best Cinematography:        Claudio Miranda (Life of Pi)

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

Best Costume Design:          Jacqueline Durran

Best Production Design:       Rick Carter (Production Design); Jim Erickson (Set Decoration)         (Lincoln)

Best Sound Editing:              Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers (Skyfall)  

Best Sound Mixing:              Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson and Simon Hayes (Les Miserables)

Best Film Editing:                  William Goldenberg (Argo)

Best Short Film (Live Action):   Curfew (Shawn Christensen)

Best Make Up and Hairstyling:  Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell (Les Miserables)

Best Original Score:                  Skyfall (from 007 Skyfall –Music and Lyrics by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth)

Best Documentary:                    Searching for Sugar man

Best Animated Feature:             Brave (Walt Disney)

Best Short Film (Animated):       Paperman (John Kahrs)

Best Foreign Language Film:       Amour (Austria)