Thoughts on the Academy Awards, and Markéta Irglová

Since most of the big movies that were nominated for Academy Awards have not come out on video yet, I can't say much about the big winners last night, other than I am very excited to see There Will Be Blood, No Country for Old Men, and a few others. (Michael Clayton is out now, and I plan to see it this week.)

One pleasant surprise was the three Oscars that The Bourne Ultimatum won – Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, and Film Editing – beating out some of the other heavy contenders. Kudos guys, it was a great film.

Ratatouille beat out Persepolis for Best Animated Feature, which wasn't a big surprise. Although I really liked Ratatouille, and haven't seen Persopolis yet, I was rooting for the underdog, since the subject matter of Perspolis seems so thought provoking, and important – but what do I know, for as I said, I haven't seen Persepolis yet…

There was one Oscar that I was really rooting for, and that was Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová for best song, in the movie Once. As you may already know, Once is my favorite movie of the year so far (again, I haven't seen Blood or Old Men), and is likely to remain a favorite for a long time. The winning song, "Falling Slowly" is superb (I am not sure the live performance at the Oscars quite did it justice). I was ready to throw a conniption if one those songs from Enchanted beat it out.

And indeed I nearly did throw a conniption when the orchestra ushered Irglová off the stage without letting her get a word in. But later, thanks to the supreme tact of John Stewart (he went up a few notches in my book because of this), Irglova was allowed to come back on stage and say a few words. This could have been a really awkward moment for her, but what she said was perfect:

"Hi everyone. I just want to thank you so much. This is such a big deal, not only for us, but for all other independent musicians and artists that spend most of their time struggling, and this, the fact that we're standing here tonight, the fact that we're able to hold this, it's just to prove no matter how far out your dreams are, it's possible. And, you know, fair play to those who dare to dream and don't give up. And this song was written from a perspective of hope, and hope at the end of the day connects us all, no matter how different we are. And so thank you so much, who helped us along the way. Thank you."

Here is the video of their win (at least as long as it doesn't get yanked from youtube):