The evening of Sunday February 26th 2012 offered twin celebrations for Hollywood's finest in the cinema world.
The 84th Academy Awards ceremony took place at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood at 5.30pm. The event was followed by the renowned Vanity Fair after party which was held at the Sunset Tower Hotel in West Hollywood. Among those arriving from the awards ceremony were David and Victoria Beckham, Tom and Katie Cruise, Rebecca Wang, Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow, Michael Douglas, Sofia Coppola, Steve Martin and Glenn Close.
The Academy Awards, or The Oscars are a globally significant event for evaluation of excellence in film, and each annual ceremony honours the best films in the US for the preceding year, presenting voting results for 24 categories of cinema.
Sunday's ceremony saw Billy Crystal resume his seasoned role as acting host and chief presenter, while a stellar list including Morgan Freeman, Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, Robert Downey Junior, Michael Douglas, Tom Cruise and Colin Firth took to the stage to present individual awards.
Performers included Cirque du Soleil and the Esperanza Spalding Southern California Children's Chorus, who sang ‘What a Wonderful World’ for the In Memoriam tribute to those in the industry who have passed away during the year.
Academy Honorary Awards were presented to Dick Smith and James Earl Jones, while Oprah Winfrey was presented with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
Overall this year, films garnering multiple nominations were not box office blockbusters, and voting seemed to endorse this pattern. Nine films including The Descendants, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and The Help all collected one award each. The biopic Iron Lady took two awards, including Best Actress for Meryl Streep. Top films of note were eleven times nominated Hugo, which earned five awards for a gamut of technical brilliance, while ten times nominated The Artist took the awards for Best Costume Design, Original Score, Director, Actor, and Picture, and thus became the first silent picture to scoop Best Picture since 1929. Television coverage of the ceremony was broadcast by ABC and viewing of the three hour show reached its second biggest audience since 2007.
Following the ceremony, winners and presenters headed over to the Sunset Tower Hotel and the annual staple and highly revered event of the awards season, the Vanity Fair after party, of which security has a reputation for being tighter than that of the White House. The after party is known as one of the hottest tickets in town during the awards: guests need to show an invite and a parking pass just to get near the hotel.
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The 84th Academy Awards ceremony took place at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood at 5.30pm. The event was followed by the renowned Vanity Fair after party which was held at the Sunset Tower Hotel in West Hollywood. Among those arriving from the awards ceremony were David and Victoria Beckham, Tom and Katie Cruise, Rebecca Wang, Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow, Michael Douglas, Sofia Coppola, Steve Martin and Glenn Close.
The Academy Awards, or The Oscars are a globally significant event for evaluation of excellence in film, and each annual ceremony honours the best films in the US for the preceding year, presenting voting results for 24 categories of cinema.
Performers included Cirque du Soleil and the Esperanza Spalding Southern California Children's Chorus, who sang ‘What a Wonderful World’ for the In Memoriam tribute to those in the industry who have passed away during the year.
Academy Honorary Awards were presented to Dick Smith and James Earl Jones, while Oprah Winfrey was presented with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
Overall this year, films garnering multiple nominations were not box office blockbusters, and voting seemed to endorse this pattern. Nine films including The Descendants, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and The Help all collected one award each. The biopic Iron Lady took two awards, including Best Actress for Meryl Streep. Top films of note were eleven times nominated Hugo, which earned five awards for a gamut of technical brilliance, while ten times nominated The Artist took the awards for Best Costume Design, Original Score, Director, Actor, and Picture, and thus became the first silent picture to scoop Best Picture since 1929. Television coverage of the ceremony was broadcast by ABC and viewing of the three hour show reached its second biggest audience since 2007.
Following the ceremony, winners and presenters headed over to the Sunset Tower Hotel and the annual staple and highly revered event of the awards season, the Vanity Fair after party, of which security has a reputation for being tighter than that of the White House. The after party is known as one of the hottest tickets in town during the awards: guests need to show an invite and a parking pass just to get near the hotel.
