As far as awards go, everything either went exactly as predicted or was surprisingly tense. There were the obvious and expected lock-ins: many technical awards going to the outstanding The Grand Budapest Hotel; 3 of the acting awards merely completing a formality and actually handing over the virtually pre-engraved golden statues to J.K. Simmons, Julianne Moore and Patricia Arquette; and CitizenFour taking home Best Documentary. But at the end it all boiled down to a clash of the titans: it was Eddie Redmayne Vs Michael Keaton; Richard Linklater Vs Alejandro G. Iñárritu; and the main event, Boyhood Vs Birdman for Best Picture.
I might have been sleep-deprived and a little delirious by the time the winners of the major awards started to be announced, but I found them to be as tense as last week's episode of Broadchurch. I clutched the arm of the sofa and hid behind a cushion with my heart in my throat as Redmayne - brilliantly - won for his turn as Professor Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything (I was fearful either Keaton would clinch it or in a nightmare scenario Bradley Cooper would sweep from nowhere and be rewarded for American Sniper…). Honestly though, I was majorly disappointed that Birdman soared to victory in such a spectacular manner - scooping Best Picture/Directing/Original Screenplay/Cinematography. I loved it as a film but was ultimately routing for Boyhood: the astonishing 12 year masterpiece. It's a shame, but not the end of the world!
The red carpet was pretty impressive too: fashion-wise every awards show over the last few months has led to this point, and the stars pulled out all of the stops, as anticipated.
