2013 Oscars notebook: Thank you, Canada

"Thank you, Canada."

Canada certainly had its share of thanks at the 2013 Academy Awards ceremony Sunday night.

Ben Affleck thanked Canada in accepting the Oscar for Best Picture for "Argo." Chris Terrio for Best Adapted Screenplay for "Argo" thanked Canada and Ken Taylor. Ang Lee thanked Canada via Yann Martel and the Canadian crew in accepting the Oscar for Best Director for "Life of Pi."

"I want to dedicate this to him (Tony Mendez) and the (Ken) Taylors and the (John) Sheardowns and the people all over the world in the U.S. and Canada and Iran that use creativity and intelligence to solve problems non violently," said Terrio.

John Sheardown was the First Secretary at the Canadian embassy. Argo makes no mention of Sheardown and his efforts. Sheardown took the first call from the American diplomats and agreed to take in the Americans.

Mychael Danna gave a thoughtful and beautiful speech after he won for Original Score for "Life of Pi."

Christopher Plummer brought grace to the stage, despite a ill-conceived Sound of Music joke, to introduce and give away the Best Supporting Actress award. Plummer won the Best Supporting Actor last year for "Beginners."

William Shatner made a cameo as James T. Kirk to tell host Seth MacFarlane how bad the Oscars were. The comedy sketch set up moments that would have wrecked MacFarlane's stint. MacFarlane's nerdish tendencies, especially in pop culture terms, must have been salivating with the Star Trek reference.

Shatner did a good job; why not make him a future Oscars host? Shatner hosted the Junos in 2012 and the Genies in 2011, so he does have award ceremony hosting experience. And older academy people have heard of him, unlike MacFarlane.

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Canada nominees for Best Foreign Language Film
Film	Year**
War Witch	2012
Monsieur Lazhar	2011
Incendies	2010
Water	2006
Barbarian Invasions*	2003
Jesus of Montréal	1989
The Decline of the American Empire	1986
* Oscar winner **Year of the film, not the ceremony.

"Rebelle" or "War Witch" lost out to "Amour" for Best Foreign Language Film. "Amour" had the momentum on its side, also being nominated for Best Picture. "Rebelle" wasn't the easy film to watch.

Canada has had an incredible 3-year streak of making the top 5 cut for Best Foreign Language Film, with "Rebelle," "Monsieur Lazhar," and "Incendies."

"Barbarian Invasions" remains the only Canadian film to have won this award.

"Rebelle" was also nominated for Best International Film at the 2013 Independent Spirit Awards, but lost out to "Amour" for that award as well.

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There were 5 nominees for live action short with Canadian connections. Yet "Curfew" beat out "Buzkashi Boys" (Ariel Nasr) and "Henry" (Yan England). "Mirror Mirror" was shot in Montréal; Eiko Ishioka, who died in January 2012, lost for costume design.

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"Life of Pi" won 3 Oscars overall, including best cinematography and visual effects. David Magee was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for the Yann Martel book, but lost to Argo's Terrio.

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Daniel Radcliffe and Ellen Page introduced the nominees for Best International Film at the 2013 Independent Spirit Awards. Radcliffe and Page were very appropriate people to introduce an international film segment since Radcliffe is British and Page is Canadian.

Long-time readers might remember two years ago when the IFC ceremony tried to pass off Sandra Oh as an American in introducing the Best Foreign Film.

They didn't call out Page as a Canadian, but at least they didn't make her into an American.

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Previous coverage:

Will 'War Witch' and 'Life of Pi' bring Canada Oscars in 2013?

Canadian films should tell more stories about Canada

Likelihood of seeing the Canadian film class of 2012

Reviewing the WIFF 2012 Canadian films

photo credit: Oscars/ABC