"And Ryan Gosling. Thank you for making me laugh. And for always raising the bar. And for being the greatest partner on this crazy adventure."
Emma Stone acknowledged her La La Land co-star Ryan Gosling. La La Land won Best Actress, Best Director, and even Best Picture for about 4 minutes, yet Gosling didn't win for Best Actor. This was Gosling's second Oscar nomination.
Denis Villeneuve lost out on Best Director. The French-Canadian director had been nominated for Arrival. The film did win an Oscar for Sylvaine Bellemare for Sound Editing.
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"This award by far is a collective award made by people from many countries around the world, led by the Quebec team," Bellemare said. "Salut Montréal."
Bellemare also addressed Villeneuve in his acceptance speech, "I love you so much. You bring love to us. All you need is love."
Canada had 3 representatives in Best Animated Short: Blind Vaysha, Pear Cider and Cigarettes, and the eventual winner Alan Barillaro for Piper.
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Gosling and Stone presented for the 2 nominated songs from La La Land. Sara Bareilles performed Joni Mitchell's Both Sides Now for the In Memoriam segment. Dwayne Johnson introduced Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Seth Rogen and Michael J. Fox gave us a lovely Canadian moment at the Oscars. The theme was inspiration. Seth Rogen talked about being inspired by Fox in Back to the Future. They both came out of the DeLorean onstage, Rogen wearing "future shoes."
Rogen grew up in Vancouver; Fox's family ended up in Burnaby, a Vancouver suburb. Rogen was 3 when Back to the Future came out and wasn't even born when Fox starred in Leo and Me. While even I would doubt that Canada had something to do with this connection, both Fox and Rogen were unlikely stars coming out of Canada and Rogen could have been inspired by Fox's story as well.
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The Salesman from Iran won the Best Foreign Language film. It's Only the End of the World from Xavier Dolan made the Top 9 cut but not the final Oscars cut.
Dolan's film did quite well at the Césars, the French equivalent of the Oscars. Dolan won best director for It's Only the End of the World. The film also won for best actor for Gaspard Ulliel and for best editing.
"I am very touched by your recognition tonight, among all this shining talent, which is so impressive," Dolan told the César ceremony.
You might recall that Dolan's last true Quebecois film Mommy won the César for Best Foreign Film.
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"Bill Paxton absolutely steals this film as his own as Nelisse's cop father who had to quickly relocate the two of them to this new small town. You forget Paxton is acting in this film."
That is what I wrote last fall for Mean Dreams, where Paxton played Sophie Nelissé's father in the rural drama. He was dominant without being over the top. You forgot that mean can look like that on the big screen. What made Paxton's performance all the more amazing is that he wasn't like that in real life.
We express our deepest sympathies to Bill Paxton, who passed away due to complication from surgery at the age of 61. His extensive film library is too long to even try to list. He could have worked on anything but we are glad he took time for this small Canadian drama. We heard Colm Feore speak so highly of Paxton in interviews for the film, including his talk on Q.
photos credit: Oscars/Academy Awards/ABC except for Bellemare photo: AFP
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