ScreenTalk

I thought today's Oscars TV show was one of the better ones. Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin did a great job of hosting, the speeches were good-natured, the frocks were generally nice.  No great surprises in the winners though, except for maybe The Hurt Locker getting both Best Director and Best Picture, beating out Avatar. 

Avatar was still an award-winner of course, and that meant some New Zealanders from Weta Workshop were among the honourees. Congratulations to production designer Kim Sinclair, and to Stephen Rosenbaum, Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, and Andrew Jones on the special effects team.

If you want to watch some Academy Awards-related titles on NZ On Screen, check out The Frog, the Dog and the Devil, the Oscar-nominated short from 1987. We also have an excerpt from Jane Campion's The Piano, which resulted in awards for Holly Hunter, Anna Paquin, and Campion herself (for the script). Or check out our ScreenTalk interview with Taika Waititi, who tells the story behind his "sleeping-at-the-Oscars" gag.