OSCARS: 'Pi,' 'Argo,' 'Lincoln' take top honors

HOLLYWOOD — Glitz and glamor galore. Amid the high fashion, the nervous smiles, the ode to James Bond, and more, were the newly crowned winners of the Academy Awards. But, there was controversy as well, particularly centering on visual effects—specifically the dire state of the industry, as pointed out and discussed backstage by Bill Westenhofer after the film “Life of Pi” won for best visual effects.

This year’s contenders in a number of categories were too close to call, but in the end, the political-drama “Argo” took the top prize for best picture, besting other political dramas, albeit from different eras--“Lincoln” and “Zero Dark Thirty”—as well as the socially charged “Les Misérables” and “Django Unchained,” plus the French-language drama “Amour,” the fantasy-infused dramas “Beasts of the Southern Wild” and “Life of Pi,” and the romantic comedy-drama “Silver Linings Playbook.” 

Producers Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck (director as well), and George Clooney accepted the award. “On behalf of George and myself, I want to thank you, Ben. You directed a hell of a film. Couldn’t be more proud of the film. Couldn’t be more proud of Ben,” said Heslov. In his ecstatic acceptance speech, Affleck noted, “I was here 15 years ago or something and I had no idea what I was doing. I stood out here in front of you all and really just a kid. I went out and I never thought I would be back here. And I am.” 

Another big category was for best visual effects, and that statue went to “Life of Pi” (Ang Lee, director; Bill Westenhofer, visual effects). Starring alongside the actor Pi was the realistic CG Bengal tiger Richard Parker, created at Rhythm & Hues, which has now filed for Chapter 11 protection after crafting so many years of movie magic. Westenhofer, VFX supervisor, mentioned the plight of the studio and its visual effects practitioners in his acceptance speech, which was cut off at the end when he exceeded his time limit. 

“The irony is not lost on any of us up here that in a film whose central premise is to ask the audience what they believe is real or not real, most of what you see is, well, it’s fake. That’s the magic of visual effects. I want to thank Gil Netter and Elizabeth Gabler and all those at Fox and Fox 2000 for realizing that sometimes it takes a risk to make something special. And ‘Life of Pi’ was a risk worth taking,” said Westenhofer. “Finally, I want to thank all the artists who worked on this film for over a year, including Rhythm & Hues. Sadly Rhythm & Hues is suffering severe financial difficulties right now. I urge you all to remember….” 

Later, backstage, Westenhofer finished his thoughts on that subject, pointing out the irony that VFX films are dominating the box office while VFX producers are struggling. He warned that the business model needs to be fixed. “We aren’t technicians. Visual effects are not just a commodity being done by people pushing buttons. We are artists, and if we don’t find a way to fix the business model, we may start to lose some of the artistry. If anything that ‘Life of Pi’ shows is that we are artists and not just technicians,” he said. (For the video, go to http://ca.movies.yahoo.com/video/life-pi-best-visual-effects-065944445.html)

Director Ang Lee spoke briefly in support of Rhythm & Hues after accepting his prize for best director. 

Meanwhile, hundreds of VFX artists protested just blocks from the Dolby Theater as the Red Carpet activities began, with the goal of shedding light on this dire situation of the VFX industry. This included an aerial banner supporting unionization of the VFX artists. Current and former studio employees organized the protest after hundreds of layoffs; meanwhile, others remain at the studio working on upcoming headline films. 

Meanwhile, in a race for best animated feature that pitted the best of CGI against the best of stop motion, CGI—and “Brave” (Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman)—ended up the winner. Getting into the spirit of the Scottish-themed medieval film was Andrews, who sported a kilt. “I just happened to be wearing the kilt; I didn’t plan any of this,” he said. 

In the animated short film category, Disney came up a big winner with the endearing “Paperman,” a black-and-white film directed by John Kahrs. The love-story short combines traditional animation and CGI and was released in November 2012 with Disney’s “Wreck-It Ralph,” which was also vying for best animated feature.