Kirk Baxter wins second Oscar in two years
Australian film editor Kirk Baxter has won an Oscar for his work in David Fincher’s The Girl with The Dragon.
It’s the second Academy Awards win in a row for the editor who took best film editing for Fincher’s The Social Network.
Baxter was nominated alongside his editing partner Angus Wall.
Unfortunately Australian producer Grant Hill, nominated for The Tree of Life missed out on an Oscar for best picture as the award went to The Artist and producer Thomas Langmann. Michel Hazanavicius, director of the French silent film also won best directing while Jean Dujardin won best male actor in a lead role. The film also won best costume design, awarding Mark Bridges and best original score, awarding Ludovic Bource. Best original song went to New Zealander Bret McKenzie for his song Man or Muppet for film the Muppets.
Meryl Streep won best female in a leading role for her depiction of Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady. Streep, the favourite for the award praised Mark Coulier and J. Roy Helland in her speech who previously had won for their make-up work in film.
Christopher Plummer became the oldest recipient of an acting Oscar for his supporting role in Beginners, while Octavia Spencer won best supporting actress for her contribution to The Help, beating fellow cast member Jessica Chastain.
Best adapted screenplay went to The Descendants’ Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash while Woody Allen won best original screenplay for Midnight in Paris.
TJ Martin, Dan Lindsay and Richard Middlemas won best documentary (feature) for their American football film, Undefeated while The best documentary short was awarded to Saving Face by Daniel Junge and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy.
Best animated film went to Rango, directed by Gore Verbinski.
Martin Scorsese’s Hugo was one of the other big winners. Rob Legato, Joss Williams, Ben Grossman and Alex Henning won for best visual effects. Dante Ferretti and Francesca Lo Schiavo won for their art direction. The film also won best cinematography, awarding Robert Richardson, and took out best sound editing, awarding Philip Stockton and Eugene Gearty and best sound mixing, awarding Tom Fleischman and John Midgley.
Iran’s A Separation won best foreign language film.
Best short film (live action) went to Irish father and daughter team Terry and Oorlagh George for film The Shore. Best animated short film was The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore by William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg.
