I began to realize I might be wrong in some of my Oscar predictions during the past week when every man and woman I spoke to, ages 50 and up, told me The King's Speech was the best picture of 2010. And despite all the media blather over that "younger demographic" (i.e. dumber demographic?) who have been gorged through much of the year on stale multiplex popcorn and bad junk movies, the Academy tends to honor an often overlooked niche audience called "mature" moviegoers. It's a niche of millions, many of them actually in their 20s and 30s, and increasingly willing to forgo the bad popcorn and stadium seating for Netflix and a 30-inch screen at home.
I was right in calling Colin Firth the winner for Best Actor, but missed by predicting the youthful Social Network as Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay. It won only the latter with the Academy awarding The King's Speech with Picture and Director. The Academy Awards for 2010 will be remembered as a royal night, but it wasn't a complete sweep for the monarch. The much deserving Geoffrey Rush lost Best Supporting Actor to Chistian Bale of The Fighter and Helena Bonham-Carter lost Best Supporting Actress to Melissa Leo from that same boxing film.
Well, I was right about at least one thing: Natalie Portman took Best Actress for The Black Swan. In trying to woo that coveted "younger demographic," Oscar hosts Anne Hathaway and James Franco were an attractive, mildly amusing and stilted couple. They mocked their own strained efforts to appeal to that younger crowdalthough that sounded as entirely scripted as most of the evening's awards show.
