Oscars: Disappointment For UK Talent?

This year’s Academy Awards had a particularly 'French' accent as, perhaps unsurprisingly; silent movie The Artist came out the big winner while the night amounted to one of the worst Oscar nights for UK talent in recent years.
The Artist dominated the Oscars taking home five statuettes for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Original Score and Best Costumes.
Martin Scorsese’s Hugo also won big- taking home five awards mainly in technical categories.
Meryl Streep won her third Oscar for her portrayal of former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher in the The Iron Lady. This also marked her 17th Oscar nomination.
But the success of the very British role came on one of the worst Oscar nights for UK talent in recent years.
Despite Gary Oldman and Kenneth Branagh featuring among the nominees, it was a short film that provided the UK's biggest win.
Northern Ireland film The Shore won the best live action short film. The short movie, was filmed entirely in Northern Ireland on location in Killough last year and tells the inspiring story of two boyhood best friends - Joe (Ciarán Hinds) and Paddy (Conleth Hill) - divided by 25 years of misunderstanding.
Unfortunately other than The Shore there was not much love for the UK at this year’s Academy Awards. Kenneth Branagh, Gary Oldman and short animation – A Morning Stroll- all missed out on awards.
Terry George, whose film The Shore won the award for live action short film, has predicted the UK will be better represented at next year's Oscars.
He told The Telegraph: "It’s great, you have up years and down years and next year they’ll be back with another King's Speech. We're going to be back. It may be a valley but there are more peaks ahead."
Otherwise, it was in the technical categories that the UK found success.
Make-up artist Mark Coulier picked up a prize for his work on The Iron Lady, which he shared with Streep's long-time stylist J Roy Helland.
In the sound mixing category, John Midgley picked up a statuette for his work on Hugo, having lost out on the prize last year, when he was nominated for The King's Speech.
Meanwhile, several of this year's big winners - including Hugo and The Iron Lady - were filmed in the UK.
(LB)