Acceptance Speech of Meryl Streep at the 84th Academy Awards

Meryl Streep won the Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role at the 2012 Academy Awards for her role in The Iron Lady.

The other nominations in this category includes Viola Davis for ‘The Help’, Glenn Close for ‘Albert Nobbs’, Rooney Mara for ‘The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’ and Michelle Williams for ‘My Week With Marilyn’.

Quite surprised that she won she exclaimed.."Oh my god.Oh c’mon.Alright.Thank you so much.Thank you, thank you," Meryl said on stage as she commenced her acceptance speech."When they called my name I’d had this feeling I could hear half of America going 'oh no..oh c’mon..why..her..again?' But whatever."

"First I’m going to thank Don because when you thank your husband at the end of the speech they play him out with the music and I want him to know that everything I value most in our lives you’ve given me," she continued. "And now secondly, my other partner: 37 years ago, my first play in New York City I met the great hairstylist and makeup artist Roy Helland and we worked together pretty continuously since the day we clapped eyes on each other. His first film with me was ‘Sophie’s Choice’ and all the way up to tonight when he won for his beautiful work in ‘The Iron Lady’, 30 years later, every single movie in between."

Meryl Streep concluded by saying, "And I just want to thank Roy but also I want to thank — because I really understand I’ll never be up here again — I really want to thank all my colleagues, all my friends. I look out here and I see my life before my eyes, my old friends, my new friends and really this is such a great honor but the thing that counts the most with me is the friendships and the love and the sheer joy we have shared making movies together. My friends, thank you, all of you, departed and here for this enigmatically wonderful career. Thank you so much. Thank you."

After accepting her award, Meryl spoke to reporters offstage and further joked about her long history of always being nominated but never winning. Still, Streep said that she wasn't worried about never winning again.

Inspite of several nominations, Meryl Streep hadn't won an Oscar since 1982.She had won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in ‘Sophie’s Choice’ in 1982.Earlier in 1979 she also had won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in ‘Kramer vs Kramer’.

84th Academy Awards - 2012

The 84th annual Academy Awards or The Oscars took place at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles on Feb 29th 2012. The Artist and Hugo were the big winners on that night. Nine time host Billy Crystal was the host for this year’s Oscar too.

The list of winners for this years Oscars include:

Best Motion Picture : The Artist

Best Actor in a Leading role : Jean Dujardin for ‘The Artist’

Best Actress in a Leading role : Meryl Streep for ‘The Iron lady’

Best Actor in a Supporting Role : Christopher Plummer for ‘Beginners’

Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Octavia Spencer for ‘The Help’

Best Director : Michel Hazanavicus for ‘The Artist’

Best Writing(Adapted Screenplay) : Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Community’s
Dean Pelton for 'The Descendants'

Best Writing (Original Screenplay): Woody Allen won for his screenplay for
‘Midnight in Paris’

Best Animated Film : Rango

Best Original Score : Ludovic Bource for ‘The Artist’

Best Original Song : Bret McKenzie for ‘Man or a Muppet’

Best Documentary : TJ Martin, Dan Lindsay and Rich Middlemas
for their documentary film ‘Undefeated’

Best Cinematography : Robert Richardson for ‘Hugo’

Best Animated Short Film : The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris
Lessmore

Best Short Film (Live Action) : The Shore

Best Art Direction : Dante Ferretti and Francesca Lo Schiavo for
‘Hugo’

Best Costume Design : Mark Bridges for ‘The Artist’

Best Make Up : Mark Coulier and J. Roy Helland for ‘The Iron
Lady’

Best Foreign Language Film : The Iranian film..’A Separation’

Best Film Editing : Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall for ‘The Girl With
The Dragon Tattoo’

Best Sound Editing : Philip Stockton and Eugene Gearty for ‘Hugo’

Best Sound Mixing : Tom Fleischman and John Midgley for ‘Hugo’

Best Visual Effects : Rob Legato, Joss Williams, Ben Grossmann and
Alex Henning for ‘Hugo’

2011 Academy Award Nominations - The Other Nominations

Best Actor In A Supporting Role :
Christian Bale(The Fighter)
John Hawkes(Winter's Bone)
Jeremy Renner(The Town)
Mark Ruffalo(The Kids Are All Right)
Geoffrey Rush(The King's Speech)

Best Actress In A Supporting Role :
Amy Adams(The Fighter)
Helena Bonham Carter (The King's Speech)
Melissa Leo(The Fighter)
Hailee Steinfeld(True Grit)
Jacki Weaver(Animal Kingdom)

Best Original Screenplay :
Mike Leigh(Another Year)
Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson.
Story by Keith Dorrington & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson(The Fighter)
Christopher Nolan(Inception)
Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg(The Kids Are All Right)
David Seidler(The King's Speech)

Best Adapted Screenplay :
Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy(127 Hours)
Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network)
Screenplay by Michael Arndt. Story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich(Toy Story 3)
Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen(True Grit)
Adapted for the screen by Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini(Winter's Bone)

2011 Academy Award Nominations For The Main Categories

The nominations for the 83rd Academy Awards were announced on January 25, 2011.The following are the nominations for some of the main categories:

Best Picture:
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The King’s Speech
127 Hours
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter’s Bone

Best Actor In A Leading Role :
Javier Bardem (Biutiful)
Jeff Bridges (True Grit)
Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network)
Colin Firth (The King’s Speech)
James France (127 Hours)

Best Actress In A Leading Role :
Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right)
Nicole Kidman (Rabbit Hole)
Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone)
Natalie Portman (Black Swan)
Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine)

Best Direction:
Darren Aronofsky - (Black Swan)
David O. Russell - (The Fighter)
Tom Hooper - (The King's Speech)
David Fincher - (The Social Network)
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen - (True Grit)

Best Actress in a Leading Role: Sandra Bullock for "The Blind Side"

Sandra Bullock has eventually earned the top appreciation from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS),after being a part of  Hollywood for more than 20 years.Sandra Bullock has won her first Oscar as the Best Actress for her performance  in 'The Blind Side'. The role  she played in 'The Blind Side' was  an extremely challenging one.In the movie , she plays a prosperous home maker who adopts a black teenager and helps him tremendously to develop into a football star.

The first time Oscar nominee has beaten previous Oscar winners like Merryl Streep and Helen Mirren who were competing for the same honor. The other contenders  include Gabourey Sidibe of   'Precious' as well as Carey Mulligan of  'An Education'.

Before winning the Oscars ,Sandra  Bullock had won the Screen Actors Guild and Golden Globe awards, and the Broadcast Film Critics award which was mutual with Merly Streep.Bullock rose to prominence with her incredible performance in the 1994 box office hit, ‘Speed’. Her other box office hits includes ' While You Were Sleeping', 'Miss Congeniality', 'The Proposal' .She also earned admiration from movie critics for her supporting role in the 2004 Oscar nominated movie 'Crash'.

In her acceptance speech she said 'Did I really earn this or did I just wear you all down?' She thanked all the  fantastic actors and actresses she's worked with, and looked forward to working with many more of them in future.  In a touching moment of her speech, Bullock thanked her mother for instilling the workaholic character in her to practice,practice,practice.

In reference to her mother, Bullock closed with 'She said to be an artist, you had to practice every day, and for reminding her daughters that there's no race, no religion, no class system, no color, nothing, no sexual orientation that makes us better than anyone else. We are all deserving of love. So, to that trailblazer, who allowed me to have that. Thank you.'

Oscar Nominations for Best Actress/Actor in a Leading Role

Actress in a Leading Role

Meryl Streep in 'Julie & Julia'
Gabourey Sidibe in 'Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire'
Carey Mulligan in 'An Education'
Helen Mirren in 'The Last Station'
Sandra Bullock in 'The Blind Side'

Actor in a Leading Role

Jeremy Renner in 'The Hurt Locker'
Morgan Freeman in 'Invictus'
Colin Firth in 'A Single Man'
George Clooney in 'Up in the Air'
Jeff Bridges in 'Crazy Heart'