Oscars 2011 and Anne Hathaway James Franco Hosting

The 83rd Annual Academy Awards is history, with Oscars awarded to the best and brightest in film during the live show from Hollywood's Kodak Theatre on the evening of February 27, 2011.  Awards were handed out in 24 major categories, including the so-called "Big Five:" Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Director and Writing.http://oscar.go.com/nominations 

The King's Speech was a big winner, taking home four Academy Awards, including Best Picture.  Colin Firth won the Best Actor Oscar for his role in the film, filmmaker Tom Hooper won Best Director and writer David Seidler won Best Original Screenplay.http://oscar.go.com/nominations  

Other big winners at the 2011 Academy Awards included Natalie Portman, who took home the Best Actress Oscar for Black Swan, Melissa Leo, who won Best Supporting Actress for The Fighter and Christian Bale, who won Best Supporting Actor for The Fighter.  Toy Story 3 was awarded the Oscar for Best Animated Film and Inside Job won Best Documentary Feature.  The Social Network's Aaron Sorkin won Best Adapted Screenplay.  Christopher Nolan's Inception won several technical awards, including Best Sound Editing, Mixing and Visual Effects.http://oscar.go.com/nominations   

How did the Oscars do, ratings-wise?  According to The Hollywood Reporter, Nielsen data shows that ABC's Academy Awards telecast was down nearly 27 percent as compared to last year.  In the key 18-49 demographic, Nielsen numbers indicate the show "was on par" with the 2010 Academy Awards broadcast, with a 14.5 rating overall.http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/oscar-ratings-plummet-last-year-162408 

This year's Oscars featured hosts Anne Hathaway and James Franco.  Critics seemed divided on whether the first-time Oscar hosts did a good job.  Erik Pedersen of E! News was not enamored of the stars' efforts, writing that he realized shortly after the Inception-style opening montages that Franco and Hathaway "were going to keep hosting through the whole thing and it wasn't all an Inception dream."http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b228275_best_worst_of_2011_oscars_yes_its_bad.html    Filmcritic.com's Sean O'Connell said Franco, in particular, came off as "shockingly unfunny."http://www.filmcritic.com/features/2011/02/oscars-the-kings-speech-wins-best-picture-director-while-franco-hathaway-bomb/    Robert Bianco of USA Today said even when Franco and Hathaway "stumbled, there was a sweetness to their performance that kept them from being aggravating."  Bianco did note that the Academy Awards show did seem long, and eventually, "the pleasure diminished."http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/reviews/2011-02-28-oscarreview28_ST_N.htm