‘King’s Speech’ takes top trophies at Oscars

The monarch may have stammered terribly, but Oscar voters spoke loudly and clearly Sunday night, handing “The King’s Speech” four Academy Awards, including best picture, best director and best original screenplay.

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The come-from-behind “King’s Speech” coup concluded a providential journey for the drama about Britain’s King George VI (played by Colin Firth, who won the lead actor Oscar) and his unconventional speech therapist, Lionel Logue (played by Geoffrey Rush). The film beat out “The Social Network,” which had been considered the likely choice for best picture for much of the fall and early winter, but ended up with three Oscars despite many critical plaudits.

“What an incredible, incredible honor,” said “King’s Speech” producer Iain Canning, picking up the top trophy from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Producer Emile Sherman thanked the film’s financiers for daring to invest in a period drama about elocution. “It’s not,” Sherman said, “an obvious film to back.”

But apparently, it was an easy one to vote for.

At every turn, “The King’s Speech” enjoyed extraordinary fortune: British filmmaker Tom Hooper, who directed the movie, discovered the tale only after his mother attended an unrehearsed reading of a play about the king at a tiny theater outside London. Rush got involved only after a producer’s assistant dropped off the script at the actor’s front door.

Screenwriter David Seidler, 73, who had promised the Queen Mother he wouldn’t write about her stuttering husband in her lifetime, waited 25 years before moving ahead with his project.

Hooper, 38, whose best-known work heretofore was the HBO mini-series “John Adams,” thanked Firth and Rush — “I’m only here because of you guys,” he said — and gave credit to his mother for seeing the play and suggesting it should be his next movie. “The moral of the story,” Hooper said, “is listen to your mother.”

Firth, who had been nominated in the actor category last year for “A Single Man” but lost, accepted his award and quipped, “I have a feeling my career’s just peaked.”

Even though “The King’s Speech” won the top prize, no single film dominated the 83^rd Academy Awards, emceed by actors James Franco and Anne Hathaway, two of the youngest hosts in recent memory. The duo joked about trying to attract younger viewers to the broadcast, though the show featured multiple homages to Hollywood history — including a surprise appearance by 94-year-old Kirk Douglas.

The ceremony marked the second year that 10 films were competing for the best picture prize, up from five previously. The academy expanded the category in a bid to include more popular favorites, and this year, most of the films crossed the $100-million mark at the box office.

Writer-director Christopher Nolan’s mind-bending thriller “Inception” took home trophies for cinematography and in three technical categories. “True Grit,” the western that came into the evening with 10 nominations (second only to the dozen for “The King’s Speech”), left the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood with none.

Natalie Portman, who trained for a year to play an obsessed ballerina in “Black Swan,” won the lead actress Academy Award, fending off strong competition from Annette Bening in “The Kids Are All Right.” “This is insane,” a visibly moved Portman said.

The boxing drama “The Fighter” dominated the supporting actor categories as predicted, taking trophies for Christian Bale, who played the film’s washed-up, drug-addled pugilist Dicky Eklund, and Melissa Leo, who co-starred as the domineering matriarch.

Bale appeared humble in his win despite being a heavy favorite for the prize. Leo said she was “shakin’ in her boots,” which may have explained why she dropped an expletive into her acceptance speech. The swear word was censored by ABC, but nevertheless became a running joke throughout the rest of the ceremony.

The writing wins also went as expected. Seidler, who had been working in television until “The King’s Speech” (his last film credit came 12 years ago), got a bit lost trying to find the microphone after his name was called for the original screenplay award. But his momentary confusion didn’t stop him from delivering a charming speech.

“My father always said I’d be a late bloomer,” said Seidler, who was inspired to write the script because he himself stuttered — as a child he had listened to King George VI on the radio, knowing that the monarch had overcome a speech impediment. “This is to all the stutterers,” Seidler said. “We have a voice and we have been heard, thanks to the academy.”

Aaron Sorkin won the adapted screenplay award for “The Social Network,” based on the book “The Accidental Billionaires.” Sorkin, best known for writing television’s “The West Wing,” said the prize “will be a source of pride for me every day for the rest of my life.”

Alternative rockers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross took home the prize for best score for “The Social Network,” beating out favorite Alexandre Desplat, who composed the score for “The King’s Speech.”

“Toy Story 3,” which director Lee Unkrich described as a film about “talking toys that had something very human to say,” won for animated feature, beating out “How to Train Your Dragon” and the French film “The Illusionist.” “Toy Story 3,” the highest-grossing film of 2010, also won for best song, “We Belong Together,” by Randy Newman.

Director Charles Ferguson and producer Audrey Marrs took home the Oscar for their documentary “Inside Job.” Ferguson, whose film is about the origins of the financial meltdown, felt compelled to bring his movie’s message to the Oscar stage, beginning his speech by saying: “Three years after a horrific financial crisis, not a single financial executive has gone to jail — and that’s wrong.”

Two of the year’s biggest blockbusters, “Inception” and “Alice in Wonderland,” dominated the technical categories, with “Inception” winning for sound mixing, sound editing and visual effects in addition to cinematography. “Alice” walked away with two Oscars, winning for art direction and costume.

“In a Better World,” from Danish director Susanne Bier, won the best foreign language prize, beating out the higher-profile “Biutiful,” from Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and starring Javier Bardem.

OSCARS 2011: Full coverage and photo galleries