In June 2010, the AMPAS hired Oscar-winning producer
Bruce Cohen and veteran television producer
Don Mischer to oversee production of the telecast. "I'm absolutely ecstatic that Bruce and Don have accepted my invitation to produce and direct the 83rd Academy Awards telecast," remarked Academy president
Tom Sherak. "Their work in producing the Academy's inaugural Governors Awards was exceptional and I am confident they will bring their creative vision and extraordinary talent to produce/direct a most memorable Oscar show." Although the
prior ceremony hosted by
Alec Baldwin and
Steve Martin had the highest ratings in five years, their combined age was 116 years and the producers wanted to focus on a younger demographic. The unofficial first choice was
Justin Timberlake but he declined, feeling it was at least a year too early for him. "James Franco and Anne Hathaway personify the next generation of Hollywood icons — fresh, exciting and multi-talented. We hope to create an Oscar broadcast that will both showcase their incredible talents and entertain the world on February 27," said Cohen and Mischer regarding their selections to host the gala. "We are completely thrilled that James and Anne will be joining forces with our brilliant creative team to do just that." Franco and Hathaway became the first male-female duo to co-host the awards show since comedian
Jerry Lewis and actress
Celeste Holm presided over the
29th ceremony in 1957. At age 28, Hathaway was also the youngest person to host an Oscar ceremony. Furthermore, AMPAS announced that this year's ceremony was "the most interactive awards show in history". The Academy revamped their official website oscar.com to include lists of all the nominees and winners, as well as film trailers and exclusive video content produced by both AMPAS and Oscar telecaster ABC. Also, via the Academy's Twitter and Facebook pages, people could post questions for any actor or celebrity attending the festivities to answer. One of the four Oscar pre-show co-hosts would then pose selected questions to both nominees and attendees alike. Several other people participated in the production of the ceremony. For a younger writer, Franco consulted
Judd Apatow, who suggested
Jordan Rubin who brought in
Megan Amram. Production designer Steve Bass built a new stage design for the ceremony.
Entertainment Weekly columnist and TV personality Dave Karger greeted guests entering the red carpet. Designer Marc Friedland designed a new envelope heralding the winner of each category made from a high-gloss iridescent metallic gold paper stock, with red-lacquered lining that featured the Oscar statuette stamped in satin gold leaf. During the run-up to the ceremony, television personality
Chris Harrison hosted "Road to the Oscars", a weekly behind-the-scenes video blog.
Ben Mankiewicz hosted the official ABC pre-show, giving professional betting odds for the winners. According to Rubin, Hathaway was heavily involved during the month of preparation.
Box office performance of nominated films For the second consecutive year, the field of major nominees included at least one
blockbuster at the American and Canadian box offices. However, only three of the nominees had grossed over $100 million before the nominations were announced, compared with five from the previous year. The combined gross of the ten Best Picture nominees when the Oscars were announced was $1.2 billion, the second-highest ever behind 2009. The average gross was $119.3 million. The only other top ten box office hit to receive a nomination was
Inception which earned $292.5 million. Among the remaining eight nominees,
True Grit was the next-highest-grossing film with $137.9 million followed by
The Social Network ($95.4 million),
Black Swan ($83.2 million),
The Fighter ($72.6 million), ''The King's Speech
($57.3 million), The Kids Are All Right
($20.8 million), 127 Hours
($11.2 million), and finally Winter's Bone
($6.2 million). The other top-50 box office hits that earned nominations were Alice in Wonderland
(2nd), Iron Man 2
(3rd), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 1
(6th), Tangled
(10th), Tron: Legacy
(12th), Salt
(21st), and Unstoppable'' (39th). Writer
David Wild called it "the world's most uncomfortable blind date between the cool rocker stoner kid and the adorable theater camp cheerleader." Gail Pennington of the
St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote that the ceremony "felt a little like a bad night on
Saturday Night Live — awkward, slow and not particularly entertaining." Regarding the hosts, she quipped that Hathaway "at least tried", but she remarked, "Franco seemed half asleep, or possibly stoned." Some media outlets received the broadcast more positively.
Entertainment Weekly television critic
Ken Tucker stated that the show was "Funny, poised, relaxed, and smart, Anne Hathaway and James Franco made for marvelous Oscar hosts. Their combination of respect and informality struck the right tone for the night, a happily surprising production that had its share of fine moments both planned and ad-libbed." On the overall aspect of the ceremony, they concluded "all in all, it was a fun, briskly paced night." Mary McNamara from the
Los Angeles Times commented, "The two seemed to be following the directive to "first do no harm," as if they knew they couldn't score as big as
Jimmy Fallon did with the
Emmy Awards, but were determined to avoid becoming morning show fodder like
Ricky Gervais was after
this year's Golden Globes. The result was a show that moved along, with a few draggy bits and high notes, like precisely what it was: a very long and fancy awards show." Her review further said "Overall, the evening had an oddly business-like feel, a mind-numbing evenness that was exacerbated by the relentless predictability of the winners, and the fact that none of the acting winners were played off no matter how long their "thank-yous" went."
Ratings and reception The American telecast on ABC drew in an average of 37.9 million people over its length, which was a 9% decrease from the previous year's ceremony. An estimated 71.3 million total viewers watched all or part of the awards. The show also drew lower
Nielsen ratings compared to the two previous ceremonies, with 21.2% of households watching over a 33 share. ==
In Memoriam ==