With the announcement of this year’s Oscar winners, another long awards season has come to a close. While most categories went according to plan, we had a couple of surprises, albeit nothing you’d call a huge shocker. And certainly none you’d call a bad decision.
As is tradition, let’s take a closer look at everything that went down with the good, the bad, and the ugly of the 97th Academy Awards.
THE GOOD
Anora cleans up. After its campaign seemingly hit a brick wall at the Golden Globes back in January, it’s rather remarkable that Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or winner turned it all around in the final stages of the season to take home five Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Actress for a richly deserving Mikey Madison. Look, whether you love the film or not, this is a big win for independent cinema. A film (and an inherently comedic one, at that) that only cost $6 million to produce claimed five above-the-line categories. As Baker said, “Long live independent film!”
A bunch of history-making firsts. Baker became the first person in history to win four Academy Awards for the same film in one evening. He tied the record with Walt Disney for the most Oscars won at a single ceremony. Zoe Saldaña (Emilia Pérez) became the first American of Dominican origin to win an Oscar. Flow is the first Latvian film to win an Academy Award. Flow is also the first International Feature submission to win Best Animated Feature and the first film without dialogue to win this category. Wicked costume designer Paul Tazewell is the first Black man to win Best Costume Design. After five unsuccessful nominations, Brazil won its first Best International Feature Film for I’m Still Here.
That I’m Still Here win. It wasn’t a huge shock, but a win so monumental that it created celebration on the streets of Brazil. It’s a staggering achievement that an international film with just three overall nominations could defeat a film with 13 nominations. But it highlighted just how much the tide had turned against Emilia Pérez in the latter part of the season. Did the Karla Sofía Gascón old tweets controversy play a part? Eh, I’d like to think it was more a case of more voters finally deciding to view I’m Still Here and realising it was the better film by a mile. Bravo to Sony Pictures Classics (and Fernanda Torres) on running a phenomenal campaign.
And that Flow win. I wasn’t brave enough to predict it (ugh), but the little Latvian, dialogue-free animated gem managed to pull it off. For a film like that to topple big-budget studio productions like The Wild Robot and Inside Out 2 is simply stunning. It’s the third straight win for an animated film decidedly outside the norms of what used to dominate this category. May this trend continue for years to come.
And that No Other Land win. For a film without U.S. distribution to win an Academy Award is a genuine miracle. That was the difficult path facing the Palestinian documentary that no studio in America dared to touch. There were many who doubted its chances (yes, I predicted it, but I too was uncertain), but somehow it scored one of the most unlikely victories of the night. And the filmmakers expectedly delivered one of the most powerful speeches of the ceremony.
Cynthia and Ariana bring the house down. Once it was confirmed the Wicked stars would be performing on the Oscars stage, we knew we were in for something special. And they did not disappoint. From Ariana belting out “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” from The Wizard of Oz and Cynthia nailing “Home” from The Wiz, the pair combined for the long-awaited duet of “Defying Gravity.” The result was nothing short of breathtaking.
The tribute to L.A. After the devastating wildfires in January, many questioned if the Academy Awards could even be held this year. But the show must go on and the producers were wise to open the show with a beautiful montage of iconic moments from films produced in Los Angeles and later brought a group of first-responders on stage to a deserving standing ovation.
The Fab Five format. The producers brought back the concept of having five people introduce/praise each of the five nominees in one category but with a delightful twist. Rather than apply this to the acting categories as they have in the past, it was given to the nominees for Best Cinematography and Best Costume Design with five presenters who worked on each nominated film. For artisans who rarely get their moment in the spotlight, it was a lovely touch to give them their dues. And it gave Bowen Yang a great costuming gag too.
Sean Baker’s plea to save cinemas. I normally hate when winners read off an acceptance speech, but Baker had something important to say and he clearly wanted to get it right. Baker delivered a beautiful “battle cry” to passionately beg audiences to continue watching films in a cinema, for distributors to focus on theatrical releases first and foremost, for parents to take their children to see films in theatres, and for filmmakers to continue making movies for the big screen. Five years after the pandemic crippled the cinema industry, it’s a message that needs to be heard loud and clear.
Conan’s hosting. It’s wild it has taken this long for the beloved comedian to host the Academy Awards, but he made the most of his opportunity with a mostly terrific performance. From a great opening monologue that referenced everything from Karla Sofía Gascón to John Lithgow’s slightly disappointed face to a brilliant skit introducing CinemaStreams and some great one-liners in between awards (“Well, we’re halfway through the show, which means it’s time for Kendrick Lamar to come out and call Drake a pedophile.”), Conan elicited well-earned laughs throughout. Ask him back someday, Academy.
Morgan Freeman’s tribute to Gene Hackman. We knew they’d have to pull something together at the last minute to acknowledge the passing of such a Hollywood legend. The fact they got Freeman to be the man to deliver it was a masterstroke. Given the news was still so fresh, Freeman was clearly holding back tears and it was rather overwhelming to watch.
“I’m actually being played by Bill Skarsgård.” June Squibb continues to be a national treasure.
Mick Jagger. Enough said.
THE BAD
The “I Won’t Waste Time” number. Look, I get the irony and sarcasm of Conan boasting he will run a tight ship and keep the show moving before launching into a pointless song about how he won’t waste time, but the bit didn’t work and the song simply wasn’t funny. The inclusion of the sandworm from Dune: Part Two playing chopsticks on the piano was pretty absurdly brilliant, however.
The James Bond tribute. It wasn’t an anniversary. The franchise isn’t concluding. So why were subjected to yet another tribute to 007 with a video montage and a couple of Bond songs performed that felt like it went forever? The whole thing was seemingly centred around the fact producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson had relinquished creative control of the franchise to someone else. Right. So this was either a nod to the fact the saga will never be the same again or an advertisement for Amazon MGM Studios to remind everyone they’ve got something coming in the next few years. The whole thing was so bafflingly bizarre and unnecessary.
Adrien Brody. From throwing his gum to his wife before he got to the stage (seriously, what was that?) to demanding the orchestra stop trying to play him off (buddy, you were waffling and it was one of the few times the orchestra was doing the right thing), Brody’s second win for Best Actor didn’t make for the greatest of Oscar moments. Such a shame for an actor so deserving of the victory.
The “El Mal” win. It wasn’t a stellar year for the Best Original Song category to the point the producers didn’t bother to have the nominated tracks performed during the ceremony as has been the tradition for decades. But Camille made the victory of Emilia Pérez track “El Mal” even more cringe by randomly bursting into song and attempting (and failing) to get the audience involved by warbling, “Emilia, Emilia!” Honey, read the room.
Only playing acting clips for Best Actor and Actress. We’d been begging the Academy to bring back acting clips. We almost got our wish fulfilled. While acting clips played before the nominees for the leading categories, they were bizarrely still absent from the supporting races. Instead, it was left to last year’s supporting winners Robert Downey Jr. and Da’Vine Joy Randolph to quickly praise each nominee before the winner was announced. Maybe they only brought them back for the lead categories to avoid Emma Stone having to awkwardly say something nice about Karla Sofía Gascón. Either way, give all acting nominees the same treatment or don’t bother.
“Lacrimosa” from Mozart’s Requiem as the In Memoriam song. Dramatic much?
The “Adam Sandler sitting in the audience in casual clothing” bit. Meh, pass.
THE UGLY
The orchestra play-offs. Look, I get it. Nobody wants to see every winner babble on for an eternity. Few people enjoy seeing the show push beyond the four-hour mark. And I appreciate winners of “bigger” categories are always allocated more time to speak. As aforementioned, one of them was even permitted to tell the orchestra to shut up. But this year felt particularly brutal in regards to who the orchestra chose to play off and how quickly they decided to do so. This is likely the greatest moment in this artist’s career. They have achieved the highest honour in their industry. And they deserve to have their moment.
Personally, I don’t care if the show runs long. Let it go to four hours. If that means we’re not subjected to watching winners embarrassingly robbed of enjoying their victory and thanking the people who got them there, I’m all for it. Best Sound was the most egregious example. It was heartbreaking to see Dune: Part Two winner Gareth John move to the microphone after his colleagues had finished only to find it had been cut off as the orchestra brutally played in the background. Even presenter Miley Cyrus looked annoyed by it. The irony of a sound engineer being silenced.
Now, I appreciate when there are multiple winners in one category, it creates an issue for the producers. Do they allow just one winner to speak or do they give each their own moment to say something? If the winners have made it obvious only one selected nominee is speaking for the group i.e. the others stand to the side or in the background, problem solved. But, in the case of John, it was obvious he was waiting for his turn. Anyone with two eyes could see it. And you still deprived him of his chance.
It’s a fine line to walk and the Oscars producers got it so wrong this year. John wasn’t the only victim with several others finding the orchestra music kicking in far too early. You let Camille waffle on and start singing. You let Brody do whatever he damn well pleased. Give this treatment to everyone and stop playing favourites. In a ceremony where you somehow found the time for musical numbers no one asked for and numerous skits and gags, minimising the time given to the winners (aka the entire point of the damn show) is ridiculous.
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