Award Show Round Up: Oscars 2024!

Good morning! Was is just me and my obsessive love for these kinds of things or was the Oscars last night…good? Like, really fun and celebratory and serious when it needed to be, but never taking itself too seriously? Maybe it’s just my fan goggled blinding me, but I thought it was a really fun broadcast.

I went to the cinema St. Louis watch party again this year at the Hi-Pointe Theatre so I didn’t take as copious notes as I usually do (actually like to watch the Oscars so I’m not as good at blogging about them). But there were so many highlights (and a few things I have some notes on…) Though they aren’t maybe in my usual chronological order.

I complained when Jimmy Kimmel was announced as host again this year, and while I’m still ready for a new face up there (looking at you John Mulaney), I thought he did a pretty good job (though enough jokes about how long movies are), his monologue was fun, and I really loved the moment of union solidarity at the end:

We started the night off with a wonderful win from a deserving artist showing true emotion:

Also, so glad they brought back the past winners presenting the nominees! I wish there was a way to incorporate clips with this format, but I love these moments of connection to the legacy of the Academy.

I only saw one short this year (it was the Wes Anderson – glad he has an Oscar, wish he had been there, but given the Asteroid City snubs, I get it), but I really liked seeing Sean Oko Lennon shout out his mom, because I love her and our culture owes her a million “happy mother’s days” and also more than a few apologies:

The writing awards went to the coolest people:

And he’s right! Bring back midbudget movies!!

Then Oppenheimer (yay) and Poor Things (eye roll) won a lot of technical and craft awards (I would have given at least Production Design to Barbie come on!) But there were some moving and heavy speeches, from the director of 20 Days in Mariupol:

And Jonathan Glazer, who wrote and directed The Zone of Interest, which was far from my favorite film of the year, but I applaud his courage in talking about Gaza from the stage:

(If video isn’t loading, please click through to YouTube, the Oscars have – kind of suspiciously – not posted this on their official channel, so this is from the Deadline Hollywood account which makes embedding trickier).

Also, glad that Zone won, Best Sound, the use of background noise and score in that film completely transform the narrative and responsible for almost all of the creeping dread.

On a lighter, but still important note, I really loved the winners for Best Live Action short bringing along a student, who looked like a princess, and talking about arts education:

The presenter bits almost all worked! My favorites:

Batman villains:

John Cena saying the word “Costumes:”

Getting Steven Spielberg to play along:

John Mulaney, for some reason, recapping Field of Dreams:

Robert Downey Jr., gave great speech all season, and that included last night:

First SNL cast member to win an Oscar! Who do we think will be next? My husband’s bet is on Kate McKinnon, which I would love.

The best production number in recent Oscars memory happened, and somehow (no offense to Billie) didn’t win best song….

As you all probably know by now, I would have loved to see a Paul Giamatti win, but can’t be mad about Cillian:

Christopher Nolan won Best Director and gave one of the quotes of the night about our luck at being so near the birth of the art form of cinema, which was a beautiful sentiment:

Then, Emma Stone won Best Actress, she was, as she always is, very charming and humble in her acceptance, and I think she did a good job in Poor Things, but I think that this win not only fails to recognize Lily Gladstone’s astounding work at the center of Killers of the Flower Moon, misses the opportunity to make history for American Indigenous filmmakers, and continues the almost a century long trend of celebrating most acting as synonymous with best acting. That being said, I’m so excited to see what Gladstone does next, and hope that Emma as producer, has a hand in supporting that (which I think they will, they seem to have forged a lovely friendship. My issues with this win are not actually with her, but with the Academy.)

Then Al Pacino wandered onto the stage, and read the right winner, but seemed very confused, and managed to make the ending of the show feel very anti-climactic, but not enough to ruin anything in my estimation. (Oppenheimer, of course, won.)

Fashion wise, it was a sparkly, fluffy sleeved night, and I have a lot of favorite gowns. (Men mostly stuck to classic tuxes, that all looked lovely, but none spectacular enough to make the list.)