The 93rd Academy Awards: What Went Wrong?
Of course Oscar’s Night is one of the most exciting and prestigious events of the award’s season- a chance to award those in the industry who dedicated themselves to their craft. It’s without mentioning that throughout the years, the show has become overly political, and each host feels the need to be the quirkiest person in the room. In 2019, the decision was made, since the “show must go on” without a host, this being the third year marking it’s third year in a row.
Diversity had a big part in the nominees this year, most notably with Chloe Zhao winning Best Director and Best Picture, only the second female director to do so, the first being Kathryn Bigelow for Hurt Locker (2010). And sweet Yuh-Jung-Youn’s acceptance speech is still the highlight of the night for me, an eye opening, honest acceptance- otherwise this was grueling to sit through. Even Thomas Vinterburg’s speech for Another Round was one of the most tender ones I’ve heard. Any some speeches did run over, making the show as long as ever still.
I commemorate those who were still able to make this special night happen, creating a venue inspired from the very first Academy Awards in 1929 with the fauna dangling from the ceiling with circular lanterns scattered about. That was truly breathtaking and watching the red carpet segment I had high hopes going in.
The “cinematic” look of the ceremony was nice, however I counted at least five different camera setups, making people twist their necks around every time a presenter was speaking and sometimes even live pans were used, drawing the eye away from the presenter. There were various awkward silences in between segments and Questlove was in charge of music. For an example of this grand mess-up- he played an upbeat Stevie Wonder song over the In Memorian segment. The video was edited poorly, as it sped through certain faces and momentarily paused on others, the last being Chadwick Boseman. The ceremony was confident the late actor would receive the posthumous Best Actor Oscar so much so that they re-arranged the order of the awards, making Best Picture third to last, and then subsequently Best Actress and Best Actor, hoping the show would conclude with a final send off to Boseman, as if he hadn’t already swept the award’s season.
This is disrespectful not only to those who passed but also an unwanted pressure inflicted on nominees in the Best Acting categories. The final award of the night should always be the prestigious Best Picture award. Nomadland’s historic win was not as glorious in the moment as it could’ve been. This might’ve also been due to the lack of applause in such a small venue. It felt brief and the strange pacing added another deficient element to that.
In closing, every Oscars show will have it’s controversy, as the years go on, someone is always complaining about wins and losses. Yet one of my biggest complaints- where were the CLIPS? For those interested in seeing the films and the INCENTIVE of the Academy to urge those to get back into theaters and McDormand even mentioning in her speech to see every nominated film on the largest screen possible, wouldn’t the brief clips add an excitement and engage the viewers to be proactive?
The format of showing people in the audience being nominated could be argued as more intimate, although without visually seeing what film is nominated there is a disconnect that made most audience viewing experiences so unfortunate. The end of the show was abruptly concluded when an uncomfortable Joaquin Phoenix presented Best Actor award to Anthony Hopkins, who reasonably could not attend. COVID is still rampant, and with his age he would’ve been immune compromised. Good choice Hopkins! He still uploaded an acceptance video anyways. But the fact that the Academy was riding on a high chance was still irresponsible of them. So in future seasons, perhaps don’t rearrange the categories? There is a lot to be learned from this Oscars and the hope to return to a full capacity theater will be eagerly in the makings for next year.
