The Oscars and I have a love-hate relationship, but the 96th Academy Awards that took place last night might be the least offensive I have endured in years.
Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer" dominated the night winning seven of the thirteen awards it was nominated for including Best Picture, Best Director for Nolan, and a well-deserved Best Actor for Cillian Murphy. "Poor Things" came in second with four well-earned wins, including Best Actress for Emma Stone.
Topping my list of joys this year was the first win ever for a film in the Toho Godzilla franchise with "Godzilla Minus One" taking home the prize for Best Visual Effects. It took the Academy 70 years to recognize Toho's iconic monster with even a nomination, so as a lifelong Godzilla fan, this felt good, but long overdue. The film should have also been included in the Best Picture nominations instead of that two-hour Mattel ad. But more on "Barbie" later.
I was also delighted to see my favorite film of the year, "Poor Things," take home its Oscars and "Anatomy of a Fall" win for Best Original Screenplay.
Overall the nominated films were more diverse and represented a higher caliber of creativity so the chances of a film I hated winning an Oscar were reduced. The only film I dreaded seeing win was "Barbie." Mercifully, it only took home Best Song, which is a category I annually write off as the most unnecessary award. If the category did not exist than we would not have to suffer through so many tacked on songs in movies that did not need them or have the awards show extended by the performance of the five nominees.
But I will give Ryan Gosling props for delivering an energetic rendition of "I'm Just Ken" to fire up the audience.
Best acceptance speeches
The most effortlessly entertaining acceptance speech came from Robert Downey, Jr. who won Best Supporting Actor for "Oppenheimer." You can watch him charm the audience in the video below.
The most heartwarming win was the visual effects team from "Godzilla Minus One," who came onstage bringing Godzilla figures, including a gold one with a bow tie. Godzilla finally stomped into Hollywood and it was magnificent.
Perhaps the most surprising win, or perhaps the most visibly surprised winner, was Emma Stone taking home her second Best Actress award for her performance as Bella Baxter in "Poor Things." Her Bella kicked Barbie's butt in terms of being a strong female character with agency. She did not simply take down the patriarchy, but rather she took down the whole of polite society and all the hypocrisy and narrow-mindedness that came with it.
The most movingly heartfelt speech came from Mstyslav Chernov, director of "20 Days in Mariupol," which won Best Documentary Feature.
Winning the first Oscar for Ukraine, Chernov said: "But probably I will be the first director on this stage who will say I wish I never made this film. I wish to be able to exchange this to Russia never attacking Ukraine, never occupying our cities. I wish to give all the recognition to Russia not killing tens of thousands of my fellow Ukrainians ... But, I cannot change the history. I cannot change the past. But we all together — you — among you, some of the most talented people in the world, we can make sure that the history record is set straight, and that the truth will prevail and that the people of Mariupol and those who have given their lives will never be forgotten, because cinema forms memories, and memories form history."
Jonathan Glazer won for Best International Feature Film for "The Zone of Interest," a film that used the life of the Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss to explore the banality of evil.
Glazer noted: "All our choices were made to reflect and confront us in the present, not to say look what they did then, but rather look what we do now. Our film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst. It's shaped all of our past and present. Right now, we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people. Whether the victims of October the 7th in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza, all the victims of this dehumanization. How do we resist? Alexandria, the girl who glows in the film as she did in life, chose to. I dedicate this to her memory and her resistance."
Best Documentary Short went to "The Last Repair Shop." Co-director Kris Bowers championed music and public education: "John Williams inspired me to become a composer. He went to L.A. public schools. I went to L.A. public schools. This is Portia Grieger. She's 12 years old. She's learning to play violin at L.A. public schools, which is amazing. Today, L.A. is one of the last cities in America to give public school students free and freely repaired instruments. We need to fix that because music education isn't just about creating incredible musicians. It's about creating incredible humans."
Snubs
Martin Scorsese's "Killers of the Flower Moon" was shut out. Not even Lily Gladstone, a favorite to win Best Actress, or veteran film editor Thelma Schoonmaker could win Oscar's favor. Bradley Cooper's "Maestro," a biopic of Leonard Bernstein, was also shut out, but that could not really be called a surprise.
"Barbie" took home a solo Oscar for Best Song (with Billie Eilish giving the night's worst acceptance speech) but was ignored in its eight other categories. Some were outraged that "Barbie" director Greta Gerwig was snubbed for a Best Director nomination, citing everything from misogyny to prejudice against actors who turn to directing. The latter seems unlikely when you consider how many actors have won Oscars for directing (Woody Allen, Robert Redford, Warren Beatty, Richard Attenborough, Kevin Costner, Mel Gibson, Clint Eastwood, Ron Howard).
But perhaps Oscar's cold shoulder was prompted by Gerwig crossing the picket line last year when writers and actors were on strike. Although the Writers and Screen Actors Guilds urged its union members not to partake in any studio promotion, Gerwig appeared on "Good Morning America" to promote her film but claimed she was not doing publicity for the film as its writer, but rather just as the director (the Directors Guild was not on strike). But that might have come across as a bit disingenuous since she was in fact the co-writer of the film and her partner, Noah Baumbach, honored the picket line.
Oscar host Jimmy Kimmel tries to make amends for the oversight to appease the massive number of "Barbie" fans and paid tribute to "Barbie" in his opening monologue as if he felt The Academy owed an apology. But the tribute found a bit of pointed truth in its joke about Gerwig taking "a plastic doll nobody even liked any more" and turning Barbie "into a feminist icon." Rather than taking down the patriarchy, Gerwig was in fact serving the white male executives of both Warner Brothers and Mattel. "Poor Thing" was the true female empowerment film, so I was glad it kicked "Barbie's" plastic butt at the Oscars.
Highlights of the show
Funniest gag of the night was a riff on the streaker who interrupted the 1974 awards show. Kimmel referenced the incident and then had John Cena, naked except for the Oscar envelope serving as a fig leaf, come on stage to give the Best Costume Oscar.
I liked that for the acting categories, instead of having stupid banter from the presenters, a choice was made to have five previous Oscar winners come out and each pay tribute to one of the nominees. This took the place of clips and was long but at least it was on point and focused on what the awards are supposed to be about — craft and excellence. But most of the show was a return to bad banter, some also badly delivered.
Kimmel was a solid, if not wildly exciting, host. When a joke fell flat in his opening monologue he cleverly acknowledged the silence by saying they would pause for "20 seconds of room tone." A joke all film people would get. And the talented dog from "Anatomy of a Fall" made it onto the telecast, so that was a plus.
Embarrassments
The most outrageous offense of the evening was during its "In Memoriam" section meant to pay tribute to those who died in 2023 and early 2024. But the camera was kept wide to show the dancers onstage thus rendering the names on the screen behind them essentially unreadable. If that's what the show thinks is an appropriate way to honor their fellow colleagues who have died, then it would have been better to cut the whole segment out.
Kimmel noted that next year there would be a new category to honor casting directors, which is fine. But later in the show Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling served up a brief tribute to stunt performers that ended with a "we salute you." But how about salute those people with an actual award? If you can give one to casting directors maybe you can find a way to officially recognize the men and women who literally risk injury to do their jobs.
Raspberries for another omission. Not only have the honorary Oscars been deleted from the live telecast, but when I believe it was Jennifer Yang (it was so fast I'm not 100% sure) was placed in the wings to make cursory note of who received the honorary awards (the great Mel Brooks being one of the winners), she got distracted by Eilish coming off stage from winning her Oscar. Those honorary winners deserved more respect than that.
And as they do every year, the show is content to waste time on inane banter but eager to cut off winners giving their acceptances speeches. The Oscars are supposed to be about recognizing excellence. So why not give these people a tiny bit more time to shine in the spotlight? This felt especially reprehensible when the representative from the visual effects team of "Godzilla Minus One" was giving the group's acceptance speech. He was juggling both nervous excitement and not speaking in his native language. This was a huge moment for them, you could say 70 years in the making, so give them another 30 seconds!
And while John Mulaney's rant about "Field of Dreams" was amusing, his introduction to the Best Sound Oscar provided zero insight into what the category was about. He rattled off a list of memorable movie quotes but that is more an example of scriptwriting, unless you want to explain how a sound editor cuts dialogue. But Tarn Willers redeemed the category in his acceptance speech for his truly stunning work in "The Zone of Interest" by saying: "We need to thank the Academy for listening to our film." The sound design was impossible to ignore and the craft of sound needs to be better appreciated.
Fashion
A few quick fashion notes. What was up with the gigantic sleeves and general poofiness of dresses that people like Ariana Grande were wearing? I thought her sleeves were going to swallow up "Oppenheimer" composer Ludwig Göransson when she hugged him and we'd never see him again.
I was also distracted by Issa Rae's dress that looked to be about a half inch away from a malfunction. And Emma Stone, in accepting her award, pointed out her dress was "broken."
But kudos to Eugene Lee Yang rocking the red carpet with a dramatic flowing gown and to Michelle Yeoh, Jodie Foster, Zendaya, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Catherine O'Hara for some classy elegance.
Complete list of winners, with additional acceptances speeches, can be found here.
More about the history of the Oscars can be found at the Academy's website.
96th Academy Award Trivia
- Number of features eligible for Academy Awards: 321
- Number of countries submitting for International Feature Film: 88
- Number of voting members: 9,341 voting members (as of January 16, 2024)
- Governors Awards Recipients (no longer given in the telecast): Honorary Awards to Angela Bassett, Mel Brooks and Carol Littleton; Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to Michelle Satter
- For the fifth consecutive year, at least one film nominated for Best Picture has been directed by a woman (Justine Triet's "Anatomy of a Fall," Greta Gerwig's "Barbie," and Celine Song's "Past Lives").
- For the sixth consecutive year, at least one non-English language film has been nominated in a writing category ("Anatomy of a Fall") and for Best Picture ("Anatomy of a Fall," "The Zone of Interest").
- With his nomination for Live Action Short Film, Wes Anderson becomes one of only three people with nominations in five or more award categories: Anderson for writing, animated feature, directing, best picture and live action short film; Kenneth Branagh for acting, directing, live action short film, writing and best picture; and the record holder in six categories, Alfonso Cuarón for writing, film editing, directing, best picture, cinematography and live action short film.
- Thelma Schoonmaker’s ninth nomination is a record in the Film Editing category.
- John Williams continues to add to his record number of music scoring nominations with his 49th. His overall total of 54 nominations (including five for Original Song) is the most for any living person, and second only to Walt Disney at 59. He is also, to the best of our knowledge, the oldest nominee in a competitive award category at 91 years of age.
