After seven months, awards season has finally come to a glorious and merciful end. “One Battle After Another” awarded Paul Thomas Anderson three long-deserved Academy Award statues, “Sinners” was rewarded with Oscars for Ryan Coogler, Michael B. Jordan, and a historic win for cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw. “KPop Demon Hunters” and “Frankenstein” gave Netflix a bucket of wins to celebrate, while Jessie Buckley put “Hamnet” in the winner’s circle for all-time. Not a bad night for The Academy, host Conan O’Brien, or the In-N-Out burger on Sunset Blvd, which is in literal walking distance of the Dolby Theater.
READ MORE: “One Battle After Another” Wins Best Picture And Six Oscars Overall
There will be time to reflect on the lessons of this awards season later this week, but in the meantime, some initial thoughts on a ceremony which almost always surprises (well, except maybe last year).
Oscar got its political mojo back
After being somewhat embarrassed throughout the entire awards season by their music industry peers, the winners, presenters, and even O’Brien made sure the Oscar telecast reflected the times with some impressively pointed jokes (“at least we arrest our pedophiles”). Sure, the lack of F**k Ice pins was…odd, but overall, this was a much more activist ceremony than the fires-shocked telecast a year ago. From Javier Bardem’s “Free Palestine” call out (which received a strong ovation) to the filmmakers from “Mr. Nobody Against Putin” (a pointedly political win from the membership), “Two People Exchanging Siliva,” and “All the Empty Rooms” speaking truth to Joachim Trier‘s acceptance speech, to even “F1” sound winner Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, there were a slew of decidedly political statements on stage. And, of course, bless Jimmy Kimmel.
“Marty Supreme” is the “Up in the Air” of this decade
Josh Safdie’s original period drama about a top-tier ping pong player earned nine Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Casting, and Original Screenplay. It went home completely empty-handed. It joins a notable list of quality films this century that earned over six nominations but were completely shut out from wins, including “American Hustle,” “Gangs of New York,” “True Grit,” “The Irishman,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” and “Up in the Air.” It’s not ideal, and A24 and the Safdie team are probably not feeling that great today, but the movie is also the highest-grossing hit in the history of the mini-major at $179 million and counting (with a shot at $200 million). They’ll all be fine. A24 ain’t sweating it (although maybe don’t cast a MAGA champion in your next movie, Josh). That being said…
Timothée Chalamet, you in danger girl
Depending on your perspective, the world has justifiably or unjustifiably piled on the Best Actor nominee over the past few weeks. The latest social media drama over his comments on the state of ballet and opera even had Steven Spielberg calling him out at SXSW. Yes, the notoriously shady Steven Spielberg (spoiler: he’s not). Chalamet took O’Brien’s zingers with a smile, but if there was any opportunity to really address the issue in a humbling bit (unclear if O’Brien or the show reached out), he didn’t take it. At this point, Chalamet is an easy punching bag for many in the industry who have rolled their eyes over his honest desire to win Oscars and fashion a legacy as a historically gifted actor. Nobody cares about his marketing stunts and the limited-release jackets. That’s good s**t. That helped “Marty” become a massive hit. It’s the whiplash from the humble, indie-movie actor from the “Call Me By Your Name” and “Beautiful Boy” days transforming into something quite different that rubbed voters and the industry the wrong way. At this point, Chalamet is probably gonna keep doing Chalamet, but you can bet Warner Bros. would love for him to just disappear from the public eye as much as possible until the promo tour for “Dune: Part Three” begins in November. He also either needs a new publicist or for someone in his sphere to tell him to listen to his publicist’s advice. Will he?
Not enough members voted in the shorts categories
You know why there was a tie? A tie in an organization of potentially 10,000 voters? A tie that is almost statistically unheard of? A tie that hadn’t occurred since 2013? The answer is simple: not enough members participated in the shorts process this year. The voting pool was shallow. Historically, shorts have always been tough categories to recruit members to vote in because, unlike most traditional feature releases, they aren’t catching these films organically at their local multiplex or nearby movie theater, wherever in the world they might be filming. The Academy never has and never will reveal the number of members who opted in to vote, but we are a long way off from the stay-at-home COVID era, where it was clear AMPAS had a ton of members watching in their free time. Then again, maybe those reminders that members needed to watch all the nominees if they wanted to participate were a bit much? In fact…
Actually, not enough members voted in several categories
Every member talked about it. They abstained from this category or that one because of the reminders from the Academy screening app to watch all the nominees. The Academy’s point is sound, and members of the general public were aghast that voters were previously not forced to watch every movie up for consideration or nominated (oh boy, don’t speak to Grammy and Emmy voters). But to end up guilting members not to vote because they haven’t seen all the Animated Features or Feature Documentaries seems like a mistake. We spoke to members who had watched four out of five nominees and still didn’t participate in a category because they’d been – our categorization, not theirs – “shamed.” To suggest this is not ideal moving forward is an understatement.
Why was the telecast often a mess?
An OK monologue aside, O’Brien was generally pretty great throughout the entire rest of the ceremony (the Sterling K. Brown “Casbalanca” bit was top-tier). That being said, the show’s production had more gaffes than we can remember for an Oscar ceremony in forever. There were multiple moments of shaky camerawork, awkward camera cuts, a shot that was momentarily out of focus (what), and a persistent sound problem with the center-stage microphone that was not fixed until at least ninety minutes in. O’Brien, the wins, speeches, and presenters carried the show, but this was not an Emmy-worthy production overall. What happened? Was there a technical issue? Also, who made the terrible decision to cut off the Korean speaking “Golden” Original Song winner and then hold on the shot of him not being able to speak while another recipient, Mark Sonnenblick, pleaded for his colleague’s case for at least 5 seconds? The decisions were so awkward that even O’Brien had to comment on the production decisions during the telecast.
David Ellison got a message from the creatives he wants to work with
When Jimmy Kimmel joked that some leaders don’t support free speech, “let’s just leave it at North Korea and CBS,” there was a notable, extended applause from the audience. An audience full of actors, directors, and writers that the owner of CBS, David Ellison, wants to recruit and to work with. From the top down, people want to pay their bills in Hollywood. And if they get enough creative freedom, they will often look the other way over one issue or another. This, however, was a sign that if given a choice, a significant number may not. That is, if they have a choice.
Remember this Warner Bros. peak
Speaking of Ellison, remember this past 12 months for Warner Bros. Nine movies earned over $200 million worldwide. A record-tying 11 Oscars for one studio. Three massive hits that earned Oscar wins, which were completely original: “One Battle After Another,” “Sinners,” and “Weapons” (technically four if you count “F1,” which they distributed for Apple Studios). No one thought this could happen under David Zaslav’s watch after the Warner Bros. and Discovery merger began, but he picked Pam Abdy and Michael DeLuca to run the venerable studio, and the duo worked some creative magic. The future may not be as bright, but for one glorious year….
An In Memoriam for the ages
Full stop: the producers of the telecast convinced 83-year-old “I won’t sing in public anymore” Barbra “Babs” Streisand to sing a few stanzas of “The Way We Were” after a heartfelt dedication to her one-time co-star Robert Redford. And that was only a short moment in an extended In Memoriam, which featured Rachel McAdams delivering a tribute to fellow Canadian Catherine O’Hara and the legendary Diane Keaton, as well as a moving remembrance to Rob Reiner from his longtime best friend Billy Crystal and an ensemble of actors who’d worked with him over the years, including Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, Jerry O’Connell, Wil Wheaton, Fred Savage, Cary Elwes, Mandy Patinkin, Carol Kane, Meg Ryan, Kiefer Sutherland, Demi Moore, Kevin Pollak, Kathy Bates, Annette Bening, John Cusack, and Daphne Zuniga. You may never see anything like this ever again.
Why do the Oscars still have a talent problem?
We are well aware of the time commitment for talent to venture to the Dolby Theater and attend and/or present at the Academy Awards. And a ton of major stars are filming projects all over the world. That being said, the ceremony is a massive global showcase, and if you’re already in town, working with a premier fashion house, attending the Vanity Fair afterparty or the annual Elton John AIDS fundraiser, why would you not take advantage of Hollywood’s biggest night? Why were Dua Lipa, Gold Medalist Alysa Liu, Colman Domingo, Olivia Rodrigo, Simu Liu, Keke Palmer, Naomi Watts, and Anya Taylor-Joy, among a slew of others, at those competing events and not the Oscars itself? Perhaps fewer influencers getting seats and more…stars?
Michael B. Jordan is the new king of Hollywood
Every few years, there is massive joy for someone getting a win. To many, that was longtime indie filmmaker Sean Baker last year or fan favorite Michelle Yeoh in 2023. This Oscar season that spotlight went to Jordan, whose “comeback” win made people scream with joy. The actor and director is one of the few stars who didn’t jump on the streaming bandwagon during the pandemic, and it has paid off in spades. There has been an ongoing mantra for decades about the “last real movie star,” a title meant to signal the death of an industry that keeps chugging along. That title arguably went from Paul Newman to Robert Redford to Tom Cruise to Leonardo DiCaprio and, perhaps a bit too soon, Chalamet. Maybe the current holder of that crown is none other than Jordan? Ponder.
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Editor-at-Large Gregory Ellwood is one of Hollywood's most respected awards journalists, covering the Oscars and Emmys beat with the access and institutional knowledge that comes from decades reporting at the center of the industry. Based in West Hollywood, he has written for the LA Times, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, HitFix, and Vox, among others.
