93rd Academy Awards: Final Thoughts

It's a shame that this Oscar broadcast is going to be primarily remembered for its bizarre final moments. Much like the notorious Best Picture mix-up the year Moonlight won, the evening ended on such a bizarre and anticlimactic (and utterly avoidable) note that I'm afraid the odd last impression is all that's going to be talked about. But, for the most part, this was my favorite Oscars ceremony in a long time. So, I'm going to talk about the good, the bad, and everything in between. And yes, we will talk about the bizarre ending, trust me. Because it was WEIRD.

But first, let's talk about the general tone of the 93rd Academy Awards. We knew it was going to have to be a different kind of ceremony than it usually is, but I really appreciated the approach. My biggest problem with the Oscars ceremonies of recent years is that they're so concerned about ratings. It's no secret that Oscars ratings are declining, and the Academy has frequently pulled out lots of stops to improve its viewership, often to embarrassing results (remember the Best Popular Movie category?) The result tends to be a ceremony with things which feel like they're specifically for people who don't care about the Oscars, which is a strange demographic to strive for. I know this broadcast won't have appealed to everyone. But I think the people who DID enjoy it will be the people most invested in movies. The way the presenters discussed the nominees might not have had the flash of the normal dozens of montages, but I thought it was a respectful and very loving approach. Steven Soderbergh's background as a filmmaker instead of an awards ceremony producer was evident, and I for one loved the quality it brought. Compared to last year, when the Oscars almost didn't broacast three of its awards, every single category felt like it was treated with respect. I have a feeling, too, that the decision to not play any awards winners off is going to be a divisive one, but I loved it. Sure, some of the awards speeches were a bit long (I tuned out REALLY early on in the My Octopus Teacher speech) but the great moments we got made it all worth it. The awards winners didn't get flustered. They were allowed to actually thank people. They were treated like winners instead of obstacles towards ending on time. And that was an incredibly refreshing feeling. The greatest defense of the Oscars' existence is the argument that it's a celebration of film as a whole. This is the most it has felt like that in a while. But this is exactly why the ending of the broadcast felt so unfortunate and disappointing. Ihings went downhill during the In Memoriam section, which felt so strangely and unnecessarily rushed. But far worse was the BAFFLING decision to present Best Actress and Best Actor after Best Picture. This decision was an unequivocally bad one, and did not keep with the spirit of what this ceremony had been about up until then. We don't know why this decision was made. The most common guess seems to be that the Academy assumed Chadwick Boseman would win Best Actor, and wanted to end on that moment. But...why? As beautiful as such a moment could have been, I don't think it would have felt especially poignant happening at the end of the night as opposed to slightly before the end of the night. Who knows if that was even the reason...but the choice ended up really undermining three of the biggest awards of the night. The Best Picture win for Nomadland might have been expected, but is still monumental. This is only the second film directed by a woman to win Best Picture, and deserved its moment of glory. Instead, not being the final award of the night robbed it of its power and importance. Nomadland didn't get to close out the night. The decision also, ironically, undermined the Best Actress win for Frances McDormand. This is McDormand's third Oscar for Best Actress category; it's an amazing achievement surpassed only by Katharine Hepburn who has four wins. It also should have been an exciting moment. Best Actress was one of the closest categories this year, and one of the only awards that didn't feel somewhat predetermined. But given that McDormand had just given part of the acceptance speech for Nomadland's Best Picture win, her Best Actress speech felt like an afterthought. It made one of the biggest surprises of the night feel unfairly unimportant.

But that's nothing compared to the final award of the night: Best Actor. Again, it felt like this moment was designed for the award to be given to Chadwick Boseman. Even if Boseman had won, this would have been a poor decision, but the fact that Anthony Hopkins won and wasn't there to pick up the award really made the choice an unfortunate one. Joaquin Phoenix disinterestedly accepting the award on Hopkins' behalf was the most anticlimactic way this ceremony could have ended. And it shouldn't have been this way! The truth is that Hopkins deserved this award as much as Boseman. His performance in The Father is a career best, and is absolutely deserving of recognition. But the placement of the award made it feel like Boseman had lost, rather than that Hopkins had won. The fact that Hopkins wasn't there meant that he couldn't acknowledge Boseman in his speech, as any of the other nominees undoubtedly would have done. This also highlights the problems with not having an official host for the ceremony. This has proven to be a popular decision, as the Oscars has now gone hostless for two years in a row. But one of the benefits of a host is that they specifically can fill in for awkward moments like this one. If a host had been present, they could have wrapped things up, maybe made a joke about the situation, and wished everyone goodnight. Instead, the ceremony just sort of stopped, instead of feeling like it truly ended. It was a confusing muddle, and an unfortunate way to wrap up what, again, I thought had been a stellar celebration. Also, while there were many excellent presenters (sorry, "cast members") throughout the night, we need to give a special shoutout to Regina King, who started the night off beautifully and really set the tone for what this night would be. If the Oscars is looking for a future host, she should get the job if she has any interest in it.

As for the awards themselves, they were as always a mixed bag. There were definitely some upsets throughout the night (this was my worst predictions track record in a while, I believe) although Best Original Song was probably the only complete shock. My favorite upset was probably The Father winning for Best Adapted Screenplay, an award it absolutely deserved. Seriously, if you haven't seen The Father because you think it's going to be typical Oscars Alzheimer's fare, I promise you it's much more than that. It deserves to be seen, and this screenplay deserves to be studied. I was less thrilled about the Original Screenplay category, and the win for Promising Young Woman. That screenplay is unbelievably problematic, and while I say this win coming, I was nonetheless disappointed. And if you're interested in what problems I might have had with Promising Young Woman, I'll refer you to these articles by Dana Stevens and Ayesha A. Siddiqi, which lay out the film's major flaws in a far more eloquent way than I could. This was far from the only upsetting win, though. In my post outlining my Oscar predictions, I referred to the live action short film Two Distant Strangers as "Clumsy," "Wildly irresponsible," and "Unwatchable." Now that it is an Oscar-winning film, I stand by that assessment wholeheartedly, and it is probably my new pick for the worst Oscar-winning film I've ever seen. It's far more likely to cause trauma than provoke any genuine insight, and I wouldn't be surprised if, following its win, we see thinkpieces about how misguided this film is. I was similarly disappointed with the win in Best Documentary Feature for My Octopus Teacher. This was an INCREDIBLE year for documentaries, and to see this proudly unscientific, mediocre nature doc triumph over its far more deserving fellow nominees felt like a smack in the face. Collective is a powerful and poignant examination of political corruption that feels urgent and groundbreaking. Time is a wonderfully vulnerable work that may tell one specific family's story, but highlights an experience far too many families have had to go through. Crip Camp, which I thought was going to take home the award, is a film that the disabled community has rallied behind, and is a landmark film in terms of representation and the way disabled stories can be told. All of these lost to a guy who really likes an Octopus. I'll refer to comedian and actor Steve Way, who said, "Disabled people losing to a guy who hangs out with an octopus is like an elevator you need to walk up stairs to get to."

But maybe that's not the point. I know Crip Camp director Jim LeBrecht personally, and I know that he was passionate about there being a ramp at the Oscars. There was. And any wheelchair user watching would have noticed it. While it would have been nice for an ASL interpreter to have been visible throughout the broadcast, you could see sign language being used at multiple tables throughout the night. Marlee Matlin was an incredibly welcome presence as a presenter, and short film nominee Feeling Through featured a blind and deaf actor, a first for the Oscars. These sorts of advancements, if they continue to be present at the Oscars, are far more important than any win. And these are far from the only firsts at the 93rd Academy Awards. Mia Neal and Jamika Wilson became the first Black women to ever win in the category of Best Makeup & Hairstyling. And, of course, Chloé Zhao is the second woman to ever win Best Director, and the first woman of color to do so. These are important strides. These are exciting wins.

In the end, the 93rd Academy Awards came out very much in credit for this lifelong Oscars fan. I think there was potential for it to be a trainwreck, and final moments notwithstanding, I think there was a lot to love about this strange, delayed ceremony. And I'll leave you with one fun tidbit. Of the Best Picture nominees, all films won at least one award, with the exception of The Trial of the Chicago 7. And while I'm sure that movie has at least some fans out there, I think most of us can at least be pleased with that result at the very least. The longest awards season in history has finally ended. As always, I've appreciated the folks who tell me they look forward to my coverage every year. If not for all of you, I might have ended this madness long ago, but I do enjoy it so despite the Oscars' many, many faults. After Nomadland won Best Picture, Frances McDormand urged everybody to watch it and all of the other nominees. I'll do you one better: here are my 30 favorite films from 2020. Some of them were nominated for Oscars, most of them weren't (and Judas and the Black Messiah and The Father are extraordinary, but not included because they came out in 2021). But I found things to love in all of them. I may love the Oscars, but I love movies more. Let's all keep watching great movies and supporting great artists, and I'll see you next year as another awards season rolls around.