Sunday night, or rather very early Monday morning in the UK, saw the climax of yet another long awards season for the movie industry. Oscar had decided to bring it forward a few weeks this year, meaning all the big awards were squashed into a shorter time frame, and the whole exhausting bandwagon had hurtled towards this night at a frantic pace. It hasn’t always been easy to watch the show live in recent years, so I was thrilled to find that I could get a free Sky Cinema pass on Now TV and watch the whole thing on my phone. A sign of the times…
This included the almost insufferable red carpet preamble from 10pm. I didn’t have to put myself through this, but I hadn’t watched live for years, so was determined to soak it all up. I will never get those 3 hours back… so tedious and inane on so many levels, discussing designers and jewels worth millions, and asking the most obvious questions possible that the stars lucky enough to be nominated have been answering since before Christmas. There is some degree of interest in who bothers to show up early, and in who is cool enough to ride it out with dignity and humour, but beyond that it is an excruciatingly false and fatuous phenomenon. Although it does put you in the mood to get to the show – picking up the nerves and various vibes around certain films.
Promptly at 1am, the awards show began with a low key introduction from former hosts Steve Martin and Chris Rock, who made a point of this year being hostless once again – a trend that looks likely to stick; it just saves time and gets everyone to the party quicker. It was a largely uninspired few minutes comedically, both inoffensive and unmemorable. Following this was a live song and dance intro that began with nervous wardrobe issues and proceeded to wobble its way through to a weak climax. Not the greatest start in the 92 year history.
Fortunately for everyone, the first category of the night was both a strong one and a popular one, as a young man called Brad Pitt finally achieved his first Oscar for his excellent work in Once Upon A Time in Hollwyood. He had swept up at every event so far, and there was no way he wasn’t going to have his moment tonight, despite a very competetive group of co-nominess. His speech was typically charming and gracious, thanking Leo for being basically the biggest star and best human in the world (hmm). There was the hint of a lump in the throat at the end, and thanks to that we all settled in, remembering why we love the Oscars: it’s watching people we have spent our lives watching, and admiring, have the moment of their life in front of an audience of their peers – representing film experiences we claim as our own, for a myriad of human reasons.
The night proceeded, and categories ticked away, giving the impression it was going to be another year where the academy spread the love around, with no one film getting on a roll. Laura Dern won, predictably, for her fine character work in the extraordinarily moving Marriage Story, turning out to be its only win from 6 nominations. Taika Waititi won for Adapted Screenplay for Jojo Rabitt, also its only award of the night. And the first semi shock was Korean film Parasite beating out Quentin Tarantino to his potential 3rd best original screenplay award, a seemingly popular choice with the crowd. And a hint of things to come.
All of this was punctuated by endless commercial breaks where the European audience had to endure the panel, led by Alex Zane, discussing their predictions and reflections on winners so far. Meanwhile, on the stage, we were “treated” to one best song nominee performance once every half hour or so. Not a highlight for me – all five performances being somewhat shaky and not of the highest quality the category has ever seen, in terms of the actual tunes. Even (deserving) eventual winner Elton John’s performance lacked real zing. As an entertainment spectacle this has to be one of the poorest shows in the entire history of the awards. Apart from the unstoppable Billie Eilish delivering a suitably sombre version of Yesterday to accompany the “In Memoriam”section, there was nothing worth remembering at all.
The battle for main award honours had been touted all along as a battle between Sam Mendes’ epic war film, 1917, and Korean masterpiece Parasite, which had achieved great momentum from other awards shows leading up. However, strong favourite on the back of 7 BAFTA wins was the former, especially considering no foreign language film had EVER won best picture. As the night wore on, and Parasite won the expected (and newly re-named) Best International Film award, it looked more and more likely we were going to witness history, and Sam would have to wait longer than 20 years for a 2nd big victory. Begging the question, somewhat, of what you have to do to win sometimes…
1917 did win for Roger Deakins and his superlative camera work. You wait years for one and then two come along at once – surely the best exponent currently working in this important discipline in 2020. It also picked up two more, for Visual Effects and Sound Mixing. But, lost out for Production Deisgn and Editing to Once Upon a Time… and the over-acheiving Ford Vs Ferrari, respectively. Hinting the writing was somewhat on the wall for the big ones. Inbetween the intrigue, Joker picked up its first of two on the night for Best Score, and the impossibly charming Hildur Guđnadottír, also gained merit as contender for most likeable speech, with her wonderfully guileless and genuinely happy demeanor.
By the time Bong Joon Ho had sprung the first major surprise of the evening by beating Mendes to Best Director, I was starting to wane, it has to be said. It is a perennial problem watching the Oscars in Europe, that they save the big ones for last, meaning it is 3am minimum before the ones you have been waiting for come around. The shock in the room was palpable, and Mendes demonstrated a flicker of surprise himself, before returning a mature and supportive smile to the camera, following the Korean’s interpreted speech, the gist of which seemed to be “let’s all get pissed!” Some debate remained whether 1917 still had any chance at this point of winning Best Picture, but experience informed me that it was all over, bar the history making moment the Academy so love to spring in recent years.
Finally, the moment, I personally, had been waiting for, and the award for Best Actor. Every year, there is always at least one performance I champion to an almost obsessive extent. And sometimes I even vow that if that person doesn’t win I will never watch again, as with Marion Cotillard in 2008. The nervous tension that Phoenix wouldn’t win as the moment approached woke me up, but I needn’t have worried. Simply: the best male performance in film for 20 years, and I stand by that argument passionately! He had won everything else available, and had much practice at delivering nervy, but meaningful, speeches at the Golden Globes, BAFTAs and SAGs, etc. What happened next however, I was not prepared for!
If you haven’t already seen his acceptance speech in full, I urge you to go out of your way to find it, absorb it, think about it, and share it with everyone who could care less about the validity of giving awards for film arts at all. Simply one of the finest, most eloquent, and heartfelt acceptance speeches ever given! Full stop. Acknowledging the role and film in passing only, he wastes no time getting to the point of using the platform to say something important. And nails it! Ending with a moment of personal emotion and relevance that all but broke me! And that’s all I want to say about that here. Apart from repeating this line, referencing the memory of his brother, that both sums up his speech and his approach to the whole damn circus: “Run to the rescue, with love, and peace will follow”. A sentiment so meaningful to me, in so many ways, that within 24 hours I had ordered T-Shirts with that simple line printed black on white…
It was a tough act to follow, and Renée Zellweger kind of didn’t. I’m not sure anyone really listened to her speech for Best Actress at all, so dull in comparison as it was. I am sure she deserved it. I haven’t seen it, so can’t comment. But, it was striking how out of place it felt in the context of other things going on. It feels to me like a missed opportunity for actresses, who have campaigned so well to gain equal standing over recent years, to make such an uninteresting and backwards choice in this category. I was rooting for Scarlett Johansson for Marriage Story: such a brave and modern performance. But, honestly, I reserve ultimate judgement on it until I can compare all nominees on their merits. I hope Zellweger’s turn as Judy proves me wrong…
The final award is always Best Picture, and this is the one that really matters. To date, only 92 films have this honour. Many amazing, breath-taking films famously haven’t won, and, on the day, only one can take the prize. Looking back, only a few days later, how could it not have gone to Parasite? Think of all the incredible non-English language films there have always been that have had to settle for the dubious honour of “Best Foreign Language Film” up till now! In the year that this category was changed to “Best International Film”, it seems fitting that this was the year to make a point about film being a global art-form, and well done to the Academy for finally getting that right. I truly hope it leads to subtitled films reaching a wider audience, as they so clearly deserve.
Politically, the Oscars still have a way to go, as does the industry as a whole. The tradition of glamour should not be lost, but the idea of white, male, American (or at least English) bias needs to keep moving forward. The aim would be that one year down the line all awards are presented on merit and not out-moded misconceptions of race, gender, and the control of the powerful. It’s getting better; slowly. The omission of Greta Gerwig for her direction of the well received Little Women, which was given the token award of Best Costume Design, is a little shameful. No one in their right mind, apart from Hollywood, could imagine Quentin Tarantino earned that more than she did! And that is without joining the debate on the absence of many minorities in many categories. I am sure it is becoming equally embarrassing for the Academy as it is for all of us watching. The point being, let’s not give tokens to minorities to put a tick in a politically correct box, but let’s open our minds to what a global art-form really is. Being positive, I’m sure that the deserved recognition of Parasite will go some way to bridge that gap.
In conclusion, it was a strangely joyless night. There being an air that, in media terms, this stuff still matters; and there was some walking on egg-shells in the effort not to offend. The showmanship and comedy that has accompanied the best Oscar nights was largely missing. And I wonder what that is all about? James Cordon and Rebel Wilson gave us a small chuckle sending up the lack of any kind of skill in Cats; Will Ferrell was amusing, as always, but the only true comedy of the night went to the SNL girls, who nailed it. Head to You Tube to find out why, trust me, it’s worth the effort. I only ask: where was Billy Crystal?
Vintage year? Well, yes and no! Hours of dullness, punctuated by several really significant moments. The only really important point for me being the idea of continuing to watch movies! Despite any gripes about what this is? and why this is? offset by some great cinema arts, that deserve to be celebrated. All I can say is: Keep Watching!
The Wasteland 