The Super Bowl for your most online friend, better known as the Oscars, came and went over spring break. Of the 50 films nominated, only 14 won awards. “Sinners” was nominated in a record-breaking 16 categories, while “One Battle After Another” took home the most gold with six wins.
“One Battle After Another” took home most of the creative awards (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay) and Guillermo Del Toro’s “Frankenstein” won most of the technical awards (Best Production Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Costume Design). “Sinners” got its flowers too, winning four awards, including Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography and Best Original Score.
The Best Casting award was given out for the first time this year. Many critics and journalists speculated about the purpose of this award, perhaps to be given to the runner-up to Best Picture, or maybe something else entirely. After introductions by cast members of each of the five nominated films “One Battle After Another,” “Hamnet,” “Marty Supreme,” “The Secret Agent” and “Sinners,” the award was given to Cassandra Kulukindis, casting director of “One Battle After Another.”
Conan O’Brien hosted for the second time in a row, continuing his role from the 97th Academy Awards. The fair-haired late-night host turned podcaster began the ceremony with a cold open skit featuring O’Brien in Amy Madigan’s Aunt Gladys makeup from “Weapons,” being chased by children through many of the films nominated for Best Picture. In one such vignette, O’Brien showed off some of his Norwegian when talking to Stellan Skarsgård in character for “Sentimental Value.” In his opening monologue, O’Brien began an uncomfortable night-long trend of digging on Timothée Chalamet for his comments on the popularity of opera and ballet and mentioned how he was featured in a film nominated for an Oscar at that very ceremony (O’Brien played an uncaring therapist in “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You,” of which Rose Byrne was nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role).
Among “Sinners’” wins for the night was Best Cinematography, won by Autumn Durald Arkapaw, who is not only the first person of color to achieve this, but the first woman overall. In her acceptance speech, Arkapaw asked all of the women attending the ceremony to stand and be recognized for their collective effort behind her win.
Similarly, Jessie Buckley became the first Irish winner of the Best Actress in a Leading Role award for her portrayal of Agnes Shakespeare in “Hamnet.” In her speech, she asked all of the Irish attendees to stand and be recognized, where their enormous cheer indicated their approval of her win.
Paul Thomas Anderson won three awards (Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Picture) for “One Battle After Another,” his first three Oscars out of eleven previous losses, noting in his speech that the Academy “sure makes a guy work hard for one of these,” said Anderson
In the most anticipated battle of the night, Michael B. Jordan successfully edged out Timothée Chalamet for the Best Actor in a Leading Role award for “Sinners.” The announcement induced a standing ovation from attendees. After Chalamet’s controversially viral comment in a CNN/Variety town hall, in which he said that “no one cares” about such art forms as ballet and opera, there was speculation about whether his comment would impact the final votes in an already contentious race.
Online commenters speculate that the more likely culprit for Chalamet’s loss is A24’s award campaign for “Marty Supreme.” An anonymous voter, whose ballots were collected annually by various online news sources, explained that they voted for Michael B. Jordan because they were impressed by his feat of playing two different characters, the “Smokestack Twins.” When it comes down to it, Chalamet shouldn’t be too disappointed. After all, he can rest well knowing that he should’ve won for his first Oscar-nominated performance in “Call Me By Your Name.”
A controversial moment involved the Best Original Song category. In years past, all five songs nominated for the award were performed live at the ceremony. This year, only two songs, “Golden” from “K-Pop Demon Hunters” and “I Lied to You” from “Sinners,” were performed. Although “Golden” won the award at this year’s Oscars, omitting the other three nominations (“Dear Me” from “Diane Warren: Relentless,” “Sweet Dreams of Joy” from “Viva Verdi!,” and “Train Dreams” from “Train Dreams”) raised questions about the fairness of the ceremony in general. In addition, after “Golden” songwriter/co-singer Ejae finished her acceptance speech, the entire team was shooed offstage to boos from the audience before any other member of the song’s team could give speeches of their own.
Out of the 125 nomination spots, only 50 films were nominated in total, with a mere 14 actually winning awards. Perhaps in the future, the Oscars will have a wider breadth of nominations beyond the films that studios spend the most money marketing. Sorry, Disney, but plugging “The Mandalorian & Grogu” mid-broadcast still won’t save that sinking ship.