Another one down.
This was an interesting year because in the end, there was a consensus, even if it didn’t feel (to me) like there necessarily was one throughout the process. But they got there.
Also another year absent any major surprises. The biggest surprise was, “Oh, so they went all in on Anora.”
Otherwise — not a whole lot of note for me about the awards or the show. Felt like it went crazy long again, even with the earlier time slot. Conan did exactly what Conan does. They went for a more classical ‘movies are magic’ feel. Definitely doesn’t feel as innovative as last year’s ceremony, though they did a few things that felt like they were trying to be innovative (having one presenter talk about all the nominees — though notice they distinctly didn’t do that for the lead acting categories — or having the filmmakers discuss aspects of the film during the video packages).
Mostly this is just a ho hum kind of ceremony to cap a ho hum kind of year.
Best Picture: Anora
Winning the precursors it did, this was the presumed favorite, so in the end, not much of note except the idea that they managed to go all in on it. This is not the kind of film I’d expect the Academy to embrace. Past that, all signs pointed to this as the choice, and the overall wins for it cemented that. 5 wins out of 6 nominations is pretty definitive. Plus Sean Baker becomes the only person outside of Walt Disney to win 4 Oscars in one night. And he does it in Picture, Director, Screenplay and Editing, too, which is crazy.
Best Director: Sean Baker, Anora
The DGA proves right yet again, to no one’s surprise. In the abstract, it’s wild that Baker has this type of support after his previous films just got straight up ignored by the Academy. What an about face. But I’m happy for him. Curious how this holds up over time as a winner (probably fine).
Best Actor: Adrien Brody, The Brutalist
He joins Luise Rainer, Vivien Leigh, Hilary Swank, Helen Hayes and Kevin Spacey as the only people to have 2 wins in 2 nominations. Also — The Pianist, The Brutalist. Man has a type. But anyway, he delivers a pretty towering performance, so it’s hard to argue with him as a winner. Speech was a bit self-indulgent, but otherwise he feels like a worthy winner.
Best Actress: Mikey Madison, Anora
One of the only moderate surprises on the night. I look at this as an embracing of Anora and not a rejection of Demi Moore (though her winning over Moore is almost exactly the plot of Moore’s film, so, kind of on point?). Turns out, BAFTA was right. She becomes one of the youngest Best Actress winners ever.
Best Supporting Actor: Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain
He swept the entire season, so this is one of the most expected wins of the night. Still not sure how I feel about it as a winner, but it’s a winner, so that’s that. Since there’s not much to talk about here, I’m curious when it became a thing that we start the ceremony with Supporting Actor. They’ve done this forever and I wonder when that was decided, why it was decided, and why they’ve just been upholding it all this time.
Best Supporting Actress: Zoe Saldaña, Emilia Pérez
Another winner who was locked throughout the season. The Academy resoundingly rejected Emilia Pérez, but that didn’t extend to Saldaña, who sailed through the entire season. Another one of those automatic winners that leaves not much to talk about, because we saw it coming from over a month ago.
Best Original Screenplay: Anora
Even if somehow it didn’t win Picture or Director, it was gonna be weird if it somehow lost this. This was the start of them embracing the film and it led to a snowball effect of wins. I’ll reiterate what I said up top — Sean Baker becomes the only person ever to win Picture, Director, Screenplay and Editing in the same night, and ties Walt Disney for most individual wins on a night. (Technically Bong Joon-ho also won four, but since International Feature goes to the country and not the filmmaker, he’s only credited with three.)
Best Adapted Screenplay: Conclave
This was the only guaranteed win for it on the night. Otherwise, this one came in real light in the end. But given how the season laid out, that was expected. The only other real chance it had on paper was Editing, and I bet if we had ACE announcing ahead of time, even that would’ve looked different.
Best Editing: Anora
Speaking of ACE, we’ll never know how things would’ve adjusted had we known their choices ahead of time. Still, I did say that you should probably sync your Picture choice in Editing, so those who went in on Anora would’ve probably had this and done really well. So no major surprise outside of them going all in on Baker with the individual wins (which it feels like they’ve shied away from in the past).
Best Cinematography: The Brutalist
This was the only guaranteed winner for it. The VistaVision look of it and the overall visuals, starting with that incredible opening scene, basically made it a done deal. Behind Brody, it picks up another solid win and comes out with a respectable haul for itself.
Best Original Score: The Brutalist
And then a third. I thought this might lose here, if they decided to reject it in the bigger categories. But absent an obvious score choice, they sort of defaulted to it. So it ends up with 3 wins and becomes the film with the second most wins on the night. Would’ve liked to see Director too, but 3 wins is respectable.
Best Original Song: “El Mal,” from Emilia Pérez
This was the only other place it was gonna win outside of Supporting Actress. As we saw with International Feature, that outcome was looking more and more likely as we got closer to the ceremony. This category was a layup for it, absent any other major contenders. So it gets Song, we got a weird speech from the songwriters, Jacques Audiard now technically has an Oscar win (so at least he gets something to show for the film and its 13 noinations) and we move on and hope for a more interesting category next year.
Best Production Design: Wicked
This was always going to be its bread and butter. This and Costumes were where it was gonna shine. Not a whole lot more to add here, since it did sweep the season and was the obvious choice. Mostly now I’m curious how next year goes — does it make it back here for doing largely the same thing again, or is it like Dune where they either straight up reject it or just sort of ‘sure, okay’ nominate it with no intentions of voting for it?
Best Costume Design: Wicked
Another category it fully was always gonna win (and deserved). One of those easy categories you can set and forget, knowing you’re gonna get it right.
Best Makeup & Hairstyling: The Substance
This was its category. Shame about Demi, but at least it won here, which was absolutely deserved. Makeup is consistently a category they generally get right, so I’m just happy that streak continues.
Best Visual Effects: Dune: Part Two
This was an absolute gimme. Of course this was gonna win here. And it covers for what was otherwise a really lackluster year for visual effects.
Best Sound: Dune: Part Two
This made the most sense. Complete Unknown had a shot at it, but with a singular category, votes seem to be funneling toward the bigger sound jobs than the musicals. We’ll see if that changes, but to this point, without something that’s really complex, the big stuff like this will keep taking it.
Best Animated Feature: Flow
This was an early one, and was one of the first (moderate) surprises on the night. I truly didn’t think they’d go for it, and I’m thrilled they did. I think this was the best animated film of the year, and the fact that it’s also foreign and independent just makes the whole thing even better. This and the next category are probably the two results that came in that I’m most happy about, because very rarely do I see a result and actually think, “Wow… they got it right.” And not only did they get it right, they got it right in a way that’s gonna have a great impact on the future. People who look at these awards are now gonna go to a movie like this and watch it because it won. And they’re going to be introduced to a different type of animated film that does storytelling differently than most animated films. And that’s exciting. And that’s why this is one of the best wins of the night.
Best International Feature: I’m Still Here (Brazil)
I’m so happy for this. I saw it coming, but I didn’t want to get my hopes crushed, so I refused to think it was going to happen and just hoped it would. I thought for sure the minute I went in for this they’d let this be Emilia Pérez’s safety net. I liked Emilia Pérez, but I really liked this. And I think this absolutely deserved to win this category. So I’m so happy it did. The Picture nomination is nice, but this win cements that stamp of approval that, like with Flow, is gonna get people to go back and see this more than if it were just another name on a ballot. Because let’s be honest, most people, in five, ten, fifteen years — you gotta be really into these awards to go back and watch The Girl with the Needle or The Seed of the Sacred Fig. At best, people will look at what was nominated the most and what won. So this winning — huge. Probably the happiest I was on the night, when this came in.
Best Documentary Feature: No Other Land
Oh yeah, another one. Honestly the only thing that would’ve made this better for me is if they made Gal Gadot announce it. I’m so happy we’ve gotten to a place where the majority of the Academy is voting for stuff like this. A few years ago this Academy would’ve absolutely avoided showing support for Palestinians in any form. Now, I will say, this is a very ‘liberal, not leftist’ sort of documentary — the whole message is ‘why can’t we come together’ and very much championing the ‘can’t we all just get along’. And it’s co-directed by an Israeli. There’s a chaser there for them to latch onto. But still, I’m happy this won. Definitely one of the better wins on the night.
Best Documentary Short: The Only Girl in the Orchestra
Netflix buys another one. I’m embellishing, but I do think these types of docs have and will continue to be the norm in this category. I was trying to think what it really was, and I think it’s because the everyday news is so fucking awful and there are so many issues and political things out there that people would rather feel good for a second here rather than ten years ago, where they pretended most things were fine and could say, “Hey, this one thing going on in this other country? Everyone, look at this and the good we’re doing by giving an award for a film about it.” Now, everything is so awful they’re like, “Hey, this is a nice little movie about a musician.” I think that’s what it is. But yeah, happy I at least got this one right, because I took an absolute bath in the next two categories.
Best Live Action Short: I’m Not a Robot
Leave it to them to finally go for the comedic short the year I dismiss it. Oh well. It makes some sense as a choice… they just haven’t made this type of choice a lot lately. So yeah, I got this one… not way wrong, but solidly wrong. But it’s Live Action Short. You gotta assume a 4 in this category most of the time. So I was prepared for it. However, what I was not prepared for was…
Best Animated Short: In the Shadow of the Cypress
Where the fuck did this come from? A 4 and then a 5? Holy fuck. It’s a really nice short, but this is not what they usually vote for at all. Very strange. The fact that they ignored all the other ones to go for this is wild. There’s no version of this category where this isn’t fifth for me. Maybe fourth, because for a while I had Beautiful Men fifth, and then I convinced myself that they could go for it. But fuck. Never would’ve expected this. But, you take it and you move on. I’d rather it in a Shorts category than elsewhere. Just… did it have to come in a year where I specifically went against the obvious and knew I was gonna get stuff wrong? I mean, fuck. Give me a 5 when I’m getting 1s everywhere else.
Still say they fucked up this category by not nominating the best stuff, so this is just a capstone to what I consider a ridiculous year for this category.
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Award breakdown:
- Anora — 5 wins (Picture, Director, Actress, Original Screenplay, Editing)
- The Brutalist — 3 wins (Actor, Cinematography, Score)
- Dune: Part Two — 2 wins (Visual Effects, Sound)
- Emilia Pérez — 2 wins (Supporting Actress, Song)
- Wicked — 2 wins (Production Design, Costume Design)
- Conclave — 1 win (Adapted Screenplay)
- Flow — 1 win (Animated Feature)
- I’m Still Here — 1 win (International Feature)
- No Other Land — 1 win (Documentary Feature)
- A Real Pain — 1 win (Supporting Actor)
- The Substance — 1 wins (Makeup & Hairstyling)
- And then, The Only Girl in the Orchestra won Documentary Short, I’m Not a Robot won Live Action Short, and In the Shadow of the Cypress won Animated Short.
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Scorecard:
- Best Picture: +2
- Best Director: +2
- Best Actor: +1
- Best Actress: +2
- Best Supporting Actor: +1
- Best Supporting Actress: +1
- Best Original Screenplay: +1
- Best Adapted Screenplay: +1
- Best Editing: +2
- Best Cinematography: +1
- Best Original Score: +1
- Best Original Song: +1
- Best Production Design: +1
- Best Costume Design: +1
- Best Makeup & Hairstyling: +1
- Best Visual Effects: +1
- Best Sound: +1
- Best Animated Feature: +2
- Best International Feature: +2
- Best Documentary Feature: +1
- Best Documentary Short: +1
- Best Live Action Short: +4
- Best Animated Short: +5
That’s 15/23 straight up. Which I knew would be about the case. I was hoping for 16, but okay. I knew I was specifically going against Picture and Director and I knew some stuff wasn’t gonna come in here and there as well. So okay. I’m happy there are so many 1s there though. That’s what saved this scorecard for me. That was what I was banking on.
I ended up +13 (36). I did that in 2020, which I also remember being a year where I saw some weird shit come in. So not terrible, but also one of my weaker years. That’s fine. I’ve been on a crazy run lately (that +4 in 2021… that’s wild). Down years happen. The beauty is there’s always next year. If I did amazing every year there wouldn’t be anything to strive for.
- 2010: +12 (36)
- 2011: +14 (38)
- 2012: +10 (34)
- 2013: +5 (29)
- 2014: +8 (32)
- 2015: +9 (33)
- 2016: +11 (35)
- 2017: +5 (29)
- 2018: +9 (33)
- 2019: +3 (27)
- 2020: +13 (36)
- 2021: +4 (27)
- 2022: +6 (29)
- 2023: +7 (30)
- 2024: +13 (36)
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(P.S. My Oscar trivia article is updated with the results from this year.)
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