Well, folks, it happened. Awards season has come and gone, and we now have new freshly-minted Oscar winners.
Last year’s Academy Awards were quite the event and will likely live in infamy, so this year’s had a lot of pressure. Jimmy Kimmel returned to host Hollywood’s biggest night and, spoiler alert, everything went smoothly. Let us see what this night brought.
The 90th Academy Awards opened with a video montage reminiscing about the history of film during the last ninety years. Then, out came Jimmy Kimmel who encouraged everyone to “not stand up right away if your name is called,” obviously referencing the La La Land event. After a monologue that brought light to the “Time’s Up” and “Me Too” movements and creating a new award for the shortest speech, the awards began.
The first Oscar, Best Supporting Actor, was awarded to (unsurprisingly) Sam Rockwell for his performance in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. In his speech, he thanked “everyone who’s ever looked at a billboard.” In the female category, Allison Janney won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, unsurprisingly, for her role in I, Tonya.
Jimmy Kimmel went on to declare that if your speech was too long, you’d be chased off the stage by the guy that screamed GET OUT in Jordan Peele’s film.
Actual Greek Gods Armie Hammer and Gal Gadot presented the award for Makeup and Hairstyling, which went to Darkest Hour for transforming Gary Oldman into Winston Churchill. Costume Design went to Phantom Thread, and it was the only Oscar it got.
Then, came the lottery categories which were: Documentary, Documentary Short, Animated Short and Live Action Short Film. The winners were: Icarus, Heaven is a Traffic Jam on the 405, Dear Basketball, and The Silent Child. Kobe Bryant winning an award was surely an inspiration for all. Foreign Language Film went to A Fantastic Woman from Chile, which we’re very curious to watch!
Mary J. Blige performed her Oscar-nominated song “Mighty River” from her film Mudbound. It was a chilling performance. Amongst the rest of the performances were “Remember Me” from Coco—which was performed by three different singers: Gael Garcia Bernal, Miguel and Natalia LaFourcade. Following this came the chilling “Mystery of Love” from the film Call Me By Your Name which was performed by Sufjan Stevens. Oscar winner Common performed his newest nominated song “Stand Up for Something” from the movie Marshall. Finally, Keala Settle performed everyone’s favorite anthem “This Is Me” from The Greatest Showman. It was a performance that made us cry almost more than Coco’s. In the end, “Remember Me” from Coco wound up winning the Oscar for Best Original Song, and Coco won for Best Animated Film.
In the Visual Effects category, Blade Runner 2049 won. It also won Cinematography while Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk won the Academy Awards for Film Editing, Sound Editing and Sound Mixing. These two were the front runners for these categories. It was no surprise that they claimed these awards.
As per Oscar tradition, Jimmy Kimmel decided to surprise a group of people watching A Wrinkle In Time in the nearby Chinese Theatre. He might seriously kill someone someday with all those fan favorite celebrities in one room. We know we probably would have fainted!
After that, there was a video in which film trailblazers were honored. These people are those who have been breaking the status quo in film during recent years and how they hope it remains that way. It was a touching moment.
Call Me By Your Name won for Best Adapted Screenplay—not surprising at all. Jordan Peele won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for his film Get Out. It was a huge win for Peele, and a historic moment since he is the first African American director to win this award. He was clearly emotional, and it was a very deserving win.
Unsurprisingly also, Gary Oldman and Frances McDormand both won the Lead Acting Oscars. Well deserved, no argument there.
The night’s big winner was Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water. It won four Oscars: Best Director, Production Design, Original Score and, the big one, Best Picture. This was Guillermo’s first win and he was clearly emotional. The Shape of Water was expected to win quite a few Oscars, but Best Picture was a total surprise, and, no, they didn’t make a mistake like last year.
Now, the most important award was the Shortest Speech which went to Mark Bridges, the costume designer of Phantom Thread who took home an Oscar and a brand new jet ski.
The last few Academy Awards ceremony have been a drag, but this year finally surpassed them all and proved to be one of the best years the Oscars have ever had. It was a breath of fresh air. Oscars 91, you have big shoes to fill.