While the big films of 2020 mostly got moved, the year still delivered some incredible movies, with in my opinion one of the top best picture slates I've seen in a long time. Some categories struggled with the loss of bigger movies but as a whole this was a great group of nominees and last night we finally had the chance to honour these amazing films. The night was a weird one, but still allowed some amazing films and people to be awarded so I'm happy. I want now to recap the night by highlighting the highs and lows of Hollywood's biggest show, with my 7 best and 5 worst moments of the night, ranked by how much I loved or hated them. Let's get started with the worst:
#5 Worst - The Moving of Categories
I'll be touching on this a bit later, but the way certain categories were shuffled around really bothered me. Best director is arguably the most prestigious individual award of the night and the presented it almost smack in the middle of the show. While there was no suspense or surprise with Chloe Zhao winning this award, it didn't feel right having it so early when it's usually the second last to be handed out. Moving the lead acting awards to the end also tremendously backfired, and the idea of not finishing with best picture is ridiculous. If this was how last year's show was set up we wouldn't have gotten near the excitement of Parasite's best picture and best director wins, and I think it somewhat nullified the excitement of Nomadland's wins. I also like starting off with a supporting actor category, so while Emerald Fennell winning the night's first award was awesome I would've loved to start off with a bit more of a bang.
#4 Worst - Frances McDormand's Win
I love Fraces McDormand, she is an insane talent and one of the most unique characters at these shows. She is also great in Nomadland, but this just wasn't hers to win in my opinion. I was pulling wildly hard for Carey Mulligan here, her fierce performance in Promising Young Woman was one of my favourites of 2020 and the type of role that I find deeply underrepresented at the Oscars (kinda like Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler). If Mulligan did lose though I was okay with Viola Davis winning, she is in my opinion one of the all time greats and is magnificent in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. But instead she still only has one Oscar while McDormand picked up her third and fourth (one for producing), tying Daniel Day-Lewis for wins in leading roles. While this is some history making on McDormand's part, I just don't think she was the best this year, and beating out these two other amazing performances right after giving a speech for the best picture win bummed me out.
#3 Worst - My Octopus Teacher Win
Time was not only one of the most timely films of 2020 but also one of the best, and one of the best documentaries I've seen in a long time. In a category that was missing out on the year's other noteworthy doc Dick Johnson is Dead this should have been a clear win for Time, but it wasn't. Instead it lost, not to the second best of the bunch, nor the third or fourth. It lost to My Octopus Teacher, a film that is half dull nature doc and half one guy sitting and talking about an octopus. There have been countless jokes about it and from watching the film it definitely feels like there are some sexual feelings towards this octopus. The documentary branch of the Academy simply makes no sense and this win is one of the most embarrassing I've seen and one of the night's lows. Even seeing this coming didn't lessen the blow, as the beauty of Time got stepped on by this damn octopus. I've seen some defending the film saying it's beautiful, but I would argue that Time is not only a far more important film but also far more visually stunning. I knew this was how the category was going to go but that didn't stop it from being the most disappointing win of the night for me.
#2 Worst - The Ending
I want to start off by saying that I'm not upset Anthony Hopkins won, his performance in The Father is incredible and while I really wanted to see Chadwick Boseman win posthumously there's a good argument to be made for Hopkins being the best in the category. I take issue with how everything was handled. As I said before, I hated that the categories were moved around, but all signs were pointing to this being a means of closing the night on a heartwarming Chadwick Boseman win. Instead everything went badly. First of all, nearly every category had lovely things said about all of their nominees, instead here we got Joaquin Phoenix brutally half-assing his presentation. I know he isn't big on this kind of thing but the lack of effort on his part really upset me. Then, Anthony Hopkins who wasn't even there or present virtually won over Boseman and the night just ended. Phoenix quickly said the Academy was accepting on Hopkins' behalf, so quickly I didn't even notice, and the night just ended. Again, no issue with having Hopkins win, but the way things were set up just felt like a massive "fuck you" to the audience, and the lack of a host shined bright as the ceremony stumbled to an awkward conclusion.
#1 Worst- The In-Memoriam
While the finale of the show and the octopus win both infuriated me, nothing boiled my bones more than the haphazard and rushed presentation of the in-memoriam. The in-memoriam is obviously sad but is also one of my favourite parts of the Oscars. I look forward every year to sobbing as I get to remember all the amazing names we unfortunately lost over the year and appreciating their accomplishments and their work one last time on Hollywood's greatest stage. This is an important moment for us to remember them and for their families to see them remembered, which is why the rapidity of their presentation was so awful. There was no time to remember or appreciate these amazing people because the memoriam was presented quicker than an Eminem verse. Usually each person has a long enough moment on screen and those with the biggest impact have a small clip shown to remind us of their immense talent, but this year it was just lightning fast pictures and names that I couldn't even fully read half of the time. We lost greats like Christopher Plummer, Diana Rigg, Sean Connery, and of course Chadwick Boseman among countless others, and they were off of the screen in the blink of an eye. This moment that leaves me borderline weeping every year instead left me furious, and I found it insanely disrespectful to rush through this especially with how drawn out other parts of the show were.
Now, onto a more positive note with my favourite moments of the night...
#7 Best- The Nominee Presentations
This didn't happen for every category, bust most categories had their presenter talking about the influences of each nominee. While this slowed the show down a bit, it was an amazing touch that made the night feel more personal and gave the audience a chance to better know some nominees they may have never even heard of before. I don't know if this is something that could stay part of the ceremony moving forward, and at times it got tedious, but as a whole I liked this ability to connect with the nominees a lot.
#6 Best - Glenn Close is the Best
Going into the night I was pretty anti-Glenn Close because I thought Hillbilly Elegy was terrible. That was until Questlove and Lil Rel wanted to play a guess whether that song won game. It started with Purple Rain and Andra Day being kind of annoying, followed by Daniel Kaluuya and Lil Rel basically just hanging out (which FYI is awesome), then Glenn Close, first being accused of being to old to know Da Butt and then doing it. I don't even really know what Da Butt is and I'm sure this was scripted, but Glenn Close pulling this after losing for the 8th time is the most based thing I've seen.
#5 Best - H.E.R Wins Best Song
This wasn't a massive point of the night but one I really loved. While I love Leslie Odom Jr., Speak Now isn't the best I've heard from him, and the pre-show performance of Fight For You by H.E.R was absolutely awesome. So seeing this big surprise win followed by her excitement and pretty great speech was one of my favourite parts of the night. I haven't heard much of her music but I'm going to be listening to a lot more, as everything about her Oscar night made me a fan.
#4 Best - Chloe Zhao Win
Most people will probably put this higher than me but don't get me wrong it's still a huge moment. Having not only the second female best director winner ever but also the first Asian woman to ever win is an incredible milestone and while I would've loved to see one of my faves David Fincher win, Zhao was very deserving. The only thing limiting this on my personal list is the lack of excitement I felt for it despite the big milestones. As exciting as it is, this seemed like a one horse race through all of awards season. There was really no one close to contending with Zhao for this win so it just didn't have the excitement a win like Bong Joon-Ho's win had. I'm also just not a die-hard Nomadland fan. I think it's an incredible movie but I just didn't have the passion for it to make this a moment that will stick with me. But regardless of the excitement, the cultural importance of this win for Chloe Zhao and the hopeful impact it'll have on her career and the chances for women to keep winning this award make it one of the night's best moments.
#3 Best - Youn Yuh-Jung Win
This is pretty funny actually because this award didn't go how I wanted. I predicted Yuh-Jung but I really wanted Maria Bakalova to take it for Borat 2, as I found that performance incredibly daring and effective. But Yuh-Jung won, and gave arguably the funniest speech of the night. The speech had some touching moments too, but the Korean actress really made her mark in the humour department. Her clear love of Brad Pitt was one thing, but saying that no one can really win since each performance is so different but she was just luckier than her peers was the real kicker for me. Then she chalked that up to American hospitality for the Korean woman, and finished off by showing her kids why she works so hard. This was just a delightful win, not to mention it gave Minari it's only win of the night, so hopefully we get a clip of Alan Kim cheering for his movie grandma sometime soon.
#2 Best - Another Round Win
This was one of the clearest wins of the night and a moment I didn't expect to be as touching as it was. Vinterberg started off with a solid speech, then kind of kept going on and had me wishing that he'd be played off. Then he started talking about his daughter who passed away from a car accident before the film's production. The in-memoriam might have lacked the tear-jerking, but Vinterberg's beautiful tribute to his late daughter, talking about how excited she was about the script and then dedicating the award to her was undoubtedly the most emotional moment of the night. He took me and many others from boredom to tears, and this speech was just way too beautiful to put it any lower on the list. Another Round is also such an amazing movie I'm really glad it won.
#1 Best - Daniel Kaluuya Win
This is MY list, so number one has to be MY favourite moment, and that moment is Daniel Kaluuya, one of if not my favourite actor working today winning best supporting actor. This was one of the most predictable awards as Kaluuya has won nearly every precursor, but damn was this moment awesome. I first saw Kaluuya back in 2015's Sicario, then he took us all by storm with Get Out which he probably should have won for. Then he continued showing his immense talent in work like Queen and Slim and Widows, the latter of which I consider one of the great supporting performances in recent years. Now he has given us what I'd consider his best, in his commanding and inspiring performance as Fred Hampton in Judas and the Black Messiah. Seeing someone as deserving as Kaluuya win is one thing, but his speech really made this the best moment for me. First off, I love the way he composes himself, so the entirety of his speech was great. But the moment he started rambling and poetically stated "my mum met my dad, they had sex" with his mom on virtually there on camera cringing was absolutely hilarious. So for the hilarious as well as uplifting speech, the amazing win for an amazing performance, and the general hype of seeing one of my favourites taking home Oscar gold, Kaluuya's win was my favourite moment of the night.
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