Another Oscar season has come and gone.
Last night’s ceremony was fairly typical of Academy Award shows—it was long, dull, and fairly underwhelming. Oh sure, it had its moments (someone needs to fast track a buddy comedy starring Tiffany Haddish and Maya Rudolph ASAP) but this was a ceremony that refused to rock the boat. It was, by all accounts, standard.
Given the Best Picture snafu of last year, it’s easy to see why the show’s producers would want to keep their path along the straight and narrow. In many ways, this was something of a rebuilding year for the Academy. Aside from being the 90th anniversary of the annual award show, it was to serve as a reminder that the show could, in fact, go on.
Host Jimmy Kimmel, returning once more following last year’s memorable disaster, did his best to keep things moving at a steady pace, all while making jokes about ensuring the show would be as long as possible. Given the sheer amount of montages spread throughout the program, I’d say they kept that promise. The endless montages did make a kind of sense, especially considering that it was the 90th anniversary, but wow. Did we really need so many?
Of course, it would be Kimmel without one of his trademarked stunts, this year involving Kimmel and a group of stars that included Armie Hammer, Gal Gadot, and Guillermo del Toro crashing a screening of A Wrinkle in Time at a theater across the street. Ostensibly meant as a symbolic thank you to movie fans for making the show (and their jobs) possible, it was a bit of a ridiculous moment. But at least we saw Hammer shooting a hot dog cannon into crowd of moviegoers.
Politically, we saw few moments of boat rocking, most of which was relegated to the scandals rocking Hollywood itself. Even then, what was mentioned was mentioned mostly in broad terms. Frances McDormand made an impassioned plea for supporting female led projects (even going so far as to call for actresses to demand inclusion riders in their contracts to ensure a more level playing field for minorities in the movie industry). Emma Stone made it a point to call out Greta Gerwig by name when introducing the Best Director category.
“These four men and Greta Gerwig created their own masterpieces this year,” the actress said, to thunderous applause from the audience.
But, for the most part, like so much of the rest of the ceremony, the politics of the evening were understated and subdued. Unlike the Golden Globes, where actresses showed up wearing all black in solidarity with the #metoo and Time’s Up movements, the Oscars were, more or less, apolitical.
As to the awards themselves, there were no big surprises or major upsets. Everything and everyone that was expected to take home an Oscar last night took one home. I suppose it’s kind of weird that The Shape of Water, a movie about a woman who falls in love with an amphibious fish god, took home Best Picture, but even that was expected.
“Academy Award Winner Kobe Bryant.” That’s a weird thing to type. But it happened. The former basketball player won for his work on the short film, Dear Basketball. And I guess it’s no weirder than saying “Academy Award Winning Three 6 Mafia” or “Academy Award Winning Suicide Squad.”
All in all, it was a pretty standard Oscar night experience. Being unmemorable is better than being memorable for a disaster, arguably. It was it was, though. Which about as much as you can expect from the ceremony.
BEST PICTURE
The Shape of Water
DIRECTOR
Guillermo del Toro, The Shape of Water
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Get Out
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Call Me by Your Name
ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour
ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Allison Janney, I, Tonya
ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
A Fantastic Woman
DOCUMENTARY (SHORT)
Heaven is a Traffic Jam on the 405
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Icarus
ORIGINAL SONG
“Remember Me,” Coco
ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
Coco
PRODUCTION DESIGN
The Shape of Water
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Blade Runner 2049
COSTUME DESIGN
Phantom Thread
SOUND EDITING
Dunkirk
SOUND MIXING
Dunkirk
ANIMATED SHORT FILM
Dear Basketball
LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
The Silent Child
ORIGINAL SCORE
The Shape of Water
VISUAL EFFECTS
Blade Runner 2049
FILM EDITING
Dunkirk
MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
Darkest Hour
