If last night's Academy Awards had one thing in common, it was an enormous amount of team effort and acknowledgement among the many nominees and recipients. And not just because of this year's Best Picture winner, which became the most-awarded film since Slumdog Millionaire back in 2009.
In addition, two major studios or companies received the most Oscar statues during what was arguably one of the most incredible televised ceremonies in the Academy's now-95-year history: streaming service Netflix and independent studio A24.
Returning Master of Ceremonies Jimmy Kimmel (who hosted in 2017 and 2018) helped start the show off with a bang, with plenty of cinematic/movie-going throwbacks as well as laughs (despite inevitable jabs at last year's infamous "slap"), before Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio picked up the first award, for Best Animated Feature Film. The Netflix-produced take on Carlo Collodi's classic story is the most recent example of animation (including the film's stop-motion) as a transcending art form, as championed by del Toro (who now joins the same ranks as previous winners George Miller and Gore Verbinski) and co-director Mark Gustafson. It also marks the first such film since Sony Animation's "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" to not be produced by Disney, Pixar, or DreamWorks. (The latter studio's 2005 feature film, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, was the last stop-motion picture to win the award.)
Edward Berger's All Quiet on the Western Front (adapted from Erich Maria Remarque's book of the same name) became a surprising front runner when the nominees were announced last month. The harrowing WWII drama, told from the perspective of German soldiers, became the most-awarded film produced by the streaming service to date, with well-earned wins for Best International Feature (Germany), Best Original Score (Volker Bertelmann), Cinematography, and Production Design. Alfonso Cauron's semi-autobiographical Roma held the previous record (with three wins) four years ago.
A24 also set a new record with their genre-bending multiverse flick, Everything Everywhere All At Once. In a new move by the Academy (and as an interesting way to bookend the telecast), the acting categories were each presented back-to-back. For the supporting players, last year's recipients, Troy Kotsur (CODA) and Ariana Dubois (West Side Story), presented the respective awards to EEAAO costars Ke Yuy Quan (a former child actor who's been experiencing an incredible resurgence in his career) and Jamie Lee Curtis (arguably the biggest surprise of the night, even for the veteran scream queen herself). Previous Best Actress winner Halle Berry (Monster's Ball in 2002) and last year's recipient Jessica Chastain (The Eyes of Tammy Faye) delivered the respective leading trophies to Best Actor Brendan Fraser (another amazing comeback story, for his harrowing career-defining performance in The Whale, which also won for its cutting-edge makeup effects) and to Best Actress Michelle Yeoh (who became the first Asian performer to win for a leading role, in EEAAO).
Even more astounding is that all but one of the acting wins were for the same film, yet all were released by the same studio. Plus, not only are these screen veterans all fan favorites, but they were also first-time nominees. Whoever from my generation thought that two guys from Encino Man would one day be commended and awarded at the Oscars?! As Humphrey Bogart's Sam Spade once famously said, "It's the stuff that dreams are made of." And, I can only imagine how thrilled Steven Spielberg (nominated in multiple categories for his semi-autobiographical The Fabelmans) must have been to see Indiana Jones (Best Picture presenter Harrison Ford) and Short Round (Quan's iconic role from 1984's Temple of Doom) reunited onstage.
 |
| These fan favorites of screen (and current alums of studio A24) are now official Oscar-winners! (l-r) Ke Huy Quan (Best Supporting Actor), Michelle Yeoh (Best Actress), Brendan Fraser (Best Actor), and Jamie Lee Curtis (Best Supporting Actress) |
During her acceptance speech, Yeoh stating that her historic win represented "a beacon of hope and possibilities." On the flip side, EEAAO co-writer/-producer/-director Daniel Kwan expressed genuine humility and excitement as he dedicated his award to his son and his family. Kwan and collaborator Daniel Scheinert (a.k.a. the Daniels) became the third duo in the show's history to win Best Director (the others being Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins for West Side Story in 1962, and Joel Coen and Ethan Coen for No Country For Old Men in 2008). And the Daniels' triple wins (including Best Original Screenplay) have helped elevate their film outside the arthouse crowd and into the mainstream (EEAAO is A24's highest-grossing film to date), bursting with new levels of creativity, originality, and ultimate weirdness. (The film also won for its insane editing.) Not bad for a team that previously directed Daniel Radcliffe as a farting corpse.
While the telecast went by amazingly well, and without any major mishaps, we can't talk about the Oscars without mentioning a few potential upsets. Several multiple-nominated films went home empty-handed, including Martin McDonagh's endearing tragicomedy The Banshees of Inisherin, Spielberg's aforermentioned The Fabelmans, Baz Lurhmann's music biopic Elvis, and Ruben Ostlund's dark satire Triangle of Sadness. However, Jenny the donkey (one of the breakout stars of Banshees) made a surprise show appearance, while Kimmel commended Supporting Actor nominee Judd Hirsch (one of the host's favorite actors).
Singers Lady Gaga and Rihanna delivered profound and moving performances of their respective Original Song nominees (Gaga for "Hold My Hand," from Top Gun: Maverick; Rihanna for "Lift Me Up," from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever). But it was the show-stopping "Naatu Naatu" (from the Indian sensation RRR) that took home the prize.
Other multiple-nominated films managed to walk away with at least one award. These included Sarah Polley's adapted screenplay for Women Talking (the first win for an Orion Pictures release since The Silence of the Lambs in 1992) and Ruth Carter's diverse costume designs for Wakanda Forever. Even the two highest-grossing films of 2022 received at least one win of their own, including the the soaring sound design for Top Gun: Maverick, and the groundbreaking underwater VFX for Avatar: The Way of Water.
Finally, I have a message for the infamous Jobu Tupaki (the cross-dimensional antagonist from Everything Everywhere All At Once). To paraphrase OG Ghostbuster Ray Stantz:
As a duly designated representative of the Southwest Metro region of the state of Minnesota, I order you to cease any and all multiverse and Academy Awards activity and return forthwith to your place of origin, or to the nearest convenient parallel dimension.
That ought to do it.
No comments:
Post a Comment