I was right about the lack of support for Three Billboards though, as it got eliminated from the Best Picture conversation after losing for Best Editing to Dunkirk, which ended the night in 2nd place with 3 total wins, and for Best Original Screenplay to Jordan Peele and Get Out. With that win Peele becomes the first black person ever to win for Original Screenplay. He received a standing ovation on his way to the stage. Extremely well deserved. Great moment. And great speech too.
Unfortunately, that win for Peele turned out to be the only one for Get Out last night from its 4 nominations. The same thing happened with Call Me by Your Name, winning in the Best Adapted Screenplay category but nothing else from its 4 nominations. With that win, James Ivory now becomes the oldest winner in the 90 year history of the Academy Awards. He also received a standing ovation on his way to the stage. Extremely well deserved in his case as well.
One of the categories where both Get Out and Call Me by Your Name lost was Best Actor, which went to Gary Oldman and Darkest Hour(its 2nd win of the night) in what was an absolute lock going in. Oldman was way overdue for this honor. The Best Actress award was also a lock going in, giving Frances McDormand her 2nd career win in the category(and Three Billboards its 2nd win of the night), joining 13 other actresses who have accomplished that feat. McDormand is 100% genuine all the time, and she wasn't about to change now. When she asked all the female nominees in attendance to stand it truly felt like a powerful statement, unlike some other political moments during the show.
From a filmmaking perspective, nobody made a more powerful statement last night than Guillermo Del Toro, who won Best Director and Best Picture for The Shape of Water. It's the 4th time in the past 5 years that the Best Director Oscar goes to a Mexican filmmaker, after Alfonso Cuarón won in 2013 for Gravity and Alejandro G. Iñárritu won back to back in 2014 & 2015 for Birdman and The Revenant. Del Toro gave a great speech both times he came up to the stage. The guy's love of movies is undeniable. I'd even dare say that Del Toro loves movies more than any other person who was at the Dolby Theatre last night.
One of my favorite moments of the night was when host Jimmy Kimmel asked for volunteers to go across the street and thank moviegoers for watching their films. The bit really didn't work at all(I even thought for a second that the audience at the movie theater was staged), but what I loved was that Del Toro was one of the first filmmakers to stand up. Kimmel seemed surprised and even joked that maybe Del Toro should stay since he was due to win some pretty important awards later in the show. But you could see that at that moment Del Toro didn't care about that. He genuinely wanted to thank the moviegoing public. The image of the two Guillermos leading the march of Hollywood A-Listers across the street was a great moment for me.
Mexico had a great night overall with Coco winning for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song. With his win in that category, songwriter Robert Lopez becomes the 1st person ever to complete the EGOT twice. He actually has 3 Emmys, 2 Grammys, 3 Tonys, and now 2 Oscars, so he's already halfway to the Triple EGOT. The guy is only 43 years old. One thing he has to work on though: his speech-giving. "Kids, this isn't for you" ... Who says that?!?
*Songwriting genius, and worst dad ever, Robert Lopez, alongside his wife and collaborator Kristen Anderson Lopez
For an example of a couple who did know how to make a great speech, I direct you to Chris Overton and Rachel Shenton, winners in the Best Live Action Short Film category for The Silent Child. This speech was absolutely perfect. Rachel doing sign language as she spoke because she promised the 6 year old actress in the film she would. Then using her platform to raise awareness for deaf children all around the world. And then when it was Chris's turn to speak he thanked their parents for, and I quote, "making and selling cupcakes" to help them finish the film. And finally, as the orchestra started to play them out, he thanked his fiancée Rachel for her hard work during the past 12 years which made the project authentic. It was something out of a movie. It is for these type of moments that I love to watch the Oscars, and for that reason it was hands-down the Moment of the Night for me. I am definitely going to see The Silent Child now.
*Academy Award winners Chris Overton and Rachel Shenton
And now some other great moments ...
- Roger Deakins finally winning his 1st Oscar after 14 nominations in the Best Cinematography category for Blade Runner 2049.
- Allison Janney winning on her 1st try in the Best Supporting Actress category for I, Tonya. I loved how she started her speech, joking that she did it all herself. Everyone who's watched The West Wing knew that standing in front of that microphone was never gonna be an issue for C. J. Cregg.
- Each and every montage that celebrated the 90 years of Oscars history. My biggest problem with the ceremony every year is that they no longer recognize the filmmaking legends in the industry. They give out the lifetime achievement awards on a different night and then show a 30 second clip summarizing the event. That is horrible. Even more so when that time is instead taken up by 10 minute bits like the one with the A Wrinkle in Time audience, plus 5 totally unnecessary Original Song performances every year just so they can get some A-List musicians on stage. I mean, you don't see the sound mixers getting up there on stage to showcase their work. Please Academy, find a way to honor the legends. I hope they decide to celebrate 91 years of Oscars next year.
- One good thing that came out of the Original Song showcase was seeing the Puerto Rican flag on stage during the performance of "Stand Up for Something" from Marshall. Thank you for that, Chef Jose Andrés. Puerto Rico was actually represented a couple of times last night, with presenters Rita Moreno(part of the celebrating legends theme), Gina Rodriguez, and Lin-Manuel Miranda all appearing on stage. There was also a quick glimpse of Benicio Del Toro's Oscar-winning performance in Traffic during the Best Supporting Actor montage. In your face, Mexico! Our Del Toro is better!
In all seriousness, last night was a great night for Latin America, period. As Oscar Isaac said when he announced the win for Coco in Best Animated Feature: "Viva Latinoamérica!" Well, if visionary filmmakers like Guillermo Del Toro, or Chilean Best Foreign Language Film winner Sebastián Lelio keep making fascinating pieces of cinema, then I believe that Oscar Isaac could eventually find it beneficial to use his full name(with spanish pronunciation): Óscar Isaac Hernández Estrada. And since this Mexican domination at the Academy Awards seems unlikely to end anytime soon, then it's possible that Oscar Isaac wouldn't be the only Oscar having to change the pronunciation of his name. So in conclusion ...
¡Viva Latinoamérica! ¡Viva Puerto Rico! ¡Viva Mexico! ¡Viva Guillermo! y que vivan Los Oscares!
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