Red carpet unfurls before a show unlike any other
An Oscars ceremony unlike any other played out Sunday night, with history on the line in major categories and a telecast that had been completely retooled for the pandemic.
The 93rd Academy Awards had no host, no audience, nor face masks for nominees attending the ceremony at Los Angeles’ Union Station — this year’s hub for a show usually broadcast from the Dolby Theatre. In contrast with the largely virtual Golden Globes, Zoom boxes were closed out — though international hubs and satellite feeds connected nominees unable to travel.
The red carpet was back Sunday, minus the throngs of onlookers and with socially distanced interviews. Only a handful of media outlets were allowed on site, behind a velvet rope and some distance from the nominees.
Casual wear, the academy warned nominees early on, was a no-no. During the Oscar preshow, nominees gathered at an outdoor set at Union Station that resembled an open-air cocktail lounge.
Leslie Odom Jr., a supporting acting nominee for “One Night in Miami,” was especially appropriately dress in a shiny all-gold suit that could match an Oscar statuette. Speaking to ABC, he praised a strong year for Black stories.
“It feels like there’s been a major conversation, a conversation happening in between these projects,” said Odom citing films like “One Night in Miami,” “Judas and the Black Messiah,” “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and “The Forty-Year-Old Version.” “It’s a special time, these movies about Black life.”
Show producers hoped to return some of the traditional glamour to the Oscars, even in a pandemic year. The pre-show included pre-taped performances of the five Oscar-nominated songs. The first, “Husavik
(My Hometown)” from “Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga.,” was shot in the Iceland town’s harbor. Other performances were made from the top of the film academy’s new $500 million museum.
Pulling the musical interludes (though not the in memoriam segment) from the three-hour broadcast — and drastically cutting down the time it took winners to reach the podium — freed up a lot of time in the ceremony. And producers, led by filmmaker Steven Soderbergh, promised a reinvented telecast.
From the preshow, it was clear this year’s Oscars would try to rekindle excitement in moviegoing after a pandemic year nearly eliminated it. A glossy montage of upcoming movies introduced by Matthew McConaughey declared” “The big
screen is back.” Some movies, like Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” premiered ads during the telecast.
Soderbergh said the Oscars would look more like a movie. The show was shot in 24 frames-per-second (as opposed to 30), appeared more widescreen and the presenters — including Brad Pitt, Halle Berry, Reese Witherspoon, Harrison Ford, Rita Moreno and Zendaya — were considered “cast members.”
But even a great show may not be enough to save the Oscars from an expected ratings slide. Award show ratings have cratered during the pandemic, and this year’s nominees — many of them smaller, lower-budget dramas — won’t come close to the drawing power of past Oscar heavyweights like “Titanic” or “Black Panther.” Last year’s Oscars, when Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite”
became the first non-English language film to win best picture, was watched by 23.6 million, an all-time low.
Netflix dominated this year with 36 nominations, including the lead-nominee “Mank,” David Fincher’s black-and-white drama about “Citizen Kane” co-writer Herman J. Mankiewicz. The streamer is still pursuing its first best-picture win.
Sunday’s pandemic-delayed Oscars brought to a close the longest awards season ever — one that turned the season’s industrial complex of cocktail parties and screenings virtual. Eligibility was extended into February of this year, and for the first time, a theatrical run wasn’t a requirement of nominees. Some films — like “Sound of Metal” — premiered all the way back in September 2019.
But for the first time, Hollywood’s most prestigious awards overwhelmingly belonged to films that barely played on the big screen. The biggest ticket-seller of the best picture nominees was “Promising Young Woman,” with $6.3 million in box office.
Lately, with vaccinations expanding, signs of life have begun to show in movie theaters — most of which are operating at 50% capacity. Warner Bros. “Godzilla vs. Kong” has made around $400 million worldwide, which theater owners point to as proof that moviegoers are eager for studios to again release a regular diet of big movies. Right now, the date circled on cinema calendars is May 28, when both Paramount’s “A Quiet Place Part II” and Disney’s “Cruella” arrive in theaters — though “Cruella” will simultaneously stream for $30.
But it’s been a punishing year for Hollywood. Around the world, movie theater marquees replaced movie titles with pleas to wear a mask. Streaming services rushed to fill the void, redrawing the balance between studios and theaters — and likely forever ending the three-month theatrical exclusivity for new releases. Just weeks before the Oscars, one of Los Angeles’ most iconic theaters, the Cinerama Dome, along with ArcLight Cinemas, went out of business.
After the pandemic, Hollywood — and the Oscars — may not ever be quite the same. Or as WarnerMedia’s new chief executive Jason Kilar said when announcing plans to shift the studio’s movies to streaming: “We’re not in Kansas anymore.”