THE STRANGEST OSCARS EVER
How the pandemic Academy Awards made a decent fist of a bad situation…
Astrange Oscars for a strange year. Held at LA’s Union Station (and partly at the Dolby Theatre that’s been the ceremony’s home since 2002), the 93rd Oscars was an intimate affair, with 200 vaxxed and tested nominees seated at spaced out, lamp-lit tables. The occasional guest popped in from international hubs such as the BFI in London.
This enforced intimacy rippled out to become the theme of the night. Instead of film clips to accompany the announcement of each nominee, presenters such as Regina King, Laura Dern, Reese Witherspoon, Brad Pitt and Riz Ahmed served up personal tidbits. We learned how each nommed director would explain their job to the average schmo on the street in 20 seconds. How the Best Screenplay nominees fell in love with the movies. And which films and performances made the Supporting Actresses yearn to step before a camera.
And it worked. In a year when the industry has taken an unprecedented hit, this Steven Soderbergh-produced show glowed with a sincere love of film and the film industry. OK, so there were errors: the In Memoriam section was edited so fast you could barely read the names; film clips, it soon became clear, bring their own warmth and excitement, which was missed; and the ceremony ended on Best Actor rather than the traditional Best Picture as the produceers banked on an emotional posthumous win for Chadwick Boseman, but instead got Anthony Hopkins’ placeholder card. But the main takeaway was that it all felt pleasingly low-key and from the heart, without the usual weary elements of cringey tumbleweed jokes and tacky set-pieces.
It’s tempting, then, to say lessons can be learned for when cinema, and the Oscars, are back to normal. But the truth is, probably not. Again, this was a strange Oscars for a strange year, and it drew an audience of just 9.8 million viewers – a 58 per cent drop on 2020. When the big movies are back in circulation and 3,400 people are crammed into the Dolby Theatre and millions more watch from home, it’ll be back to James Cameron bellowing, “I’m the king of the world!” and Rob Lowe dancing with Snow White. Movies are not just an art form but a business, and that business is show. JG
‘IT ALL FELT PLEASINGLY LOW-KEY AND FROM THE HEART’