REAL TALK FROM KIMMEL
Oscars host doesn’t mince words
Host Jimmy Kimmel got the 90th Academy Awards underway Sunday at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles with an opening monologue that mixed Harvey Weinstein punchlines with earnest comments about reforming gender equality in Hollywood. And of course, Kimmel — returning to the scene of the flub — dove straight into material about last year’s infamous best-picture mix-up.
“I do want to mention, this year, when you hear your name called, don’t get up right away,” said Kimmel. “Give us a minute.”
But while Kimmel spent a few moments on the fiasco known as Envelopegate, he expended far more minutes frankly and soberly discussing the parade of sexual harassment allegations that have coursed through the movie business in the wake of the revelations regarding Weinstein. He also spoke straightforwardly about the industry’s poor record for female directors and equal pay.
“We can’t let bad behaviour slide anymore,” said Kimmel. “The world is watching us.” Gesturing to a giant statue on the stage, he praised Oscar, himself for keeping “his hands where you can see them” and for having “no penis at all.” But Kimmel introduced the broadcast as “a night for positivity.”
“I remember a time when the major studios didn’t believe a woman or a minority could open a super hero movie — and the reason I remember that time is because it was March of last year,” said Kimmel. The night’s acting honours were considered fairly locked for nominees, and the first award of the evening — as expected — went to Sam Rockwell for his supporting performance as a dim-witted and racist police officer in Martin McDonagh’s darkly comic revenge drama Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.
Raising the award, the veteran character actor — celebrating his first Oscar — shouted: “For my buddy, Phil Hoffman.” Philip Seymour Hoffman died in 2014. Allison Janney won the best supporting actress Oscar for her role in I, Tonya. Janney won for her caustic portrayal of Tonya Harding’s mother LaVona in the film about the figure skater’s life.
It is also Janney ’s first Oscar win. The actress started her acceptance speech by joking, “I did it all by myself.” She quickly changed course, saying, “Nothing could be further from the truth.” Guillermo del Toro’s monster fable The Shape of Water, which came in with a leading 13 nods, took best production design — that prize going to a trio of Canadians: Paul Austerberry, Jeffrey A. Melvin and Shane Vieau. Austerberry is credited for production design while Melvin and Vieau did the set decoration. Meanwhile, Coco won for best animated feature. The Disney and Pixar collaboration tells the story of a Mexican boy who dreams of being a musician despite his family’s wishes.
The best animated short Oscar was awarded to Dear Basketball, making former Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant an Oscar winner. Early wins went to makeup that adorned Gary Oldman’s Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour, the period costume design of Phantom Thread and the sound editing for Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk. Best documentary went to Netflix’s Icarus — Bryan Fogel’s investigation into doping in sports — and best foreign language film went to Chile’s A Fantastic Woman. Pakistan-born comedian Kumail Nanjiani joined Kenyan-born Lupita Nyong ’o to salute the so-called Dreamers — immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children and here without permanent protection from deportation. “Dreams are the foundation of Hollywood and dreams are the foundation of America. And, so, to all the Dreamers out there, we stand with you,” Nanjiani said. The ceremony is the crescendo of one of Hollywood’s most turbulent awards seasons ever — one that saw cascading allegations of sexual harassment topple movie moguls, upended Oscar campaigns and new movements launched to improve gender equality throughout the industry.
No Golden Globes-style fashion protest was held by organizers of #TimesUp, the initiative begun by several hundred prominent women in entertainment to combat sexual harassment. Their goals go beyond red carpets, organizers said in the lead-up to the Oscars.
“We did the dress code thing and now we’re doing the work,” said #MeToo founder Tarana Burke on the red carpet.
Before he was tossed out of the film academy after a storm of sexual harassment and sexual abuse allegations, Weinstein was for the last two decades the grand poobah of the Oscars. By one study’s findings, Weinstein was thanked more often than God in acceptance speeches.
It’s been an unusually lengthy — and often unpredictable — awards season, already an increasingly protracted horse race begun as most of the contenders bowed at film festivals last September. The Academy Awards were moved a week later this year because of the Olympics.