The week after the Oscars usually has a lot of people talking, whether they watched the show or not. Amid the chaos of reactions to awkward moments on Twitter and cries of anguish from fans of films that didn't do so well, there is always a batch of key moments to remember when looking forward to next year's awards. And while this year was a bit calmer, there are certainly a number of significant takeaways from the 92nd Academy Awards.
Netflix and other streaming services are still largely being overlooked.
Eyes were on the likes of The Irishman and Marriage Story to make at least a little bit of a splash at this year’s Oscars. Yet, Marriage Story was only represented through Laura Dern’s much-deserved win for best supporting actress, and The Irishman came away with absolutely nothing. The only other victory for Netflix was American Factory, which took home the award for the best feature-length documentary. Other than that, the academy still isn’t quite ready to give streaming service originals the recognition they deserve.
The Oscars seem to want to be inclusive and diverse.
The announcers pointed it out, and the show tried to be more diverse in its performances, but the issue still stands that minorities and women are not well represented when it comes to nominations. Doing things like having Idina Menzel sing with many of the international voice actresses of Elsa helps, but people most likely aren’t going to be happy until the nominations reflect these ideals. With that said…
Parasite winning best picture is huge.
As the first foreign film to win best picture, this win says a lot about not only Parasite’s power, but the step that has been taken toward various directors, actors and films, in general, to be able to win big at the Academy Awards. With additional wins for best international feature film, director and original screenplay, Parasite has opened the door for a lot of films and filmmakers that haven’t stood a chance at award shows like this in the past.
The flow of the show is getting better.
Whether it was the announcers or the winners, many speakers kept it short, simple and sweet. Even Joaquin Phoenix’s acceptance speech for best actor, one of the longest of the night, was one of the best and most heart-wrenching Oscar speeches to date. The show’s efforts, albeit a little pushy at times, to cut people off even allowed the crowd at the end to cheer and chant for Parasite to have a little longer in its much-deserved time in the spotlight after winning best picture. Maybe the three and a half hour run-time will even begin to decrease at future shows.
1917 couldn’t overcome Parasite.
The film received technical nods for cinematography, visual effects and sound mixing, but Parasite dominated. Even Joker didn’t really stand a chance after leading this year’s nominations, though it did also pull out a nice win for best original score. The supposed frontrunners, and many people’s predictions, just didn’t pan out. Which brings me to my next point:
My predictions were a little off.
1917 definitely didn’t win best picture, Marriage Story got brushed under the rug as opposed to being a dark horse and Toy Story 4 did indeed become an Oscar-worthy sequel I still think shouldn’t have been made. Thanks to Brad Pitt, Joaquin Phoenix and Laura Dern for making me look a little more credible. Perhaps most shocking of all, though…
The 92nd Academy Awards went pretty well.
Sure, we had Rebel Wilson and James Corden pawing at a microphone while in their Cats attire. Sure, Eminem was a little out of place and may have put Martin Scorsese to sleep. And sure, Billie Eilish’s grimace at Maya Rudolph and Kristen Wiig was a little much. But for the Oscars, that’s all pretty tame. The award show went off without too much of a hitch and certainly nothing tragic like announcing the wrong winner for best picture. Maybe after 92 years of this craziness, the show has found a formula that works.
All that’s left to do to win over the public now is to catch up with the times when it comes to nominations for the 93rd edition of the esteemed Hollywood award show.
Jackson Horvat is a sophomore studying journalism at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. Do you agree? Tell Jackson by tweeting him at @horvatjackson.
