By: Jordan Sarver-Bontrager
Media Writer
The 97th Academy Awards were held on March 3. And the crowd goes…mild.
The show itself wasn’t bad, but there weren’t any moments that wowed me. Almost all of the awards were fairly expected, but I had a bone to pick with a few categories.
My two favorite movies from last year were “Wicked” and “A Complete Unknown”, and both had several nominations for Best Picture and a few acting awards. Every single Oscars show, I find myself hoping for one movie to sweep or for a specific actor to win. This time around, I found myself rooting for Timothee Chalamet for his portrayal of Bob Dylan in “A Complete Unknown” to win Best Actor, and for Cynthia Erivo to win Best Actress for her role as Elphaba in “Wicked”.
Adrien Brody won Best Actor for “The Brutalist”, and Mikey Madison won Best Actress for “Anora”, the latter of which I was perfectly fine with (“Anora” was wonderful). For the former, producers used AI to touch up Brody’s accent in the film – in my opinion, that should be disqualifying, but it is what it is.
“Anora” won Best Picture. I was really disappointed, because as they say, I was holding space for Wicked to win. However, “Anora” probably was the right choice. I acknowledge that many of my gripes are based on my personal enjoyment, rather than believing the other nominees were undeserving. (Except the Adrien Brody thing. Also, the latter would definitely have been true if “Emilia Perez” had won any big awards.)
“Flow” won Best Animated Feature, and deservedly so. The animation in that movie – all done on free and open-source software – is brilliant, and the category didn’t have many strong contenders this year, giving the independent Latvian film a moment in the spotlight. The movie’s beautiful original score and uniqueness (for example, its lack of any dialogue) were a refreshing break from the usual Disney-Pixar-fest.
Overall, this year’s Oscars weren’t too surprising, which might be a defining characteristic in itself. There wasn’t really a big “moment” at this year’s Oscars. There was no selfie that broke the internet, no slapping, no Al Pacino on Ambien saying “My eyes see Oppenheimer!” or saying the wrong film for Best Picture (see 2017 Oscars). It was just a good show, and I enjoyed watching it. (Except for the fact that “Emilia Perez” somehow had 13 nominations. It deserved zero.)