Ben O’Shea: How an unprecedented 93rd Academy Awards became the Oscars that tried too hard

Unprecedented in so many ways, the 93rd Academy Awards today will be remembered for diversity, the Korean Meryl Streep flirting with Brad Pitt and an ending so unsatisfying it made the final season of Game of Thrones look good. Most of the winners went according to the bookies’ script, but the biggest surprise of the night was also the show’s undoing. For the first time since 1971, best picture wasn’t the final award of the night, with that honour instead going to best actor. The prevailing theory is the switch was an attempt to maintain audience interest through to the end of the show, given the best picture category offered little intrigue (Nomadland lived up to its unbackable favouritism), and people may stay glued to their screens to see Chadwick Boseman win a posthumous Oscar as was widely assumed. To paraphrase an old adage — to assume is to make an “ass” out of “u” and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science, and that’s precisely what happened when Sir Anthony Hopkins won in absentia for playing a man with dementia in The Father. Instead of ending on a poignant note, the show was swiftly and awkwardly concluded as award presenter Joaquin Phoenix scrambled to accept the statuette on Hopkins’ behalf. Event producers, which included Contagion director Steven Soderbergh, made the decision to shoot the ceremony “like a film”, in the cavernous and wonderfully Art Deco interior of LA’s Union Station. With only nominees and their guests in attendance, scattered about the room at small tables and in banquettes, it echoed the Golden Age of Hollywood, but this was far from being your granddad’s Oscars. This was apparent from the outset, when the host-less ceremony was opened by Regina King referencing last week’s conviction of former police officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd. “If things had gone differently this past week in Minneapolis I may have traded in my heels for marching boots,” she said. It was the first of a number of socially conscious moments on a night that has so often been woefully lacking in that regard in the past. Five years removed from #OscarsSoWhite, this was a ceremony where Hollywood’s colour spectrum of talent was recognised at an historic level. Chinese American filmmaker Chloe Zhao became the first woman of colour to win best director for her masterpiece, Nomadland, which was also the second time in 93 years a woman won the directing gong. So, yeah, if it feels like the Academy took a huge leap forward this year it is partly because it had so much ground to make up in the first place. Mia Neal and Jamika Wilson became the first Black women to win best makeup and hairstyling for their work on Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, while awards season darling Yuh-Jung Youn continued her golden run by becoming the first Korean actor to win an Oscar for her performance in Minari. She was a scene-stealer as an eccentric grandma in director Lee Isaac Chung’s thoughtful tale of a Korean immigrant family in rural Arkansas, and her acceptance speech for best supporting actress stole the show, too. After all, it’s not every day you see a grand dame of Asian cinema flirt with Brad Pitt on stage at Tinseltown’s night of nights. Frances McDormand, meanwhile, was oddly subdued while accepting the best actress prize, the third Oscar of her career, although she earlier howled like a wolf while on stage with Zhao. Netflix had a good night, nearly doubling its all-time Oscars tally by leading all studios with seven wins, although its most highly-fancied film, The Trial of the Chicago 7, was also the night’s biggest loser. Nominated for six awards, Aaron Sorkin’s historical drama won none, and it was the only best picture nominee to walk home empty-handed. Other than the ending, the show’s other big miss was the In Memoriam segment, which tried to cram far too many dearly departed celebs in one song. Set to Stevie Wonder’s uptempo ditty, As, it was rushed, hard to follow, and a poor memorial for cinema giants such as Sean Connery and Christopher Plummer. But, with Angela Bassett introducing the segment by acknowledging there’s been “over 3 million souls lost around the world to COVID alone”, maybe not going overboard with sentiment was the best strategy. On the plus side, viewers were spared glitchy Zoom calls, as those unable to attend, such as Sacha Baron Cohen in Sydney, appeared via satellite link. The Oscars were, at various points, innovative, inspiring and disappointing, but an oddly appropriate tribute for a year where the film industry was disrupted more than at any time since World War II.

Ben O’Shea: How an unprecedented 93rd Academy Awards became the Oscars that tried too hard

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