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It’s been several years since I’ve sat down with my family to watch the Oscars. Watching awards shows used to be a family affair for me. Every year, we would all gather round the TV and watch the glittering stars walk the red carpet and then pat each other on the back as they celebrated their awesome selves on stage before millions of viewers.
These awards shows had already overstayed their welcome in many households as they struggled with diversity issues. Over the course of the pandemic, priorities shifted even more.
But, as we have all started to slowly cut through our thick pandemic cocoons, I’ve started feeling myself enjoying silly entertainments again.
And this year, we all sat down on the couch together to watch the Oscar festivities. My husband and I had made an effort to see at least some of the movies (for me, I was able to see Barbie, Past Lives, The Holdovers, and Anatomy of a Fall), so we were excited to see who would take home the coveted golden statues.
The top five moments of the broadcast for me were:
The shout out to the unions. Jimmy Kimmel was an inoffensive and occasionally funny host. He was able to skewer inflated egos in general without being mean and cringeworthy. I especially enjoyed how he called out the strength of the actor and writer unions while not forgetting the many, many people working behind the scenes, like the Teamsters, truckers, sound crew and so many more who may be inching their way toward their own strikes. It was a moment of solidarity to balance out the self-aggrandizing portions of the show.
Da’Vine Joy’s best supporting actress win. I absolutely loved how the telecast brought out previous category winners to give small speeches to each of a category’s nominees. For some awards, the winner was pretty much a foregone conclusion, so it was nice to see the other nominees get their accolades as well. And when Lupita Nyong’o spoke about Da'Vine Joy during her absolutely central performance in The Holdovers, I started crying along with Joy as Nyong’o described how she wore her grandmother’s glasses to ground the trauma she portrayed on screen. Her winning speech was heartfelt, personal, and had just the right touch of humor to it.
Kentastic performance. While the other best song nominee performances were well done, there was just something so unhinged and powerfully joyful about Ryan Gosling’s performance of “I’m Just Ken.” He didn’t hold back and threw himself fully into the over-the-top production, and I was absolutely here for it.
Making memories and history. In the best documentary win, director Mstyslav Chernov made a powerful acceptance speech that had me recalling the awesome power of movies to cement terrible moments in history, making sure that we never forget. Chernov was emotional as he talked about how he never wanted to have to make 20 Days to Mariupol, but needed to because the power of cinema “forms memories, and memories form history.”
Shaping our past and present. Johnathan Grazer’s acceptance speech for best international feature was powerful and the only one to touch on the current conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. He used his speech to highlight the dangers of dehumanization that occur in these conflicts, something that his movie, Zone of Interest makes its centerpiece. His hands shook as he read his speech, a testament to the courage it took for him to make this speech.
I was happy to see this year’s Oscar broadcast touch on the power of movies to bring us together as fellow human beings. And I have a list of movies and documentaries that I’m excited to watch.
It reminded me of why we love to go to the movies.
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