Oscars 2024

[Brad]

What the fuck is up with Emily Blunt’s shoulder straps?

[Brad]

Worst In Memoriam.

People died, but let’s zoom out for no reason so you can kinda watch interpretive dance you don’t care about?

[NUguy514]

I think the weird formatting stuff that's happening at the top of the page has made everyone think the board is down, and I think that's why it's been so quiet leading up to the Oscars.

As I said in my SAG Awards post this year, I have been Team Emma from the moment I walked out of Poor Things, and I sort of let the SAG outcome shake my confidence. However, SAG-AFTRA is not the Academy, and I do think, on average, Academy members are probably less inclined to vote blindly. The BAFTA snub for Lily coupled with the BAFTA win for Emma presaged to me that the international contingent, which has become much larger in the last ten years, would break heavily for Emma and that that might be enough to carry her over the finish line. In fact, I'd wager that Sandra was second to Emma. The hard truth is that no one really liked Killers of the Flower Moon, Nyad, or (especially) Maestro, so Lily, Annette, and Carey were just not going to win over the smaller, more international, more informed Academy. Moreover, I don't think Academy members care about creating "a moment"; I'm sure there's whining about how another white actress won and how robbed Lily was of "a moment," but she was never going to win if people didn't like her performance and film enough (she's good, but nowhere close to Emma or Sandra or a few unnominated ladies). The reason Michelle Yeoh won last year was not because she was Asian; it's because her performance and film were ADORED by most people, and the rest of it was a happy by-product. I think Lily knew she wasn't going to win because she was looking at Emma while Michelle was announcing the winner. My big clue was the makeup win for Poor Things; it was not predicted to win here, and that told me that support for the film was strong and that reminded me of the wins for Brendan Fraser and Jessica Chastain the last two years. Also, when The Boy and the Heron won Animated Feature over the predicted Spider-Man, I felt the pundits might be off on some things.

All that's to say that my greatest hope tonight was for Emma Stone to win, and I cried a little when she did.

The rest of the show was good in that it was expedient; it actually ended a few minutes earlier than scheduled, which is a miracle! Jimmuy did a good job, and there was, mercifully, only one montage. I really liked the return of former winners in the acting categories.

Da'Vine Joy Randolph's win was also so wonderful, even though she was a lock. I'm happy for Robert Downey Jr. and Cillian Murphy, even if I wouldn't have voted for either and don't think either was particuarly deserving. Still, neither is the worst win in his category ever, by a longshot. Christopher Nolan...whatever, at least the fanboys can stop bitching about how overlooked and unrewarded he is all the goddamn time. I was thrilled for both screenplay wins and got a happy chuckle over Wes Anderson's finally winning an Oscar for Live Action Short (really don't like most of his films, but a short is a perfect place for him to win).

Weirdly, one of my favorite wins was for Sound. I did not like The Zone of Interest at all; in fact, I really disliked it. However, the sound was phenomenal – truly amazing, subtle, powerful work – and I'm beyond thrilled it won over the bombast of Oppenheimer. Maybe that'll teach Nolan to care about dialogue.

Nah, that'll never happen.

[emmygrammyoscartony]

Was expecting all the "Oppenheimer" love, but am glad it missed out on some of the techs. Maybe now the Nolan fans will calm down. Just too bad he had to win for this. Murphy and Downey, Jr. were not my faves, but I am still happy for them.

Good for "Poor Things." And I cried when Stone won. She was so genuinely moved and surprised, and "My dress is broken" is now gonna be my go-to when nothing is going my way. Lol.

Ecstatic that "Zone" won Sound.

Da'Vine is just...divine. What an amazing season for her, and she was pure class all the way.

Happy that the writers went with less traditional fare.

I thought "I'm Just Ken" brought the house down, but I am still so happy "What Was I Made For?" won Song.

The presenters were all great. The Devito/Shwartzenager/Keaton bit was hilarious. Same with Gosling/Blunt. John Cena is so fucking hot. I also loved McKinnon/Ferrerra/Spielberg.

So happy the winners circle was back. Loved it!

Best awards show in years, save that horrendous In Memoriam stretch, though Bocelli and his son sounded amazing.

I literally did not even recognize Pacino. That whole bit was weird.

I LOLed when Kimmel said, "Can we get rid of that Emma Stone envelope, please?" Lmao

[malcolm1980]

I made some random predictions last year. Let me see how I did:

1. Oppenheimer, Barbie and Dune Part II will split the technical awards. - Sorta right. Oppenheimer did at least.

2. Barbie will be an across-the-board contender: Picture, Director, etc. Ryan Gosling will be a Best Supporting Actor front-runner for his role. - 90% right. Although Ryan Gosling wasn't a front-runner for the win for his role but rather the nomination.

3. At least two women will be nominated for Best Director next year. - Almost right. One did.

4. Timothee Chalamet will be once again in the Best Actor conversation but NOT for Dune Part II....but rather for Wonka. He will get nominated for that or at least come close. - Sorta right. He got Globe nominated.

5. The Color Purple musical film will meet the same fate as the first film version: Be an early front-runner, get a whole bunch of nominations but find its director snubbed and then win nothing on Oscar night. - Sorta right. It only got one nomination and won nothing.

6. The Best Actress winner will be another POC. - Almost right.

7. Half of the 20 acting nominees will be POC...and people will still find reasons to complain. - Not really. But people did find reason to complain.

8. The ratings will increase still...yet people will still not be satisfied. - This will probably happen.

9. An animated film and a documentary film will strongly contend for Best Picture nominations. - An animated film did but it didn't happen.

10. TWO non-English films will be nominated for Best Picture. - Right on the money!

[emmygrammyoscartony]

Also, my love of Sally Field just grows and grows. She was playing total mom when she was trying to get Jennifer Lawrence over to the side so Stone could give her speech.