And the Oscar goes to...Film Twitter in 2023
EEAAO shuts out this year's top films with seven Oscar wins, taking an unprecedented six out of eight main categories while Netflix soaks up what's left
Meet the new guard. A24’s Everything Everywhere all at Once wins seven Oscar awards, while Netflix’s All Quiet on the Western Front snags four.
Assessing the award winners
A new guard carried off a raft of trophies at Sunday night’s 95th Academy Awards. The youngest studios on the block A24 and Netflix were the biggest winners. Perhaps industry titans James Cameron and Tom Cruise got a head’s up on their film’s odds, as both were absent, despite their respective best picture nominations.
It was a dispiriting affair for the rest of the films, their established studios, and their creators. The new guard in Hollywood sent a clear message doubling down yet again on picking the right movie, placating the vocal mob on Twitter over the merits of the movies themselves. Left without gold were some of the most nominated films of the year: The Banshees of Inisherin, Elvis, The Fabelmans, Tár, and Top Gun: Maverick (which got one craft award).
This is no longer the Academy of old, where merit is the defining factor. For the second year in a row, or perhaps even longer, back to 2011’s The King’s Speech, the Academy has shown a penchant for picking the right movies over the best ones for its highest achievements. Ask someone you know if they can name last year’s winner. It’s a film called CODA. An Apple TV+ streaming movie that won over theatrical releases Dune, West Side Story, and Belfast. The year before that, it was Nomadland. This year, after goofing us with a film about a corpse that farts itself across the ocean to a desert island, the Daniels decided to “put their mom in the Matrix.” And the Academy said, here you go! Giving them seven Oscars—six in the main categories—over Steven Spielberg, Todd Fields, Baz Luhrmann, Martin McDonagh, Tom Cruise, and James Cameron, who all went home empty-handed, except for the latter two taking home one craft award each.
Based on this massive swing towards one movie, ignoring many others of merit, the Academy belies a hive-mentality oddly in line with Film Twitter. It’s where the right people tell you what to think, have the best takes, and simp on the right people to be perceived as the new arbiters of pop-culture tastemakers. It’s a space that embraced EEAAO early on and rallied for it to win at every critics and industry awards ceremony. I enjoyed EEAAO in the theatres, but it was not a transformative experience. Instead, I found it to be a what the hell did I watch? experience. It didn’t occur to me to think of it in the context of winning the industry’s top awards, let alone six of the top eight main categories: picture, directing, three out of four acting categories, and best original screenplay. Add to that the best editing (over Top Gun: Maverick) for a total of seven. I would’ve laughed it off as delusional if you had told me this back then. No film since 2009’s Slumdog Millionaire has won so many Oscars, which took home eight statuettes.
Maybe voters had a different perspective and saw fit to cast their votes accordingly. However, the overwhelming surge seems greater than mere coincidence. It doesn’t explain how Jamie Lee Curtis won over Angela Bassett or the far superior Kerry Condon. It’s even questionable how she got nominated over half the cast of Women Talking were it not for Film Twitter’s influence on pop culture. Perhaps, I‘m splitting hairs as it was the odds on favorite to win picture, director, and best-supporting actor. Ultimately, it demonstrates that in the face of prevailing winds, be it Film Twitter, or some other influential factor; merit will likely continue to take a backseat to making the right choice to stay in the favorable opinions of those deemed to matter most.
At least EEAAO was a theatrical release and had its thumb-tapping champions. The real head-scratcher is why the Academy keeps awarding the one studio that persists in devouring its lunch. All Quiet on the Western Front walked away with four Oscars. It’s a Netflix movie. The kind of movie that plays only on a TV or a personal screen and brings no funds to the business that every other studio, including Amazon, is in: theatrical. They are actively destroying the theatrical business. They tanked Glass Onion with a one-week release that raked in a staggering $15MM and then shut it down for a month before its streaming debut, leaving tens of millions of dollars on the table for theatrical.
As for All Quiet… it has zero numbers in theatrical because Netflix doesn’t report grosses, only minutes viewed. All Quiet… is a bombastic cinematic movie. I’m pretty sure our living rooms and laptops aren’t the ultimate viewing spaces for it. It’s disheartening when a virtue-signaling war movie made to remind us that war is hell (not sure who needs that reminder) conveniently timed to guilt us over the plight of the Ukraine situation takes home four statuettes. In contrast, the two biggest theatrical movies of the year that raked in over $3B worldwide get a token craft award each.
In hindsight, beyond Cruise and Cameron’s absence, another telling bit of seating map geography belied the state of the industry when the cast of Maverick was shown segregated from the main audience in a box seat of their own. You’re welcome to be here, just have a seat off to the side if you don’t mind. Don’t worry. You won’t need to get up at any point in the show. They were not allowed to mingle with the rest audience, who are doing the good work of “changing the narrative.” I wonder how many theatres will still be around for the new narrative when A24 and Netflix become the new majors in town. All you’ll need then is an art house and an iPad.
Later this year, we will get films from Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese, David Fincher, Denis Villeneuve, Michael Mann, and Ridley Scott. Talk about being spoilt for riches. However, if this year is any indication, we may be watching Greta Gerwig, Emerald Fennel, and Taika Waititi, sure to be the next darlings of Film Twitter, giving the speeches in 2024.
Biggest Snubs
Angela Bassett being passed up for best supporting did feel like a snub in the face of Jamie Lee Curtis winning. However, if Condon had won for her outstanding performance in Banshees, it wouldn’t have felt as much of a snub. Especially when supporting is usually awarded to new talent. As fun as it was to watch Curtis as an indentured IRS accountant, her work was not the stuff of Oscar lore.
Tár, Banshees, Elvis, and The Fabelmans all going home empty-handed was the definition of a travesty. The cynic in me sees that none of these films have a Twitter-approved woe-is-me narrative.
Eddie Hamilton (editor of Top Gun: Maverick ), a decades-long veteran of action movie editing, being passed up for EEAAO rookie Paul Rogers was another indicative sign that even on the craft side, this new Academy doesn’t care for merit, understanding the craft, or legacy. Rogers’ daft line, “This is only my second movie, y’all,” sealed the cringe of it all for me.
Jimmy Kimmel’s performance
He did much better than I thought he would. There were only a few dad jokes and only one Guillermo joke, which was quite funny when they cut to Del Toro instead. He went really easy on the crowd. You could tell they were all so fragile, too—definitely not ready for anything like a G.I. Jane joke.
The most scathing bit was when he roasted the audience over last year’s viral mishap. He warned the audience that if anyone in this show commits an act of violence, they’ll be awarded an Oscar, given a 19-minute speech, and offered a hug afterward. This is basically what happened last year with Smith following his loss of temper on Chris Rock. “Just do nothing,” he continued, “like last year.” Then he went through the audience and called on every actor with a fighting alter ego, “You’ll have to do battle with Creed (Michael B, Jordan), the Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal), Spiderman—.” (Here they cut to Andrew Garfield, who gave a sideways grimace as if to say, ‘I guess it’s me,’ which brought down the house). Kimmel, slightly phased, went on with the scripted joke, “the Fabelman (a nonplussed Speilberg), and you’ll have the Lydia Tar beaten out of you.” Cut to a stern Cate Blanchett. With all his puns, you can tell he likes a good dad joke.
Kimmel also highlighted that all the categories would be back in the ceremony. Last year much to do was made over the below-the-line categories being awarded before the show with taped clips being shown. “We will be putting all categories back in except best picture,” Kimmel said. “That went to All Quiet… earlier,” he quipped to tepid laughter.
Did you catch the biggest boo of the night? It was when Jimmy Kimmel, as soft and gentle as he was on the toddler-level sensitivity of the crowd, made a joke at the expense of box office failure. He said there’s one thing movies can do that television can’t—lose a hundred million. He tagged it with, where’s the Babylon team at? In unison, the house rebuked him with a loud boo. How dare he call them out for a failure. It isn’t true, by the way. Ask Besos over at Amazon’s Rings of Power how well recovering their $450MM budget is going.
Best off-color joke of the night, the only one, in fact
Andie MacDowell and Hugh Grant, ‘94s Four Weddings and a Funeral alum, came up to present the Oscar for production design. Grant, coming off his champagne carpet interview earlier, visibly shook his head after confounding bikini model turned presenter Ashley Graham. He earnestly said he had no fun shooting his one-minute scene in Glass Onion. Lost for having to deal with a genuine response, she swiftly dismissed him with a curt thanks. On stage, Grant may have been the only presenter to say, ‘fuck it, I’m doing my own thing.’ Before his prepared bit, he quipped that he was a living example of the benefits of moisturizer. Insinuating that MacDowell looked as fine as ever while ‘I basically look like a scrotum.’ Like Graham, the audience didn’t know how to take the self-effacing British humor and attempted a painful, awkward laugh.
Surprises
Score going to All Quiet… was ridiculous when you’ve got a three-hour decades-spanning music history lesson from Justin Hurwitz that makes you want to dance in your seat in Babylon and 91-year-old legend John Williams sitting right there for The Fabelmans. No one will ever remember All Quiet… for its Hans Zimmer light score.
Some are saying Ruth Carter was a surprise for her historic second win for costume design for Black Panther. But it was the odds-on favorite to win.
The real surprise was all the top films that lost to EEAAO and All Quiet... That was the biggest shocker of the night.
LINK to Google Sheets THE RESULTS with analysis on my misses as seen below.
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