Oscar Reactions

 


The 94th Oscars took place last night and they were certainly memorable. While most of the world will be focusing on an incident between Will Smith and Chris Rock, I wanted to take a minute to appreciate the winners.

For me, it was a beautiful end to the 2021 film season. I recorded more than 500 first time watches last year, and the film CODA was the best that I saw. Often my favorite film of the year doesn't do well at awards. Only once that I can remember, with Spotlight in 2015, has my favorite film of the year won Best Picture. So, while I was excited about CODA's three nominations, I wasn't confident. But I had hope.

Last night the film won all three categories where it was nominated, including ending the night as Best Picture. It's simply a beautiful and touching film, and I hope everyone makes a point to see it. The speeches from Supporting Actor winner Troy Kotsur, Adapted Screenplay winner Sian Heder and the closing Best Picture speech were moving. I was thrilled to see such a beautiful and deserving film win the highest honor in film.

It was part of a night full of beautiful and deserving winners. Kenneth Branagh delivered a beautiful story in Belfast, and I was pleased to see him win. Ariana DeBose, Kotsur and Jessica Chastain delivered incredible performances, and I was thrilled to see them win, as well.

Dune wasn't my favorite film overall, but it was a technical masterpiece. It was deserving of all the technical awards it swept up and I loved that each person thanked director Dennis Villenueve, who should have received more credit for having the vision and skill to bring the story to the screen. Perhaps with the second film he'll get more credit.

Finally, the awards ceremony itself was too long (running longer than last year), made callous decisions to cut some of the award presentations, featured too many montages, and one of the worst in memoriam I've seen. Smith's moment was certainly unexpected and talked about. I don't think it mars the ceremony, but it will certainly be a memorable moment. Smith gave a great performance in King Richard and was a worthy winner, so hopefully that will be his enduring legacy.

It was a different night than expected, but overall I was pleased with the final result. The 2021 season is officially ended, and it's on to 2022.

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