The 92nd Oscars Afterthoughts and the Complete Winners List
Monday, February 10, 2020 at 12:58AM by Nathaniel R
You know how we do at The Film Experience. We'll have a few days of post-mortem on the 92nd Academy Awards, honoring the films of 2019. So it's not quite over yet but the rest is the after-party if you will. And we think you will feel like partying. We sure do. Parasite won 55% of your votes in our readers poll for who SHOULD win (with Hollywood and 1917 fighting for a distant second place on the Best Picture chart) and it also took the top prize at both the Team Experience Awards and my own prizes right here. And then it actually went and won Hollywood's top honor, too, defying all odds (again) to become the first Foreign Language picture ever to triumph at the Oscars. It will go down as history as one of the best choices the Academy ever made in the top category along with films like Moonlight, Silence of the Lambs, Amadeus, All About Eve, and other classics...
Roma may have come close to making history last year but it took a more successful, tirelessly promoted, and long-legged theatrical hit to finally break that "1 inch tall barrier" (as Bong Joon Ho describes subtitles). The crowd inside the Dolby appeared to be ecstatic about Parasite's multiple wins. Spike Lee was noticeably enthusiastic reading out the big Best Director upset "BONG JOON HO!" when he opened the envelope. What's more the crowd even forced the show runners to bring the lights back up (front-row cheerleader Charlize, we see you!) in order to hear the second part of Team Parasite's final speech when they tried to wrap the show too quickly.
We won't make the same mistake and, again, we'll have more to say about the big night and its prizes very soon in our own after-party. But for now...
Six quick takeways before sleepy time
• Opening with Janelle Monae and Billy Porter, both unapologetically black and queer, was a nice touch and definitely a rousing performance. Janelle's hooded shimmery 40s but 2020 glam kept startling us in a very good way from the crowd shots all throughout the show.
• Give an Emmy to Maya Rudolph and Kristen Wiig for Best Performance on a Variety Special. They absolutely slayed their extended bit of A-C-T-I-N-G. Better yet, let them host the Oscars next year. This no host thing isn't bad but let's mix it up on occasion!
• Brad Pitt continued his run of shockingly perfect run of awards speeches, always utterly him but also charming and polished and funny and humble -- a whole rang of feeling! -- to the point that people are wondering if they're ghost-written. (Renée's speech definitely should've been, poor thing!) Our favourite random bit was thanking Geena Davis and Ridley Scott for his breakout opportunity. He didn't name-check Thelma & Louise (1991) but he didn't need to as he stole the world's hearts that year and the world has loved him ever since.
• Tom Hanks's joke about plastering the walls of the new Academy Museum while Scarlett Johansson lugged around her orbital sander and Brad Pitt tiled the roof shirtless was pretty damn great.
• Shout out to Cynthia Erivo for delivering a perfect version of "Stand Up" from Harriet and side-eyeing the camera as it spun around her at the finale. In her sleek gold down, she was like 'I'm the Oscar here!' After the performance my best friend and I were raving all over again about her Tony-winning Broadway run in The Color Purple and how lucky we were to have seen it.
• Most endearing speech: Bong Joon Ho's director win was very generous and classy with heartfelt love for his fellow nominees and the perfect silly capper "Thank you I will drink until morning" at the close. More on the acceptance speeches soon.
AND THE OSCAR GOES TO...
Picture Parasite
Director Bong Joon Ho, Parasite
Actress Zellweger, Judy
Actor Phoenix, Joker
Supporting Actress Dern, Marriage Story
Supporting Actor Pitt, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Original Screenplay Parasite
Adapted Screenplay Jojo Rabbit
Cinematography 1917
Costume Design Little Women
Production Design Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Editing Ford V Ferrari
Visual Effects 1917
Makeup and Hair Bombshell
Original Score Joker
Original Song "I'm Gonna Love Me Again" Rocketman
Sound Mixing 1917
Sound Editing Ford V Ferrari
International Feature Parasite, South Korea
Documentary Feature American Factory
Doc Short Learning to Skate in a War Zone (If You're a Girl)
Animated Feature Toy Story 4
Animated Short Hair Love
Live Action Short The Neighbor's Window
How'd we do on our predictions? A not at all bad with a 19/24 though we missed two of the biggest ones (Picture/Director) and couldn't have been happier to be wrong.
more 92nd Academy Awards coverage
musical performances, ranked
top five presenters or duos
embroidered fashion statements (literally)
new Oscar trivia
the winner and immediate afterthoughts
Reader Comments (69)
@PaulT: The Oscar officially goes to South Korea with Bong accepting on the country's behalf. I think saying he won 4 Oscars is not a lie, even if technically incorrect.
I wonder if Bong Joon-Ho is a The Simpsons fan, as his suggestion to slice the Oscar into 5 pieces and share it with the other candidates is literally what Bart Simpson did when he won the Oscar for Animated Short, to share it with his creative team.
Olivia Colman was hilarious presenting Best Actor. Can she present every award and give every acceptance speech from now on?
I mean, they did it. They actually did it. And with the least-likely candidate possible - a comedy/horror film from Asia! Not a war film or a sweeping romance. I can't figure out if this or Moonlight is my favorite BP win of all time but I think it's this.
Almost the entire ceremony was entertaining, but I grow tired of the "let's make up for our lack of diverse nominees with a culturally-diverse show" mentality. Both are essential to the future of the Academy.
And Laura Dern is an Oscar winner. All hail.
Oh, Renee.I feel like she was in a bit of tough spot, following what was (whatever you thought of the content) a fiery, passionate, confrontational and surprisingly eloquent speech by Joaquin Phoenix. She didn't want to seem like some shallow Hollywood airhead just reeling off a list of names, and felt obligated to do something - still, if she couldn't come up with something better than that, she should have just stuck to the list. In trying to avoid seeming shallow, she came across as bubble-headed, unfocused and dithery. Of course, "Our Heroes Unite Us" is a perfectly nice, safe, bland little sentiment for a Junior High graduation speech or a Baptist Church ladies ice cream social - it probably ranks somewhere between "Kindness is Contagious" and "Butterflies are Pretty" in terms of actual import - but if you're going to go with something as non-committal and innocuous as that, don't repeat it over and and over again ad nauseam, or blather on about it any longer than you have. Just say it simply and succinctly, one time, and get the hell off stage. Just walk away, Renee!!!!
Paul T -- yes, it sucks but though Bong Joon Ho's name is engraved on the Best International Feature statue he isn't tecnically the winner.
EVERYONE - must oscars won in a single year is Walt Disney with 4 (1954). 3 awards in one night have gone to Bong Joon and Inarritu and i'm assuming a few others
Renee's speech was nothing special, but not the horror show people make it out to be. If you've seen her on talk shows she is a bit awkward, but charming. Cut from the same ilk as Kidman. If you detest one but love the other outside of their acting work you're probably a biased dickhole.
The Coen Brothers also won 3 Oscars during the 2007 ceremony.
What a great night! I quibbled with a couple of awards (I wish Actress and Adapted Screenplay had gone elsewhere) but overall, these are the best Oscars of the decade, easily.
Best oscars ever, from opening and range of diversity, to acting clips, presenters and winner speeches, this was one for the history books.
Oddly, a dictatorship like White House and leadership creates great films through outrage, but who woulda thunk the oscars would follow suit.
This is purely anecdotal, obviously, but I know three Academy members who listed Parasite as their #1 choice on their preferential ballot and then put 1917 (which all three of them liked alright) as #9. Below Jojo, which two of the three utterly despised.
In 2003, Fran Walsh became the only woman to have won three Oscars at one ceremony. She accepted Oscar's for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplsy and Best Song for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
Judy Garland was a drug addict. Of course she endured trauma, but she overdosed and how is that heroic? Renee's speech made no sense. And the random rattling off of first names is a giant waste of everyone's time. Joaquin was also incoherent with the birthing of the cow, etc.
biggest surprise of the night was the producers didn’t have the boy from jojo rabbit and the girl from OUATIH to present the animation awards!
Jono getting hooked on drugs and pep pills as a youngster by those in authority she trusted can be difficult to crawl back from for good. You seem will fully obtuse on that one. I agree on Joaquin. Seems strange that his wacko speech barely gets any hate or criticism here on this site with these commenters, yeah Zellweger meh okay one is all time horrible. She probably deserves this Oscar just for the proven, here and elsewhere, shit she endures for breathing. Time to retire “Zee” as well.
The Oscars should be about celebrating movies but this one at times felt like a pep rally for the fashionably oppressed- the climax was Phoneix rambling speech- ( proof actors need a script) in which he failed to thank ANYONE associated with "Joker" but check listed everyone from gays to immigrants- and then started talking about the traumatic life of a poor cow?! The only touching moment was his final reference to his late brother River.
And what is with the double nominations for "Parasite" - it is a fantastic movie and deserved the Best Foreign Language win- but get the Best Picture too?! I bet you a lot of pissed off American studio heads and producers are making sure the Academy doesn't let this happen again.
Oh cool. I did overstep the line in a moment of passion though, so I apologise. Even if it was all true, the back end of my comment was sufficient. The Peggy Sue deluge on every post seemingly ‘just cuz’ can grate at times. Nothing interesting, on topic or not purely bitter to say? Then read along and enjoy. Thanks for the teachable moment for myself and hopefully Peggy Sue, thevoid99, Volvagia, etc al.
Oh shit, I read the moments more thoroughly and the “Facist!” Comment is not me. You can delete that or just be aware that we were probably and by the same person (and to be honest they only pop out when someone disagrees or interacts with Peggy Sue, so if you need a prime suspect I’d pick them. /3rtful for all their faults does stay aloof to this whole saga)
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