That's a Wrap on the 92nd Oscars
Saturday, February 15, 2020 at 6:00PM 
The swiftest Oscar season we've personally ever experienced has come and gone. When we first started watching the Oscars in Ye Olden Times of the 1980s as a kid they were in mid April on Monday nights. Yes, mid-April (!!!) on Monday nights (!!!). Herewith everything we wrote about Hollywood's most recent High Holy Night to close the party down.
Overview
Winners and Immediate Takeways
Podcast: Oscar Night in Review
New Oscar Trivia
Oscar Charts
The Times are Changing - Oscar Inclusivity
Specifics
The Tuxes and Gowns
Ranking the Musical Numbers
Ranking the Acceptance Speeches
Ranking the Acting Clips
Little Women's Costume Win
Embroidered Fashion Statements
Top Five Presenters
Backstage Oscar Photos
Colin Jost or Brad Pitt?
Chanting for Parasite
Related to the Big Night...
If you want to honor Judy
Foreign movies after Parasite
Actors playing Actors (and winning gold)
Justice for Horror Movie costumes
The decade in Best Actress fashion
What's next for the Oscar winners?
Directing actors to nominations
Honorary Oscar Speeches: Geena, Wes, David, Lina
Nominee Interviews
For Sama directors
Joker costume designer
The Irishman cinematographer
Frozen 2 songwriters
Avengers, Lion King, and Rise of Skywalker visual effects
COMING NEXT TO THE FILM EXPERIENCE?
We'll wrap up the 2019 film year over the next few days by completing the Film Bitch Awards and then, after a short break, return fresh-faced and ready for the 2020 film year (already in progress) with the return of all your favourite series including the Supporting Actress Smackdown. And we'll probably have some "best of decade" fun too now that the 2010s have wrapped.
Reader Comments (33)
The thing that I really understood from this season is that I want Taika Waititi and Timothée Chalamet...
acting together...
in a movie...
produced by Sean Cody
You didn't write much so I don't get why you need to rest.
Monday night Oscar ceremonies were the best part of going to school and having a goal to look forward to.
The season won't be over until you work your magic and stick Laura Dern into the quartet pic.
Glad to finally live in a world where Brad and Laura finally have Oscars and to have watched Parasite make history alongside the rest of the TFE community.
Thanks for all the hard work!
Happy to know that Scarlett Johansson is now... Oscar-nominated/Tony-award winning actress Scar-Jo 3:16!
Thanks Nat for another great year of Film Experience. Though there's stuff that I missed (how did they get nominated is one of them), I know this tight schedule can be quite unforgiving, especially if the winners are only so-so for you. You deserve any and all rest that you wish to have! Looking forward to the rest of the Film Bitch Awards, especially the scenes and cameos categories.
It's been a week and I'm still thinking about how bad the telecast was.
As a person who isn't exactly old but recognizes that becoming old is imminent, I want to be able to read and understand what is on my screen. The engraved metal plate graphics for each nominee were tiny and illegible. Worse yet was the need to place every video clip at a weird curved angle. Maybe that was helpful to the audience in the building, but it was inaccessible to the TV viewer.
A prime example of this was In Memoriam, which has unexpectedly become my favorite part of the ceremony. (Really, I'm not that old.) I didn't mind the song or its performance, but the montage was terrible -- the worst I can remember. It was sped up compared to the song, not synced at all, and you're often trying to read two names at a time, if the closed captioned lyrics of "Yesterday" aren't covering up those names. The images were again askew, and tiny. It's like, why do I have a 70-inch television if the telecast refuses to make use of the space? This was worse than the BAFTA In Memoriam montage, which had small images that were at least centered on the screen. SAG did a good one: full-screen images, big letters. (You can find these on YouTube if you're curious.)
I'm not getting younger, and my vision certainly won't improve, so the Oscars should be about catering to the older established viewer even as it courts the younger and uninitiated. Be consistent: if you're going to introduce one song, introduce them all. I have no idea why the "Breakthrough" song just pops up out of nowhere, but we needed Anthony Ramos to introduce Lin-Manuel Miranda, who then introduced a montage that ended with Eminem half-performing a song that was mostly a background vocal track. I like "Lose Yourself", but he had his chance to sing that 17 years ago. He opted to let Luis Resto accept an award in a T-shirt and an oversized dinner jacket, and that was that. It's 2020 now, and there basically IS no Mekhi Phifer.
The one thing I did like about the ceremony was Janelle Monae and the Midsommar and Us and Queen and Slim dancers. I always prefer it when the Academy recognizes that the entire Hollywood industry gave us more than the 25-30 films that got nominated. Usually the ceremony is so insular; please stop patting yourselves on the back for Casablanca, and remember that everyone outside the building can very easily kill everyone inside the building.
Will there be a best Oscar winners of the decade? It looks like this was started around 2013 but now it can be finished.
Happy to know that thevoid99 is still so totally fetch!!!
Great work this Oscar season Nathaniel! Don’t worry, you’ve proven you’ve put together a great TFE team you can depend and lean upon and you aren’t afraid or resentful that they often outshine you. That’s a true leader to me, can’t wait to see what creative works you put together in this off season. Xox
yeah, you should write more.
I've been reading the Film Experience for close to a decade now, and I never remembered the comment section to be so troll-y. Sure, passionate discussions were had, but never unnecessary rudeness. When did this transition happen?
What’s the schedule looking like for the Smackdown?
JS -- it's semi-recent. The last year or two. Not sure how it happened. It is depressing yes. But perhaps it's just the way of things. The whole world got ruder and more trolly so why shouldn't online reflect that?
PP -- lol
Jennifer -- i am but one person struggling to work by and work two full time jobs (this one and another). I do what i can.
Brevity -- i also liked that abotu the opening number. I get where Murtada and others are coming from that the Academy shouldn't be able to pretend that they honored more films than they did but at the same time we all know that Oscars are only a tiny portion of the movies that are actually out there and particularly they only very rarely honor genres like comedy, horror, and only love contemporary films when they hit the zeitgeist... so i do think it behooves the Oscars to work other movies into the ceremony a bit. THAT SAID. This year was particularly egregious about how few movies they actually did watch. so...
JS - this comment section isn't trolly at all. We've seen the true appearance of those threads. I believe the old guard giving unvarnished opinions (the /3rtful's, Volvagia's, theviod99's and Peggy Sue's for examples) and not being called on it, yet anybody that isn't an old pal/known entity to Nathaniel getting treated differently to if one of those class said the same thing is what is causing confusion. Slap one of those names on a fair number of what you would consider "troll" comments and it would be ignored. It's strange and a little odd that you are ignorant to the phenomenon. But we are all ignorant before enlightened, so I can't feel ill towards you up to this moment. Nathaniel has been (we hope) looking at the valid criticisms of his reviled "Zee" and just recently learned that words have power when a history is fostered by his works that is unnecessarily hateful and he has grown from it. So it's great that we are all evolving and nurturing each other in kinder and less hateful film criticism and comment interactions. Hope you have a great day JS and I enjoy your now fully informed comment iterations.
Nathaniel! Another huge thank you for such a wonderful season. I began frequenting this site freshman year in my dorm room (2003!) Seventeen years later, I'm still here. Much love!
The section, Breakthrough Performer, in your Film Bitch Awards, for me at least, cannot be taken seriously when Chis Galust (Give Me Liberty) is not anywhere mentioned. For his first film, he is almost as amazing as Tom Mercier (they would be my #1 and #2). Not to mention that first time actress, Loren Spencer (Give Me Liberty) was very impressive her first time out as well. Perhaps you didn't see the film?
Ishmael -- i did not see that one.
peer -- you see what you want to see. in no universe that exists are any of the people you mentioned "old pals" of mine. I did meet /3rtful once at a film festival but that hardly counts as being "old pals" and if you think i've not called him him or the void out on toxic comments -- you are just eing willfully ignorant or having a selective memory so you can stay judgmental. If t here are inconsistencies iit's not intentional but merely from being busy and not always having time or energy to babysit commenters who can't control themselves when they go off on others online (sigh). It should go without saying that comments sections do not reflect the opinions of the managements. People have freedom of speech and sometimes they use it poorly.
Eli -- thank you so much xoxo
Andy -- not yet announced as we're still weighing a few different years.
Tom G -- oh dear, was I silly enough to start a best of the decade list only 3 years into a decade? What was I thinking. But yes. Best of the decade stuff is coming up.
Sorry Nathaniel, I assumed that you had watched the Spirit Award Winner, Give Me Liberty (wrongly of course), and I apologize. Perhaps you could share your opinions on the cast, and movie, when you do. cheers!
@Peer How dare you comparing Peggy and Volvagia to the hideous /3rtful? Someone stole our identities for a whole month and nothing was done about it!
P.S. I was also going to mention Théodore Pellerin, who in 2018 had quietly effective parts in 'Boy Erased' and 'Never Steady, Never Still' (followed later with his TV role in 'On Becoming a God'), but his fearless lead part in 'Genèse' (directed by Philippe Lesage: 'Demons') only cemented my belief that this is an incredible new actor in film. His presence, which went unnoticed, towers against many lauded performances from last year and my suspicion is because many have not seen the excellent and fierce, 'Genèse'. I have not seen his new Sundance film from the exceptional Elizabeth ('Beach Rats') Hittman, called, 'Never Rarely, Sometimes, Always', or the upcoming movies, 'My Salinger Year (by Oscar Nominee Philippe Falardeau--'Monsieur Lazhar'), or 'Weetzie Bat' (from 'JT Leroy' director, Justin Kelly). What I have seen from this actor is a sort of masterly command of his moments on screen, whether silent or verbose, mixed with sensitivity/volatility and something else which words escapes me. 'Genèse', I believe was one of the very best films of 2019, and Théodore Pellerin was largely responsible for that success. However, I would be remiss in not mentioning the heart-breaking performance by 'Genèse' co-star, Noée Abita ('Ava', 'Sink or Swim'). And no, I am not their publicist.
Ishmael: Pellerin was also in Canada's 2018 Oscar submission, "Family First." It's not a very good movie but he certainly makes an impression.
Suzanne (the non real one by your comment), it was more those being around the blog for along time getting away with minimal pushback to shitty comments than anybody not a part of that ‘in’ group. The ‘old pals’ was a bit of a colorful turn of phrase, not literally, and it’s sad a career writer can miss tone and intent so easily. To be honest outside of a few instances, /3rtful is more blunt than mean lately. The others mentioned get away with over the top harshness to actors, topics of articles and other commenters. Peggy Sue lacks substance to back up the bitchiness, thevoid99 is too ‘fetch’ as pointed out recently, and Volvagia goes on long comment section derailing diatribes that should be redirected to IGN or Gamespot..
So Suzanne sporadic hideousness (/3rtful) compared to constant shiftiness (Peggy Sue, thevoid9l, Volvagia and possibly wilfully obtuse self)
@Jonathan I heard of the premise for 'Family First' and found nothing to raise my interest to watch back then. Now I think I would watch most anything that he is a part of. He really is good.
@Peer These names are so familiar (and they struggled/struggle with so much baggage) , but they were easy to identify, hence, after a short period, I just didn't read them. They seem to be familiar to others now. But nothing exterminates vermin like turning a blind eye. Let the experts stealthy deal with it. From what I understand, Nat has adopted a mechanism to combat these sad people. Give the experts or apps time. These depressed and lonely people will soon find others to torment. Their favorite victims are people who respond. Soon they will be talking to themselves.
So true, like Peggy Sue drawing attention to every "imposter" comment/potential plant for attention (it is highly plausible) and now flooding every thread with five or more comments, it is easier to skip over. Although the bogarting of thread just because 'she' (people have been scolded for defaulting to female pronouns for a female name to 'her' on here) is a very close friend of the owner.
Peer? First time I read that name here. Peggy Sue exudes Big Dick Energy in every comment and you just can't stand that. Maybe you're the imposter or maybe you're just uninteresting.
I should not have commented on the 'impostor' drama that is going on here. I just don't know enough to comment. I regret having stepped into it at all. The Oscar's are over. They were great. Time to retreat.
Ishmael -- i loved Pellerin in BOY ERASED but I think that's the only thing I've seen him in.
Thank you for everything, Nathaniel. Take a long rest!
Joon-ho, she exhibits moderately sized clit energy, but if you want to try at an interesting comment you can have another crack at it if you like.
Well done again Nathaniel and team! Enjoy your break. I’m looking forward to seeing all your thoughts on the 2020 season. I’m especially excited about Dune and Tenet.
I’ve been been dropping by since just after Moulin Rouge was released because this was one of the few places on the internet discussing MR in an lovingly intelligent manner. I kept returning for the in-depth look at the Oscars as well as the well rounded discussion on movies and TV; from blockbusters to indies. I too am disappointed to see the increase in trolls attacking Nathaniel. The internet has indeed become an increasingly mean spirited place and it’s sad to see nastiness infecting this lovely site.
Here’s my tip - don’t respond to them, Nathaniel. Just ignore them and they will go away.
Joanne -- thanks for popping in again and the kind words. Probably good advice. I will take a few days once i finish the film bitch awards but i can never stay away long cuz i love talking movies.