What went right and what went wrong at the 93rd Oscars.

by Nathaniel R

Which Steven Soderbergh film begins with a ton of promise before getting bogged down in the middle due to its relentless seriouness? Which of his films comes chaotically lurching back to messy life near the climax but still can't stick to the landing? I don't have an answer for this question except to say "The 93rd Academy Awards if it counts!"  And should it?

The Soderbergh produced ceremony made good on its intentions to not be like every other Oscar ceremony. Not that that was ever in doubt given the worldwide pandemic that put such a dampening slog on awards season (among other admittedly more serious effects). More satisfying than the arbitrary changes in presentation or category order -- thrilling even -- was the pre-show buzz that this would feel more like a movie which the "opening scene" bore out...

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Some Oscar Night Related Tweets

We were soooo sick yesterday -- WORTH IT TO BE FULLY VACCINATED! -- so we're just catching up now. But if you're not on twitter we wouldn't want you to miss these bon mots. Enjoy.

Anthony Hopkins reacts to his #Oscars win and pays tribute to fellow Best Actor nominee, Chadwick Boseman. pic.twitter.com/z5MkFfR7wi

— Film Updates (@TheFilmUpdates) April 26, 2021

Apparently Olivia Colman was supposed to do the speech for him but Joaquin Phoenix didn't realize or some such. Now we feel doubly cheated...

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93rd Academy Awards. The Winners List.

We'll have a few days of post-mortems here at TFE to discuss everything about the 93rd Oscar ceremony, but due to second vaccine sickness (we barely made it through the ceremony and not finishing it would have been a first since like 1989 so barrelled through in bathrobe with tylenol and a jug of water close by). How'd you fare on your predictions? I've marked what we got wrong and right below. Nomadland was the big winner but it won just 3 Oscars (Picture, Director, Actress). Trial of the Chicago 7 was the only Best Picture nominee to go home emptyhanded so the mistakes you see in the results are mostly due to pessimistic predictions that it would win two Oscars.

REVIEW OF THE SHOW | NEW RECORDS SET

The winners are after the jump...

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Thirteen days until the Oscars. Are you counting down? Does this insanely stacked list of presenters move your personal excitement needle? 

P.S. Isn't it weirdly embarrassing for the Academy to use a fake non-Oscar statue in an commercial for their own show? I get that they're protective of the statue as a copyright / trademark but this is a commercial for their own show. Why is the "awards show" statue some weird not-the-real-thing cross between an Emmy and an Oscar?

Links: Multiple Sherlock Holmes, Change in Oscar Venue, and more...

• Crime Reads an amazing piece ranking the 100 best, strangest, and worst portrayals of Sherlock Holmes. I LOL'ed several times. 
• Deadline icymi the Visual Effects Society awards were held. The Midnight Sky, The Mandalorian, Project Power, Lovecraft Country, and Soul were all winners
• Variety on the absence of Latinos at the Oscars. Rosie Perez speaks out about never being asked back. And she's not even talking about being nominated again.

“Not even to sit in the audience, not to present, nothing—and I’m a member. I love the Academy Awards. I cheer on my peers, but it hurts. It’s like when your home team doesn’t ask you to come back into the stadium after you got up to bat and hit the home run.”

More after the jump including Los Angeles streets during Oscar week, Youn Yuh-jung, Queer as Folk, and more...

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