Ranking the Oscar Clips

by Ben Miller

Of all the decisions the Academy Awards producers/directors must make, the Oscar clip decisions are surely the most covetous -- who among us wouldn't want to chose? They're fairly crucial, too.  I ranked all the clips last year, and Nathaniel was nice enough to let me do it again.  The clips preceding each of the categories ranged from brilliant to “what the hell was that?”  Let’s rank them 20-1…

Cringe-worthy

I sometimes wish I'd never been born at aaaaaaallllllll 🎵

20. Viggo Mortensen, Green Book
19. Rami Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody

Woo boy.  I would personally defend the work of both of these performances, but the snippets shown on Sunday did not lend any firepower to those arguments.  Viggo gets to wax on like an idiot about not knowing the difference between Russian and German before laying on some casual racism. Malek has plenty of good moments in the Queen biopic, but a simple shot of him lipsyncing reads like an Oscar producer’s opinion on the performance itself seeping through.

Not Doing Anyone Any Favors...

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Make Up For Ever

by Seán McGovern

About ten months from now, there will be a press release from the Academy informing us that some of the 24 categories will be handed out during the commerical breaks. Initially there will be uproar all over again. How dare they?! Didn't we go through all this last year? What an outrage! But then I'll turn to you and say 'yeah but remember those make-up people who won for Vice?' at which point we shall all accept this harsh but necessary decision...

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Open Thread - Oscar Night and Winners List

And say whatever you gotta say. We'll have a ton of coverage over the next three days but during the actual show we just watch like the Stockholm Syndrome devotees that we are (though we'll post a winners list during commercial breaks.)

THE WINNERS

Best Supporting Actress Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk

Awww... Chris Evans, such a gentleman

Who was best dressed?

Her James Baldwin Tribute 

Best Documentary Feature Free Solo

Best Makeup & Hairstyling Vice

The night's worst acceptance speech

Best Costume Design Ruth E Carter, Black Panther

In praise of Melissa McCarthy's bunny puppet

Best Production Design Black Panther

Best Cinematography  Alfonso Cuarón, Roma

Best Sound Editing Bohemian Rhapsody

Best Sound Mixing Bohemian Rhapsody

"We are the Champions" LGBT Stories at the Oscars

Best Visual FX First Man

Best Film Editing John Ottman, Bohemian Rhapsody

Best Supporting Actor Mahershala Ali, Green Book

Richard E Grant met his idol Barbra Streisand

Best Animated Feature Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Best Animated Short Bao

Best Documentary Short Period. End of Sentence. 

Best Live Action Short Skin

Best Screenplay Green Book

Best Foreign Film Roma

Best Adapted Screenplay BlacKkKlansman 

The most joyful moment in the ceremony

How many times did you "Jennifer Hudson" on Oscar night?

Best Original Score Ludwig Goransson, Black Panther

Best Original Song "Shallow," A Star is Born

The horniest moment in the ceremony

The musical performances ranked

Best Lead Actor Rami Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody

Ranking the Oscar Clips - These guys didn't fare well.

Best Lead Actress Olivia Colman The Favourite

On Glenn Close's Oscar curse

Best Reaction Shot... Emma Stone

Who was best dressed?

Best Director Alfonso Cuarón, Roma

Best Picture Green Book 

Why Green Book's win made me cringe - Not why you think!

Best Picture Nominee Oscar Tallies: Bohemian Rhapsody: 4 wins; Black Panther, Roma, Green Book: 3 wins each; A Star is Born, Vice, The Favourite, BlacKkKlansman: 1 win each. The last time each Best Picture nominee won an award was 2014 but it's not so common since something usually goes home empty-handed.

MORE COVERAGE

How'd you do on your predictions? We went 17/24
Reader Poll Results Who you were rooting for.
New Oscar Trivia since we've wrapped up another year 
Glenn Close's Oscar Curse Nathaniel on Glenn's 7th historic loss
With a Friend Like Emma... Hang this in the Louvre 
Ranking the Oscar Clips - Ben ranks the 20 from Cringe-worthy to Greatness 
Appropriate Acceptance Speeches - Should the speech match the accomplishment?
Caption This - Glenn's Melissa McCarthy Gaze 
First Gentleman of the Oscars - Dan Loves Chris Evans
Joe vs Nicholas - Vote on your Favourite fella 
Team Reactions Part 1 - Horniest and Most Joyful Moments 
Team Reactions Part 2 - Good times, Noticeable Absentees
Best Dressed Supporting Actress - VOTE! 
Best Dressed Best Actress - VOTE !
Best Dressed Men - Joe, Chadwick, Nicholas, Henry and More...
Best Dressed Non-Nominees - 20 More Lewks from Oscar Night
"Jennifer Hudsoning" - Ginny did it lots on Oscar night
Melissa McCarthy & Brian Tyree Henry - Tim on the funniest awards presentation 
The 5 Musical Performances - Chris Feil, our Soundtracking Man, ranks them
James Baldwin Tribute - Murtada wonders if we'll get more adaptations of his work?
Complicated Feelings about Green Book's Win - Lynn Lee explains 
We are the Champions - Deborah on LGBT stories at the Oscars 

It's Finally Here -- Happy Oscar Day!

Just chanced upon this image of Best Actress competitors Judy Holliday and Gloria Swanson freaking out with joy at Jose Ferrer's Oscar win for Cyrano de Bergerac (1950). Gloria, naughty naughty, he just beat your amazing costar William Holden in Sunset Boulevard!

After the jump, a very random Beauty Break of glorious moments from past Oscar nights to whet your appetite for tonight...

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Great Acceptance Speeches: Allison Janney, "I, Tonya"

We asked Team Experience to share their favourite Oscar acceptance speeches as we countdown to Hollywood's High Holy Night. Here's Dancin' Dan...

PERFECTION.

Look, I was rooting for Laurie Metcalf, too, but how can you deny this moment?

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