Best Sound Mixer Kevin O'Connell: 21st time's the charm

Tim here. Somewhat overlooked in all the furor over the rightfully furor-inducing parts of the Oscars on Sunday, a little bit of history was quietly made.

When the four-member team from Hacksaw Ridge took to the stage of the Kodak Theater to accept the award for Best Sound Mixing, the worst losing drought in the history of the Academy Awards ended. Kevin O'Connell received his first nomination in that category in 1983, for the subdued domestic drama Terms of Endearment, which perhaps unsurprisingly lost to The Right Stuff. 33 years and 21 nominations later, in a career including 209 films to his credit as a mixer, he finally picked up his very first statue on Sunday. You may remember him as the guy who thanked his late mom for helping him to get his first job in the industry, and who asked as thanks only that he'd mention her one day as he accepted an Oscar.

Whatever feelings one might have about the film, it's hard not to be excited on O'Connell's behalf...

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So how did Jimmy Kimmel do? A conversation

EDITOR'S NOTE: Hello readers. My brain is always so scattered post Oscar. The hosting gig, which so occupies discussions of the show each year in real life and online, is curiously the part of the show that I always find least interesting. I'm there for the movies and the celebrities, not the jokes.

But recognizing that this is an uncommon blind spot, I asked three of our contributors, Sean Donovan, Chris Feil, and Eric Blume to weigh in on Jimmy Kimmel as host. They're joined by new team member Kim Rogers, who is a talented actress I saw in a play a couple of years ago, who also likes to blog. Naturally they didn't quite obey the Kimmel directive... but who can concentrate on one topic with Oscar's Envelope Gate and Trevante Rhodes running around in his undies. Here is their conversation. - Nathaniel R 

CHRIS: So how well has everyone studied the Oscar Zapruder film of the Moonlight team taking the stage?

SEAN: I feel like it could be the next season of SERIAL- unpacking who had what envelope when, and why, and how many duplicates? so many questions

CHRIS: First of which: has anyone checked on Trevante Rhodes? Is he ok?

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The Many Faces of the Shocked Oscar Crowd

Chris here, to help you finally digest the shock ending of the Oscarcast, even if Meryl is still frozen in place. And maybe we can get the jokes out of your system as well.

By now we've all dissected crowd photos and video footage of the stunned response of famous people in the crowd like it was our own little Oscar Zapruder film. But if there's a silver lining moment for Moonlight's moment being a bumpy one (the history books will always honor it, remember) it's all of the delicious face we were served, from a heart-palpitated Trevante Rhodes, to a Snapchatting Taraji P. Henson, to well, Meryl.

Luckily for you readers, The Film Experience has obtained exclusive audio files to tell you exactly how every star responded...

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Oscar's Musical Numbers Fly Among the Stars

Dancin' Dan here, and I am thrilled to say that after years of mostly rather dully staged performances, the great Oscar musical numbers of the past are back.

We had planned a ranking of this year's performances, but they were all of such high quality that, feeling magnaminous, I'm unwilling to declare one better than the other.  Instead, a review of the musical numbers as they happened during the ceremony, in all their glory.

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The Furniture: Another Art Deco Oscars

"The Furniture" is our weekly series on Production Design. Here's Daniel Walber with a special Oscar ceremony episode. 

The following is an image of the 89th Annual Academy Awards, taken from the craziest moment of the broadcast. You know the one.

I am not here to talk about the Best Picture Situation, however. Instead, I’d like to draw your attention away from the drama and toward the shining Art Deco Gotham City/Metropolis that looms above it.

Since the Millennium, Oscar ceremony set design has been dominated by a few trends. I know this because I spent last week analyzing every televised set in Academy history. You can trust me. This year was very in tune with the past decade, with the notable exception of the “Classy Spaceship.” Thank heaven for that. If you don't know what I mean, here's a still of Jon Stewart being slowly released from a tube back in 2008...

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