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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Viola, the Speech of The Night

Chris here. That shockeroo at the end of the night wasn’t the evening’s only fireworks. But the kind of awe I’m thinking recalling is the kind that we watch the Oscars for: the acceptance speeches. Viola Davis’s in particular.

Viola’s Fences win was already such a forgone conclusion (as you may have heard during our Smackdown) that the lead-up to her category felt the tiniest bit underwhelming, in a way that it mightn’t have been if *ahem* she’d been nominated in Lead. But forgive me, readers, for momentarily losing sight that the best part of the Oscars has everything to do with after the name is called: the speech. Hers was the speech we were waiting for, both for the actress herself and as people who relish in awards speeches.

And was it ever one for the ages, sober and uplifting while recalling the themes that led to her winning performance. “You know, there’s one place that all the people with the greatest potential are gathered... the graveyard.” It’s the candid performer telling us what made them an artist, but also demanding representation for the unheard. For a night that ended up championing previously untold stories and dreams both fulfilled and unfilled, consider her speech the night’s gorgeous thesis.

A master class in gratitude and passion. Can we give her another Oscar? No, I mean, like now, today.

The New Norm of the Picture / Director Split

Chris here. Now that the Oscar closing shock has worn off (oh, wait it still hasn’t) let’s take a second to discuss the growing frequency of the Best Picture / Director split. This is now the fourth time in five years two different films have taken home the two biggest prizes - with 25% of all instances occurring in the past decade. Has a Best Picture / Director split become an Oscar new normal?

But the recent prevalence of the split might be more symptomatic of an Academy more bent on spreading the wealth. In fact, La La Land ties Fury Road as the most awarded film since Gravity - also rewarded on the Director side of the equation... 

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La La Moonlight, an Unexpected Finale to Oscar Night

My head is still spinning. As I cleaned up after the Oscar party, I imagined an Oliver Stone like JFK treatment of the 89th Academy Awards finale. We need evidence and diagrams, I thought to myself while filling up the recycling bag with empty bottles.  People might argue and theorize about this forever and make themseleves conspiracy theorists in the process. What was it, exactly, that happened?

First there was Warren Beatty's excruciating pause when he opened the envelope, a look of disbelief or was it confusion or 'how about that?' smirking. Inscrutable really...

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Last Minute Drama: Oscar Nomination Rescinded

It wouldn't be the Oscars without drama. Or in this case, draaaaaa-maaaa. The day before the Oscars -- yes, the day before the Oscars -- the Academy rescinded a nomination. Greg P Russell had received his 17th nomination (he's never won) for his sound mixing on 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi but that nomination is no more. The decision was announced yesterday in light of information about phone calls to branch members. Telephone as well as email lobbying is against the rules. The other members of that particular sound team have retained their nominations so there are still 5 nominated films in the category.

Sing along at Greg's house "Alone...Yet Not Alone...♫ " 

For those who recall. The song "Alone Yet Not Alone" from the movie of the same name was the last rescinded nomination just 3 Oscar seasons ago for something similar, emails to branch members. While this is unfortunate, especially considering Russell's long history without a win and big contributions to blockbuster cinema (past nominations include Spider-Man, Transformers, and Skyfall), how do AMPAS members not know not to do this by now?