Tuesday 28 February 2017

Oscars 2017: Winners and Losers


Well, that's the Oscars over for another year. The 2017 edition was certainly a much more memorable affair, for all the wrong reasons unfortunately. Here is a quick recap with some thoughts on that big drama (and some other stuff too)...

Best Picture blunder


La La Land producer Justin Horowitz shows us the actual
winner of Best Picture
Well, how about that huh? What started out as a fairly pedestrian affair turned to a complete farce come the end in what is possibly the biggest bungle in Oscar history. What happened has been dissected and analysed by possibly every news outlet on Earth in the last few days so I'll just say this; it's a shame that this had to happen this year of all years.

Why? Because a film like Moonlight is rare; it's a micro-budget indie film about minorities that arguably caters to a very niche audience, unlike something like La La Land which casts its net a lot broader. Even rarer is a film like Moonlight defying expectations and going on to beat the big dog on the biggest stage of all. We can sit here for hours pointing fingers at who is to blame - Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Emma Stone, PricewaterhouseCoopers - but at the end of the day, all of this noise and outrage is detracting away from Moonlight's moment in the spotlight.

It's very telling that every news outlet has Justin Horowitz's face splashed across their front pages instead of Barry Jenkins. We've totally missed the importance of Moonlight's win (it's a film about African-Americans that doesn't feature maids or slaves, which is a big deal) by chewing over a conspiracy concerning a misplaced red envelope. Unfortunately, the story here isn't that Moonlight won; it's that La La Land lost, and in spectacular fashion. Ten years from now, we need to make sure the 89th Academy Awards are remembered for the right reasons - and not just recall some unfortunate gaffe.




Aussie, Aussie, Aussie


The cast of Tanna walk the red carpet
With a record 14 nominations across all of the categories this year, including two Australian films up for Best Picture for the first time ever, it looked set to be a big night for the Australian film industry. Alas, it wasn't to be - but that doesn't mean we came away with nothing to show for it.

When homegrown favourite Lion went home empty-handed, it was left to Mel Gibson's more abrasive and divisive Hacksaw Ridge to collect the lion's share of awards for Australian nominees. The WWII epic scooped up two awards, winning Sound Mixing and Film Editing. Two Australian's (Robert Mackenzie and Andy Wright) worked on the former alongside two Americans, Peter Grace and Kevin O’Connell.

Tanna, the first Australian film to be nominated in the Best Foreign Language Film category, lost out to Iran's The Salesman.

Kimmel kills it


Jimmy Kimmel was a better host than most
In the midst of Trump's car crash presidency, it would have been very easy for host Jimmy Kimmel to lean heavily into recent political gaffes for his opening salvo of gags. And whilst there were a couple of gems made at the expense of America's chimp-in-chief, Kimmel mainly kept things nice and balanced across the board.

He was smiley and self-depreciating, had good timing and kept the jokes flowing at great pace. In contrast to recent hosts like Neil Patrick Harris and Seth MacFarlane, Kimmel flourished while working the crowd and keeping the tone brisk and chipper.

That being said, I wasn't a huge fan of that Lion King bit with Sunny Pawar. What the hell was that?

Hidden Figures and Lion head home empty-handed


The cast of Hidden Figures take the stage to present
Sticking with the time honoured tradition of awarding films that nobody saw, the Academy Awards this year chose to ignore the films that have drawn the biggest crowds - namely smash-hit Hidden Figures and domestic blockbuster Lion - in favour of more independent fare like Moonlight and Manchester by the Sea.

In a year where viewing figures for the Oscars telecast dipped to their lowest number in nearly a decade, you'd think the Academy would be more inclined to recognise the movies that actually make people get up off their butts and go to the cinema.

Conversely, this sort of recognition is a big deal to films like Moonlight. Hopefully the worldwide attention will draw a larger crowd and open the film up a wider range of people than it would have received had it lost out. If nothing else, that's got to be a good thing.



Suicide Squad - seriously?


How a film where it looks like Margot Robbie's face was plastered on with Homer Simpson's makeup shotgun was chosen for Best Makeup and Hairstyling over something like Star Trek Beyond is utterly beyond me (pun intended). Honestly, that kerfuffle about Best Picture is one thing but this here is the real crime.



Feeling Fuzzier's Fashion Corner


I gave this a crack after the Oscars last year. No explanations for any of these picks, just some frocks that stood out on the red carpet from the night. Feel free to tell me how wrong I am in the comments!

Brie Larson, Felicity Jones, Viola Davis, Auli’i Cravalho and Taraji P Henson. Bonus shoutout to
Emma Roberts, Sofia Boutella and Emma Stone

What did you think of the 89th Academy Awards? Happy for Moonlight or just sad for La La Land? Let me know in the comments section below!

2 comments:

  1. Ugh Suicide Squad over Star Trek. You've got to be kidding me.

    I loved Kimmel as a host. His feud with Matt Damon always amuses me to no end.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's been over a month and I'm still disgusted by that decision haha :)

      Love the feud, it's a great running gag.

      Delete

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