The 94th Academy Awards were this past Sunday and there sure is a lot to talk about! Let’s get into it, breaking down the night by the overall winners and losers.
The Winners:
Me!
If you look through the ‘Will Win’ category of my Oscar Predictions (linked here), you’ll see that I got 17 out of 19 categories correct! Aside from my exceptional intellect and foresight, there’s actually a lot of ways to predict the wins.
The Oscars are preceded by weeks of other awards shows, such as the Critic’s Choice Awards, the Golden Globes, the Producers Guild Awards, etc. Winners of these offer lots of insight into who the Academy will vote for.
In fact, since the PGA Awards and the Academy switched to the same ballot system in 2009, the two groups have only differed three times in their best picture award (CODA won the PGAs this year). The technical awards are the hardest to predict, but with a technical superstar like DUNE this year, these were easy.
Thus, barring major upsets (rare), it’s easy to see where Academy voters are leaning. In fact, it’s probably a sorry sign for the show itself that these were so predictable.
DUNE
The biggest winner of the night, DUNE came home with a staggering 6 awards, absolutely sweeping the technical categories. I know I looked like a fanboy on my predictions, but I knew it. I’m very confident that we’re seeing a Lord of the Rings type franchise emerging, with DUNE 2 performing a similar sweep along with some acting and directing noms in 2024, and eventually DUNE MESSIAH taking home a Best Picture (if we get that far).
CODA (and Apple TV)
CODA was our best picture of the night, taking home Adapted Screenplay and Supporting Actor for Troy Kotsur as well. This tale of a hearing child of deaf adults (CODA) navigating her coming-of-age won the hearts of many, but it wasn’t for me. I don’t think CODA was bad. It’s certainly a sweet and heartwarming story. But Best Picture? Against genre-bending and boundary-stretching work like Power of the Dog, DUNE, Drive My Car, and West Side Story?
CODA really feels like a Disney Channel original movie, cheesy and predictable at every step. While it provides important representation of the deaf community, the movie also fixates on the only non-deaf member of the family (easily the least interesting character of the bunch) and amplifies her issues over everyone else’s. Movies like Sound of Metal or even Drive My Car felt like much more powerful representation.
In any case, CODA was the safe choice and on-par for the Academy. This is also a HUGE win for Apple TV, being the first of the tech streaming giants to prove themselves at the Oscars. And with that …
The Losers:
The Power of the Dog (and Netflix)
For the initial front-runner with 12 nominations to come away with just one win is insane. Still, I’m happy for Jane Campion and her ground-breaking win. I hope audiences still give this movie a try because it really is something special.
That said, Netflix really took an L this year. After seeing all its biggest Oscar plays flop, i.e. The Irishman, Marriage Story, Roma, Don’t Look Up, MANK, it’s pretty clear that anti-Netflix bias is alive and well in the Academy. I’m sure they’re stinging at the loss to Apple, who bought CODA for just $25 million after Sundance.
Will Smith
This was supposed to be Will Smith’s shining moment after a lifetime of achievement. Instead the infamous slap has become the new hot topic and will forever be associated with the Oscars moving forward.
My take on the situation? I think it’s funny! They’re all celebrities worth hundreds of millions of dollars and it’s not worth taking any of this too seriously. It’s easily the most interesting thing that happened during the show and one of the few highlights I had watching it.
The Oscars overall
Sigh. I think my first time following the awards season, keeping up with the movies, and making predictions just opened my eyes to how silly the whole thing is.
This year in particular feels like the show was designed to alienate actual movie-lovers. Cutting out 8 technical awards (mostly won by the most popular blockbuster represented at the show) was absolutely egregious. Then re-allocating that time towards trashy bits and promotions! All this for a show that ran almost an hour longer than last year’s (which included all 23 awards and unedited speeches).
I still think the Oscars and award shows have some value. How many of you would have watched gems like Moonlight, Parasite, Drive My Car, etc. if they weren’t nominated/awarded? With the Academy modernizing, diversifying in composition, becoming younger and more international, there’s potential for inspired picks in the future (like Parasite). But overall, it’s not nearly as important as it’s made out to be.
Weekend Streaming Recommendation
Bridgerton (2020-2022). Available on Netflix
A special guest recommendation written by Anjali Jha
Bridgerton is a TV show about the love lives of eight siblings in a 19th Century English aristocratic family, the Bridgertons. The show is a steamy romance, mind-numbing yet addicting beyond belief. You might tell yourself that you’ll just watch an episode while doing other work, but six hours later, you’ll find yourself screaming at your screen, utterly gripped in the characters’ lives. Bridgerton also uniquely plays with diversity in a period setting. In the recently-released second season, we see South Asian actresses play two of our main characters. Hearing the main character call her sister Didi, which means sister in Hindi, made my week. Check this out, but don’t blame me when 12 hours of your weekend are suddenly gone.
Until then, please get in touch if you have any thoughts or suggestions you’d like to share. If you want to keep up with what I’m watching, follow me on Letterboxd @atharv_gupta. As always, share this with a friend if you enjoyed it!
Im with you there on CODA - I thought the screenplay was the weakest part of the film by FAR. Upon revisiting it i found myself appreciating the realism of the family dynamic more and more but the plot points just fall sooo flat. Drive My Car was absolutely ROBBED in best adapted screenplay and best picture - i dont know why so many people thought power of the dog would win though, i really didnt like it all that much.
Guest review changed my life