A Wrap-Up of the 2019-2020 Oscar Season

Janelle Monae

At long last, the Oscar season is over. And much quicker than usual this year. That is why it feels absolutely strange to be saying goodbye already. It feels like there should be another few weeks for people to catch up on Oscar nominees, hold a conversation about why Jojo Rabbit was the dark horse Best Picture winner some expected it to be. It's one of the joys/frustrations that are lost to this adapted schedule, but in some ways, it's for the best. Where some years feel interminable, lasting so long that one can't help but resent half of the nominees, this one feels like a blip. Maybe it's something that the lower-than-average viewer ratings would suggest. Still, it was an interesting year existing in "The New Academy," where a new generation is rising and the definition of a winner is changing slowly. Was it the best year? It wasn't the worst. It was somewhere in the middle, where there's a need for change, but is exciting for making bold wins that proved just how great cinema has been. 

The magnificence started with the opening from Janelle Monae, herself one of the few surprise performers that evening. As she jumped from a scene out of A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood to a more elaborate dance number that included writhing on the floor, scatting, and having back-up dancers dressed up like extras from Midsommar, Dolemite is My Name, Us, and have Billy Porter enter with a little "Rocketman" riff. It was jubilant, reflecting how the past few years have opened the doors for The Academy to become more interesting. Monae and Porter openly declaring their queerness was alone evidence of how things had changed in such a short time, moving far ahead of a few years back when they refused to let Anthoni perform her Oscar-nominated song. Now there are winners embracing their identity, and most of the winners were from different places. Taika Waititi was the first indigenous winner for Best Adapted Screenplay (Jojo Rabbit), and Hildur Guonadottir became the first woman to win Best Original score in over 20 years. Yes, The Academy has made incredible strides to be inclusive. 

Nowhere was that more apparent than when the evening ended, where Bong Joon-ho not only won Best Picture for Parasite but had three additional wins for his film that made it the biggest winner of the night. If you ask everyone going in, this was Joon-ho's moment in large part because of how much they loved the film. The four acting winners were all white, which was an unfortunate sign of how things must progress, but that is to ignore the different corners of The Academy that have grown more interesting following former Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaac's initiative to have a more diverse membership by 2020. Suddenly it seems possible that not only can they recognize the best in film, but are now beginning to explore outside of a comfort zone they held for 91 years. They've given the prize recently to black queer narratives and monster movies, and with a non-English film taking the prize, it feels for the first time like anything was possible.

True, it was a celebration of Hollywood at its finest. Brad Pitt's acceptance speech (Best Supporting Actor, Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood) reflected a veteran looking back on a wonderful career. Laura Dern (Best Supporting Actress, Marriage Story) paid tribute to her parents Diane Ladd and Bruce Dern for being incredible mentors. Then, in one of the more touching moments, Joaquin Phoenix (Best Actor, Joker) repented for his mistakes and ended with a quote from his late brother River Phoenix. In the other categories, there was Hair Love (Best Animated Short) preaching for representation in animation. Everyone was having a good night and, with limited exceptions, there was a sense of family in the room. When Parasite's Best Picture speech faded to black, there was Tom Hanks wanting the lights to come back up. Unlike in past years, there was a sense that the night shouldn't end because, for the first time, there was a sense that this moment needed to last.

It was in the performances where Cynthia Erivo gave a powerful performance for "Stand Up" from Harriet, where she proved her Broadway merits with the best song of the night. Even Frozen II with "Into the Unknown" found a way to show just how far The Academy's influence truly went with Idina Menzel performing opposite several "Elsas from around the world" in several languages. There was a sense of unity that made the moment special, showing that everyone could be included in this room. Even the choice to include recent Grammy-winning artist Billie Eilish singing "Yesterday" over the In Memoriam reflected an embrace of the future, allowing someone praised for her avant-garde musicality to prove her emotional range. Then there was Eminem performing "Lose Yourself," itself a groundbreaking moment for being one of the first rap songs to win Best Original Song. It had no place in the show, but it did deliver some of the show's best moments:

Idina Menzel

Martin Scorsese

Even when somebody lost, there were no hard feelings. As Joon-ho thanked Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino in his Best Director speech, there was a sense of pride in the industry. For the first time, a loser got a standing ovation as Joon-ho turned his attention to Scorsese. The legend went home emptyhanded for The Irishman, but it reflected how American film was itself a significant export, and how it could make world cinema greater. Even with all of the humor, including a controversial jab at the visual effects of Cats, there was a sense of fun in the air that lasted the entire evening. There was no loss in missing a host. The New Academy was defining itself triumphantly as a force for good and change, and this was a decent example of it, where artists of different genders, sexualities, nationalities, and fields came together to honor each other. 

There is plenty to work on. As Walter Chaw in The New York Times wrote, Parasite's win doesn't do much to recognize Asian-Americans. Films like The Farewell and Hustlers were ignored this year and showed that there were still some limitations to who The Academy would nominate. Representation still needs to grow at home as well as around the world. For a film with the phenomenal turnout, Parasite's lack of acting nominations is itself a problematic matter, and it will be a better day when The Academy can give Best International Film to a different film and still award a non-English film for Best Picture (in this year, it should've been Pain and Glory). There are still places that can be traveled to, but for now, the slow growth has taken a massive leap forward. One just has to hope it sticks this time around.

Was the shorter season better? If you ask me personally, it made a lot of the pomp and circumstance feel underwhelming. As someone who has grown up on the lengthy period between nominations and the ceremony (i.e. more than a month), I did enjoy slowly turning people onto other films and finding those essays for why I should be watching the Best Documentary Short nominees. Add in the irony that many complain that the Best Live Action Short nominees were all "long" reflect how much time was still needed to explore what was out there. With that said, having a shorter window means that there's little outside influence and suddenly it becomes more interesting and immediate. The results have more to say about The Academy than current trends. In that way, it was good. However, closing the conversation earlier is a bit sad because now there's nowhere to look but forward. Maybe Parasite will have a big conversation in the weeks going forward, but it feels like a lot of the other winners who are smaller won't have as much of hold because there wasn't time to appreciate their merits while they were simply just nominees.

This isn't the end for me entirely regarding Oscar coverage. I still have the annual Best Song coverage coming on Sunday where I determine where Rocketman's song falls on the list of past winners. That should be fun. However, it should be noted that this year had a lot of achievements to be proud of and that while there are better films that lost, it is an honor to be nominated. It was great to be connected and have those conversations. As the progression shows, The Academy does listen to the backlash and there's a good chance that things will look different next year. Maybe it will be better and a film as great as Parasite wins. For now, it's a chance to look back at a night influx that had enough positives to not look as bad as the notorious follies of last year's Green Book/Bohemian Rhapsody dominance. Where those felt conventional, this felt even more unconventional than the time that Guillermo del Toro won Best Picture for The Shape of Water, or Barry Jenkins for Moonlight. It feels like things will only get more interesting in the years to come.