The 95th Academy Awards, also known as The Oscars, were held Sunday, March 12 and they were… pretty fine. For me, this was the first time I could remember caring about such an awards ceremony. I had sacrificed long hours to try to watch as many of the nominees as possible in a few short months since they had been announced in late January. I ended up seeing 19/54 so I had a fairly good exposure to the films across many of the categories. This was also the year that I managed to keep up with the discourse leading up to the ceremony so I knew what the expected winners were and what I myself wanted to happen.
To start, this was far and away the year of “Everything Everywhere All At Once” (EEAAO), the indie movie hit from beloved studio A24 featuring a solid use of the multiverse as a plot element, a incredibly strong cast of characters, many of whom were Asian American, and one of the best scenes I had ever seen, featuring rocks talking to each other. A24 came away with an impressive nine Oscar wins, most of which came from EEAAO including many of the biggest wins of the night: Best Actress, Directors, Editing, both Actor and Actress in a supporting role, Original Screenplay, and most importantly, Best Picture! I thought both the film itself and all the individual cast and crew members deserved all these awards. I particularly went into the ceremony hoping it would win Best Picture and Original Screenplay (I don’t think anyone who has seen the movie can argue that it was the most original story of the year) but I was just as excited when Michelle Yeoh won for Best Actress and when Ke Huy Quan won for Best Supporting Actor. As many expected, both their acceptance speeches were tear-jerkers, Quan’s especially emphasizing his career comeback story, this being his first film in decades after acting as a child in films such as “The Goonies,” and “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.” Quan has since posted the dozens of selfies he took with celebrities before and after the ceremony and his joy in the photos is more than infectious.
Perhaps the most controversial win of the night was EEAAO’s Jamie Lee Curtis winning Best Supporting Actress over “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’s” Angela Bassett, and “The Banshees of Inisherin’s” Kerry Condon. While I enjoyed many of EEAAO’s wins, “Banshees” was my favorite movie of last year and I was very disappointed it won nothing, despite its nine nominations. I definitely thought this would be at least one spot where the voters of the Academy would put it ahead of EEAAO, especially assuming it would be winning so much more. I thought Curtis’s performance was fine, but not deserving of the award over the other nominees.
My favorite win was “Women Talking” and screenwriter Sarah Polley winning for Best Adapted Screenplay. As avid Weather Vane readers will remember, I loved both the movie and the book it was based on, and so I was ecstatic when it came away with the win. Its biggest competition was the German adaptation of “All Quiet on the Western Front,” which came away with the second most wins of the night after EEAAO. In many instances, it was the ‘villain’ of the evening, always seemingly threatening to take wins aways from more deserving original movies. Throughout the middle slog of the nearly three hour long ceremony, “All Quiet on the Western Front” won so many awards in succession that I was considering if it could be a surprise Best Picture winner, an outcome I doubt would have gone over well with many.
Other important categories I was watching included Best Animated Feature, Original Song, and Animated Short. I expected Guillermo del Toro’s “Pinocchio” to win for Best Animated Feature but I wasn’t happy about it, even though it was a beautifully animated stop motion movie that definitely deserved the win. I just liked “Marcel the Shell” much more. I also wouldn’t have minded a surprise “Puss in Boots” win either. Similarly, I felt strongly about “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse” winning for the short category. Best Animated Short was the only category that I had seen all five of the nominees for and I thought that the other four, especially “The Ice Merchants” were much better pieces of art (seriously, if you haven’t seen it, please go watch “The Ice Merchants.” It’s free online and is one of the most stunningly animated things I’ve ever seen). I was also hoping “My Year of Dicks” would win that category just for the funny name. All in all, it was probably the worst decision of the night. The best and most obvious win of the night on the other hand (not counting “Women Talking” of course), was Nattu Nattu and “RRR” winning Best Song. The live performance they did during the ceremony brought much needed energy to the middle of the show, and the song is just a bop in general.
I thought Jimmy Kimmel was fine. He made too many ‘Will Smith Slap’ jokes.
The David Byrne cameo was a welcome surprise.
This year’s Oscars were just what I was looking for in a culmination ceremony for one of my favorite years for movies in a long time. Three out of my Top 12 movies of all time came from 2022. I thought, all things considered, they picked the right, most deserving winners (most of the time). EEAAO definitely was the movie of the year and I was glad it was recognised as such. I had a good time.