After taking some time to process all of the winners from this year’s Oscars, I think it’s time to finally share some thoughts on how everything shook out.
First off, this was arguably the most predictable year of the Oscars we’ve seen in a while.
There were few winners I thought didn’t deserve their awards, and all the heavy favorites left the Dolby Theatre with hardware.
But chalk isn’t as fun to talk about, so let’s jump into the highlights and big storylines:
Best Actress
Winner: Emma Stone
This was the tightest race of The Oscars.
The Poor Things star was always most likely to walk away with the award after an aggressive campaign and fantastic performance. However, I was pretty surprised the award didn’t go to Lily Gladstone. Given the recent political climate of the Academy, Gladstone was well set-up to walk off with the win.
This shouldn’t take away from the fact that Gladstone was absolutely amazing and stole the show as Mollie Burkhart. Her facial acting and ability to quickly shift into numerous moods was incredible. I absolutely loved her performance.
I understand why Stone won, but it would’ve been much more heartwarming for Gladstone to come out on top instead. The award even shocked Stone:
Best Song
Winner: What Was I Made For? By Billie Eilish, FINNEAS
While Billie Eilish is quickly becoming a shoe-in when it comes to this category, I think it’s time that the Oscars heavily considered the popularity of songs when choosing a winner.
I’m Just Ken should have hands down destroyed this award. It was probably the runner-up, but we have not seen an original song from a movie take pop culture by the storm the way this one did in a very long time.
I do believe Eilish made a beautiful song, but it would have been awesome to see Gosling get this award. He probably could have won based on his live performance at The Oscars alone.
Nonetheless, the bigger point is that original song is a category that could benefit from becoming a bit more of a popularity contest. If The Oscars are to continue nominating songs based on popularity, the winning process should be similar.
Best Animated Feature
Winner: The Boy and The Heron
This was the award that shocked me the most.
I want to make it clear that I hold Hayao Miyazaki in very high regard as one of the greatest animated storytellers the world has ever seen. He deserves all of the awards and accolades he has won, and I adore all his movies with all my heart.
Putting that aside, this year should have been different. There is absolutely no reason that Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse should have lost this award. It followed up Into the Spider-Verse, which in my opinion is the greatest animated movie ever made, with a sequel that was arguably even better. If Marvel sticks the landing with the third installment, the trilogy will become one of the best trilogies ever made. It’s a dishonor for it to not have gone home with Best Animated Feature.
Before I go, I want to congratulate all the winners in a year that brought cinema all the way back. I am so happy for Oppenheimer just dominating and Da’Vine Joy Randolph getting her rightful Oscars recognition for her work in The Holdovers.
Now, it’s time to see which poor souls have to compete against Dune 2 in next year’s award season.