After all of awards season, the Oscars came down to exactly what we all expected (and hoped) out of Sunday night: A back-and-forth contest between One Battle After Another and Sinners.
In the end, One Battle After Another walked away with the night’s biggest haul, scoring six Oscars to Sinners’ four awards. One Battle After Another notched huge wins for Best Picture and with Paul Thomas Anderson for Best Director, while Sinners captured Best Lead Actor for Michael B. Jordan.
Personally, I was hoping for an upset for both Ryan Coogler and Sinners as Best Picture, but as Oscar ceremonies go, this one got a lot of things right. (I voted against them in my Oscar pool, but I understand how to separate church and state.)
In addition to One Battle After Another and Sinners, Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein got in the mix with three Oscars and KPop Demon Hunters took home two big awards with Best Animated Feature and Best Original Score. Sinners’ “I Lied to You” could’ve also easily won Best Original Score, but I guess that film will have to settle for Ludwig Göransson’s music not only winning Best Original Score but also being the most badass way for a clip from Sinners to be introduced time after time after time.
Conan O’Brien once again reminded us why he’s one of the best there ever was. Like Jimmy Kimmel, this was an effortless gig. (And yes, I know that O’Brien works extremely hard and puts a ton of pressure on himself.) I’d rank this year’s ceremony a notch below last year’s in terms of O’Brien fully bringing the weirdness that his fans look for to the ceremony, but points for Cicero the Owl at the beginning of the show.
This was our daughter’s first exposure to O’Brien. I’ve been a fan of his for decades. I saw him while he was on his Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour. I went to a taping of Conan in California. Our four-year-daughter, though, had questions. Like: “Where did that lady go?” And: “Why is he mad?”
There have been a few years where the Academy tried to push musical performances to the commercials or had someone else come on to perform them, so I was thrilled to see that we got the Surreal Montage from Sinners during the show ...
... and that EJAE, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami got to perform “Golden.” But how dare the producers PLAY THEM OFF as the trio gave their Best Original Song acceptance speech.
I did not win my Oscar pool.
Key moments
Showing some respect:After years of turning animation into a joke or insinuating it’s for kids, Will Arnett and Channing Tatum gave a forceful defense of the medium. “Tonight we are celebrating people, not AI,” Arnett said. “Animation is more than a prompt, it’s an art form that needs to be protected.”
A tie! We got a tie for the first since 2012, with two winners being declared in the Best Live Action Short Film category. “Ironic that the Short Film Oscar is going to take twice as long,” Kumail Nanjiani remarked as he gracefully navigated the twist.
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The Omnicosm founder. Snackology, Popculturology and The Cold Open writer. A Rochester, N.Y., native now living in the Washington, D.C., area. Won’t pass up a Genny Cream Ale.
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