Another year, another Oscars

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author: ethan butterfield | staff writer

Shiny lil boi/Courtesy of Creative Commons

Reviewing the winners and losers of 2018’s Oscars

Another year and another Oscars ceremony has passed. Looking back on it now, I must admit that, overall, I was disappointed by this year’s festivities. Not because of any specific award that was handed out or because of any thing someone said. It was the air on the Oscars that felt lackluster. In short, I feel the Oscars aren’t fun anymore, everything has become too serious, too political if you will. It’s not about the movies themselves now, it’s about the politics that surrounds the movies.

Regardless of how great films like Lady Bird and Get Out are (in regard to the Best Picture category), they’re not based around the idea of filmmaking, which is what The Shape of Water was. It was a film directed by someone who loves making films and will continue to do so until his life passes onto the next. My ramblings about the Hollywood climate aside though, let’s get into the awards and winners from the event, shall we?

I will say that despite the Oscars itself not being very interesting, I was quite happy with the winners who were announced. In terms of some the non-acting awards, one of my personal favourites of the year, Blade Runner 2049, ended up walking away with two Oscars in Visual Effects and Cinematography. Then there was Dunkirk, another well-crafted film from director Christopher Nolan, which won the usual awards that war epics like Dunkirk win: Best Sound Mixing and Editing, as well as Best Film Editing. There were also a couple of solo winners, including The Phantom Thread for Best Costume Design and Call Me By Your Name for Best Adapted Screenplay (fingers were crossed for The Disaster Artist coming out on top, but we can’t win them all.)
Actually, with those winners in mind though, I’d like to take a little time to bring people’s attention to an article that our Op-Ed editor, Annie Trussler, wrote. She had some very accurate comments to make toward the film and its stance on the subject matter it presents. So, take a moment, stop reading this piece, and check out Annie’s.

Moving along into the next set of awards, we have the animated film Coco, which nabbed a pair of awards for Best Original Song and Best Animated Film. Then, in the Supporting Actor/Actress category, Sam Rockwell and Allison Janney won for their films Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and I, Tonya, respectively. We also had a historic event take place during the ceremony. Jordan Peele brought home an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay with Get Out, which makes him the first black screenwriter to win the honour in this category.

Moving into more production wins, Best Makeup and Hairstyling went to The Darkest Hour and Best Production Design went to The Shape of Water, which won the most Oscars during the night with a total of four, followed by Dunkirk’s three. The Shape of Water also won for Best Original Score, which was a bit of shocker as I thought it was going to either Dunkirk or Star Wars: The Last Jedi. That being said, congrats are to be had regardless, despite how I feel toward the outcomes.

The last bunch of honours went as such: Best Actor was handed to Gary Oldman for his performance in The Darkest Hour, which I personally feel is long overdue for the actor as he’s put together years of great characters. Best Actress went to Frances McDormand who, interestingly enough, also won for the film Fargo almost exactly 20 years ago. I’d like to bring more attention to Frances McDormand’s speech though, as it was the most powerful of the night. At a request, she asked all the nominated women to stand up and be seen, which followed with her saying, “We all have stories to tell and projects that need to be financed; don’t talk to us at the parties tonight, book an appointment.”

These words may not seem like much, but in the context of recent happenings in Hollywood, they mean the world to those women out there who just want to be heard and respected. Which eventually, hopefully, will translate into a wave effect of all women being heard and respected. One can only hope.

With all that happened last night taken into account, perhaps I was a bit hasty with the opening on this piece. Perhaps the world of Hollywood needs a little politics to help create better movies and more realistic characters for us to enjoy. Perhaps we need a little politics to create the unique worlds found in Get Out and Lady Bird that help those who don’t understand certain issues understand with symbolism and setting. Perhaps this can all lead to a better tomorrow when all is said and done. Perhaps. But, for now, we’ll keep working toward a better one.

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