EPISODE 1006 OSCAR OSCAR

Predictions! Revelations! And the Death of a Giant!

POP CULTURE SPIRIT WOW

It’s the Oscars! I’ve done a couple pieces in recent months riffing on Conclave and A Complete Unknown, and also got interviewed about Conclave. I think they’re both fantastic films. I’m hoping to see Anora and A Real Pain this weekend, too.

[Update: I saw Anora. It’s the story of a stripper who falls in with a rich Russian kid who falls in love with her. It’s quite a character study.]

I’ll do some predictions below, but first, let’s have some fun.

10 Facts You Might Not Know about the Oscars

Oscar Might Be A Statute of A Dude, but it was Named by a Woman

While the figure on the Academy’s award is a knight holding a sword and standing on a reel of film—an image designed by MGM art director Cedric Gibbons and meant to celebrate the courage of great film-making and the need to protect artists’ integrity—it didn’t originally have a name. The Academy’s librarian Margaret Herrick thought it looked like her Uncle Oscar, and the name stuck.

(Bette Davis famously kidded that in fact she had named the statue, saying it reminded her of her husband’s butt. His middle name was Oscar.)

Herrick, who had originally been a librarian in Yakima—Go librarians!, would go on to become the Executive Director of the Academy. She’s considered one of the pioneers of film preservation and film history.

It Was Not Faye Dunaway’s Fault—It was (of course) a Dude’s

As you know, there have been some insane Oscar events in recent memory. Will Smith actually went on stage and slapped Chris Rock. That really happened. And just a few years earlier, at the very end of the Oscar ceremony, when they were announcing best picture, Faye Dunaway read off the wrong name, claiming La La Land won when in fact it had been Moonlight.

In the moment people went crazy, and of course blamed Dunaway. But what actually seems to have happened is that the guy who was supposed to give Dunaway and co-presenter Warren Beatty the envelope was busy tweeting a photo of Emma Stone on his phone and gave them the wrong envelope.

A Black Filmmaker has Never Won Best Director

Maybe when you read this you immediately think of this guy. But Spike Lee has never won for best director. In fact he’s only been nominated once, in 2019. He did win for best adapted screenplay for that same film, BlacKkKlansman. He also won a student Academy Award way back in 1983.

But neither he nor any other Black director has ever won an Oscar for their work. This year none of the nominees are people of color.

The Academy has Awarded Oscars to Latina Women, but Only if they Play Maria

Only two Latina women have ever won an Oscar—Rita Moreno and Ariana DeBose. And they won for the same role, Maria in West Side Story.

I don’t even know what to say.

The Red Carpet Has Not Been Forever

The whole red carpet fashion show was not a thing until the 1960s. Before that, celebs would simply walk in without much attention. Which I kind of love.

Speaking of red carpets…

If you Think the Will Smith Oscars Were Bad…

Okay no that was unbelievably bad. Have we fully processed it even now? I’m not sure.

But in the year 2000, 55 Oscars were stolen before the ceremony, and more than 4000 ballots were lost in the mail. And on the red carpet, Trey Parker and Matt Stone (above) wore copies of the dresses Jennifer Lopez and Gwyneth Paltrow wore when they won their Oscars. The two guys were also high on LSD; any time anyone asked about what they were wearing they simply said, “It’s just a magical evening.”

Here they are, talking about it:

There are Envelopes because of the LA Times

Believe it or not there didn’t used to be envelopes for each category. But in 1941 the LA Times, which was given the list of winners, published the list before the ceremony. And with that, the Academy decided to use envelopes to keep the winners absolutely secret.

A wild bit of trivia: Two of the accountants from PricewaterhouseCooper, which administers the results each year, literally memorize the full list of winners and stand on either side of the stage with a duplicate set of envelopes, just in case.

Please Don’t Root for Adrien Brody

Look, I don’t want to crap on anybody, but Adrien Brody…I just can’t. It’s not his acting. It’s what he did to Halle Berry.

In 2003 Brody won the Best Actor Oscar for his work in The Pianist. When he came to the stage, instead of simply taking his trophy from presenter Halle Berry, he grabbed her and made out with her.

None of that was planned. In 2017 Berry told the audience at Watch What Happens Now with Andy Cohen that when Brody grabbed her she said to herself, “What the fuck is happening right now?” And if you watch the clip below, it’s clear she’s not kidding when she says this. She looks furious.

But given the situation, what could she do? Berry described it as an “out of body experience” where “I just went with it”, which happens to be exactly how many people describe the experience of being sexually assaulted.

Andy Cohen, in a piece of !%#! moment of his own, has the gall to ask, “But how was the kiss?” Said Berry: “I don’t know because I was too focused on what the fuck is going on right now.”

During this Oscar season, Brody has been questioned about what he did to Berry. He has attributed reactions like my own to the times we live in. “We live in a very conscious time,” he told Variety, “which is a wonderful thing. And nothing that I ever do or have done or would’ve done is ever done with the intention of making anyone feel bad.” In other words, he didn’t mean to hurt her so it didn’t, which happens to be how a lot of abusers talk about what they do.

(Also, I can’t speak for anyone else, but I remember thinking it was horrible when it happened.)

Brody was also asked about it ten years ago, and instead of addressing it he talked about what a “memorable moment” it was for him. Really.

There are four other great actors nominated for their work. I hope the Academy sees it that way, too.

The Opening Number You Won’t Believe

In 1989, Academy producer Allan Carr, who had put Grease together, created the opening number, which featured Rob Lowe, an actress playing Snow White who was apparently told to give Snow a weird Mickey Mouse meets Valium voice, Vincent Price, Merv Griffin, and Dorothy Lamour. It went 11 minutes and it’s real bad.

Finally: There’s Actually a Best Musical Category, but it has never had a Winner

This might be the craziest bit of trivia of all: Since 2000, the Academy has had a Best Original Musical category. But it has never been used, because it requires there to be at least 10 musicals produced in the year, all of them original—i.e. not adapted from Broadway—with at least 5 original songs by the same writer/team of writers that are audible and associated with the storyline. And the category can only be activated by a special request of the music branch executive committee (which I would take to mean, they have to think the possible candidates are an exceptional set of films).

That is A LOT of qualifications. If films adapted from plays can win best movie, why couldn’t an adapted musical win best musical? And why does it take a special request?

Ten films also sounds high to me. But then checking Wikipedia it turns out there were at least a dozen musical movies in 2024. The year before that, there were 16. The year before that, 24. Some of them are animated, but that seems to fit with the Academy’s parameters.

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OSCNOSTICATIONS

In general I see Wicked, Dune, and maybe Conclave fighting for the design awards, and Unknown, Conclave and Anora battling for a lot of the other prizes.

Best Picture: Conclave—I know, how predictable of me, but I honestly think it’s great work all around. I’d love to see A Complete Unknown win, too.

A lot of people are saying Anora, but I think story-wise it’s a bit too small relative to some of the others. It’s a great film, but Best Picture, I’m not so sure.

Best Actor: Ralph Fiennes, with Timothée Chalamet a close second.

Best Supporting Actor: Many are saying it’ll be Kieran Culkin for A Real Pain., but I’m going to going to go with Edward Norton. He’s done beautiful, beautiful work that grounds A Complete Unknown. It’s worth seeing the film simply to watch him radiate goodness.

Best Actress: I haven’t seen The Substance yet, but I’d love to see Demi Moore win! (I’d also to love see Cynthia Erivo.)

Best Supporting Actress: I only got through ten minutes of Emilia Pérez; I found it totally unwatchable. But everyone says Zoe Saldaña’s done amazing work.

Animated Feature: Wild Robot.

Cinematography: Greig Fraser, Dune: Part II.

Costume Design: I don’t know. I’ll say Paul Tazewell for Wicked but I think Lisy Christl has a shot for Conclave.

Best Director: Sean Baker has made a series of movies now that have turned heads. I don’t see the film winning best picture, so let’s give it to him for Anora. It could also go to James Mangold for A Complete Unknown.

Film Editing: Myron Kerstein, Wicked.

Production Design: This one feels wide open. I’m going to go with Conclave, but Dune: Part II and Wicked also have incredible production design.

Adapted Screenplay: Another battle between A Complete Unknown and Conclave. I’m going to say Peter Straughan for Conclave over Mangold and Jay Cocks for Unknown.

Original Screenplay: Sean Baker for Anora. It’s a great script.

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As I’m sure you heard, Gene Hackman and his wife the artist Betsy Arakawa were found dead last week. It’s been a while since Hackman was in a movie, but it doesn’t feel that way. His performances had a way of staying with you. And though he could be gentle onscreen or funny, he usually acted with a fury that was impossible to forget.

May they rest in peace.

Enjoy the Oscars! Have a great week.