Awards Season 2020

[DarkImbecile]

Soundchaser and I tied in the prediction competition, and since I won last year, Soundchaser will be crowned our Awards Season 2020 champion with all the attendant riches and responsibilities that weighty title brings.

Pick something cool for the rest of us to watch and comment on!

[Finch]

Guess Viola Davis didn't impress enough voters and perhaps some voters' dislike of Promising Young Woman colored their opinion of Carey Mulligan's performance which would be a shame because she is the single best thing about that film. Again, it'd be fascinating to see ballots to see if it was close.

[Pavel]

Very anticlimactic, but Hopkins won me 260 bucks, so all is well as far as I'm concerned

[soundchaser]

Soundchaser and I tied in the prediction competition, and since I won last year, Soundchaser will be crowned our Awards Season 2020 champion with all the attendant riches and responsibilities that weighty title brings.

Pick something cool for the rest of us to watch and comment on!

This is not how I wanted to win, but I suppose I’ll take it regardless.

Will have a pick tomorrow! It’ll probably be something lighter and fluffier than most of tonight’s fare.

[therewillbeblus]

Very anticlimactic, but Hopkins won me 260 bucks, so all is well as far as I'm concerned

I'm happy for you, and it was deserved. I now need to do some step-work writing to manage my brewing resentment against Frances McDormand.

[hearthesilence]

Frances McDormand - watching Zhao's earlier speech and saying "I'll just do the opposite."

"The Academy accepts the award on his behalf" - hell of a way to end the show!

Remember when all of Scorsese’s friends announced Best Director the year he won for the Departed and people wondered what would have happened if that bet didn’t pay off? Well, here ya go

LMAO, this would never fly, but if they want to up the ratings, they should find a way to include a live commentary track.

[PfR73]

Guess Viola Davis didn't impress enough voters and perhaps some voters' dislike of Promising Young Woman colored their opinion of Carey Mulligan's performance which would be a shame because she is the single best thing about that film. Again, it'd be fascinating to see ballots to see if it was close.

Like, I know the Academy doesn't decide on the nomination category, it's how people are submitted, but after watching Ma Rainey's Black Bottom last night I could not BELIVE that Davis was in Best Actress...she is barely in the movie and isn't really the central character. Even Boseman doesn't have that much more screen time compared to the rest of the ensemble, but at least he made somewhat more sense in the Best Actor...whereas Lakeith Stanfield was ABSOLUTELY the lead actor in Judas and the Black Messiah.

[Finch]

The Academy probably didn't know either that Hopkins won because they surely wouldn't have shuffled BP and the actors' awards if they had known that it wasn't going to be Boseman. Also, did no one have the sense to ask Hopkins to stay up? (lol)

[Brian C]

LMAO, this would never fly, but if they want to up the ratings, they should find a way to include a live commentary track.

Hey, I'm down for that! But I think a better use of my talents would be as the veto guy - i.e., it would be my job to veto any obviously stupid decisions that the producers wanted to make.

Seriously, though, I would not have guessed that Soderbergh of all people would have been the guy who would have wanted to focus on the stars instead of the movies. "Hey maybe we should kill time by reading inane human interest stories about the nominees" (VETO!!) just doesn't seem like a very Soderberghian thing to do to me.

[PfR73]

The Academy probably didn't know either that Hopkins won because they surely wouldn't have shuffled BP and the actors' awards if they had known that it wasn't going to be Boseman. Also, did no one have the sense to ask Hopkins to stay up? (lol)

That's the thing...they had no backup plan...like if you're going to put that award last, you better make sure every nominee is there, or even have SOMETHING prepared...some kind of performance, a short film by Soderbergh, an announcement that Cloverfield 4 is up on Netflix...SOMETHING

[soundchaser]

Seemingly every decision made tonight was baffling, and I wonder how much of the blame can be laid at Soderbergh’s feet.

[Finch]

Boseman losing at all is going to be pretty unpopular.

[Brian C]

That's the thing...they had no backup plan...like if you're going to put that award last, you better make sure every nominee is there, or even have SOMETHING prepared...some kind of performance, a short film by Soderbergh, an announcement that Cloverfield 4 is up on Netflix...SOMETHING

Thinking it through, though, I feel like they would have had the same problem regardless? So Boseman wins, everyone gives a standing O for him or whatever, maybe you play a clip of his career highlights in the time reserved for a speech (if they even had such a thing prepared, which seems doubtful or else they'd have played it anyway I think), and then ... Questlove says goodnight? That doesn't really work for me either.

If they were convinced Boseman would win, presenting Actor earlier, right before the In Memoriam (as suggested earlier in this thread), was the way to go.

[PfR73]

Now I'm sitting here imagining there was a remote camera crew at Boseman's house ready to film his family's reaction to his win, and suddenly they get a call on their radio: "Hopkins won, he didn't show, pack it up" and them just tiptoeing sheepishly out of the house.

[PfR73]

[felipe]

That's the thing...they had no backup plan...like if you're going to put that award last, you better make sure every nominee is there, or even have SOMETHING prepared...some kind of performance, a short film by Soderbergh, an announcement that Cloverfield 4 is up on Netflix...SOMETHING

Thinking it through, though, I feel like they would have had the same problem regardless? So Boseman wins, everyone gives a standing O for him or whatever, maybe you play a clip of his career highlights in the time reserved for a speech (if they even had such a thing prepared, which seems doubtful or else they'd have played it anyway I think), and then ... Questlove says goodnight? That doesn't really work for me either.

Exactly, were they planning on just ending the show like that?

[therewillbeblus]

I mean, the creative team generated one single gag in Glenn Close Being Hip, so yeah, seems about right in step with the spirit

[DarkImbecile]

While the shuffling of the final categories was a tremendous self-own, the biggest failing of the show was minimizing the presence of the movies themselves by dropping most of the clips in favor of monologues about the nominees. I’m fine with them not having a segment devoted to “Plague at the Movies” or something, but a major part of the value of the show is piquing people’s interest by showing them pieces of films they might not have otherwise sought out. Much rather see 45 seconds of Lakeith Stanfield’s performance than hear some other actor talk awkwardly about how inspiring he is.

[Brian C]

In fairness, though, the more I think about that Glenn Close bit, the more I like it. It's as if the whole night was lifeless and inane just to set up that one single gag when no one expected it. Worthy of Albert Brooks if you ask me.

[felipe]

It's just odd how there was nothing memorable (at least not in a good way) at all about this. It's like they were not even trying. No montages, no comedy segments, no musical performances. Sure, those might go awfully bad, but at least it's something. This year we just got a list of the winners and and a "trivia" game that felt like they were stalling because the next presenter got stuck in the bathroom.

[therewillbeblus]

I miss Kimmel

[Brian C]

I think this would have been a really great year to celebrate a bunch of old movies celebrating milestones, like a montage of movies from 1996 (25th anniversary) or 1971 (50th) or whatever. Or 10 years to keep the younger crowd engaged, just do something. Remind people of movies they love, get them wanting to go back to the theater, etc. McDormand telling people to go see these movies in a theater didn't seem so great of an advert for the industry.

But at any rate, an Oscars show that showed no visible excitement for the industry seems particularly ill-timed now.

[therewillbeblus]

What are you talking about, Frances McDormand howling like a wolf totally connected with viewers

[Brian C]

Too true, I forgot about that epic good save at the end there.

[teddyleevin]

I hated it but I'm glad School Daze got a shoutout even if it was stupid. Spike's presence was sorely missed and that somewhat made up for it. Poor Carey Mulligan but I was thrilled at the Fennell screenplay win (probably the only win that excited me all evening).