No major surprises, but still a colorful Oscars night
MANILA, Philippines — “I had a nightmare about this last night. Thank you so much to the Academy. I just didn’t think this would happen. I was not expecting this. I feel so incredibly lucky and honored!” A stunned Billie Eilish exclaimed Sunday night after she won her second Oscar.
At 22, the music superstar is the youngest two-time Oscar winner in history. She shares the distinction with her brother and frequent collaborator Finneas O’Connell.
Backstage, Billie insisted that she is not chasing records. “I don’t do it for other people. I don’t do it for numbers or for some sort of specific fame… I want everyone to be doing something that they feel passionate about and that they feel proud of and that makes them feel like the best version of themselves.”
Billie and Finneas won for the song they wrote for “Barbie.” Their haunting ballad What Was I Made For beat the iconic I’m Just Ken, the other nominated song from the movie, which was performed by Ken himself, Ryan Gosling, at the show — and it was easily the highlight of the evening!
Ryan brought the house down. The performance even caused Emma Stone’s gown to break!
During the commercial gap before the number, an announcer informed the audience that they will be a part of the performance. Most of the Kens in “Barbie” appeared on stage. This is Hollywood and the Academy celebrating the biggest movie of the year.
When the nominations were announced in January, there was a backlash over the missing nominations for Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig for Best Actress and Best Director, respectively. The show made sure there won’t be any fan backlash after.
“Barbie” came into the show with eight nominations. It won one.
During the summer of 2023, the world was stunned by two blockbuster movies that would become known as “Barbenheimer.”
“Barbie” would win the box-office race, but on Sunday night (Monday morning in Manila), at the Oscars, “Oppenheimer” was the clear winner, winning seven Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director for Christopher Nolan.
For those who paid attention, the familiar and now Oscar-winning ticking clock score by Ludwig Goransson from “Oppenheimer” opened the show. Was it an indicator of a sweep?
The show started an hour earlier this year, but the opening was delayed by five minutes due to protestors who blocked an intersection and caused many stars to be late.
Of course, Jimmy Kimmel had to joke about it during his monologue. He returned to host for the fourth time. He was greeted with a partial standing ovation, which he quickly used as material for his first joke.
The audience tonight was in the mood for standing ovations. They must have stood up more than 10 times. There were even rare ovations for the winners of the documentary films.
The cheering for “The Last Repair Shop,” the winner for Best Documentary Short Film, was one of the sweetest moments of the evening.
But the rare double ovation for “20 Days in Mariupol,” the harrowing film from Ukraine that won Best Documentary Feature, was thunderous. The fiery acceptance speech by filmmaker Mstyslav Chernov, included his list of wishes of what he would exchange the win for, just so Ukraine would have peace. The Academy honored him by letting him complete his speech without cutting him off even if it took him over the allowed limit.
“I wish to be able to exchange this to Russia never attacking Ukraine, never occupying our cities. I wish to give all the recognition to Russia not killing tens of thousands of my fellow Ukrainians. I wish for them to release all the hostages, all the soldiers who are protecting their lands, all the civilians who are now in their jails. But I cannot change history. I cannot change the past.”
This was the first Oscar win for Ukraine.
2023 was an eventful year in Hollywood. The industry was rocked by a paralyzing strike by the actors, writers, and directors’ union. The Academy paid tribute to the production crew who suffered the most during the strike. The audience gave them a heartwarming ovation after Jimmy brought some of them on stage.
It was a colorful, star-studded Oscar night. The Philippine STAR received an invitation again. There were no major surprises, and the winners were all gracious in their victories.
Similar to the 2009 show, all winners of the four acting categories were presented their trophies by five previous Oscar winners.
For Best Supporting Actress, Da’Vine Joy Randolph won for her moving performance as Mary, the grieving mother of a dead soldier in Alexander Payne’s “The Holdovers.”
Last year’s winner Jamie Lee Curtis was joined by Mary Steenburgen, Regina King, Lupita Nyong’o and Rita Moreno in presenting the trophy.
“God is so good. God is so good!” Da’Vine cried. It was the first time all awards season that the actress showed her emotions. She thanked her mother and all the people who “have stepped in my path and have been there for me, who have ushered me and guided me… For so long I’ve always wanted to be different, and now I realize I just need to be myself. And I thank you; I thank you for seeing me!”
When it was Robert Downey Jr’s turn to receive his Best Supporting Actor trophy for his role as the adversarial Lewis Strauss in “Oppenheimer,” the superstar playfully thanked his “terrible childhood” before getting serious and dedicating his Oscar to his wife and to his children.
“I would like to thank my terrible childhood and the Academy, in that order. I would like to thank my veterinarian — I mean wife, Susan Downey, over there. She found me a snarling rescue pet, and you loved me back to life. That’s why I’m here. Thank you.”
His trophy was presented by last year’s winner Ke Huy Quan and previous winners Sam Rockwell, Tim Robbins, Christoph Waltz, and Mahershala Ali.
In the Best Actor category, Cillian Murphy, the titular character in “Oppenheimer” became the first Irish-born actor to win the trophy. Last year’s winner Brendan Fraser presented him with the trophy together with Nicholas Cage, Sir Ben Kingsley, Matthew McConaughey, and Forest Whitaker.
Backstage, a journalist from Ireland, asked for his thoughts on making history.
“I’m a little bit of a daze, you know. I’m very overwhelmed. I’m very humbled. I’m very grateful. And you know, very proud to be Irish standing today,” he said. “It’s really, really meaningful to me and in Ireland, you know, we’re really great at supporting artists and I think we need to continue to support artists and the next generation of actors and directors. I think that’s vitally important.”
On stage, Cillian emphasized the importance of “Oppenheimer.”
“We made a film about the man who created the atomic bomb. And, for better or for worse, we’re all living in Oppenheimer’s world. So, I would really like to dedicate this to the peacemakers everywhere.”
If ever there was an upset, it would be Emma Stone winning Best Actress over Lily Gladstone. The two actresses split the awards during the season and, going into the show, Lily had a slight edge after winning the Screen Actors Guild’s Best Actress trophy.
However, the history that was supposed to be made Sunday night did not happen. Many Oscar-watchers were hoping to see Lily win and become the first Native American to win Best Actress. Lily starred as the real-life Mollie Kyle, an Osage Indian who witnessed her family and compatriots get murdered for oil money in Martin Scorsese’s powerful film “Killers of the Flower Moon.”
Instead, Emma won her second Oscar for her tour-de-force performance as Bella Baxter, an adult woman implanted with a child’s brain in Yorgos Lanthimos’ film “Poor Things.”
She was visibly surprised by her win and nearly speechless.
“Oh, boy. My dress has broken,” she gushed.
When she recovered, she thanked Jessica Lange, Charlize Theron, Jennifer Lawrence, Sally Field, and last year’s winner Michelle Yeoh, who presented her with the trophy.
“The women on this stage, you are all incredible and the women in this category — Sandra (Huller), Annette (Bening), Carey (Mulligan), Lily — I share this with you. I’m in awe of you. And it has been such an honor to do all of this together. I hope we get to keep doing more together.”
When she joined us backstage, Emma giddily showed us the newly sewn backside of her gown.
The other big winner of the night was the United Kingdom’s “The Zone of Interest.” A gripping German-language film about a Nazi family living outside the walls of Auschwitz. The movie won Best International Feature Film and Best Sound.
Japanese master Hayao Miyazaki won for Best Animated Feature Film for what’s touted to be his final film “The Boy and the Heron.” He was not present, but a prepared statement was read backstage by his producers.
Another notable winner who was absent was acclaimed American director Wes Anderson, who finally won his first Oscar for the live action short film “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.”
“Poor Things,” the second most nominated movie, won four Oscars.
And oh, yes, John Cena was naked!
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