While this year’s Academy Awards ceremony was largely free of controversy, Nicholas Barber writes that it was “radical in its own quiet way,” with the absence of some of Hollywood’s biggest names a sign that “the US film industry’s certainties are crumbling.”
At the conclusion of the Oscars, Jimmy Kimmel strode into the wings and flipped a one on a board that read: “Number of Oscar Telecasts Without Incident.” It was only natural for Kimmel to make so many references to last year’s Incident, but even if you had forgotten about Will Smith slapping and cursing Chris Rock, that closing gag would have made sense. The Oscars have frequently been a disaster in recent years, whether due to an envelope mix-up in 2017 or the socially distanced gloom in 2021, but this time the event was slick and competent enough to convince you that the producers and directors actually knew what they were doing.
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At the conclusion of the Oscars, Jimmy Kimmel strode into the wings and flipped a one on a board that read: “Number of Oscar Telecasts Without Incident.” It was only natural for Kimmel to make so many references to last year’s Incident, but even if you had forgotten about Will Smith slapping and cursing Chris Rock, that closing gag would have made sense. The Oscars have frequently been a disaster in recent years, whether due to an envelope mix-up in 2017 or the socially distanced gloom in 2021, but this time the event was slick and competent enough to convince you that the producers and directors actually knew what they were doing. Long stretches of the three-and-a-half-hour event were tedious and repetitive, but that’s almost always the case with award ceremonies, and there were only a couple of obvious flaws. (The practise of starting the music before the recipients’ acceptance speeches is as infuriating and insulting as it has always been.) And the winners in each category appeared to have been chosen based on which one provided the most warm and cosy feelings. They all appeared to be decent people who were grateful for their awards while emphasising that filmmaking, like life, is a collaborative effort. None appeared to be in danger of being cancelled. The director of An Irish Goodbye, which won best live action short film, asked the audience to sing “Happy Birthday” to the film’s star, James Martin, during his allotted time. And no one was slapped. Even if you didn’t believe the best man or woman won in every category, there weren’t many results that would have prompted a reasonable person to throw a shoe at the TV screen and yell, “How dare they?”
That fuzzy feeling began with Oscar wins for Jamie Lee Curtis for best supporting actress and Ke Huy Quan for best supporting actor, both for their roles in Everything, Everything, Everywhere. Angela Bassett didn’t seem too pleased that she didn’t win best supporting actress, but Curtis is a trooper who has kept working despite little recognition, so most people couldn’t argue with her victory. Meanwhile, Quan gave up acting after roles in Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom and The Goonies as a child, so his victory was a celebration of second chances. (The emotional high point of the ceremony came when he hugged Indiana Jones himself, Harrison Ford, after Everything, Everything won best picture.) Brendan Fraser, who was nominated for best actor for The Whale after being off Hollywood’s A-list for more than a decade, was another beloved star making a comeback. It was difficult to figure out what his rambling speech was about, but he was clearly overwhelmed, as were all those who had been enthralled by the “Brenaissance.” And Michelle Yeoh’s best actress award, also for Everything, Everything, Everywhere, was a celebration of her long career, a boost to “ladies” who had been told they were “past your prime,” in her words, and a sign that Hollywood was finally ready to recognise Asian and Asian-American talent. “This is for all the little girls and boys who look like me,” she said.
That was the night’s central theme. Everything Everywhere All at Once, which had an Asian-American co-director, Daniel Kwan, and was about an Asian immigrant family, took home seven Oscars, including best picture, best director, and best original screenplay. (Or, at the very least, universe-hopping supervillains.) But there was also Naatu Naatu from RRR, the first time an Indian production had won the Oscar for best original song: the composer, MM Keeravani, sang his acceptance speech to the tune of Top of the World by the Carpenters. The Elephant Whisperers, the best documentary short film winner, was also Indian. That meant that, while the ceremony appeared to be a mellow, old-fashioned affair with little to shock or upset, it was nonetheless radical in its own quiet way.
The absence of so many of Hollywood’s biggest names, including Tom Cruise and James Cameron, suggested that the US film industry’s pillars are crumbling. The major, historic studios had to settle for sound design honours for Top Gun: Maverick, visual effects honours for Avatar: The Way of Water, and costume design honours for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. A24, an independent studio, was behind Everything Everywhere All at Once, a heady science-fiction martial-arts comedy that wouldn’t have gotten an Oscar nomination a decade ago. A24 also produced The Whale. All Quiet on the Western Front, the evening’s other big winner, was a German production funded by Netflix. The same streaming service also financed Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, which won the Oscar for best animated feature. The entire evening could be read as Hollywood’s admission that it no longer makes the best films – or, at the very least, the kind of films that win Oscars. So perhaps Kimmel was mistaken when he joked that the telecast had gone off without a hitch. It was a pleasant, happy event, but it was a slap in the face to Hollywood.