An Oscars Recap…First Impressions

Layla W.
3 min readApr 30, 2021

So the 93rd Academy Awards happened…no host, music, comedy or honorary awards left the night feeling mildly soggy. Here’s what I’m still thinking about.

Steven Doderbergh, the producer of this years Oscars, is prone to creative decisions. I skeptically went into this show hoping for the best. And as with any award show, some things worked and some things didn’t. But in favor of staying positive, let’s start with the good.

What Worked

Regina King: The fairy we didn’t know we needed

Regina King was a surefire hero of the night. Strutting down what was essentially a fashion catwalk for three minutes in a glittering Louis Vuitton gown was the perfect opening sequence to a night of prestige television. King was made the de facto host, responsible for making everyone comfortable and explaining why masks weren’t worn. She was asked to do a lot, and luckily King was up for the task.

The Acceptances: Why the show still lasted 3 hours

Yuh-Jung Youn and Daniel Kaluuya at the Oscars

While it’s not our first time without a host, the lack of musical performances and comedy skits would logically shorten the show. And yet, the program still cracked the 3-hour mark.

Normally, for the sake of time, acceptees rambling gratitude for their moms and managers would get skidded off the stage. But this year, the producers opted not to play the music that would signal off- and it led to some truly touching moments.

Daniel Kaluuya’s acceptance (which would’ve normally been cut short) was satisfying in that it offered a reactionary, thoughtful and celebratory phase. All of which was delightful and will soon be quotable.

And it’s hard to talk about acceptances without mentioning the undisputed queen of speeches this award season, Youn Yung-Jung. She made an adorable mention to Brad Pitt (who produced Minari through Plan B Entertainment), providing the perfect reason to pan to Pitt, and that’s certainly a highlight.

The Ugly

The Order Switch & Best Actor Debacle

When best picture was presented 20 minutes and two awards before the show was marked to be over, I was bewildered. I thought I had somehow missed when the actor/actress award was because in no way could I imagine the show not ending with the top prize. But then, I remembered Soderbergh. And ah, I saw the plan. Best picture (which boringly went to Nomadland) had to get out of the way so that the show could end with the posthumous win of Chadwick Boseman. A sad but fitting way to end the night, a perfect summation for 2020 tonally.

Unfortunately, I was wrong. And I think so was Soderbergh because the show ended with a freeze frame of Anthony Hopkins. And while I have a huge amount of respect for his incredible talent, the show ended like a wet fart.

And it’s not Hopkins fault nor am I mad at him. In a normal year, Hopkins would have been the runaway favorite for his work in The Father. But with tragic passing of Boseman, it just feels like a missed opportunity. Especially considering that Hopkins wasn’t at the show.

The Clips?! Where were they?!

This is nit-picky, but one of my favorite parts about Oscars night are the highlight reels shown right before announcing the winner. And this (in my opinion) crucial element was cut out of the most important categories!

This made me cringe to the point I started twitching. We need clips to understand the movies, especially in a year when they are so little seen. I am a busy college student, as much as a love the award season, my free time and finances are scarce and I can’t see absolutely everything. Instead of commentary from Laura Dern about Kaluuya’s performance how about we see it! How hard is it to show some damn clips!

All in All

No matter how things are sliced, people just didn’t care about movies amidst the pandemic. So there’s no saying if this was another bad Oscar year. But I did appreciate how traditional and new elements alike were combined. Could they regret that in 5 years? It’s possible. The Oscars are in a precarious moment in existence, with low ratings and low interest, only time will tell what the future holds for the fate of the show.

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Layla W.

Lehigh University Journalism Student - Pop Culture Snob - Cat Lover