For the first time in years, I decided to watch the Academy Awards live. I’ve watched the awards show periodically throughout the years, mainly due to nostalgia. I used to watch the Oscars with my parents, when I was little, and it still manages to take me back to simpler times.

When I turned on Hulu to watch it live, I wondered if the Academy Awards would include the same political commentary it’s possessed in recent years. Boy, did it ever.

Conan O’Brien hosted the 97th Academy Awards show, which included award presentations of numerous film icons, including Halle Berry, Quentin Tarantino, Samuel L. Jackson, and Ben Stiller. It also included an interesting gag with comedian and surprising attendee Adam Sandler.

The night began with masterful performances from Wicked stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo. Grande sang “Over the Rainbow” from The Wizard of Oz, while Erivo sang “Home” from The Wiz, before the duo concluded with “Defying Gravity,” the final number from the Wicked film.

Since I’ve followed the buildup to the Oscars over the past few weeks, and wrote about several controversies involving films nominated for Best Picture, I was not surprised to see Anora win in many major categories, including Best Picture, Best Actress in a Lead Role, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Film Editing.

I personally would have liked to see Wicked and Dune 2 win more awards during the evening, but it was good to see neither of them leave the building empty handed.

Other Big Winners

I watched Flow for the first time on Saturday evening, which obviously propelled the film to victory as it received the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. It also became the first Latvian film to win an Academy Award.

As expected, Zoe Saldana won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her magical performance in Netflix’s Emilia Pérez. She is the first American of Dominican origin to win an Academy Award.

Despite a bit of last-minute AI-related controversy, Adrien Brody took home the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in The Brutalist. Timothée Chalamet took home the Best Actor award at the Screen Actors Guild Awards last weekend, which led many to think he could pull off an upset on Sunday.

Brazil’s I’m Still Here won Best International Feature Film. The film, about a mother who is forced to reinvent herself when her family’s life is shattered by an act of arbitrary violence during the tightening grip of a military dictatorship in Brazil in 1971, has only played in select theaters in the United States. It also received a nomination for Best Picture.

Additionally, Kieran Culkin won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, officially surpassing his brother Macaulay’s infamy in the process.

Tributes

During the In Memoriam segment of the Oscars, which occurs every year, Morgan Freeman paid homage to two-time Academy Award winner Gene Hackman, who was found dead this past week.

“This week our community lost a giant, and I lost a dear friend, Gene Hackman,” he said. “He received two Oscars and more importantly he won the hearts of film lovers all over the world.”

Freeman and Hackman co-starred in the 1992 Clint Eastwood Western Unforgiven - the movie that earned Hackman his second Oscar. They also acted alongside one another in 2000’s Under Suspicion. “Rest in peace, my friend,” Freeman said.

Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah introduced a joyful tribute to the late producer Quincy Jones. Academy Award nominee Queen Latifah, accompanied by 32 dancers and the Los Angeles Master Chorale, performed “Ease on Down the Road” from The Wiz.

Additionally, firefighters who battled the Pallisades and Eaton wildfires received a rousing standing ovation, complete with whistles and roars. While being honored onstage at the Grammys, Conan asked them to read jokes he’d rather not make himself, including a devastatingly sick burn about Joker 2.

The Oscars also paid tribute to James Bond in an interesting four-part mashup of theme song covers set to dancing. I’m still not quite sure what to make of it. Don’t get me wrong, the songs were beautifully executed. But… why James Bond, and why now?

Well… This tribute comes on the heels of a shakeup that stirred the film industry: The longtime custodians of the James Bond movies handed creative control over to Amazon MGM in late February. Amazon bought MGM Studios in 2022 for $6.1 billion, a purchase that was significantly motivated by the acquisition of one of the movies’ most beloved and long-running franchises.

Since the Daniel Craig era of 007 concluded with 2021’s No Time to Die, Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson have reportedly clashed with Amazon MGM over the direction of Bond. Amazon MGM Studios, Wilson and Broccoli formed a new joint venture in which they will co-own James Bond intellectual property rights — but Amazon MGM will have creative control.

There’s Something in the Air (It’s Politics)

As far as I could tell, the first few minutes of the 97th Annual Academy Awards seemed rather apolitical, which surprised me, given the current state of the world.

Then, Conan O’Brien made a point to call out Adam Sandler for not wearing proper dress clothes to the event. Sandler lounged in his chair, wearing a hoodie and athletic shorts. After a few minutes of comical banter, Sandler invited people to join his midnight pickup basketball game and stormed out of the theater.

The public callout seemed to reference events from Friday’s disastrous meeting between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. During the engagement, a reporter called out Mr. Zelenskyy for not wearing a suit in the Oval Office.

Later, Daryl Hannah, who starred in Blade Runner and Kill Bill, proclaimed “Slava Ukraini” as she walked on stage to present the nominees for achievement in Film Editing. In response, the crowd erupted in applause.

After No Other Land, a film made jointly by Palestinians and Israelis, took home the award for Best Documentary, the Directors provided a message of hope for the audience.

“About two months ago, I became a father and my hope to my daughter (is) she will not have to live the same life I am living now,” Palestinian director Basel Adra said, detailing some of the issues his homeland is dealing with. “We call on the world to take serious actions.”

Another of the co-directors, Israeli Yuval Abraham, echoed Adra. “When I look at Basel, I see my brother. But, we are unequal,” Abraham said. “We live in a regime where I am free under civilian law. And Basel is under military laws that destroy his life and he cannot control.”

Later, Conan decided it was the right time to make a joke about the current Presidential administration. After noting Anora’s successful night at the Oscars thus far, Conan said, “It’s nice to see someone stand up to Russia for once.” Although the audience was not pictured, the joke seemed to be met with tempered laughter and uneasy clapping.

During his long-winded Oscar acceptance speech, Brody said, “I’m here once again to represent the lingering traumas and the repercussions of war and systematic oppression and of antisemitism and racism and othering.” At one point, he told the producers to stop the classic Academy send off music, which plays when awardees speak for too long.

“I pray for a healthier and a happier and a more inclusive world. And I believe if the past can teach us anything, it’s a reminder to not let hate go unchecked.”

Did Controversies Kill Any Film’s Chances?

Well, what do you think? Did any of the controversies I mentioned yesterday kill any film’s chances?

I certainly believe Emilia Pérez’ multitude of controversies, along with The Brutalist’s AI accent enhancing and Conclave’s negative press from the Catholic Church could have doomed these movies from winning Best Picture. However, it was good to see Saldana and Brody take home their respective achievements.

One controversy, however, loomed larger than the rest: Karla Sofia Gascon’s hate-filled tweets, which surfaced several weeks ago. In fact, Conan delivered a joke about her past tweets at the start of the show, then boldly acknowledged her presence in the audience. He continued the joke by saying that if she tweets about the show, his name is “Jimmy Kimmel.”

Lowlights

At one point, Conan made such an incredibly cringe dad joke that I’m afraid to even type, for fear my computer will explode. He introduced Miles Teller and Miley Cyrus, who presented the award for Best Sound, won by Dune 2, by stating, “These two are known in Europe as Kilometers and Kilometery.”

I’m not sure if this truly qualifies as a lowlight, but Conan and Anora Director Sean Baker addressed diminishing attendance at movie theaters in 2024. Since 2019, ticket sales have decreased by 34 percent, and many independent theaters continue to go out of business.

In his acceptance speech for Best Director, Baker pled with the audience to continue to release movies into theaters, rather than just to streaming platforms. Baker and his team filmed Anora on a budget of $6 million, which highlights the continued relevance of independent films in today’s era of big-budget blockbuster filmmaking and direct-to-streaming movies.

Around 9:33 pm CST, Hulu cut its Oscars livestream short, which caused social media users to express their frustration in the only way they know how: overreacting. The livestream ended abruptly for Hulu users right before the pivotal final minutes of the Oscars with two of the big five award categories left to be announced - best actress and best picture. It was Hulu’s first time airing the academy awards show live.

Hulu users, including myself were shown an error code message on their screen that said, “Thank you for watching. The live event has ended.” Luckily, I still own an antennae I bought over a decade ago, which allows me to tune into FOX, ABC, and a glitchy CBS channel, so I was able to catch the Best Picture announcement before the Oscars faded to black.

Overall, however, Conan did a wonderful job hosting the Oscars, and I hope he will do it again someday. Nick Offerman also gave an outstanding performance as this year’s Oscars announcer.

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