Oscar Blitz 2024 – Postmortem

Like Michael Jackson before me, for 40 days and 40 nights I was covering this year’s Academy Awards, as well as reviewing new films and closing out the critiques of everything that was in my 2023 backlog. Unlike Michael Jackson… you know what, I won’t even make the obvious joke.

That’s because, honestly, at this point I’m in just too good of a mood. The last six weeks have been harrowing at times, but the end result was an Oscars ceremony that once again played out relatively clean. There were a few hiccups along the way, which I’ll get to in a moment, but for the most part, everything turned out pretty great. There were a few surprises, but no real controversies. Most of the big moments that people have talked about in the aftermath were positive in nature. And best of all, once I publish this post, I can finally take a few nights off, because this is literally the 40th consecutive night that I’ve posted something since this year’s Blitz began.

I can’t say I was disappointed in any of the results Sunday night, though I was definitely not expecting some of them. Of the 23 categories, I correctly predicted 17. For the six I missed, two were in my “Shots in the Dark” section (Documentary Short and Sound), one was an “Educated Guess” (Best Actress), and three were marked as “Gimmes.” Those were the ones that threw me for a loop. For all the backlash against the Academy for not nominating Greta Gerwig for Best Director or Margot Robbie for Best Actress, it turns out the membership writ large just didn’t care all that much for Barbie in general, as it only won Original Song, and not the two design categories that appeared to be locks. This isn’t to knock Poor Things for its Costume Design or Production Design, as both were spectacular. But when you literally exhaust the world’s supply of pink paint to build Barbie Land, how does that not win? Of the six guesses I missed, these were the only two where I didn’t have the result down to one of two possible victors and just picked the wrong one. I definitely got the sensation that all the Academy really wanted was to give Billie Eilish another Oscar and have Ryan Gosling perform “I’m Just Ken,” and would have preferred to not even acknowledge Barbie beyond that.

On the flip side of things, I am overjoyed that The Boy and the Heron won Animated Feature. It did pick up a couple of wins during Awards Season, but I figured the loss at the Annie Awards would have sealed it. Until Sunday, the only times the Annie winner for Best Animated Feature didn’t go on to win the Oscar over the last decade were in cases where the Academy deferred to Disney as their corporate benefactor (How to Train Your Dragon 2 eventually lost to Big Hero 6, Klaus fell to Toy Story 4, and The Mitchells vs. The Machines lost to Encanto). While Elemental represented the House of Mouse this year, there was no realistic chance it was going to win, as it was by far the worst of the field, so I figured there was no other possibility for the upset, especially since Across the Spider-Verse won in direct competition with The Boy and the Heron (the Independent Feature prize went to Robot Dreams). I didn’t think it was possible, but I was elated that it happened, because between it and Suzume, the art of animation really helped me cope with the loss of my mother last year. I’m sad that Hayao Miyazaki wasn’t there to accept in person, but I couldn’t have been happier to be wrong when that envelope was opened.

Really, the entire broadcast was a success. Most of Jimmy Kimmel’s jokes landed, including the last-minute addition of his response to Donald Trump’s nonsense post (which was real). I loved the bit with John Cena presenting Costume Design while appearing to be nude as a commemoration of the infamous streaker. Robert Downey Jr. and Emma Stone gave wonderful speeches in their own way. While I wasn’t a fan of The Zone of Interest, when it won International Feature, Jonathan Glazer gave a perfectly nuanced dedication to the victims of dehumanizing warfare on both sides of the Israeli conflict. And of course, Messi the dog was adorable as all get out.

There were some slipups here and there. Al Pacino kind of fumbled his Best Picture presentation. Melissa McCarthy and Octavia Spencer opened their presentation of the Screenplay categories in a way that made it seem like they’ve never even read a flash card, much less a script, and it was PAINFUL to watch. It was oddly tone deaf to “honor” stunt performers and coordinators with a montage rather than announcing the award category they’ve sought for so long. The “In Memoriam” reel wasn’t handled in the best of manners, as most of the montage was in the background and jumping between screens while the broadcast focused way too much attention on the Bocellis and some backup dancers, and then capped it off with a rapid-fire listing of names in a black circle, including notable favorites like Lance Reddick who deserved a full dedication. I don’t think there will ever be an “ideal” way to do this segment, so I don’t hold too much against it, but this version did come off as a misfire.

And while I won’t quibble with any of the results any more than I already have (like giving way too much attention to Anatomy of a Fall and almost none to Past Lives), I did feel sad that Lily Gladstone didn’t win Best Actress. I’m guessing the vote was incredibly close between her and Emma Stone (though we’ll never know for sure), but it is unfortunate all the same. To be clear, this is not to take anything away from Stone’s fantastic performance. It’s just that, the way Hollywood works (it’s getting better, but it has a ways to go), you know Emma Stone is going to get the chance to play so many more intriguing characters and win this award even more times to add to the two she now has. You know that won’t be the case for Gladstone. The representation and distribution of opportunities in this system just isn’t there yet. I figured the history that would come with the prize, as well as the fact that Stone had already won, would be enough to swing the result in Gladstone’s favor, especially after SAG gave her the prize over Stone (the Acting Branch is the largest of the Academy, and most are SAG members, so the votes that put Stone over the top definitely came from other sectors of the membership).

But even setting that aside, Gladstone’s defeat meant that Killers of the Flower Moon, the third highest nominated film (10 nods, one behind Poor Things and three behind Oppenheimer), went home with nothing. That just shouldn’t happen. The original version of The Color Purple holds the record for most nominations without a win with 11, but Killers is now right behind it, along with Martin Scorsese’s most recent film before it, The Irishman.

This goes back to what I said when breaking down Best Picture. If you really don’t plan on awarding a film, you shouldn’t nominate it for the top prize. The whole point of expanding the field was to make sure that the most worthy films got considered, and that we had a more robust and diverse conversation about what the title of Best Picture really meant.

However, in practice, that hasn’t really been the case. The field was expanded beginning in 2009 (the category originally had a varying large number until 1943, then five until 2008), and in that time, there really hasn’t been all that much in the way of spreading the wealth. In that first wider ceremony, The Hurt Locker won the top prize and five other awards. Of the other nine Best Picture nominees, Avatar got three awards, Precious and Up each got two, and The Blind Side got a fraudulent Best Actress award for Sandra Bullock. The other five nominees (Inglourious Basterds, Up in the Air, An Education, District 9, and A Serious Man) all went home empty handed.

The trend has only continued since. In total, 136 films have been nominated for Best Picture since 2009, whereas 75 would have been up in that same 15-year span had we stuck with just five like every other category. Of that group, 39 went home with nothing. Meanwhile, in that same time span, 12 films got multiple wins without being nominated for the top prize. Only twice have we had cases where all the nominees at least got something, and both of those were years where we only had eight films up for Best Picture. This year, Killers laid a goose egg, along with Maestro and Past Lives.

Maybe going back to five isn’t the right answer, but there definitely needs to be some sort of change. Maybe no one nominates Best Picture, but instead the list of candidates is drawn from the most nominated films across the ceremony. Maybe we increase the number of nominees in other categories to match Best Picture (Argo famously got a boost in its eventual winning campaign because Ben Affleck was left out of the Best Director race, for example). I don’t know what the solution is, but I think if we’re trying to get to the most accurate possible way to represent and celebrate the best that the year in cinema has to offer, there’s got to at least be a discussion.

Still, these are minor gripes in what was otherwise a fun and entertaining show, one that made the last 40 days of effort seem worthwhile. So before I close the book on 2023 film for good, there’s one last item of business to attend to. I didn’t have time in January to do my annual “Best Of” post for the previous year. I was just too bogged down with work, Oscar prep, Independent Spirit nominations, rushing to every International Feature screening I could find, and the No Rest for the Weekend Awards. As such, I’ll offer a redux version right here. I won’t go into all the stuff I usually do, but I will make my “Best” and “Worst” lists official.

My Bottom 10 for 2023:
10) Memory
9) The Delinquents
8) Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
7) About Dry Grasses
6) Passages
5) Retribution
4) The Exorcist: Believer
3) The Last Voyage of the Demeter
2) The Marvels
1) Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire

My Top 20 for 2023:
20) The Holdovers
19) Godland
18) To Kill a Tiger
17) You Hurt My Feelings
16) Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia
15) A Thousand and One
14) Theater Camp
13) Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
12) The Monk and the Gun
11) Past Lives
10) Godzilla Minus One
9) Perfect Days
8) The Peasants
7) Suzume
6) Poor Things
5) 20 Days in Mariupol
4) The Boy and the Heron
3) American Fiction
2) Killers of the Flower Moon
1) Oppenheimer

Yes, I do have three Japanese movies in my top 10. You read that right. There was just so much good stuff coming from that country, as well as the rest of the world. I can’t remember the last time I had six foreign films in my personal top 10, or 10 of the top 20. American cinema left me wanting for a lot last year, but the rest of the world definitely picked up our slack.

Anyway, thank you all so much from the bottom of my heart for taking this journey with me once more. We’ll see what 2024 has in store for us, and of course I’ll be back next year to run this Blitz all over again.

And now, if you’ll excuse me… SLEEP!

Join the conversation in the comments below! What was your favorite part of the Oscars this year? What needs to be improved? Can we have Messi co-host with Kimmel next year? Let me know! And remember, you can follow me on Twitter (fuck “X”) and YouTube for even more content!