Leave it to the Oscars to have a ceremony clouded by the actions of two celebrities. There were absolutely no winners on either side of that exchange.
I watched the Oscars ceremony live on Sunday, March 27, as over last year, I streamed 33 of the 53 films up for awards on streaming services or at theatres. I spy a few more of the films over at Cole may end up as ones I need to borrow to finish seeing the 10 up for best picture last year.
I was the closest to having a perfect ballot with the Academy’s picks than I’ve been in years past, with 15 of the 23 total categories correctly called. In the eight categories I didn’t align with the Academy, it really came down to personal preference or deviating to another film I thought was exemplary for that category. For example, “Cruella’s” hair and make-up game was on point as much as “The Eyes of Tammy Faye.”
Of course, the slap directly overshadowed the one race this year I was most excited to hear who won – best documentary.
And while I had predicted and have championed “Summer of Soul” as the best documentary I watched of the five, this was one of two races in Oscars that “there are no losers here.” Each of those documentaries are fantastic and I wouldn’t have been mad if my preferred pick had lost to any in that category. If there’s one category to check out al five nominees, I’d recommend this one. Three of the documentaries are available on streaming platforms Hulu and Amazon Prime, and “Writing With Fire” was just on Independent Lens on PBS.
The other race for me that was a “no losers here” race was the animated features. I know the Academy and families aren’t tired of talking about Bruno, but for me my favored picture in the race was “The Mitchells vs. The Machines,” a film that connected with me the minute the line “Behold, Cinema!” was uttered. Still, “Raya and the Last Dragon,” “Luca” and even “Flee” were all exceptional films from this year in their own ways.
When it came to best picture, the academy picked one of the two films I connected with this year (“CODA”) in that race, and I was excited about “Dune” cleaning up in technical categories it deserved. The other film I really enjoyed in the best picture race thus far was “Licorice Pizza,” but that does have some problematic elements that wouldn’t be enjoyable for everyone the way CODA is. I definitely recommend seeking out CODA if you haven’t seen that film.