Well, if you read my predictions (story HERE), you’d know that while I loved “Parasite”, I didn’t believe it would beat “1917” for best picture at the Academy Awards last night.
Myself (along with many others), got it wrong. That is a good thing. The former actually was the best film in that awesome field.
Here is what that means moving forward.
“Parasite” if you haven’t seen it, is a Korean language film. It won Best International Film as it should have.
That was the problem. Deciders believed that it could reward two great films appropriately and more importantly, separately, to avoid controversy. Everyone wins and goes home with a trophy.
It’s a challenge animated films also used to face.
That was fine but it created a problem.
To cut to a baseball analogy, it’s like a pitcher winning MVP and the Cy Young award (given to the best pitcher). It takes a performance grounded in domination over any of it’s possible competition to take both awards.
“Parasite” was great, but this was a really strong field. Not just “1917”, but “Ford v. Ferrari”, “Little Women”, and “Marriage Story” were all great.
Moving forward, that means that films won’t get dragged down by subtitles and international films will get their deserved due.
If you haven’t seen “Parasite”, it’s truly a unique film, and you should make time for it.
Some other thoughts about last night’s ceremony:
The best moment of the night might have been Best Director winner, Bong Joon Ho, quoting his hero and fellow nominee, Martin Scorsese, who was in the audience during his acceptance speech for “Parasite”. Some real emotion there.
Seeing Eminem was great, but the general sentiment was that it was about 17 years too late.
As it should have been, the fact that female directors were snubbed was mentioned frequently last night and the academy did what they could do to repair that damage.
There are a lot of people that are still angry over the “Uncut Gems” snubs as well. They too are right to feel that way.
Man, it was great to finally see Brad Pitt get that Oscar.
No host, is still the best host for the Oscars, but it would be great to have Steve Martin and Chris Rock, or Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph host a show.
James Corden and Rebel Wilson did about as much as they could to redeem “Cats” and it almost worked.
People are getting Pixar awards fatigue. Not me. Toy Story 4 was great.
Best dressed: Janelle Monae, Brie Larson, Saoirse Ronan.
We can still cut a lot, three and half hours is still too long.