2021 Oscar Winners

[oldposterho]

I had to look these up and thought I might spare others the effort:

Best Picture
"Nomadland"

Best Director
Chloé Zhao, "Nomadland"

Actress in a Leading Role
Frances McDormand, "Nomadland"

Actor in a Leading Role
Anthony Hopkins, "The Father"

Original Screenplay
"Promising Young Woman"

Adapted Screenplay
"The Father"

I guess it's convenient that I actually saw Nomadland 'cause everything else is MIA for me (although Judas and the Black Messiah is on the pile.

[Salty Dog]

Interestingly, the black and white movie, Mank, won for cinematography and production design (and nothing else, I believe).

[Mike Gebert]

The list of winners is fairly respectable, except for the worst cinematography of the year winning.

If you got to it without having to watch the entire show, better for you. Perhaps the only good acceptance speech:

[maliejandra]

I only saw Nomadland so far of the best picture nominees, but I was underwhelmed by it. The movie was entertaining, but it didn't resonate with me the way I expect a Best Picture winner to.

As far as speeches, I got a good laugh from Daniel Kaluuya who thanked his parents for having sex to concieve him.

[Richard P. May]

It is understandable why this year's presentations had the lowest TV ratings ever. As usual, I recorded it so I could fast forward over the commercials (which seemed longer than usual) and some of the speeches. The seating arrangements eliminated any feeling of joint participation. Mainly just boring.

[R Michael Pyle]

For the first time in over sixty-five years I just didn't care, and I didn't watch it. My wife watched the runway show at the beginning for about an hour. I think it must have been as long or longer than the actual show!! Boring is not quite the way I'd put it. But this is a family blog...

[wingate]

The edited"highlights" I saw were dull so heaven knows what the whole show was like..

[earlytalkiebuffRob]

The edited"highlights" I saw were dull so heaven knows what the whole show was like..

Fortunately I don't have a TV license, so was probably safely in Fluffy-Bunnyland at the time...

[Jim Roots]

The edited"highlights" I saw were dull so heaven knows what the whole show was like..

Fortunately I don't have a TV license, so was probably safely in Fluffy-Bunnyland at the time...

Watch out for those Killer Rabbits!

Jim

[boblipton]

In case no one has noticed, we haven't been happy about the Oscar results since The Artist won, and even then we were upset that Uggie was cheated.

Bob

[Harlowgold]

For the first time in over sixty-five years I just didn't care, and I didn't watch it. My wife watched the runway show at the beginning for about an hour. I think it must have been as long or longer than the actual show!! Boring is not quite the way I'd put it. But this is a family blog...

I've actually missed a number of broadcasts over the last decade given how few films nominated I was interested in, or current stars I remotely care about. This year I watched more out of curosity for how they were going to handle it and admittedly not wanting to miss it if it was indeed the train wreck many expected and it proved to be.

I find it quite absurd the way the presenters went into purple prose about every acting nominee as if their work was on the level of a Meryl Streep at her most dedicated. Also interesting was how for "group" winners, one person was requested to speak for the group but many of them quite generously and fairly let their co-winners have a few seconds at the mike to acknowledge their families or whoever. Of course, there were those who took that "solo speaker" to the limit, often prattling on and seemingly oblivious that there were co-workers also honored.

Glenn Close's comic moment was funny but as scripted as one of her movies.

Then there's the weird ending with Best Actor given last. People are saying it was given that spot because the Academy expected Chadwick Boseman to win and it would movingly cap the program but I wonder if the Academy didn't know the winners before the envelopes were opened to avoid any debacles on the Moonlight / La La Land level and pushed it to the end knowing Chadwick's upset loss would upset more than a few people in the audience and put a downer on whatever would follow that award.

Having seen not one nominated film this year, I can't give personal observations on the worth of any winners or losers but given the acclaim for his work and the almost complete sweep of other awards, it seems a bit shameful that members of the Academy did not go with the tide and give Chadwick Boseman the award. It's not like he was nominated for some mediocre or merely ok performance. If they can give "career achievement Oscars" to people who have had less than sparkling screen careers just because they are super old, I don't see why they can't give an occasional acting award to a young talent tragically lost early and who clearly had many years of major work ahead of them. You can't really argue that "the best performance should win" because we all know that is often simply not the case. I seriously doubt Anthony Hopkins at this stage in his life cares much for trophies, especially given he's been honored many times in the past, indeed, the fact that he went to bed and slept through the award show (lucky bastard!) proves that. He was extremely gracious in his morning after acceptance speech and again proved himself a class act which apparently many of the Academy members are not.

[greta de groat]

And it was especially weird that when he was announced, the presented had to hurriedly say he wasn't there, then rushed off the stage and the show was suddenly over.

I watched the last half just to see how they were going to handle it, and i have to say that them sitting around in booths like that reminded me of the old times when it was still an awards dinner. It was really strange for the Oscars to be so low key, though. My husband came in for about 5 seconds but immediately said "hey, what's that building?"

greta