By Elijah Teel '26 (Reporter)
Please note: this article was written in April 2024
An Anticipated Night
Every March, one of pop culture's biggest nights happens: The Oscars ceremony. It celebrates achievements in acting, filmmaking, and special effects, and is also an excuse for many of the biggest celebrities to show up and catch up with each other. The nominations were announced in January, and after months of dedicated predictions by newspapers and fans, they aired on March 10th. This year’s Oscars ceremony, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, was consistently entertaining and had lots of grin-inducing moments. From boundary-breaking wins in acting to award-sweeps by the biggest films of the year, the Oscars were a blast to witness. Although some elements of the ceremony were played a little safe, the 94th Academy Awards were an overall success.
Barbenheimer
It was hard to ignore the presence of the two biggest films of the year, Barbie and Oppenheimer, as they were both big parts of the ceremony. They were gigantic commercially, bringing many people out to the movies this past summer. Oppenheimer was the clear winner of the night, though, winning the majority of the technical categories as well as some of the “Big 4”: Best Actor, Actress, Director, and Picture. International films were also a large component of the ceremony, and it was great to see the talent from other countries featured. The Zone of Interest, with its striking cinematography and impactful story, won the award for Best International Feature Film, and many were glad its untraditional Holocaust story would have the platform to educate viewers on a new level.
A Musical Touch
As always, the Oscars were a great showcase for the talent in the industry. They featured performances by each of the nominees for Best Original Song. Culminating in a spectacular performance by Ryan Gosling singing “I’m Just Ken,” each song gave the audience a look into the energy and themes of the movie it was a part of. Other highlights were “What Was I Made For,” by Billie Eilish, a second song from Barbie, and the beautiful “Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People),” which featured drummers and singers performing and dancing to the Killers of the Flower Moon song. The one disappointment was “It Never Went Away,” sung by Jon Batiste, from the documentary American Symphony. The song itself is fairly bland and the lackluster presentation did not help to elevate it. The song’s nomination in the first place could possibly be linked to various Academies' apparent infatuation with Jon Batiste, whose newest album (which received lukewarm reviews) was still nominated for four Grammys. Still, the category and its performances were one of the highlights of the night, and many in the community were happy when Billie Eilish walked away with the trophy for “What Was I Made For.”
The “Big Four”
The biggest trophies of the night, Best Actor, Actress, Director, and Picture, were all fairly expected, and no one in the awards community was too surprised to hear their names being called. Though I personally was rooting for Lily Gladstone to win for Best Actress, Emma Stone ended up justifiably taking home the trophy for her animated and bombastic performance in Poor Things. Oppenheimer ruled the other three, with expected wins for Cillian Murphy (Best Actor), Christopher Nolan (Best Director), and the film itself for Best Picture. Though it would’ve been nice to see a woman or person of color win for Best Director in a category flooded with white men, many agreed Nolan deserved the win for his command of Oppenheimer.
Things to Change
There were a few things that some viewers found stale about the ceremony. Jimmy Kimmel was a very, very safe bet, as he hosted the ceremony last year, too. In response to the catastrophic 2022 Oscars, which ended at midnight and whose three hosts left audiences cringing and wanting it to end, the Academy needed someone they could trust, a somewhat funny name in Hollywood that people could rely on. Kimmel had his moments, particularly in the opening stand-up comedy bit, but repeated remarks on the impending length of the ceremony and awkward encounters with award presenters left some wondering if he should have been swapped out for someone less rigid and potentially less cringe-worthy. For the first time in years, the Academy switched back to its old presentation style of having five past award winners presenting individually to each nominee in a category. Though it was nice to have this personal connection, many were left missing the format the Academy has gone with in recent years. To start, many of these presenters dragged on for too long, regaling the nominees and leaving audience members like Judi Dench nodding off in their chairs. Many also missed the short video snippets that came when each nominee's name was read because it gave audiences looks into both the film nominees were in and a great moment of their performance. Hopefully, the Academy takes this into account when planning for next year’s ceremony.
Closing Ceremony
Despite these things, the 94th Academy Awards went fairly well, and, as always, gave viewers around the world a look into the great cinema works made that year. Already films are coming out that have audiences buzzing about who could be the next lucky ones to walk away with a golden trophy, but for now, we should take time, look back on the winners, and appreciate the magic of movies.
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