Loved the venue, hated the Oscars….
A sluggish night which lacked a host and let speeches drag on -thank goodness for the art deco venue.
- Published by David Knox
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Damn you COVID-19….
This year’s Academy Awards has been run and won in what turned out to be a dull, laborious presentation in a rather fabulous venue.
It opened creatively with opening titles “Starring Regina King etc” in order to justify a maskless setting.
“Think of this as a movie set… an Oscars movie with the cast of over 200 nominees,” she said.
“People have been vaxed, tested, re-tested, socially distanced, and we are following all of the rigorous protocols that got us back to work safely.”
It was masks off during the show and on during commercial breaks. The Los Angeles’ Union Station was an inspired, intimate, art deco setting which rather reminded me of golden days ceremonies in grand Hollywood hotels.
But from there it was all downhill. There was no comedy opening, no song. As the show proceeded recipients gave acceptance speeches that dragged on forever, presenters strayed off script and there weren’t enough stars. Had I gatecrashed some corporate awards night?
Given most of us have not seen the movies this year it was also strange that producers shunned rolling clips in each category.
The In Memoriam section was a rapid-fire list of names reminding us of the horrendous year the world has been through. Olivia de Havilland was 104 when she passed, people…blink and you miss her.
The Best Film category was not the final category, meaning the show ended with an anti-climactic win by Anthony Hopkins -not in attendance- for Best Actor. I suspect producers thought another outcome was afoot…
This was a show desperately in need of a host to keep the ball in the air… instead it was the very disconnected sum of its parts.
Glenn Close twerking will be a meme for a long time to come… which may sadly be the most enduring memory of this year’s Oscars ceremony.
Photo; USA Today
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22 Responses
All award shows are a waste of time until they can return to having an audience and a host. The Oscar monologue, eviscerating the entitled celebrities in the audience, was always the highlight. Without that, why bother?
It was like a tight arsed, sober Logies.
The telecast looked like something from youtube. The vision was very glitchy, dull and amateur looking, as in done on the cheap. It was too distracting to continue watching.
I agree with the other comments here.It just didn’t seem like the Oscars this year,and the mood was very flat.Having the best picture before the acting awards was a huge mistake,especially when the winner of the best actor award wasn’t even there to receive his award.Also,did the awards start earlier this year?I seem to recall it usually starting at 12.30 pm est in previous years,whereas this year it started at 10 am.
Looked like the interns were given free range to produce an Anti-Oscars. Not have Best Director, Actress, Actor then Best Picture was just dumb.
I thought Steven Soderbergh was going to shake things up!
Was a mess. And my recording stopped before it finished. Oh well.
The venue was nice,
I’ll remember Glenn close twirking and probably that’s it.
Yeah that didn’t work
The whole swapping of the big categories was obviously geared on the assumption Chadwick was to win for BLM statements
Also I don’t know but visually it looked odd
This may have been an issue with how channel 7 did the transmission though
It should have just been dropped this year
Not exactly essential
Oscars themselves may never recover from this
Agree that Oscars may never recover from this.
In fact, I’d call this the beginning of the end for similar award shows.
They have become less relevant in this day and age.
Yes number are down for awards shows.
Agreed it was a mess of a telecast, particularly the abrupt ending.
In their defence though, with the havoc that’s ben wrought by the pandemic in the US and elsewhere, I’m not sure it was the year for a comedic opening and all-singing, all-dancing musical numbers.
Probably the worst Oscars ceremony in history (and i don’t mean the winners, they’re all deserving). The venue honestly looked cheap and nasty. It was just a mess honestly and changing the order. Best Picture should always be last. That was a huge mistake.
Looks like it was held in a cafe.
Love the review!
I never watch the bore fest that award season brings..I just read the list of winners at the end of it online…sanity prevails
Had no interest this year and to be honest shouldn’t have gone ahead at all.
The Oscar’s this year was a mess without a host I had no idea what was going on I hated the venue the styling was ugly
The telecast on channel 7 in Perth was delayed.
Agreed. The structure was so different too, which threw me. Seven should be worried for tonight’s repeat airing, maybe some tight editing and tricks will be needed, plus they’ll need a bumper lead-in to help. But I fear a number of only 1**,*** tomorrow, let alone the actual morning airing.
The repeat on 7 in Perth doesn’t start till after 10.15 or so-they’re not expecting any real audience for it, given all the major winners will have been canvassed on the news/current affairs shows etc.
The morning’s broadcast was delayed I knew the winner’s about an hour and a half before the broadcast ended.
Difficult to watch more than five minutes.
Totally agree. I know it’s been a 12 months like no other, but that doesn’t justify announcing Best Picture in the middle of the ceremony – I don’t care if they thought Chadwick was going to take it. I almost wish they’d just not bothered this year.