THE 93RD ANNUAL ACADEMY AWARDS

After Regina King snatches an Oscar statue, she's followed with a tracking shot while strutting down a blue carpet in the beautifully transformed Union Station in DTLA as credits rolled featuring the evening's participants and crew, we became fully aware that the 93rd Annual Academy Awards was not going to be a conventional ceremony. This year's producers of the show, filmmaker, Steven Soderbergh with producers, Stacey Sher and Jesse Collins, had made it clear that this presentation was going to have a feel that was "cinematic". And while they may not have been exactly successful at the task at hand (showing very little cinema in the process), I will applaud them for their efforts of attempting to shake up the routine by offering a slightly adventurous Oscars event.

Tony Award–winning set designer, David Rockwell created a space for the show that was made up to look like an intimate, art deco ballroom much like the very first Oscar ceremony back in 1929. Ms King explained all of the protocols that were in place for ensuring safety measures had been met which included no trophy presenters and a minimum number of performers on stage to announce the awards. It was a diverse and multigenerational group of stars on hand that featured previous Oscar winners (Halle Berry, Rita Moreno, Reese Witherspoon, Marlee Matlin), last year's winners (Laura Dern, Brad Pitt, Renée Zellweger, Bong Joon-ho) and a few current nominees (Steven Yeun, Viola Davis, Riz Ahmed). Harrison Ford made an appearance to present Best Editing where he mumbled and appeared slightly out of sorts, leaving me to wonder how the seventy-eight year old actor is going to possibly do another "Indiana Jones" adventure. And in an odd attempt to personalize the nominees, the presenters told little tidbits about each one in several categories. But the Oscars are about recognizing their outstanding work in cinema which we probably should have seen instead of hearing about their previous experiences involving the movies.

Since all of the Best Original Song nominees had been performed on the pre-show, "Oscars: Into the Spotlight", there were surprisingly no actual entertainment segments between giving out Oscars. There was only a brief moment when comedian, Lil Rel Howery, who co-hosted the pre-show, came out to do a bit involving asking people if they could guess if a song had been nominated for an Oscar. With musical director, Questlove playing the tunes, the skit was going nowhere until he came to Glenn Close. After putting on "Da Butt" from Spike Lee's 1988 second feature, "School Daze", Close claimed to not only know the song but proceeded to demonstrate the dance. I'm sure the bit was staged yet it was still quite funny and the highlight of the show.

"Nomadland" expectedly took the top prize of Best Picture and Chloé Zhao became only the second woman to receive Best Director. But with the descion to shake-up tradition, the Best Picture winner was presented before Best Actor and Best Actress. And with Zellweger and Joaquin Phoenix presenting the categories they won last year instead of the opposite, the moves created plenty of confusion. In both cases, the winners were not expected. First, Frances McDormand was the victor in a very strong Best Actress race (and becoming the only three-time winner in this category), delivering a reliably short and quirky speech, while in a major upset, Sir Anthony Hopkins won for his amazing work in "The Father" instead of the sentimental favorite, Chadwick Boseman for his final performance in "Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom". Since the eighty-three year old British actor chose not to attend (and was not allowed to use Zoom), this left Phoenix (who clearly looked like he would rather be anywhere else but on that stage) flummoxed, leaving him to simply mutter that he accepted for Hopkins and the show was over.

Days after the awards, many were complaining about the show, saying it was "boring" and "the worst Oscars in history". Now every one knows that trying to put together the Oscars is a thankless job under normal circumstances and considering the many unusual obstacles the producers had to face while trying to create a telecast, I think the show was actually quite commendable. It was definitely far from a perfect Oscar show and the need for a host became abundantly clear after the last three years without one. With millions getting vaccinated, society opening back up and movie theaters finally beginning to show signs of life, I think next year's Oscars will once again, for better or worse, be back to business as usual.

Here is the complete list of winners of the 93rd Annual Academy Awards:

Best Picture: "Nomadland"
Best Director: Chloé Zhao, "Nomadland"
Best Original Screenplay: Emerald Fennell, "Promising Young Woman"
Best Adapted Screenplay: Christopher Hampton and Florian Zeller, "The Father"
Best Actress in a Leading Role: Frances McDormand, "Nomadland"
Best Actor in a Leading Role: Anthony Hopkins, "The Father"
Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Youn Yuh-jung. "Minari"
Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Daniel Kaluuya, "Judas and the Black Messiah"
Best Cinematography: Erik Messerschmidt, "Mank"
Best Film Editing: Mikkel E.G. Nielsen, "Sound of Metal"
Best International Feature Film: "Another Round" (Denmark)
Best Documentary Feature: "My Octopus Teacher"
Best Documentary Short Subject: "Colette"
Best Animated Feature Film: "Soul"
Best Animated Short Film: "If Anything Happens I Love You"
Best Live Action Short Film: "Two Distant Strangers"
Best Production Design: Donald Graham Burt and Jan Pascale, "Mank"
Best Costume Design: Ann Roth, "Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom"
Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Matiki Anoff, Mia Neal and Sergio Lopez-Rivera, "Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom"
Best Original Score: Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and Jon Batiste, "Soul"
Best Original Song: "Fight for You" from "Judas and the Black Messiah" (Music by H.E.R. and Dernst Emile II; Lyric by H.E.R. and Tiara Thomas)
Best Sound: Phillip Bladh, Nicolas Becker, Jaime Baksht, Michelle Couttolenc, Carlos Cortés and Carolina Santana, "Sound of Metal"
Best Visual Effects: Andrew Jackson, Andrew Lockley, Scott R. Fisher and Mike Chambers, "Tenet"
Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award: Tyler Perry and The Motion Picture & Television Fund