The ‘Nomadland’ director is the first woman of color to win in the category.
Chloé Zhao made a great movie, and then she made history.
In winning best director for “Nomadland,” Zhao became on the second woman in the 93-year history of the Oscars and the first woman of color to win in the category. That’s a stunning indictment of Hollywood’s past — but a bright ray of hope for the future.
“I have always found goodness in the people I met everywhere I went in the world. So this is for anyone who has the faith and the courage to hold onto the goodness and themselves, and ... in each other.”
Many of the early acceptance speeches at the trimmed-down Academy Awards ran long but were often deeply moving, e.g., when “Another Round” won for best international feature and director Thomas Vinterberg paid heart-rending tribute to his daughter Ida, 19, who was killed in a car crash in Paris when Vinterberg was just four days into shooting the film.
Then there was Daniel Kaluuya, who won best supporting actor for his portrayal of Black Panther Illinois party chairman Fred Hampton in “Judas and the Black Messiah.” Kaluuya delivered a timely and powerful speech and talked about how he’s been inspired by Hampton and others to be a better man — but he ended on an hilariously celebratory note when he talked about how life is so incredible and said: “My mom met my dad, they had sex, it’s amazing, I’m here!,” as we cut to shot of Kaluuya’s mother and sister in London, with sis putting her hands in her face as mom wondered what the heck her son just said.
One can picture the first four texts from mom:
Daniel.
Daniel?
Daniel!
DANIEL!!!!!
Prior to the handing out of the trophies, we were about only three minutes into the Oscars when Regina King took the stage at Union Station in downtown Los Angeles and said:
“I have to be honest: If things had gone differently this past week in Minneapolis, I might have traded my heels in for marching boots. Now I know that a lot you people at home want to reach for your remote when you feel Hollywood is preaching to you, but as a mother of a Black son, I know the fear that so many live with, and no amount of fame or fortune changes that. But tonight, we are here to celebrate.”
Beautifully said.
With an opening credits sequence reminiscent of an “Ocean’s 11” movie — only fitting, seeing as how “Oceans” director Steven Soderbergh was the co-producer of the telecast — we accompanied Academy Award winner King, who was clutching the first Oscar of the night, as she entered the makeshift “auditorium” at Union Station in downtown Los Angeles, which looked pretty darn glamorous for a train station and filled in just nicely as the main venue.
That first Oscar went to Emerald Fennell for her original screenplay for “Promising Young Woman,” which just might be a harbinger of more gold to come for the film and for star Carey Mulligan.
Next up was the adapted screenplay, with “The Father” scribes Christopher Hampton and Florian Zeller in London and Paris, respectively, and Zeller did all the talking (and talking and talking), and hey: The remote connection worked because it was a satellite feed and not a laptop Zoom-y type deal.
But the first highlight of the 93rd Annual Academy Awards didn’t even take place during the actual ceremony — it happened early on in the preshow titled “Oscars: Into the Spotlight,” when Molly Sanden and a kids’ choir in the fairy-tale colorful fishing village of Husavik, Iceland, sang “Husavik” from “Eurovision Song Contest,” which was lip-synced by Rachel McAdams in the wacky comedy film but actually worked quite beautifully as a performance number that would have brought down the house had there been a house to bring down.
So, we had Husavik kids in Huvasik wearing fuzzy Husavik sweaters singing background on “Husavik” and it was the most Husavik thing ever and made me want to go whale watching in Husavik.
In fact, all five nominated songs worked great as remote, well-produced, elaborately orchestrated production numbers in the preshow — as opposed to years past, when the songs were scattered throughout the ceremony and were often underwhelming miscalculations that only served to lengthen the proceedings.
Overall, the relatively muted, red carpet procession featuring only nominees and presenters and a small gathering of press, and the low-key pre-show hosted by Ariana DeBose and Lil Rel Howery, struck the right tone for an Oscars that wanted to celebrate the glitz and glamour of Hollywood without coming across as tone-deaf. There was the usual amount of “You’re fabulous,” “No YOU’RE fabulous” gushing among celebs praising each other’s praise-worthy work, plenty of happy-to-be-here observations from actors and filmmakers who were out and about for maybe the first time since early last year, and then it was on to the host-free show itself.
Another preshow highlight: while Lil Rel Howery was talking to Angela Bassett (62), we saw separate glimpses of Rita Moreno (89) and Zendaya (24) on the red carpet.
Talk about your generational trifecta.
The first half of the ceremony was virtually glitch-free and smooth, though I’d like to find the person(s) who wrote the “jokes” for the voice-over person to deliver as we went to commercial breaks and plead with them to never do that again. Typical example: “I swear, we are running on time, and next, we have Reese Witherspoon presenting best animated feature.”
Just … unnecessary.
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