Published On: Mon, Feb 10th, 2020

Oscars 2020 Recap

Just to clarify – the Oscars are not a complete reflection of the film industry; but, the many wins of Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite are a very good reflection of this past year in movies. With incredible performances from people like Elton John, Billie Eilish, Idina Menzel and her international Elsa counterparts, and Cynthia Erivo, as well as well deserved wins, the 2020 Oscars were incredible.

Last night’s Oscars began with an incredible performance from Janelle Monae, and although I am sure you’ve already heard of it, to recap, it began with homage to the Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood T.V. show introduction, then transitioned into a musical performance no one was expecting. The background dancers being dressed as characters from nominated motion pictures greatly complimented Janelle Monae’s impactful voice. A beautiful, astonishing performance to say the least.

After everyone in the audience and watching from home were left in amazement from the opening performance, the Oscars were then presented by Chris Rock and Steve Martin – safe to say that was a hilarious moment from last night. Both Chris Rock and Steve Martin have hosted in the past, but now that the Oscars do not have a host anymore, “because of twitter” (according to Chris Rock), they just had this simple, and hilarious, introduction.

Some other notable non-movie related moments were the musical performances. Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas performed Yesterday by the Beatles during the memoriam; which included a tribute to Kobe Bryant. Their performance was not only beautiful, but heart-wrenching. Another beautiful performance was Into the Unknown from Frozen 2, which was sung by not only Idina Menzel, but also her Elsa counterparts from different countries in their home language, including: Russian, German, Japanese, Polish, Norweigan, Thai, Spanish, Danish, and Castilian.

Now, let’s go over the key and most important parts of the Oscars – the awards:

Brad Pitt, expectedly, won best supporting actor for his role in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. This was the first presented award of the night. 

Beginning the first of many wins for this movie, the best original screenplay was won by Parasite; it won over many incredible movies, including A Marriage Story – which ended with no wins. But, the best adapted screenplay was won by Taika Watiti’s Jojo Rabbit, a deserving win as well.

Laura Dern won best supporting actress for her role in A Marriage Story.

Cinematography – also expectedly – was won by 1917.

Best International Feature Film – an award formerly known as foreign language film – was won by Parasite. In Bong Joon-ho’s speech, he mentioned that he definitely expected for this to be the final win for his movie, jokingly saying that he was going to start drinking after he won that award.

Joker won Best Original Score alongside its win from earlier this year at the Golden Globes for an award under the same name. Hildur Gudnadottir very graciously accepted this award – a very soft spoken, definitely genius, music composer.

Rocketman’s [I’m Gonna] Love Me Again won best original song, accepted by Sir Elton John.

Bong Joon-ho’s expectation of not getting anymore awards after winning best International Feature FIlm was broken, because he ended up winning Best Director over acclaimed Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino. In his speech, he commended both directors out of pure astonishment for winning over them. Something Bong Joon-ho said that stood out to me was: art that is “most personal is most creative”, which truly proves his genius and passion for the art of film – making him very deserving of this award.

Best Actor went to Jaoquin Phoenix in Joker, which does not even need explaining – his truly artistic and incredible performance in the movie being enough of an explanation.

Best Actress went to Renee Zellweger in Judy – a movie commending the life of actress Judy Garland. 

And – the award that keeps everyone up in anticipation until 11:30pm on a Sunday night – Best Motion Picture, given to Parasite. So, Bong Joon-ho’s expectation of winning only two awards turned into four. Parasite made history as the first film not in English to win Best Motion Picture. Personally, I believe that this movie was more than deserving of winning this award; its incredibly twisted yet perfectly put together plotline and crazy concept as well as Joon-ho’s magnificent directing all formed this beautiful movie – Parasite.

 

About the Author

Discover more from The Boca Raton Tribune

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading