A Reel Opinion: The 97th Academy Awards - The Good, The Bad, and the Glorious

 

The year in film 2024 was put to rest last night with the 97^th Academy Awards. ANORA was the big winner with five wins, including Best Picture. Other multiple winners included THE BRUTALIST with three, while EMILIA PEREZ, WICKED, and DUNE: PART 2 tied with two. Here is how it all landed in The Good, The Bad, and The Glorious:

 

THE GOOD

-First time host Conan O’Brien was a blast with good energy and spot-on jokes. One would think he had been hosting the Oscars for years.

 

-The opening with Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo reprising music from WICKED was spectacular.

 

-This year, in an effort to keep things moving, the Academy did not have performances of the Best Original Song nominees. The nominees still had plenty of attention, however…and music was still given its proper tribute.

 

-ANORA director Sean Baker become only the second person in history to go home with four Oscars for one film, winning for producing, directing, writing, and editing. He’s in an exclusive club with Walt Disney, who in 1954 won four for four different films.

 

-Baker’s acceptance speech included a plea for the survival of movie theatres. It was an echo of an earlier sketch done by Conan O’Brien.

 

-The James Bond tribute, which also served as a farewell for long-time retiring producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, was very well done…even though it felt like a wake for the series as we’ve known it.

 

THE BAD

 

-One too many winners in the below-the-line categories had no idea what to do on the stage and looked like idiots. A little preparation goes a long way.

 

-ANORA winning Best Picture. Sorry/not sorry…but this Blogger found ANORA to be a pointless, meandering pile of nonsense.

 

THE GLORIOUS

 

-Adrien Brody winning his second Oscar in over 20 years for his towering performance in THE BRUTALIST.

 

-FLOW winning Best Animated Feature. The dialogue-free film that was made in Latvia bested the favored THE WILD ROBOT and the highest grossing film of the year, INSIDE OUT 2. The win delivered the Baltic nation its first Oscar; an important feat for small independent films, international cinema, and proper attention to a nation living under the threat of war. The world needs more films like FLOW to be recognized…and the Academy got that right.

 

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The 98th Academy Awards will be in 2026.