I'm a movie fan. I love watching and reviewing films, and I love keeping track of the awards-contenders that throughout the year embryo in cinemas and on streaming platforms. 2020 was a year nobody expected would turn out the way it did. We had a massive pandemic that not only sent us to isolation in our homes; it also provided us a strange selection of movies that mostly consisted of indies. I have followed the Oscars for five years now. I always make my predictions and keep a good eye on all of the precursor awards shows. It's fun. However, no matter how much or how little I liked the slate of films that were nominated for this year's Academy Awards, the show itself felt robbed for everything that makes the Oscars special. I usually only use this profile to rate Tv-shows, shorts, and documentaries, but this year I had too many thoughts about the ceremony I had to write something down.
My main thought about the show was that it didn't feel glamorous like it usually does. It didn't bring any of the Oscar highlights that I look forward to seeing, and even though they tried to speed up the show by not having too many things in-between the categories, it felt even longer than it has done the past years. It started pretty decent; awards were giving, and the winners held their speeches. From the very first speech which Emerald Fennell held to her win in the Best Original Screenplay category for her feature debut, "Promising Young Woman," it already felt like there was something special missing. Her speech was overlong, and it created a pattern for the other winners, which either held as long and monotone or even longer speeches.
They really shot themselves in the foot by switching around some of the categories: especially having Best Picture presented before Best Actress and Actor. What was the thought with that? A lot of people on Twitter have put a lot of the blame on Hopkins for no reason. It's the producer's fault that they miscalculated the entire show and made it end on a very weird and awkward note. The show itself was just too boring. It didn't feel like we were celebrating the movies. In a normal year, we would celebrate the crafts and the extraordinary achievements the team goes through in the making of a film. I cannot quite put a finger on what was missing; except for the film part.
When it comes to the nominees and winners, I will not blame the show for having a very limited taste this year. All of the nominees felt like a bunch of Indie Spirit Awards, which doesn't make them bad, but they all felt very heavy to get through, and in a year where depression and other concerns are stuff up my head, it wasn't necessarily what I had hoped to see. Many of the films are fundamentally good ones. I love "Another Round" and "Sound of Metal." "Nomadland" was a bit plotless to me, and "Promising Young Woman" won for its script, which was the single worst thing about the film.
"Mank" surprised with two wins, taking home Production Design and Cinematography. Though it's well-deserved, the film itself is a hot, boring mess.
Many of the other titles have not been available for me yet, so maybe they would brighten me up a bit more than those mentioned. "Another Round" is the only 10/10 of all the nominees.
Nevertheless, the 93rd Academy Awards was a failure, in my opinion. It aimed for something big that could have turned into some very intersting choices, but ended up in a messy stage. The most disappointing show I have ever seen. I sincerly hope 2022 will be a far greater year in films.
