A Constellation of Winners – The 98th Academy Awards
A recap of the 98th Academy Awards, showcasing a diverse pool of winners and their films.
Conan O’Brien returned to host this year’s 98th Academy Awards ceremony on March 15 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. He had shades of nine-time Oscars host Billy Crystal by opening with a montage that paid tribute to the films that were nominated. Conan running through various scenarios as Weapons Aunt Gladys was silly and humorous and set the tone for the show. His post-credits skit was a nod to the Best Picture winner One Battle After Another, as well as an easy out if he doesn’t return next year.
The first award for the night was presented by Zoe Saldaña and was for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. While presenting, Saldaña said that what she loved about all of their performances was “the sheer scope of contrasts contained in each one.” Indeed, this statement can blanket all of the categories. No one film had a clear sweep. One Battle After Another had six wins, Sinners had four, Frankenstein had 3, KPop Demon Hunters had 2, Sentimental Value had one, Weapons had one, Hamnet had one, and F1 had one.
When Al Nelson of the F1 sound team (Gareth John, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, Gary A. Rizzo, and Juan Peralta) was asked by Script magazine if the race cars have musicality and if so, was that easy to sync with the film’s music, his response was, “I like to believe that all sound has musicality. It either has rhythm or it has tonality. With these amazing re-recoding mixers and the sounds of the cars Gareth recorded…we take those and orchestrate them into this film soundtrack. We’re working with Hans Zimmer’s track and the filmmakers. The cars have eight gears…it’s almost like a scale. And we’re doing that to the story. We very much embrace the tonality and rhythm of these cars and the experience.” They won for Best Sound.
Billy Crystal started the In Memoriam portion of the program with a touching tribute to longtime friend and collaborator Rob Reiner. He mentioned that they first met when he had a role on All in the Family as his friend and they decided to extend that to real life and were friends for five decades. Crystal had roles in Reiner’s This is Spinal Tap and The Princess Bride, but starred in the endearingly evergreen romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally opposite Meg Ryan. She joined him on stage as well as Demi Moore, Mandy Patinkin, Cary Elwes, Kathy Bates and many more that had starred in Reiner’s films. It was a genuine tribute to a legendary director. This year’s In Memoriam was long because so much great talent passed away this past year. Barbra Streisand bookended the segment with an earnest tribute to icon Robert Redford.
There were a couple of history-making wins. Autumn Durald Arkapaw was the first woman and the first woman of color to win for Cinematography and Michael B. Jordan joins the esteemed company of other Black actors Sidney Poitier, Denzel Washington, Jamie Foxx, Forest Whitaker, and Will Smith as a Best Actor in a Leading Role winner. Jordan said that he made the Sinners characters Smoke and Stack distinct by keeping a “journal of them, giving them backstories.” Will there be a sequel? Ryen Coogler hasn’t coined one out. Hopefully he and Jordan keep working together. They’re a dynamic duo like Scorsese and DiCaprio.
After being nominated fourteen times for an Oscar, tonight was finally Paul Thomas Anderson’s night with Leonardo DiCaprio-helmed One Battle After Another. He won Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Director. Sean Penn won for Best Supporting Actor but was unsurprisingly M.I.A. The film also won for Best Film Editing (Andy Jurgensen) and Best Casting (Cassandra Kulukundis).
Most stayed away from political statements except for Javier Bardem, who said “no war and free Palestine” while presenting Best International Feature Film, and Jimmy Kimmel, while presenting Best Documentary Feature and Best Documentary Short Film, criticized CBS and President Trump. The Best International Feature Film went to Joachim Trier and Eskil Vogt’s Norwegian gem about generational trauma and the complications of family Sentimental Value, while Best Documentary Feature went to Mr. Nobody Against Putin. Joshua Seftel and Cornell Jones’s All the Empty Rooms nabbed the golden statute for Best Documentary Short Film. It shines a light on the mournful aftermath of school shootings.
One thing that stood out about this year’s Oscars is that everyone seemed in good spirits and very supportive of each other. Timothée Chalamet didn’t pout because he didn’t win. Teyana Taylor was cheering for everyone. The winners were also diverse. Maybe #OscarsSoWhite is a thing of the past? While theaters had a box office slump last year, Hollywood talent is still putting out quality material and is still ready to entertain and/or educate audiences, as evidenced by the numerous quality domestic and foreign films of the past year. Hollywood’s light hasn’t dimmed. It’s just readjusting for clarity.
The full list of winners, click here.
Sonya Alexander started off her career training to be a talent agent. She eventually realized she was meant to be on the creative end and has been writing ever since. As a freelance writer she’s written screenplays, covered film, television, music and video games and done academic writing. She’s also been a script reader for over twenty years. She's a member of the African American Film Critics Association and currently resides in Los Angeles.
