Photo courtesy of Kevin Winter | Frances-McDormand invites her female peer actors directors and writers to stand in unison during her acceptance speech for Best Actress
The 90th Academy Awards were filled with numerous surprises, wins and many immortalized moments, this past Sunday.
Before talking about the nominations, it’s most important to talk about a few things that occurred during the night. First up is the speech given by Frances McDormand. McDormand gave a stirring and riveting speech following her win for Best Leading Actress. She thanked her mother and her sister, as well as the cast and crew of “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. She went on to say, “I think this is what Chloe Kim must have felt like after doing back-to-back 1080s in the Olympic half-pipe.”
The most powerful part of her speech was when McDormand called on all the women nominated for Oscars that night to stand with her. As a group of historically disenfranchised people, women have been fighting for equal treatment in the workplaces for decades. As time continues to evolve, women have proved their might, strength and their overall potential, time and time again only to be undermined by society. But, this only proves to be a testament to how strong women are, how capable and how determined they are to be treated and compensated as equals. Putting this on display and on the film industry’s biggest stage, McDormand showed everyone that women are just as good as the men in the entertainment industry and will not stop showing their brilliance until they are justly compensated for the work they do.
This not only applies to work in the film industry but all women, regardless of profession. Women are a staple of society and McDormand showed the American public that they will accept this discrimination of the past no longer. Her speech was stirring and should be watched by all.
Next up is the video montage about the Time’s Up movement. The Time’s Up movement started in late 2017. The movement, at its core, is a legal defense fund that provides assistance in cases dealing with sexual harassment and assault in the workplace for women. The Time’s Up website states, “Powered by women, TIME’S UP addresses the systemic inequality and injustice in the workplace that have kept underrepresented groups from reaching their full potential.”
The movement has been even further popularized by the film industry. On Sunday night, this video montage was presented by Ashley Judd, Salma Hayek and Annabella Sciorra. The video is a montage of different interviews of diverse people in Hollywood ranging from Academy Award winning actress Mira Sorvino to Academy Award nominated director Greta Gerwig. These people all touched on the change that the industry should be undergoing, talking about how things were and how things can no longer be this way. Every single person interviewed expressed it in their own unique way.
Kumail Nanjiani had this to say during the video, “Some of my favorite movies are movies by straight white dudes about straight white dudes. Now straight white dudes can watch movies starring me and you can relate to that. It’s not that hard, I’ve done it my entire life.”
The punches don’t end there, Geena Davis also spoke up saying, “When Thelma and Louise came out, the huge prediction in the press was, ‘This changes everything. We’re gonna see so many more movies come out starring female characters.’ That didn’t happen, but this is now that moment.”
The LGBTQ community is even represented through director Yance Ford saying, “I’ve been a trans-director in my life for many many years now. With the nomination and headliners, I guess this is new for some people.” At its core, this video was about defying the acceptable norms of the past and going out and changing the industry to one that includes people from all backgrounds and embraces diversity in its truest form. Gerwig sums it all up perfecting urging new age filmmakers to be creative by saying, “Go make your movie. We need your movie, I need your movie. So go make it.”
Transitioning now to the 20 Oscars given out on Sunday night, as mentioned, McDormand did walk away with Best Leading Actress for her performance in “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” beating Meryl Streep, Saoirse Ronan, Margot Robbie and Sally Hawkins. This is McDormand’s second Oscar and fifth nomination. She previously won Best Actress in a Leading Role in 1996 for her performance in “Fargo.”
Staying in the “Three Billboards” family, Sam Rockwell walked away with Best Actor in a Supporting Role, beating out his fellow castmate Woody Harrelson as well as Willem Dafoe, Christopher Plummer and Richard Jenkins. Rockwell dedicated the Oscar to Philip Seymour Hoffman, a beloved actor in the film industry who passed on in 2014.
Gary Oldman won Best Leading Actor for his performance in “Darkest Hour.” This is Oldman’s first win and his second nomination, he was previously nominated in 2012 for his performance in “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.” He beat out Timothee Chalamet, Daniel Day-Lewis, Daniel Kaluuya and Denzel Washington. “Darkest Hour” also took home Best Makeup and Hairstyling for dressing Gary Oldman up in all that prosthetic makeup
In the Supporting Actress category, Allison Janney took home that award for her performance in “I, Tonya” beating out Octavia Spencer, Lesley Manville, Laurie Metcalf and Mary J. Blige. Blige made history though by becoming the first woman to be nominated for Best Song and Best Supporting Actress.
For Best Animated Feature, Pixar’s “Coco” won, becoming the ninth Pixar film to win Best Animated Feature, only adding further to Pixar’s immaculate track record of providing enjoyable yet incredible animated films. “Coco” also took home Best Original Song, beating out mega-hit “This Is Me” from the movie “The Greatest Showman,” “Mighty River” from the movie “Mudbound”, “Mystery Of Love” from the movie “Call Me By Your Name,” and “Stand Up For Something” from “Marshall.”
“Dunkirk” took home a couple different technical Oscars, including Film Editing, Sound Editing, and Sound Mixing. Roger Deakins took home his first ever Oscar for Best Cinematography in the movie “Blade Runner 2049.” Deakins has finally after receiving 13 different nominations but no wins. “Blade Runner 2049” also took home the Oscar for Best Visual Effects.
In one of the biggest surprises of the night, basketball legend Kobe Bryant took home the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film for his film, “Dear Basketball.” When asked about winning, Kobe Bryant said, “This feels better than winning a championship.”
For the Screenplay Oscars, James Ivory won Best Adapted Screenplay for “Call Me By Your Name.” On the other side, Jordan Peele won Best Original Screenplay for writing smash hit “Get Out.” In his speech, Peele lamented, “I stopped making this movie about 20 times because I thought it was impossible.” However, he pushed on and delivered one of the best movies of 2017.
Finally, the film that took home Best Picture was “The Shape Of Water.” The film also took home 3 other Oscars including Best Director, Best Score and Best Achievement in Production Design.