Oscar Reactions

All my hard work and long hours of watching nearly 50 movies felt worth it while watching the 96th Academy Awards. There were some lows and some highs (looking at you Ryan Gosling, John Cena, & Messi), but overall it was a great show (once again looking at you Ryan Gosling). Let’s see how I did on my predictions for all 23 categories.

All the categories I was correct in my predictions of were as follows:

Best Documentary Feature (20 Days in Mariupol), Best Documentary Short (The Last Repair Shop), Best Live Action Short (The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar), Best Animated Short (War Is Over!), Best Original Song (What Was I Made For? from Barbie), Best International Feature (The Zone of Interest), Best Adapted Screenplay (American Fiction), Best Original Screenplay (Anatomy of a Fall), Best Cinematography (Oppenheimer), Best Editing (Oppenheimer), Best Score (Oppenheimer), Best Supporting Actress (Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Best Supporting Actor (Robert Downey Jr.), Best Actor (Cillian Murphy), Best Director (Christopher Nolan), & Best Picture (Oppenheimer). 16/23 ain’t bad! 69(nice)% correct. I’ll take that. Now here are my thoughts on the categories I missed.

Best Makeup & Hairstyling, Best Costume Design, & Best Production Design all went to ‘Poor Things’ when I had them going to ‘Maestro,’ ‘Barbie,’ & ‘Barbie,’ respectively. I definitely knew ‘Poor Things’ would not come out of its 11 nominations without a win and I definitely understand it winning in all of these categories.

My prediction for Best Visual Effects was ‘The Creator,’ but my personal pick was ‘Godzilla Minus One,’ mostly due to the huge discrepancy in budgets of it compared to the other nominees. I’m very happy to be wrong in this situation.

I thought ‘Oppenheimer’ was a shoo-in for Best Sound, but it ended up going to ‘The Zone of Interest.’ I’m really indifferent towards this one, but congrats to ‘The Zone of Interest’ team.

I also thought 'Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ winning Best Animated Film was a sure thing, but keep in mind, ‘The Boy and the Heron’ was one of the two nominated feature length films I was not able to watch. I really hope to watch it when it comes to streaming and if people think it’s better than Spider-Verse 2, then I have high hopes!

Finally, I think Emma Stone is absolutely deserving of her second ‘Best Actress’ Oscar. But I think the Academy really benefited and publicized how big it would be if Lily Gladstone won, so it seemed like a little bit of a slap in the face for her to lose (akin, but to a much lesser extent, to Chadwick Boseman in ‘21). As someone who has spent their whole life in Oklahoma, I’d like to think I understand the weight of this a little more than the average non-Native American, but I have faith Lily Gladstone will be back and will make history.

I already told my wife how excited I am for the 97th Oscars and I can’t wait to see ‘Dune Part Two’ when every possible award.