Die 93. Oscar-Verleihung

No fun No intrigue No joy No comedy No tradition.

The 93rd Academy Awards had no host, no masks, no Zoom, and almost no audience.

Hollywood's biggest night wasn't exactly the movie unto itself that producers Jesse Collins, Stacey Sher and Steven Soderbergh promised. However, no one took that very seriously, and the resulting relatively fast-paced and deeply personal ceremony actually might have been something more vital - a true Hollywood reinvigoration. But it didn't go well... The big swing Academy Awards will still likely be the least-watched Oscars ever, or one of the least watched at the very least, which is a real shame.

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.

Love the Oscars, and as usual we stayed up all night (in Sweden the pre-show began 12:30 am and the main show finished at 5:20 am). It's always worth it, even though I have to take some time off work. But for this?? A conference for industry people. So many dull, lifeless choises. No music, no humor, no clips or even images. I don't care how 10 people I've never heard of discover cinema - I want to see the work they're being celebrated for.

They threatened the homeless people living at the station to leave before the oscars or they would have their belongings thrown away. Then they virtue signal about oppressed minorities and the disenfranchised? Lol. Hypocrisy at its finest... that should be enough reason to tune out, but there's so much more... and I don't have time to write it all out. This oscars had the lowest viewership in history, and I think the people have decided to boycott.

The Covid pandemic has created a challenge for awards shows. It has also led to low ratings.

The Oscars decided to ban Zoom but this was an underwhelming reworking.

The show badly needs a main presenter, one who is a comedian. This one needed laughs. There was just a lack of fun with the reworking.

Some of the speeches from the presenters were overlong and dull. The In Memoriam segment rushed through the people who died in the previous 12 months but the introduction to it needed it to be shorter.

Also when you celebrate the work of the artists and the production crew. I would like to see an example of their work. I was not enthused with a factoid that a best supporting actor nominee once worked in a fast food outlet or such like.

Then there was the change of order. There was no need for the Best Picture to be given out so early.

The emotional moment of the evening was a damp squib. The Best Actor Oscar was held last in the expectation that the late Chadwick Boseman would be the winner. He did not win. Anthony Hopkins pipped him to the post and he was in bed in his homeland of Wales by that time.