Jimmy Kimmel is funny and articulate. He did a fine job hosting the Oscars telecast his second year in a row. He is a funny white man and knows how to seamlessly weave jokes and satire into heartfelt presentation. But Kimmel should not have hosted the 2018 Oscars telecast, which was a #TimesUp #MeToo and #NeverAgain ceremony for women, LGBTQIA+ people, and people of color.
It must also be noted that in the year of #TimesUp, the Academy clearly does not give enough of a sh*t about women since they presented the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film to basketball player Kobe Bryant for Dear Basketball. It does not matter how well made or inspiring this short film is. Bryant is a rapist and a noted abuser of women. At the official Oscars of #TimesUp, he should not have appeared on that stage.
Gary Oldman won Best Actor in a year where Casey Affleck was not permitted to present. He beat out Timothee Chalamet and Daniel Kaluuya, and Oldman, too, is an accused domestic abuser. Will we ever get things right?
All of the usual suspects arrived on the scene, including the unbeatable Hollywood institutions of Meryl Streep, Daniel Day-Lewis, Steven Spielberg, and Denzel Washington. Did they win anything? No, but it seems to comfort Americans to see them at every ceremony.
Sure, the Oscars got cutesy with the real, live BB8 droid presenting with the cast of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, a true distraction, but what the Oscars REALLY did tonight was historical. Black persons, Hispanic persons, both transgendered and cisgendered women, and queer folks of all types presented Oscars and received Oscars.
Daniela Vega, the first trans woman to present on the Oscars stage, presented the great Sufjan Stevens, St. Vincent, and Chris Thile (hello, St. Paul, MN!) for their nominated song “Mystery of Love” from Call Me Be Your Name.
That film also won 89-year-old James Ivory, a champion of queer cinema, his first award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Jordan Peele won Best Original Screenplay for Get Out, not only the best film of the year (Sorry, Academy) but a film that will be studied for decades for its presentation of the horrors of racial politics in America.
Mary J. Blige, who gave one of the year’s virtuoso performances in Mudbound, sang her song from the film, “Mighty River,” and it made a powerful statement about the tide of change sweeping through our nation. Watch our Mr. President, Mary J. Blige and Common have it out for you.
The hearing impaired were also honored through Guillermo del Toro’s remarkable film about marginalized persons, The Shape of Water, and the winner of Best Live Action Short Film winner, The Silent Child.
Pixars’ Coco won Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song for “Remember Me.” A film that boldly displays the Hispanic culture in the wake of Dreamers being pushed out of our country by a racist president needs to win big awards, and it did.
Speaking of which: The great Guillermo del Toro won Best Director and yes, in an upset, del Toro’s sci-fi/fantasy fable The Shape of Water beat out films like Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and Dunkirk for Best Picture.
The best moment of the night goes to the remarkable Frances McDormand, however, who won Best Actress for her role in Martin McDonagh’s well liked and perhaps overrated Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. McDormand is a fierce, no nonsense type, and when she invited all of the nominated women in the room to stand up with her by saying “I have something to say,” she kicked white patriarchy in the balls.
Here is the list of the night’s winners:
Best Supporting Actor – Sam Rockwell- Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Make Up and Hairstyling – Darkest Hour
Best Costuming – Phantom Thread
Best Documentary Feature – Icarus
Sound Editing – Dunkirk
Sound Mixing – Dunkirk
Production Design – The Shape of Water
Foreign Language Film – A Fantastic Woman
Best Supporting Actress – Alison Janney – I, Tonya
Best Animated Short Film – Dear Basketball
Best Animated Film – Coco
Best Visual Effects – Blade Runner 2049
Film Editing – Dunkirk
Best Documentary Short Subject – Heaven is a Traffic Jam on the 405
Best Live Action Short Film – The Silent Child
Best Adapted Screenplay – James Ivory - Call Me Be Your Name
Best Original Screenplay – Jordan Peele - Get Out
Best Cinematography – Roger A. Deakins - Blade Runner 2049
Best Original Score – Alexandre Desplat - The Shape of Water
Best Original Song – Remember Me - Coco
Best Director – Guillermo del Toro - The Shape of Water
Best Actor – Gary Oldman - Darkest Hour
Best Actress – Frances McDormand - Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Best Picture – The Shape of Water
-Josiah Armstrong
Danielle Nutter says
I disagree, I found Jimmy Kimmel teeth grindingly tedious last night, which is shocking cause i normally find him hilarious. It got to the point where I began questioning what I was hearing. Was he really discussing those topics and masking them as jokes? As the camera panned around The Kodak, all I could think was how unimpressed the women looked. They seemed to be clapping and doing fake giggles out of politeness and it was uncomfortable to watch. Whilst it is 100% necessary for the host to acknowledge the subjects of Weinstein and #metoo #timesup and #neveragain movements, I really didn’t appreciate the fact that he addressed them in jest. Yes, i know the job of the host is to land some jokes and keep everyone entertained but there are certain topics you just don’t do that with and that’s the problem; men making jokes out of serious and sensitive subjects. Frances Mcdormand hit the nail on the head. Her speech was beautiful, raw and taken completely seriously. When she said ‘If i fall over pick me up cause i’ve got some things to say’ I was like YAAAAS. I agree Kimmel shouldn’t’ve hosted on a year where diversity is really beginning to show its face and make a stand, but i don’t think he did a fine job, I think he did a mediocre job at best. With all that said, I was pleasantly surprised that there wasn’t just one recurring winner all night long. The Shape of Water had the most wins right? But there was a lot more movement in terms of winners when compared to last year with La La Land and many Oscars that have come before it. Last nights Oscars seemed different, there was an air of no BS, of people making a difference and taking a stand and I was absolutely living for it!!