That 3.9 earthquake that hit Southern California just as the celebrations were in full swing proved Anora‘s sweeping five victories at the 97th Annual Academy Awards could literally shake things up in Hollywood. And, by the way, nobody seemed to feel a thing, at least not on the Oscar parties circuit, where a little rocking and rolling seemed entirely appropriate.
The message from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Sunday night was simple: We really really, really, really liked Anora.
No doubt this was a stellar night for independent filmmaking with Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, and Film Editing awards for the $6 million Anora’s Sean Baker, plus a bonus Best Actress prize for Mikey Madison. Then three wins for the $10 million The Brutalist, including Best Actor for Adrien Brody, and even a Best Animated Feature win for the wonderful upstart undercat from Latvia, Flow, which was up against heavy hitters from Disney/Pixar and Universal/DreamWorks, plus a so-well-deserved International Film prize at long last for Walter Salles and Brazil’s first-ever win with I’m Still Here. The ever-growing international voting block (estimated at near 30% of AMPAS voters now) likely had a major impact, as did the Cannes Film Festival, which launched Flow, Best Supporting Actress and Song winner Emilia Perez, The Substance and Anora, the latter becoming just the third movie to take both the Palme d’Or and the Best Picture Oscar after 1955’s Marty and 2019’s Parasite. Like Anora, Parasite came from Neon, whose chief, Tom Quinn, was once again beaming at their Soho House afterparty. He even wore some ‘good luck’ merch under his black tux shirt, including one t-shirt displaying the Brighton Beach motif of the film and under that another sporting the Neon logo. He wasn’t taking any chances.
Quinn, who has a knack for picking Palme d’Or winners, told me Neon knew around July that with the right handling Anora had the potential to go all the way, and that in did and then some. Comedy isn’t always the easiest sell for Oscar, which tends to gravitate to more serious drama, so this was doubly sweet. The newly-minted Oscar winners came to the party well after 11pm, and one reason was that after winning a record-setting four personal Oscars, Sean Baker and his wife/producer Samantha Quan went home to walk their dog Bunson. A publicist was trying to find them but the pooch takes precedence.
As he entered with two of his Oscars, and Sam with two more, he told me the dog walk seemed like the right thing to do (it was a loooong show). Baker is simply a very good guy and that is one of the nicest Oscar night stories I have ever heard. When I reiterated his record-setting achievement to him, he just seemed to take it in stride. Well let me put it into context: Walt Disney previously in 1954 took four Oscars for three shorts and a documentary that now would go to the filmmakers, not the studio head. And Bong Joon Ho was photographed holding four Oscars for Parasite, but technically he won three and the fourth for International Film officially goes to the country that entered it, South Korea. Baker’s Oscar quartet is pure and one for the ages, an achievement without an asterisk.
“Hey, not bad, Pete, right?,” Anora producer Alex Coco said to me as he brought his new statuette into Soho House. Not bad at all.
It was the breadth of the win that might have been a little surprising, not just for Coco as he told me, but all the pundits (including me) who thought this might be more of a nail biter, particularly with key precursor wins for Conclave and The Brutalist, but timing proved to be everything in a race that didn’t have a clear front runner after Emilia Perez with its leading 13 nominations imploded when the Karla Sofia Gascon scandal erupted. Then, in one 24-hour period starting February 7, Anora took Best Film awards at Critics Choice and PGA, and Best Director at DGA. All this happened just a couple of days before Oscar final voting started and Anora owned all the headlines and momentum during that important period. Though Conclave, which I predicted might pull an upset, countered with BAFTA and SAG wins, those came too late in the game. Anora‘s rollercoaster awards season ride was back on track and lying in wait for its biggest night yet to come.
‘Oscar bait’
Anora‘s big win indicates a younger, perhaps more hip Academy is now taking form after a few years of growing the membership, diversifying, and even appreciating comedy as just as worthy as anything more obviously ‘Oscar baity.’ We may have to retire that term now because it would be hard to define Anora as “Oscar bait,” just as much as it wasn’t necessarily to Palme d’Or tastes. The Academy that piled on the love for Everything Everywhere All at Once has again shown the same propensity to surprise us with Anora. To quote Bob Dylan, whose origin biopic A Complete Unknown went zero for eight, “the times they are a changin’.” Baker’s heartfelt plea for audiences to return to theatres to see movies was also a highlight, just as it was when he made it at the Independent Spirits a week earlier (he won there as well).
Predictable acting wins for Brody, Emilia Perez’s Zoe Saldana and A Real Pain’s Kieran Culkin, who have been winning all season, showed the Academy is ever so capable of also completely not surprising us, even as Mikey Madison’s win over favorite Demi Moore was a bit more unexpected. Moore was a veteran long overdue for recognition and winner of Golden Globe, Critics Choice, and SAG awards this season over Madison, who wasn’t even born when Moore was out promoting G.I. Jane. Madison’s win is reminiscent of Audrey Hepburn, who won the Best Actress Oscar for Roman Holiday at almost 25, the same age as Madison, although Madison got to utter the ‘F’ word a few hundred more times.
I had also thought that perhaps the older contingent of AMPAS would put the classically-crafted Conclave over the top, even without a director nomination for Edward Berger. After all, that omission didn’t hurt Argo, CODA and Green Book, but Best Picture just wasn’t to be for Conclave, which only won a predictable Adapted Screenplay, award. Nor was it to be for The Brutalist, which had started out awards season taking the top prizes at the Golden Globes, as did Emilia Perez. Of course a lot happened after the Globes when L.A. caught on fire. Though it didn’t get its hoped-for first Best Picture victory with Conclave, congratulations are still in order for Focus Features, which also has international on The Brutalist and Anora. It knows how to pick ’em, for sure.
As for the Oscar show itself, it had its highs and head scratchers. Unquestionably, Conan O’Brien made the ideal Oscar host right from the start, with his entrance coming out of Demi Moore’s body in a Substance bit. It was reminiscent of the days of Johnny Carson and Bob Hope, even Billy Crystal. O’Brien kept it going throughout the show with some very funny material, even unafraid to take a shot at the Karla Sofia Gascon controversy, and veering briefly into political territory where after an Anora win he quipped, “That’s good news. I guess Americans are excited to see somebody finally stand up to a powerful Russian!”
I caught up with O’Brien at the Governors Ball, just as Disney’s Bob Iger was congratulating him and taking photos. He was in an ebullient mood, clearly happy about his stint hosting the Oscars for the first time and what it meant to him to be fronting the industry’s biggest night. When I asked him if he had heard from Trump like Jimmy Kimmel did last year, he clearly could care less, saying he felt passionately about what was behind the Russian line. “I think they should deal with what they are doing, and we will deal with what we are doing,” he said, brushing off in advance any criticism might come from the President. If the Academy is smart, it will immediately ask him back for next year.
The opening number with Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande was stunning, but a James Bond medley without any of the original Bond singers came out of nowhere and sputtered along. The musical tribute to the late, great Quincy Jones was well-meaning, but the Grammys did it better than Queen Latifah singing an overproduced ‘Ease on Down the Road’ from The Wiz, a song and score Jones didn’t write, but merely adapted from Broadway. To top that off, it wasn’t even the first Wiz song of the night as Erivo belted out ‘Home’ as part of a Wicked–Wizard of Oz–Wiz mash up.
Promised reunion duos also really didn’t register until well into the show when Oprah and Whoopi came out to present, and then at the end for Best Picture with Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan. Nice to see them. The Fab Five concept actually worked okay for non-acting categories Costume Design and Cinemtography, with actors from the nominated movies doing the individual tributes. And for sheer unexpected star power the crowd went nuts when unannounced Mick Jagger showed up to present Best Song. Very cool.
Overall, though it was a fun show thanks in large part to O’Brien showing the wisdom of having a host who can deliver the laughs without being mean, this was an Oscars with lots of standing ovations and more highs than lows. There were some worthy winners and some elegant production design, featuring the orchestra majestically high above the stage.
Perhaps sensing the show would even work better if everyone in the audience got treated to some Mexican Don Julio Tequila, bottles were passed down every row encouraging the audience to drink up.
That’s an idea the Academy should think about bringing back often as a way to survive a three-hour and 45 minute show!
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