Oscars 2021 | 93rd Academy Awards Wrap Up

Written by Alexander Reams

After an extended awards season the 93rd Academy Awards have come and gone. While there were some very lovely moments in the show, the broadcast as a whole was a very mixed bag. Without further ado let’s dive into the last big awards show of the season.

I’m just going to address the elephant in the room immediately, putting Best Director in the middle of the show and not saving Best Picture for the end was one of the most idiotic moves The Academy has made in quite some time. The entire point of the broadcast is to celebrate individual fields first and then finish the night with one film being celebrated above all the others. By not doing that, the wins for Chloé Zhao and the entire Nomadland crew were snubbed. I get what The Academy was going for, wanting to end the night with a celebration of Chadwick Boseman’s life with his assumed win for Best Actor. However, as soon as Anthony Hopkins’ name was called, you could feel the collective embarrassment of the showrunners and rightfully so. Putting Best Actor at the end of the night, to only have the assumed winner lose was not only disrespectful to Chadwick Boseman and family, but to Anthony Hopkins as well. He delivered his career best work in The Father and was not celebrated because of the mess that was made by the Academy.

With that out of the way I want to talk about some of my favorite wins of the night. Starting off with Erik Messerschmidt’s win for Mank. The cinematography of that film was one of the universal praises for that film, every frame is absolutely stunning and I was very glad to see him win. Joshua James Richards and Messerschmidt had been neck and neck all awards season. After the ASC awards that finally seemed to give someone an edge for the race to win Best Cinematography.

Thomas Vinterberg’s acceptance speech is what won the night for me. I have listened to countless interviews about him talking about the making of this film and in every one of those interviews he discusses his daughter’s death during production which changed his outlook on the film. Vinterberg has been waiting a long time to take the stage to accept an Oscar and was long overdue to win one. You can genuinely see that he loves what he does and values it greatly, and when he began to talk about his daughter’s death I will admit I did shed a few tears. The film can be very disheartening but it’s theme about life as a whole is brutally honest but also hopeful.

Overall the 93rd Academy Awards had few surprises but the surprises that did occur were near shocking. From Messerschmidt beating Richards for Best Cinematography, to Frances McDormand winning Best Actress, and Anthony Hopkins winning Best Actor over Chadwick Boseman.

BAFTA 2021 Awards Wrap Up

Written by Alexander Reams

Well the last big awards show before the Academy Awards took place, and while most of the winners were expected, as always there were some surprises. Without further ado, let’s go through the winners.

Nomadland took home Best Picture after taking home almost every single award thus far, and Chloé Zhao continued her win streak for Best Director. At this point I would say Zhao is a lock for the Oscar, but after last awards season, my confidence in the guilds was slightly broken so it’s hard to say anything is a lock, but Nomadland taking Best Picture and Director is as close to a lock as can be.

Promising Young Woman expectedly took home the award for Best British Film, and to some surprise, Best Original Screenplay. While you can never count out Aaron Sorkin, I feel that he has lost a lot of steam in this awards season and Emerald Fennell has picked up what Sorkin has lost and is looking like she will be taking home the win for Best Original Screenplay at the Oscars.

After winning most of the awards for Best Adapted Screenplay, Nomadland’s winning streak did not continue here, instead Florian Zeller’s The Father took home the award, giving the film a big push to take home the award. Anthony Hopkins also took home the award for his performance in The Father, beating Chadwick Boseman for what seems to be the first time this awards season. While I am glad Hopkins has gotten some recognition, I don’t think it will be enough to push Hopkins over to win the Oscar against Boseman.

For the rest of the acting categories, Frances McDormand took home the award for Best Actress for her role in Nomadland, Yuh-Jung Youn won for her role in Minari, who has now become the frontrunner to win at the Oscars. Daniel Kaluuya continued his winning streak for his thunderous role in Judas and the Black Messiah. Something to remember with the Best Actress race is that Andra Day won the Globe, Carey Mulligan won the Critics Choice, and Viola Davis won the SAG award, and none of these women were BAFTA nominees, so McDormand got a big push, but seeing as Davis won the SAG, I would go with her on my Oscar ballot. Thomas Vinterberg’s film Another Round won Best Film not in the English Language, and will most likely continue this streak at the Oscars. Best Animated Film went to Soul as expected, as well as Best Original Score.

Best Cinematography went to Nomadland, pushing Joshua James Richards ahead of Erik Messerschmidt’s cinematography in Mank, the race is still close but after this I’m leaning toward Richards to take home the Oscar. Best Editing went to Sound of Metal surprisingly, Alan Baumgarten and Chloé Zhao have been battling it out for the award throughout the season, and now with Sound of Metal’s win, that pushes it as a more serious contender than before. Sound of Metal also won Best Sound, at this point I don’t know any other film that could take home the award at this point, the film has runaway with the award.

Mank won in Best Production Design, and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom won in Best Costume Design and Best Makeup and Hair, all of these were expected wins. Best Visual Effects went to the runaway winner, Tenet, Nolan films have always had an interesting history at the Oscars, but I think Tenet’s win is almost a lock.

2021 Golden Globes Wrap-Up

Written by Alexander Reams

Well, the Golden Globes have come and gone. However, they have planted some interesting seeds of what seem to be shoe in Oscar nominations, and added some dark horses to be watching for in the coming weeks.

The biggest surprises of the night were Jodie Foster winning in the Best Supporting Actress category for The Mauritanian, Andra Day winning in the Best Actress; Drama category for The United States vs. Billie Holiday, and my favorite win of the night, Rosamund Pike winning in the Best Actress: Musical/Comedy category for I Care A Lot. Jodie Foster was never in the running for an Oscar nomination, and even her Globes nom was a complete surprise, but now I think she will at least be a dark horse in the Best Supporting Actress race in the Oscars. Most everyone has seemed to forget Lee Daniels middling and juvenile, and quite frankly, terrible film The United States vs. Billie Holiday. Despite most people forgetting about it, Andra Day nonetheless took home the award for Best Actress: Drama, making her presence in awards season all the more prevalent, for some reason. I would’ve much preferred Vanessa Kirby or Frances McDormand take her place on the stage.

Nomadland winning Best Picture: Drama, and Chloê Zhao winning Best Director was not a big surprise. I was very happy to see her take home both awards, and will continue to root for her winning streak to continue on this awards season. Borat Subsequent Moviefilm winning Best Picture: Musical/Comedy was not a surprise, in the past the HFPA has loved Sacha Baron Cohen as the titular character, while he isn’t doing anything new here, what he does, he does well, and his win for Best Actor: Musical/Comedy was not a shock. Best Actor: Drama of course went to Chadwick Boseman for his career best work in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, for which I am very happy to see him getting all this acclaim for his magnificent work. Aaron Sorkin returned to the stage to take home the Best Screenplay Award for The Trial of the Chicago 7, which was one of my favorite films of last year. I’m happy to see him get more recognition as his directing career continues.

Best Supporting Actor winner Daniel Kaluuya won for his powerful and heartbreaking portrayal as “Fred Hampton” in Shaka King’s brilliant Judas and the Black Messiah, which hopefully after this coming weekends Critics Choice Awards, will pave the way for him to take home the Oscar. Disney’s last offering of 2020, Soul, took home two big awards, Best Motion Picture: Animated, and Best Original Score, now I wholeheartedly agree with its BMP: Animated win. I define a good score as something that sticks with me, and none describe that more than Ludwig Göransson and his phenomenal work for Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, which I believe should’ve taken home the Best Original Score award. Best Foreign Language film went to A24’s Minari. At the Oscars however, this film will not be competing for this award so expect Thomas Vinterberg’s film Druk/Another Round, will be taking the award home that night.

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