The 97th Oscars ceremony was amazing this past Sunday night. There were phenomenal performances, heart-warming acceptance speeches, and history was made on live television. However, it is safe to say that this year’s Academy Awards had a lot of mixed feelings and reactions from the internet.
After the Oscars, many people had mixed feelings over the results. A majority of the hate is targeting the Academy Award-winning movie “Emilia Perez”, and rightfully so.
“Emilia Perez” was written and directed by Jacques Audiard, and despite all of the backlash this film has received, it was nominated for 13 awards and won two. This upset many people, and after watching the movie, it is not hard to see why. The movie held a lot of potential in its writing, and most of the cinematography was not that bad. However, was it Oscar-worthy? Not quite.
Personally, I am not a professional film critic or a 25-year-old film bro with an impressive Letterboxd list. However, it does not take a lot to recognize that Zoë Saldaña deserved the Best Supporting Actress award, just not for this movie.
Saldaña has such an impressive filmography, so it is quite off-putting to think that this is the movie the Academy recognized her for.
Despite the disappointments, there were still highlights to the night.
Later on in the evening, Academy Award winner Emma Stone presented the award for this year’s Best Leading Actress to Mikey Madison. Madison was the star in the highly acclaimed film “Anora”, directed by Sean Baker. Of course, a lot of Twitter users, especially theatre kids who believe “Wicked” was snubbed, were upset with this win.
Many Twitter and Instagram users compared this win to the plot of the movie “The Substance”, which starred Oscar nominee Demi Moore. There have already been many edits and TikToks comparing Moore and Madison to Elisabeth and Sue, the two main characters from the movie, inferring that the only reason that Madison won is because she is young and new.
Madison, however, was one of the more deserving recipients of this award. Not only is her filmography quite impressive from being in both “Scream VI” and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” but her unique talent is something that should be recognized. Madison handled a film like “Anora” with such dedication and respect that this win should not be disregarded.
Social media even tried to get mad at Kieran Culkin, of all people, for his speech when he won Best Supporting Actor for his role in “A Real Pain.
Maybe people felt that his joke about having more kids after finally winning an Oscar was a little much to say on live TV. However, it just seemed like a harmless inside joke that his wife was in on. He is not the first guy to try stand-up comedy for an acceptance speech, and definitely will not be the last.
Speaking of acceptance speeches, Adrian Brody, now a two-time Oscar nominee and winner, had probably the longest speech compared to everyone else. His speech was even longer than that of the writers of “Emilia Perez,” who broke into song during their Best Song acceptance speech. You could have taken a quick doom scroll on TikTok, then go back to the program, and he still would not have been done. Poor Cillian Murphy was probably itching to head back to his seat mid-speech.
If anything, this would not have happened if Coleman Domingo won the award for Best Actor. Yes, Brody is an amazingly talented actor, and his talent should definitely not be overlooked. However, Domingo’s performance in “Sing Sing” was something those Oscar voters needed to pay attention to.
If it were a perfect world, Isabella Rossellini would win Best Supporting Actress, Culkin would still win Best Supporting Actor, Madison or Moore for Best Lead Actress, and the brilliant Domingo would have won Best Lead Actor.
Despite a few disappointing losses, the 97th Oscars show was entertaining, fun, and slightly hilarious, bringing the 2024-2025 award season to a nice close.
Now, let us patiently wait for the Met Gala so we can judge a bunch of rich celebrities’ elaborate outfits.
