Shall we close the topic of awards season? Oscar 2024: an analysis.

Beautiful party, round, with many successes. It found a rhythm, brought the party time forward, it was prestigious, it was fun, and above all, it was fair.

Jimmy Kimmel made a smooth but ultra-strange opening. His “jokes” didn’t land, on the contrary, they targeted the joke. He already started talking about Barbie’s snub, throwing it in the face of the applauding audience that they were the ones who did the injustice. Also with Robert Downey Jr., being reminded of his drugged days, Bradley Cooper always accompanied by his mother, and Ryan Gosling being the “handsome one”: it looked weird, in a Ricky Gervais way that obviously left the stars tense for a few minutes. But overall, I stand by my analysis that after Billy Crystal, he was the best emcee at the ceremony.

A ‘tradition’ maintained at the party, which is somewhat expected and forced, is to put artists in pairs reading each other’s jokes from the teleprompter or alluding to how they can’t read, etc. It’s always embarrassing. I think that either having someone who knows how to improvise or get straight to the point helps to save minutes which, when added together, make the broadcast a 3:30 hour event. A personal opinion, of course.

In terms of ‘winners’, apart from the well-deserved victory of American Fiction as Best Adapted Screenplay, there was neither surprise nor injustice. Perhaps the two most ‘tense’ moments were the Oscar for Best Song, with I’m Just Ken creating one of the most iconic moments of all the Oscars, and – after taking the SAG Awards – leaving Billie Eilish less confident in her second win in less than 10 years. We saw that there was no threat. Still, Ryan Gosling taking the stage, accompanied by Simu Liu and Kinsgley Ben-Adir was nothing short of spectacular, as expected.

The ‘unexpected’ and fun part of the awards was the moment when John Cena took to the stage “naked” to announce the winner of Best Costume Design. A “homage” to the protest held in 1974, when a man surprised David Niven walking naked on stage, Cena proved his ability not only to make us laugh, which we already knew but because he did it live and in front of the most demanding audience possible. It was funny and it’s a shame that there wasn’t anyone among the nominees with enough humor to complete the joke when accepting the Oscar. This is detail, of course. It was a hit.

The only more serious slip-up for me was in the tribute to the dead, which had Andrea Bocelli (accompanied by his son) in an emotional rendition of Con Te Partiró in front of the screen of those who were gone… why were those dancers? They take away the main focus, which is seeing who died. Totally unnecessary.

Emma Stone made history by joining the group of most awarded actresses with the potential to create a “legend” of her own. We can stay here making several cuts of what was: 1) she is in the group of two Oscars for Best Actress, ranking equally with Cate Blanchett, Hillary Swank, Renée Zelwegger, Jane Fonda, Elizabeth Taylor, Bette Davis, Vivien Leigh, Jodie Foster, Olivia de Havilland, Glenda Jackson, Louise Rainer, and Sally Field. 2) she got her second Oscar in less than 10 years, like Jodie Foster and Hillary Swank, for example. And so we go. What matters is that she was extremely fair, she deserved it and gave a beautiful speech, and of course, we will never forget that her dress tore and she was more nervous about that than any other topic of the night.

Oppenheimer won seven awards out of the 11 nominees, but although it was the announced success, the sensation was not as massive as I particularly feared. The decision to bring five winners to announce the nominees for the main categories was interesting for several reasons: excitement for those present and the guarantee of more stars for the fans, a decision that just isn’t worth repeating so soon to avoid taking away the element of surprise.

So, folks, it’s March and we’re going to have an awards break (not including Emmys) until the end of the year. One of the positives about it being a fair Oscar is that it won’t be quickly forgotten. Bring on 2025!

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