2020 Awards Season: Oscars Winners and Reactions

February 10, 2020

Parasite

The Oscars were handed out last night and unlike most years, I wasn’t able to live-blog the awards. This is a real shame, because it was one of the best Oscar nights I can remember and there were very few awards that made me legitimately angry, unlike many years in the past. There was even a surprise winner for the full night, as Parasite earned the most wins with four Oscars. It is incredibly rare for a foreign-language film to pull off that feat.

The categories and winners are...

BEST PICTURE

It is incredibly rare for a foreign-language film to earn any nominations outside of the Best International Film category and until last night, it was unheard of for them to win Best Picture. This has to be considered an upset, as most people, myself included, thought 1917 would win. I also would have been happy had Little Women won, as the film is worthy of the Best Picture award. Meanwhile, Jojo Rabbit would have been the only other film I would have been truly happy to see win.

DIRECTING

This is another upset that I’m happy to see happen. That said, if Sam Mendes had won for 1917, I would have also been happy, as 1917 is certainly a director’s film.

BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

Renée Zellweger was easily the best part of Judy and it has been a long time since she earned Oscar glory, so I’m happy she won. I also expect some of the runners-up to earn Oscars in the coming years.

BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

This isn’t a shock at all, but I would have preferred either a Antonio Banderas or Adam Driver win here.

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

This is also not a surprise and I also have a hard time arguing with the result. That said, I do think Tom Hanks also deserved to win, but he has won enough in the past that getting another Oscar will take a career-defining performance.

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Laura Dern winning was predicted by most of our readers and I am glad she won. That said, I would have been happy had any of the five actresses won.

BEST WRITING - ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Our readers also predicted Parasite would win here, so while it is really rare for a foreign-language film to win this award (this is only the sixth time it has happened), it can’t be seen as an upset. I can’t argue with this result, but I did want Rian Johnson to win for Knives Out.

BEST WRITING - ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

This is another category that our readers correctly predicted and I’m happy he won. I would have been equally happy had Greta Gerwig won for Little Women.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

Pixar continues to win this Award most years. Some might argue they win because the voters vote for them automatically, but the film’s reviews are Oscar-worthy.

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM

No one should be shocked by this win. This was arguably the most predictable thing that happened yesterday, and I’m including the sun rising and setting in that statement.

BEST DOCUMENTARY - FEATURE LENGTH

Our readers predicted this one correctly, but I went with Honeyland.

BEST DOCUMENTARY - SHORT FILM

  • Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You're a Girl)
SHORT FILM - LIVE ACTION

  • The Neighbors’ Window
SHORT FILM - ANIMATED

  • Hair Love
Our readers went three-for-three for the short film categories. These are notoriously hard to predict, so this is proof that our readers are really smart when it comes to the Oscars.

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY

This Oscar tends to go to movies that show wide sweeping vistas or have action scenes in a movie that is still prestigious enough to earn other Oscar nominations. 1917 has both.

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN PRODUCTION DESIGN

The best way to win an Oscar is to praise Hollywood and we saw that again last night.

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN COSTUME DESIGN

I’m glad this film won one Oscar last night. It deserved more wins, but at least it wasn’t shut out.

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN MAKEUP

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil should have won, but special effects makeup is usually ignored in favor of period hair and makeup.

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN VISUAL EFFECTS

While most of the rest of the films on this list had more impressive visual effects, 1917 had more Oscar-clout.

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN EDITING

This is a film with an Oscar pedigree that had a lot of action that relied on editing rather than special effects. It is not a surprise that it won, but 1917 could have just as easily won, because editing to make it look like there’s no edits takes a lot of skill.

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND EDITING

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND MIXING

I’m surprised these categories went to different films, as I’m 90% sure most Oscar voters don’t know the difference between the two categories. That’s one of the reasons they might be consolidated next year.

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC - ORIGINAL SCORE

This was the overwhelming favorite for this category and the film had so many nominations it was nearly guaranteed to win at least two categories.

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC - ORIGINAL SONG

  • “(I'm Gonna) Love Me Again” from Rocketman
This was also an overwhelming favorite.

-

Filed under: Awards Season, Toy Story 4, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Judy, Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood, Rocketman, Jojo Rabbit, Ford v. Ferrari, 1917, Joker, Little Women, Knives Out, Parasite (기생충), Bombshell, American Factory, Honeyland, Marriage Story, Tom Hanks, Brad Pitt, Renée Zellweger, Antonio Banderas, Laura Dern, Greta Gerwig, Sam Mendes, Joaquin Phoenix, Taika Waititi, Adam Driver, Rian Johnson, Joon-ho Bong, Han Jin-won