Before we get into our individual re-caps of this year’s Oscars, let’s get the plaudits and results posted for our predictions this year.

For the first time in a long while, we had to go to the runner-up predictions to determine this year’s site winner for best prognosticator. By the slimmest of margins, Wesley Lovell beats out Pete Patrick for the win. Thomas La Tourrette came in a very close third. Wesley and Pete both had 18 correct predictions while Wesley had 5 correct runner-up predictions and Pete had 4. Thomas had 17 correct predictions and 6 correct runner-up predictions.

Wesley and Thomas both correctly predicted the winner or runner-up in all 23 categories while Pete only forecast both in 22, missing Best Actress. Wesley was the only correct predictor of Best Costume Design, Peter was the only correct forecaster of Best Animated Feature and Best Sound. Thomas was the sole correct prognosticator of Visual Effects. The categories none of us correctly predicted were Best Actress and Best Live Action Short Film, though for the latter, we all called the win with our runner-up slots.

Now, let’s dig into the reviews of this year’s Academy Awards, now called “The Oscars.” by the Academy

Wesley Lovell

We often take the Academy to task for their tackiness at times when putting together an Oscar program, especially when they were hell bent on bringing in younger audiences rather than catering to their existing fanbase. Last night’s Oscars were a return to the grace and charm that characterized the Oscars in the 1980s and 1990s, which makes it fitting that they also returned to that era in terms of big pictures that take tons of awards. I’m talking about Oppenheimer, which took 7 of its 13 nominations, even though we were predicting up to 8 wins.

It was also a night lacking in predictability. Even the “surprises” (Emma Stone, Zone of Interest in Sound) were predictable. There were no truly left-field choices, which made the evening feel like a fait accompli/coronation rather than a suspenseful affair. Before getting into my favorite and least favorite parts of this year’s show, let me highlight my favorite wins and disappointments.

I was truly ecstatic when “What Was I Made For?” won over “I’m Just Ken.” Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell’s song was lovely and fit the film perfectly. “I’m Just Ken” wasn’t even the second best song in the film. The other moment I relished was The Last Repair Shop triumphing in Documentary Short Subject. It was easily one of the most affecting shorts this year and I’m glad they resisted the political dimension of The ABCs of Book Banning to give it the award. Unfortunately, their apolitical stance in live action short film meant that the brilliant Red, White and Blue was ignored, which was the worst choice they could have made. Par for the course, I guess.

Before I get to the best parts of the show, I wanted to highlight a couple of the worst. The In Memoriam segment was a disgrace. The decision to highlight the dancing and singers on stage diminished the impact of the necrology, making it difficult to read the names of the faces being celebrated for great careers. Perhaps it allowed them to avoid the furor over omissions and instead spark a furor over their poor production value. They rarely do this segment well but this year’s was shockingly awful even if the song sung live on stage was generally lovely.

Apart from some of the more egregious, unfunny presenter banter, the only other really baffling and aggressively bad event was the anti-climax that was Best Picture. There was no fanfare and no recitation of all the Best Picture nominees again, it was just Al Pacino, looking terrible, and spouting that his eyes saw Oppenheimer. It was such a staggeringly bad reveal that even the producers didn’t realize what happened and cued the music too late. The audience was even confused. They need to get someone less doddering to announce in the future.

Now for the good, which there was a lot. We’ll start with Jimmy Kimmel’s opening monologue. While not everything landed, he had four terrific jokes in the set that were biting while gentle, as opposed to what other hosts have done. The “career high” joke with Robert Downey Jr., which he played into well, was a terrific one. So too was joking that in 1976, Jodie Foster and Robert De Niro starred together in Taxi Driver. He then opined that then, Jodie was 20 years younger than De Niro and today, she’s now 20 years too old to be his girlfriend. Foster loved it but I doubt De Niro did.

Next up was the joke about last year’s nominee, The Fabelmans, about which Kimmel said that the kid from that film was in the audience again tonight and cut to a shot of Steven Spielberg. This might be a bit meta for those who haven’t seen the film but it was a brilliant bit that. Spielberg was game to participate in several of the jokes made at his or his films’ expense, which was wonderful to see. The next best bit was during Kimmel’s celebration of the strikers and their continued support of union goals but it was his joke about the Directors Guild of America folding right away rather than fighting that got me laughing.

The last part of his monologue that I wanted to highlight wasn’t a joke but his pulling the backstage crew on stage to celebrate their work. While Hollywood does plenty to sing the craft/tech people’s praises, this moment and the resounding standing ovation they received were touching to behold.

While several of the presenter pairings were abysmal, there were two worthy of note. Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling, who will soon be appearing together in The Fall Guy, had some contentious banter between them about their respective 2023 movies, the two parts of Barbenheimer. Their bit landed perfectly with both actors giving terrific performances. It was the single best presenter bit of the night. The other was while presenting the documentary awards. Kate McKinnon questioning whether the Jurassic Park movies were real as she thought they were and being disappointed when she was corrected. She then wanted to confirm if Jeff Goldblum was real, to which co-presenter America Ferrera confirmed he wasn’t. It was funny, but what followed was perfect. McKinnon asked who she had sent her tasteful nudes to then, if not Goldblum. Cut to Spielberg who sheepishly pointed at himself. Brilliant bit.

I don’t think this bit landed, but I’ll give kudos to John Cena and Kimmel for their streaker bit. Cena was game to play the fool and he was self-effacingly fun. It was corny but it went about as well as could have been expected.

Kimmel was present throughout the ceremony, appearing on stage multiple times to keep things going and he generally landed his jokes but one in particular brought the house down. He read an actual “Truth” Donald Trump sent about Kimmel’s opening monologue. Trump’s comments were cheap and ill-worded but it was the joke that Kimmel delivered as a result that worked so well: “Isn’t it past your jail time?” Hilarious.

Lastly, I’d like to thank the producers for brining back one of my favorite elements from the 81st Academy Awards back in 2009 (for the movies of 2008). Having five category winners present the acting awards was a great tribute back when it came out. The tradition appeared at one more ceremony and was then discontinue. It was gracefully reinstituted this year and it worked smashingly. Would that several of the actors did better at preparing their lines so that they weren’t constantly diverting their eyes to the telepompter, but it overall went well and I hope it will be a permanent re-addition.

And that’s it for the 96th Oscars. Overall, a solid show that reminded favorably of some of the best of the past. Giving up the “dream” to get younger viewers in is the best direction they could take. Let’s just hope they keep it up in the future.

Pete Patrick

The show went on an hour earlier which was nice.

Jimmy Kimmel’s opening monologue was dull and boring, but he rebounded late in the show by reading what appeared to be an alleged social media critique by Donald Trump asking the audience if it wasn’t past the former president’s jail time. It was later revealed that the critique was actually posted by Trump.

None of the presenters were bad, which isn’t to say any of them really stood out. Some that we don’t see often like Jessica Lange and Al Pacino seemed nervous, but they made it through okay.

The only real surprise of the evening was the best actress win by Emma Stone over Lily Gladstone.

Most of the acceptance speeches were gracious. Best were the emotional ones given by now two-time winner Stone and best supporting actress winner Da’Vine Joy Randolph.

The only thing that wasn’t done right was the in-memoriam segment which focused on the dancers rather than the decedents being recognized. Singer Andrea Boccelli, joined by his son Matteo, sang his song, “Time to Say Goodbye” several faces into the segment.

The segment began with a message from recently deceased Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the subject of last year’s Oscar winning documentary, and ended with Tina Turner, followed by a list of names that was too small and went by too fast for anyone to have actually been able to read it.

Thomas La Tourrette

Well, another Oscars has come and gone. Time to put away the red carpet (oops, I forgot to get it out) and start preparing for the next one.

I did okay with 17 correct guesses out of 23. Not my best year, but not my worst either. The show itself went well. Almost 3 ½ hours, but it sped by fairly quickly. It felt faster than Killers of the Flower Moon, which marks Martin Scorsese’s third film to garner 10 nominations without a single win. Jimmy Kimmel continues as a fine if uninspired host. His easy going manner worked for the evening, some jokes landing well and others just not quite there. The use of previous winners to introduce the acting nominees is touching, but I do miss the clips of their performances too. Oppenheimer ended up with seven Oscars, well deserved for each. The wild, bizarre but enjoyable Poor Things ended up with four, more than I ever suspected it might get. Of the films that received more than two nominations, only Killers of the Flower Moon, Maestro and Napoleon went home with nothing. A Godzilla movie finally received a nomination for visual effects and then won. I did love that the four winners carried Godzilla statues onstage with them and even had Godzilla claws on their heels. It was worth it for that. John Cena had a fun bit, even if we did not get to see the naughty bits. Ryan Gosling performing “I’m Just Ken” was lively and the audience seemed to love it. The In Memoriam section was truly awful with the camera following singers, dancers, or the small ensemble onstage rather than letting the television audience see who they were memorializing. That was the low point of the evening. But it was generally a good show.

Most awards went as predicted. Though from the beginning there were a couple of minor upsets. Animated feature going to The Boy and the Heron over Spider-Man was a surprise, but a welcome one. It may be Hayao Miyazaki’s final film (editor’s note: It isn’t. Boy producer said he’s hard at work on another film) and felt like a complete film. Spider-Man was inventive in its animation styles, but suddenly ending with a “to be continued” felt like a cop out. I imagine that there will be no stopping the third installment from winning when it finally comes out. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar winning was not a true upset as it had been the early frontrunner in the category, but conventional wisdom had the award for live action short going to the abortion drama Red, White and Blue. The longest film usually wins, which I believe was Henry Sugar, so Wes Anderson finally has an Oscar. Sound going to The Zone of Interest was surprising but they had very actively campaigned for it. I still think Oppenheimer deserved it. Most pundits, and the guild, had Maestro winning for makeup & hairstyling. I thought Poor Things deserved it, but did not think it would win, so that was a pleasant turn of events. Then Poor Things won both costume and production design, categories that were in close contention with Barbie. I was not sure which way either race would go as both films were deserving, but when both went to Poor Things I wondered if best actress might be an upset win for Emma Stone. Poor Things had come in with 11 nominations but was viewed as an underdog that might go home with nothing, which would have tied it with The Color Purple and The Turning Point for films with the most nominations and zero wins. There was no way it could win picture or director, but actress was a definite possibility. Emma Stone gave the performance of her career as the babyish Bella Baxter, but she was also up against the quiet strength of Lily Gladstone, who gave Killers of the Flower Moon its heart. The Academy had the chance to honor the first Native American actress for lead actress and I thought that symbolism might carry her to the win. As well as her win over Stone at SAG. So many wondered how it would go. If I were voting, I would have gone with Stone. But I still figured it would be Gladstone. So, it was a surprise to have it be Stone. So, the show almost ended with an unexpected bang. Al Pacino made an odd delivery of the best picture award, but since we all knew it would be Oppenheimer, it was hard to drum up too much excitement. Still, one hopes he is not invited back as a presenter next year.

It was a good year for movies, and a good awards show too. What more could we ask for?