Anatomy of a Fall won, predictably, the Best Original Screenplay Oscar, but it came to me as a pleasant surprise that the Best Adapted Screenplay went to:
American Fiction is a 2023 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Cord Jefferson, in his feature directorial debut. Based on the 2001 novel Erasure by Percival Everett, it follows a frustrated novelist-professor who writes an outlandish satire of stereotypical “Black” books, only for it to be mistaken by the liberal elite for serious literature and published to both high sales and critical praise.
Likewise, it was good to see that the Best Visual Effects Oscar went to:
Godzilla Minus One is a 2023 Japanese epic kaiju film directed, written, and with visual effects by Takashi Yamazaki.
I was also pleased that the Best Live Action Short Film Oscar went to:
Roald Dahl’s The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, or simply The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, is a 2023 American fantasy short film written, co-produced, and directed by Wes Anderson.
Of course, no surprise (to me, but evidently to her!) that the Best Song Oscar went to
“What Was I Made For?” is a song by American singer Billie Eilish from Barbie: The Album, the soundtrack of the movie Barbie.
The Best Documentary Oscar to 20 Days in Mariupol, produced by GBH (where I was on the Board of Overseers for three years☺️), likewise, was not a surprise, and the acceptance speech is worth watching:
Oppenheimer took home seven Oscars, slightly lower number than I had expected, with Poor Things picking up a few that I did not predict. Jimmy Kimmel’s monologue? Not particularly creative or memorable, controlled in its edginess (addressed the Strike and Greta Gerwig snub), with some poor jokes, but competent enough.
(Here are my previous Oscar posts: 2021, 2022 and 2023.)
