I’ll admit it – the day that the Academy Awards falls on is one of my favorite days of the year. I love watching people win awards for movies that I still haven’t gotten around to watching and rooting for my favorite actors to take home the cherished gold man. This year, I watched the show behind a laptop screen, furiously taking notes. While doing so, I came up with a good handful of Oscar 2016 Superlatives.
1. Best #OscarsSoWhite Controversy Monologue Joke: “Jada boycotting the Oscars is like me boycotting Rihanna’s panties.”
Chris Rock made countless jokes about the lack of black actor nominations this year, and it was honestly hard to choose which one was the funniest. But his tiny stab at Jada Pinkett Smith for declaring that she wanted to boycott the Oscars (even though she alone likely wouldn’t have been invited anyway) probably takes the cake. It wasn’t going to happen regardless.
2. Most Inspirational Speech: Peter Docter and Ronnie del Carmen for Animated Film (Inside Out)
Who doesn’t love a nice message aimed at not just younger generations, but everyone, to follow their dreams? “Regardless of a gold man or not, we get to make stuff… Make films, draw, write. It’ll make a difference.”
3. Most Impressive Award Introduction: Costume Design
It was obvious that the producers of the show put a lot of thought and effort into making the award introductions as interesting and fresh as possible, but one award presentation particularly sticks out. Before awarding Jenny Beavan for best costume design in Mad Max: Fury Road, Cate Blanchett gracefully and flawlessly walked through mannequins and boards of fabric while keeping piercing eye contact with the camera the entire time.
4. Best Musical Performance: Lady Gaga’s Till it Happens to You
While I adore The Weeknd and loved his performance – trapeze artist and all – Lady Gaga’s presentation of the song (which was written in the point of view of rape and sexual assault victims on college campuses) featured in The Hunting Ground was hauntingly powerful. As the singer started to belt out the final chorus, a large group of victims walked to the front of the stage, bringing attention to their arms. Phrases and words such as “Not your fault” and “Survivor” were written on each person’s forearm. The song ended with a standing ovation and there was barely a dry eye in the house, with good reason.
5. Most Strategic Marketing Strategy: Girl Scout Cookies
Chris Rock saw an opportunity to make a lot of money for his daughters’ Girl Scout troop and went for it. He took a moment to basically force the audience to give the wandering girls money for cookies, and it totally worked. The troop ended up making $65,243.00.
6. Most Annoying Win(s): Mad Max: Fury Road
I’ve never seen this film and I won’t assume that the movie is horrible. I don’t even think that the film didn’t deserve the six awards that it received. But by about the fourth win it was pretty obvious that people were tired of hearing about the film. The little chunk of time that the film had to clean up really made the show a little boring.
7. Cutest Moment: Chris Rock Gives Jacob Tremblay and Abraham Attah Wooden Boxes to Stand on While They Present the Award for Live Action Short Film
Kids in tuxes are just the cutest.
8. Cutest Moment – Honorable Mention: Robots from Star Wars
If you don’t think robots are cute then you’ve probably never seen the likes of C-3P0, R2-D2, and BB-8. Their cameos really brightened up the show after all of the boring Mad Max wins.
9. Best Presenters: Steve Carell and Tina Fey
After Date Night there’s really nothing these two can’t do well together. The two presented the award to Lisa Thompson for Best Production Design for her work in Mad Max: Fury Road. Before doing that, they displayed playful banter and joked that Tina had been drinking. Their presentation ended when Fey said, “And the nonimees are…”
10. Best Moment: Leonardo DiCaprio FINALLY Accepts the Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Let’s face it: anyone who watched the show was mainly there to watch Leo win after being nominated and losing in the category four times beforehand. If you weren’t jumping around and desperately wanting to be a part of that standing ovation, then you weren’t celebrating his win accordingly. *Swoon*.
Honestly, I don't know how any future year's Oscars will top Sunday's, but I'll be intensely watching each one to find out how the producers of the show will try.
