Sifting debris of Hollywood excess following Oscar night
EP: Let’s address the biggest elephant in the room, and rejoice that Emilia Pérez’s Oscars sweep was so minimal compared to its 13 nominations.
ET: We went into the award show assuming that Pérez would once again receive (undeserved) win after win, but instead the night proved to be a score for “working women” with Anora’s six Oscars.
EP: Though, I think the two Emilia Pérez did win were largely just to appease any fans of the movie out there. I must admit, Zoe Saldaña is a great actress, and I love a lot of movies she is in; however, Emilia is not the movie to award her for. Personally, if Margaret Qualley was nominated for her performance in The Substance, then she would 100% deserve that award. To expand that even further, I really wish The Substance had won more awards than it did, given how much it says about the industry it exists in.
ET: The Substance winning best makeup and hairstyling is a joke when there is so much more it could have been recognized for. I say that as someone who hasn’t even watched the movie yet, just seen countless clips of it on TikTok. What I want to talk about is how Saldaña won best supporting actress over Ariana Grande’s performance as Glinda in Wicked. Grande put her all into that movie, so much so that I think she is real-life Glinda at this point. Though, I must say Saldaña’s acceptance speech was rather touching, especially given the talk surrounding immigration in our country. Even though I don’t feel that win should have been hers, I love how she used her platform.
EP: I concur, we could go on and on about The Substance (as well as A Different Man, both of which make statements on body standards in the Hollywood realm), but I think one of the biggest positives of the night in terms of what did win was with Kieran Culkin for his role in A Real Pain as well as Flow winning for “Best Animated Picture.” As glad as I am that The Wild Robot was also nominated, I think that a small indie animated film being not only nominated, but also winning is a huge milestone as compared to what has been released by big studios as of late. Specifically with Moana 2 (though not nominated) and Inside Out 2, both of which felt so lazy all around, with the former not even being animated in house, yet still being released on the big screen.
ET: I think that even brings up the larger point of why we need so many sequels in the first place. Both these movies are fantastic as is, without needing to add a sloppy sequel that adds absolutely nothing and only hurts the reputation of the original film. I agree that Flow’s win was an amazing accomplishment and speaks to the fact that more light needs to be shed on these smaller films, as they often have more to offer than some of these pointless movies on the big screens. On another note, did anyone even watch half of the movies that won? Maybe I’ve just been living under a rock, but I hadn’t even heard of The Brutalist until the awards.
EP: I feel like every year so many of the nominated movies aren’t generally skewed towards the casual moviegoers, which on one hand makes it a good gateway for people to discover more films, but also a lot of movies that win are gatekept by the cinephiles or are just straight up “Oscar-bait” (for example Emilia Pérez). To touch on The Brutalist, it’s another A24 film, so it’s a little above the paygrade of us in the Entertainment section in the Index. Of course, there’s a lot of discourse over Adrien Brody’s five minute and 37 second long speech (officially the longest Oscars acceptance speech ever, I might add), but admittedly, out of those who were nominated for “Best Actor in a Leading Role,” I would’ve loved to see any of the other nominees win. Especially Colman Domingo (Sing Sing), Sebastian Stan (nominated for his portrayal of Donald Trump in The Apprentice), or Ralph Fiennes, who still has never won an Oscar for any of his roles.
ET: I do agree that the win could have been geared towards another actor, and one that sticks out for me who we haven’t yet mentioned is Timothée Chalamet for his role as Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown. Chalamet dedicated five years to learning to sing and play guitar like Bob Dylan, even gained weight for the role, and yet lost to an actor who used AI for his performance. It’s insane to me how such talent and dedication can be overshadowed by the use of technology to enhance a role’s authenticity… It seems rather counterintuitive.
EP: I totally agree with you on how using AI--especially given the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes a year or two ago whose prominent messaging was strictly against AI--is damaging to the authenticity of acting itself. Despite the glaring issues (and cringe too with the Emilia Pérez songwriters accepting their award… really showing off their song talent, yikes), I think next year they need to bring back Conan O’Brien as host or another pure entertainer, similar to Billy Crystal when he used to host or even David Tennant hosting the BAFTAs. Other than that, no notes.
ET: Honestly, I think we’ve pretty much covered it all, from the awards that were ripped from the hands of those most deserving to the little victories us fans got to experience as some justice was served (Emilia Pérez winning far less than it did at the Golden Globes). Movie buffs can only hope that next year’s Oscars prioritize awarding films truly deserving of the prestigious trophy instead of the same old shlock that gets the spotlight every year.
by Emma Toney and Evan Parfitt
Published March 17th, 2025
Oshkosh West Index Volume 121 Issue VI