The 97th annual Academy Awards ceremony took place Sunday, March 2nd, and as usual, a few milestones happened.
The first Black American man won an Oscar for Best Costume Design for the film "Wicked." The designer's name is Paul Tazwell. The first American of Dominican descent won an Oscar, that being Zoe Saldana who won Best Supporting Actress for Emilia Perez. The Eastern European country Latvia won its first Academy Award for the animated feature, "Flow."
The first transgender woman was nominated for an acting category: Karla Sofia Gascon, from Spain, was nominated for Best Leading Actress in "Emilia Perez." The family drama "I'm Still Here" won Best International Feature, marking the first film from Brazil to ever win an Oscar in any category. "I'm Still Here" is also the first Brazilian film to be nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards.
Director Sean Baker is the first person to win four Oscars for a single film for the surprise winner of the night, "Anora." He won for Best Original Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Director, and Best Picture. Walt Disney is the person who has won the most Oscars in a lifetime, and he also won four Oscars in a single ceremony in 1953, but he won them for four separate films. Sean Baker said, in one of his acceptance speeches, "Where did we fall in love with movies? At the movie theaters.
Watching a film in a theatre with an audience is an experience." His acceptance speech was definitely the best of the night, because he actually thanked movie lovers and movie theaters. It would be nice if more Oscar winners remembered what keeps them in business and thanked movie fans who still enjoy watching all the nominated films.
Ten films were nominated for Best Picture this year, and eight of those films won an Oscar in at least one category. So the wealth was spread nicely this year. No film dominated the ceremony or swept most of the awards. The two films nominated for Best Picture that went home empty-handed are "A Complete Unknown," the Bob Dylan biopic, and "Nickel Boys," the historical drama of two Black children enduring the trials of an American reform school in the 1950s and 60s.
Mikey Madison's win as Best Leading Actress for the independent comedy, Anora was a moderate suprise over the other potential winners Demi Moore in "The Substance" and Fernanda Torres in "I'm Still Here." But when you think about the history of the Academy Awards, Mikey Madison's win is not such a shock. I'm not saying this to deter any of the praise or success for this film or its leading actress.
I'm just saying this to remind people that Academy voters love awarding an actress playing a prostitute, stripper, or other kind of sex worker. It's like catnip to the Hollywood decision makers. And if you don't believe me take a look at this list of winners.
Donna Reed in "From Here to Eternity" (1953)
Susan Hayward in "I Want to Live" (1958)
Jane Fonda in "Klute" (1971)
Liza Minnelli in "Cabaret" (1972)
Mira Sorvino in "Mighty Aphrodite" (1995)
Kim Basinger in "L.A. Confidential" (1997)
Charlize Theron in "Monster" (2003)
and
Anne Hathaway in "Les Miserables" (2012)
The list of honorable actresses grows even longer when including women who were nominated but didn't win. And you know how many men have been nominated for playing sex workers in critically acclaimed films? One. That was Jon Voight in "Midnight Cowboy"(1969).
Overall, I was happy with the Oscars ceremony. It reminded me of the many reasons why I love movies.
