by Andrew Woerz

The 96th Annual Oscar Awards took place on Saturday, March 10th, shone with another yearly ceremony to honor the great movies, directors, and everything in between in 2023. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) gave us a show with entertaining performances, great reveals, and an astounding stage at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, Los Angeles. 

Hosted by late-night talk show host and comedian, Jimmy Kimmel for the second time in a row and fourth time overall, the ceremony received largely positive reviews, which the Oscars had yet to receive in a long time. The awards show presented 23 categories of awards with five nominees each, with the exception of the “Best Picture” award which held 10 nominees. The nominees for the show were announced on January 23rd and up until the ceremony, the Academy made their picks and the envelopes were sealed, ready to be revealed.

The show would start an hour earlier this year, instead of 8:00 p.m. (EST) it would be moved to 7:00 p.m. (EST). At 6:30 p.m.(EST) The “Red Carpet Pre-Show” aired as the hosts, nominees, presenters, and performers showed off their unique wardrobes. The Red Carpet host, American actress, and singer Vanessa Hudgens introduced and interviewed many celebrities about their predictions and excitement about the upcoming ceremony.

(Jimmy Kimmel. Wikipedia)

A couple of minutes after the intended time, the show began with an epic 2-minute montage of all the wonderful movies and movie quotes from the past year, and, the introduction of Jimmy Kimmel. Kimmel gave his opening monologue which received positive reviews, being stated as “very funny” and “pure.” He praised movies like Barbie and Anatomy of a Fall and cracked jokes at the long runtimes of many movies in 2023 like Killers of the Flower Moon and Oppenheimer. He also praised the Oscars’ production staff and called them out to be applauded by the crowd. 

Throughout the night, the show was acclaimed by viewers as a “good vibe” and “one of the best ceremonies in years.” The ceremony was praised for its beautiful stage design, the comedic timing of the presenters, and 5 past winners of the “Actor in a Leading Role”, “Actor in a Supporting Role”, “Actress in a Leading Role”, and “Actress in a Supporting Role” award directly acknowledging the work of each of the 5 nominees. With 11 nominations, the most of that night, it was no surprise that the critically acclaimed biopic, Oppenheimer took the gold medal with the most awards won for the night with 7 including “Best Picture”, “Best Director”, and “Best Cinematography.” The movie, Poor Things was close up with 5 awards won for the night, and Anatomy of a Fall with 2 awards. All the other winners only claimed a single award. 

Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas O’Connell were notable award winners for their ballad song in Barbie, “What Was I Made For.” Others were Cillian Murphy winning “Best Actor in a Leading Role” and Robert Downy Jr. winning “Best Actor in a Supporting Role” both for Oppenheimer, Poor Things winning “Best Set Design”, Godzilla Minus One winning “Best Visual Effects”, Da’vine Joy Randolph winning “Best Actress in a Supporting Role”, and most notably, Emma Stone winning “Best Actress in a Leading Role” which came to a surprise for most viewers as most people assumed Lily Gladstone of Killers of the Flower Moon would take home the award.

(Cillian Murphy accepting the award for “Best Actor in a Leading Role.” The New York Times)

Performances and special bits were sprinkled throughout the night with mostly positive reviews. Throughout the night, each contender for the “Best Song in a Flim” award performed the nominated song in front of the audience with each song being praised. Most notably, the nominee song “I’m Just Ken” from Barbie got the entire crowd into it, as it had empowering energy and wonderful choreography and singing by Ryan Gosling and the Barbie cast.

(Ryan Gosling performing “Best Song” nominee, “I’m Just Ken” from Barbie. Entertainment Weekly)

Although it was close to a perfect show, the ceremony still had a negative reception from some viewers during the show. One of the largest critiques was the “In Memorium” tribute, as people at home were frustrated by the distance of the camera from the screen due to the ceremony wanting to capture the dancers who were included in the year’s tribute in addition to people also thinking the dancers were distracting. Other critiques were some of the anti-republican jokes and shots taken at Donald Trump by Jimmy Kimmel during his comments throughout the show. The Godfather actor Al Pacino was chosen to announce the “Best Picture” award because it was the 50th anniversary since The Godfather was released. People showed confusion and aggravation as Al Pacino unceremoniously and awkwardly announced Oppenheimer as the winner, to which the audience was confused, and then stood up in applause.

The 96th Oscar Awards was a big hit, reminding people that the Academy can still pull off a wonderful ceremony celebrating all the amazing movies, actors, and crew. Movies in 2024 are already going off with a bang and are sure to make some appearance at the following 97th Academy Awards.