Straight White Super Bowl 2016: Oscars Recap

The Oscars were last weekend. Let’s see how my predictions did.

Best Picture, Best Director, Acting Awards (5/6)

I missed only one of the big six awards, with Best Director going to Alejandro González Iñárritu for The Revenant instead of George Miller for Mad Max: Fury Road. The lead acting categories went, as expected, to Leonardo DiCaprio and Brie Larson. Media have reported Spotlight‘s best picture win as an upset, which makes me all the happier to have gotten it right.

Writing Awards (2/2)

Both Original Screenplay and Adapted Screenplay had clear favorites that ended up winning: Spotlight and The Big Short respectively. Adam McKay, the man who brought us Anchorman, Talladega Nights, and Step Brothers, finally has the Oscar he deserves.

Technical Awards (1/5)

I missed completely on sound and visual effects. I had The Revenant taking both sound awards, but they went to Mad Max instead, and not without good reason. I had Mad Max‘s practical effects bonanza winning visual effects, but in one of the night’s biggest upsets, Oscar voters apparently preferred the refined visual storytelling of Ex Machina, a terrific sci-fi film that I was happy to see get a win. I picked The Revenant for both cinematography and film editing, hitting on the first and missing on the second, which went to Mad Max.

Production Design, Costume Design, Hair & Makeup (3/3)

I predicted the Mad Max sweep here. It was well-deserved for some of the most vivid and detailed world-building in the history of movies.

Animated, Documentary, and Foreign Language Features (3/3)

Perfect on these, but not exactly thrilled about it. While Inside Out and Son of Saul were the clear class of their respective categories, it hurts to see a daring and important documentary about Indonesia’s mass killings (The Look of Silence) lose to a music doc (Amy) again.

Short Films (0/3)

A complete whiff for me here. I’m fine with Stutterer winning Live Action, and I didn’t see enough of the short documentaries to pass judgment on Girl In the River‘s win, but World of Tomorrow losing to Bear Story is the worst thing that happened in the entire presentation.

Music (1/2)

I don’t think a lot of people had Sam Smith’s “Writing on the Wall” winning Best Song. An Oscar seemed inevitable for Lady Gaga and Diane Warren, so I don’t feel terrible about missing in the same direction as just about everyone else on this one. As expected, Ennio Morricone’s heavily favored score for The Hateful Eight won its category.

Overall: 15/24

Commentist Beer Barrel will resume next week, if I can find a guest reviewer.