“Parasite” had a huge night at the Oscars, becoming the first Foreign-language movie to win Best Picture. It also won Best International Feature and Best Original Screenplay . . . and Bong Joon Ho picked up Best Director.
Meanwhile, “1917” won three awards. “Joker” and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” won two Oscars apiece.
Janelle Monae kicked off the “host-less” show with a musical number that paid homage to the films of 2019.
Then Steve Martin and Chris Rock came out to deliver a moderately amusing monologue. It included a joke about how the “Oscars” don’t have hosts anymore because of Twitter.
Brad Pitt was the first, and one of the few, winners to bring politics into his speech. When he won Best Supporting Actor for “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”, he said: “They told me I only have 45 seconds up here, which is 45 seconds more than the Senate gave John Bolton this week. I’m thinking maybe Quentin does a movie about it, and in the end, the adults do the right thing.”
Laura Dern won Best Supporting Actress for “Marriage Story”, which reduced her legendary mom, Diane Ladd, to tears.
Joaquin Phoenix won Best Actor for “Joker”, and used some of his time to stick up for the cows we artificially inseminate, then steal the babies from them, and use the milk that was supposed to be for those babies in our coffee and cereal.
Renee Zellweger did some rambling of her own when she won Best Actress for “Judy”. But her thoughts seemed a lot less organized.
We found out what Billie Eilish was there for. She and her brother Finneas did “Yesterday” by the Beatles for the In Memoriam montage. It started with Kobe Bryant, and ended with Kirk Douglas. (Luke Perry got snubbed,)
Speaking of unexpected moments, Eminem showed up to sing “Lose Yourself”, which won Best Original Song almost two decades ago. And he wasn’t even there to collect. (Here were some crowd reactions.)
The comedic highlight of the night was James Corden and Rebel Wilson coming out to present the award for visual effects dressed as CATS. They said, quote, “As cast members of the motion picture “Cats”, nobody more than us understands the importance of good visual effects.”
Best Picture: “Parasite”
Best Animated Feature Film: “Toy Story 4”
Best Director: Bong Joon Ho, “Parasite”
Best Actor: Joaquin Phoenix, “Joker”
Best Actress: Renée Zellweger, “Judy”
Best Supporting Actor: Brad Pitt, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”
Best Supporting Actress: Laura Dern, “Marriage Story”
Best Documentary Feature: “American Factory”
Best Documentary (Short Subject): “Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl)”
Best Adapted Screenplay: “Jojo Rabbit”
Best Original Screenplay: “Parasite”
Best International Feature: “Parasite” (South Korea)
Best Film Editing: “Ford v. Ferrari”
Best Costume Design: “Little Women”
Best Makeup and Hairstyling: “Bombshell”
Best Visual Effects: “1917”
Best Sound Mixing: “1917”
Best Sound Editing: “Ford v Ferrari”
Best Production Design: “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”
Best Cinematography: “1917”
Best Original Score: “Joker”
Best Original Song: “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” from “Rocketman”
Best Short Film (Animated): “Hair Love”
Best Short Film (Live Action): “The Neighbors’ Window”
(There are videos from last night’s ceremony at the Oscars website, here.)