Good morning. There were no physical slaps to report from last as Conan O’Brien took the reins for the Academy Awards, but there were a fair few upsets. It was a year in which small indie film Anora wowed voters and gave hope to independent film. Let’s see what Film For Thought predicted, and what we didn’t.
Best Picture – Anora
As Film For Thought correctly predicted, Anora is more of an accessible film and it came away with the top award. Once Emilia Perez was well and truly out of the game, this year, the big question was if it would be A, B or C? Anora, The Brutalist or Conclave. BAFTA awarded Conclave its Best Film award in a relative upset last week, but BAFTA can sometimes be a red herring that isn’t always indicative. The win for Anora makes it just the 3rd film in history to win the Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or and also go on to win the Best Picture Oscar alongside Parasite in 2019 and Marty in 1955.
Best Director – Anora
The unintended consequence from the change in voting types is the infamous ‘split’ we have seen in recent years between Best Picture and Best Director. Prior to 2009 it was commonplace to award the two to the same film in harmony as a result of popular votes. After this change however, it is more common to see the ‘split’ in awards as the voting approaches show up in the results which actually was a regular occurence pre-1945. Film for Thought believed that due to the infamous split, it was likely that the Academy will award Brady Corbet for his efforts in The Brutalist via Best Director. However, people really stuck to their guns and Sean Baker came away with Best Director, and with 4 wins in one night he is the first person to do so for one film since Walt Disney.
Best Actress – Mikey Madison, Anora
Mikey Madison winning in London for BAFTA wasn’t going to throw a spanner in the works of the Best Actress Oscar according to film for thought. But it happened – Demi Moore, the self proclaimed forever ‘popcorn actress’ was visibly surprised that she missed out on the top award to Mikey Madison in Anora. Despite a great campaign, people just couldn’t get enough of the character Mikey had created. It could be an element of horror snobbery, as people just couldn’t bring themselves to either watch The Substance, let alone reward it.
Best Actor – Adrien Brody
As Film For Thought predicted, Adrien Brody brought the house down with his extraordinary turn in The Brutalist. God love Timothee Chalamet. He has been everywhere, including arriving at the London premiere on a Lime bike, getting a £75 fine for doing so. He has been on every podcast on each side of the political spectrum and he has been at this for months. But despite all this, he is still a young ingenue and the Academy are hesitant to award Best Actor to a younger person as they have to earn their keep. He will be back but it wasn’t Timmy’s year. Brody gets his second Oscar and he also keeps the honour of being the youngest ever Best Actor Oscar winner which Chalamet would have beaten him by – by just 273 days.
Until next year!
FILM FOR THOUGHT 