The 92nd Annual Academy Awards took place at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood and Highland Center in Hollywood, California on Sunday night. It is always the biggest night in Hollywood, but this year was full of surprises and many records were broken.
Parasite makes history
Parasite became South Korea’s first nomination in Oscar history with nominations in six different categories. The film took home the awards for Best Picture, Best Directing, Best International Feature Film and Best Original Screenplay. It is the first non-English-language production to win best picture.
A successful night for women
This year women took home a record-breaking 33% of Oscars on Sunday night, an increase from last year’s record of 27.8%, according to Yahoo News. Women also accounted for 32% of the nominees this year which is an increase from last year when 27.5% of the nominees were women. Among the female winners was Hildur Guðnadóttir, who took home the Oscar for Best Original Score for the film Joker. Guðnadóttir is the third female composer to win the award and the first in over 20 years. Before Guðnadóttir was announced as the winner, Eimear Noone was introduced by Gal Gadot, Sigourney Weaver and Brie Larson as the Oscars’ first female conductor. Noone conducted a special medley of the 2020 Best Original Score nominees.
Toy Story 4 wins Best Animated Feature Film
Toy Story 4 took home the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film. Pixar has now won more awards in the category than all of its competing studios combined. Prior to this year’s awards, Pixar had nine wins while Disney has three and Aardman, DreamWorks, Paramount, Sony, Studio Ghibli and Warner Brothers each have one win.
Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell In Memoriam performance
Fresh off of becoming both the first woman and the youngest artist to win the four major categories (Album of the Year, Best New Artist, Record of the Year and Song of the Year) at the 2020 Grammy Awards, Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas, gave a special performance at the Oscars on Sunday night. They performed a cover of Yesterday by The Beatles during the In Memoriam segment of the Oscars. The performance honored many celebrities who have passed away in the past year including Kobe Bryant, Kirk Douglas, John Witherspoon and Peter Fonda. However, many people were upset that the segment left out some other celebrities we have lost in the past year such as Luke Perry, Cameron Boyce, Sid Haig and Michael J. Pollard.
Laura Dern becomes the first in her family to win an Oscar
On Sunday night, Laura Dern took the stage to accept her first Oscar. Dern won Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her work in Marriage Story. This was Dern’s third nomination and despite being Hollywood royalty, she is the first in her family to take home an Oscar. Dern’s mother, Diane Ladd, has been nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting Role three times while her father, Bruce Dern, has been nominated for both Best Actor in a Leading Role and Best Actor in a Supporting Role.
Scarlett Johansson achieves double-nomination
In her first year with an Oscar nomination, Scarlett Johansson became the first to be nominated in two acting categories since Cate Blanchett in 2008. Johansson is only the 12th actor to ever earn double-nominations in the same year with nominations for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her work in Jojo Rabbit and for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her work in Marriage Story, although she did not take home an award in either category.
Eminem’s surprise performance
I think it is safe to say that everyone was shocked when Eminem took the stage at the Oscars on Sunday night. His performance of his hit song Lose Yourself from his film 8 Mile, came after Lin-Manuel Miranda spoke about the importance of songs featured in films. Eminem became the first rapper to win an Oscar when the song won Best Original Song in 2003 although he was not able to attend the night of his win. The song also earned him a standing ovation from the Oscars audience this year. He took to Twitter after his performance to say “Look, if you had another shot, another opportunity… Thanks for having me @TheAcademy. Sorry it took me 18 years to get here.” along with a clip from his win back in 2003.
Opening date announced for the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures
Tom Hanks took the stage to announce the official opening date for the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. The museum will open its doors on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, California on December 14th, 2020. It will contain a 30,000-square-foot exhibition that will be home to many different film-related objects and technology. Some of these items will include Shirley Temple’s tap shoes which she used while filming The Little Colonel, the typewriter used by Joseph Stefano while writing the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho and Dorothy’s Ruby Slippers and the Cowardly Lion’s Mane from The Wizard of Oz.