Winners of Oscar 20021year (Oscar for Best Actress)

Zhou Liming: This Oscar is a bit tricky. ......

2022-03-29 10:32

Text | Zhou Liming

#0 1

A big body does not necessarily mean a strong body, and a quick foot may not necessarily be the first to board.

The 94th Academy Awards is more suspenseful than the nominated film. The star-studded acting at the awards ceremony was bursting, which was not as good as the impromptu performance of the true feelings.

The winner of the best film depends not only on the quality of the film, but also on the wind direction of the judges. Unless a film stands on a hill like a lonely peak, the wind direction of Oscar will change at any time, just like the wind of nature.

In the last two months of 20021year, Belfast, the People's Choice Award of Toronto Film Festival, was undoubtedly the leader of the best film. In the past three years, it overlapped with the Oscar for best film (Green Book and Nomadic Life) twice. Therefore, after Belfast won Toronto, most people thought it was natural for it to go on to win the Golden statuette. However, Kenneth Blana's gust obviously blew too early. At the beginning of this year, the wind gradually turned to Power of Dogs. In addition to winning the British Academy Award for outstanding British films, Belfast showed a lack of stamina early.

Just as "The Power of Dogs" seemed to be sure of winning the golden statuette, "Listening Girl" seemed to be Cheng Yaojin who was halfway out, taking away the biggest prizes from the actors' union and the producers' union, which happened during the Oscar voting. Hollywood industry publications Variety and Hollywood Reporter, as well as The New York Times, all predict that Listening Girl will beat Dog Power at the Oscars, because the judges of these awards have great overlap with the Oscars, and the change of wind direction usually has signs, not groundless.

Many fans think that the well-behaved "Listening Girl" is the standard Douban TOP250 movie.

In all fairness, among the ten nominated films, the artistry of "Power of Dogs" is relatively high, but art is very subjective. You will feel advanced if you look at it. If you don't feel it, you will not like it. What's more, you will be disgusted, and it is often the content rather than the artistic technique that determines the impression. Belfast, with its black-and-white images, gives people a very artistic first impression, but it was soon pointed out that the film was full of true feelings, but it was not deep enough and moving enough. Everything was superficial, but at least it did not cause a bipolar reaction.

In contrast, when The Power of Dogs swept the Foresight Award, there were voices of discontent, mainly because the old-school people were dissatisfied with setting cowboys as comrades and impersonating New Zealand as the western United States, and so on. This view was widely regarded as politically incorrect and was immediately refuted and criticized, but in fact, the Power of Dogs made many people uncomfortable, especially the foreshadowing of the plot and the reversal of the ending, as well as the slow rhythm.

At the beginning of the award ceremony, the host had a diss, saying that she had watched "The Power of Dogs" three times and finally saw half of it. You might say, "Didn't Brokeback Mountain also describe gay cowboys?" The trouble with Power of Dogs is that it may offend both the left and the right: it portrays cowboys as comrades and attacks the so-called "toxic masculinity", thus offending conservatives; But it positions this gay role as an anti-angle (sorry for the drama), and the LGBTQ party may also be dissatisfied.

Before the Oscar ceremony, Jane Campion, the director of "The Power of Dogs", made a joke about "Don't compete with men" of the prototype Williams sisters of King Richard, which offended some feminists.

#02

"Listening Girl" won in the final round, and there is another reason, which is the selection system of the best film. Among the 23 Oscar awards, only the best film adopts a special weighting system. Specifically, the judges did not choose the best film in their minds, but ranked all the ten nominated films; The final winner was the first film with 50% of the votes.

Let me make an analogy, which can also be regarded as a guess: in the first round of voting, "Dog Power" won 35% of the first-place votes and "Listening Girl" 30%; If it is one out of ten, then "Power of Dogs" will win at this moment, but it can't reach 50% in the weight system, so the second round will be counted, that is, the film with the least votes in the first round will be kicked out, assuming that it is "Jade Face", and the second choice on these votes will automatically rise to the first choice. Suppose again that among these votes, 5% of the second choice is "The Power of Dogs" and 10% is "Listening Girl". When added with the first round, both films will reach 40%. Then in the third round, suppose Don't Look Up, who has the lowest number of votes (this film is more bipolar), the second choice in this batch of votes is 5% for "The Power of Dogs" and 10% for "Listening Girl". After three rounds of addition, Listening Girl has reached 50% and Power of Dogs has reached 45%. Results: The best film was Listening Girl.

However, judging from the volume of applause at the award ceremony and the nature of applause (polite or sincere), it is likely that "Listening Girl" surpassed "The Power of Dogs" in the first round.

The competitors of "Listening Girl" seem to evaluate the two poles, which is too controversial.

Obviously, it was a wild guess. Why did I guess that the second and third rounds of "Dog Power" were less than half of the votes of "Listening Girl"? That's because the response of "The Power of Dogs" is polarized, and most English reports use polarizing and divisive to describe the judges' views on it. The judges admit its artistry, but they can't compete with it emotionally, either putting it at the front or at the back.

The chief film critic of Variety even thinks that while subverting the routine of western films, it has committed the problem of facebook. Even if you don't like "Listening Girl" the most, you can't find out the reason for disgust. Although it is simple, it is successful in emotional singing, so it can occupy a great advantage in the second-best choice.

"The director doesn't understand the American West" is also a major criticism of "The Power of Dogs".

#03

If the Oscar awards are postponed for another two months, I guess "Listening Girl" may also be pushed out and replaced by another film. From the turn of this year's limelight, we can also see the influence of film critics and the dislocation of their interest and psychological rhythm with the Oscar judges.

At first, Belfast was mainly praised by film critics. Do you think members of the college will go to Toronto to watch a batch of new films? When Hollywood formed the idea that Belfast was the best film in the 94th session, the film critics had taken a big step forward and blew the Power of Dogs. The film industry rushed to catch up and gave a number of forward-looking awards to The Power of Dogs.

Unexpectedly, the film critics disdained to associate with them and began to pursue "Drive Your Car"; When "Drive Your Car" won the nomination for best film, best director and best adapted screenplay in one fell swoop, the film critics said: "In fact," The Worst Man in the World "is the best film this year. The judges were panting after the chase and said they didn't want to pursue it any more. Many people can't help but say, "Do you know what it's like to watch three hours of boring movies? I'm going to vote for the film that moved me. " The film critic was shocked: "However, Listening Girl is just an ordinary inspirational film, which is not much better than Disney children's films."

If the award ceremony comes a little later, "Drive My Car" may become the second "Parasite".

According to our traditional concept, Dune is the closest work to the best film in the 94th Oscar. It can represent Hollywood's industrial level and also has artistic pursuit. Dune is also the highest box office among the ten nominated films, which conforms to the unwritten principle of giving consideration to both business and art. However, in the past decade or so, the rules have been broken, and Dune is also "cold", which is not the kind of cool film that makes people feel excited. Therefore, it has won a bunch of technical awards like a superhero film, and the biggest hero, director bullfrog, has not even been nominated.

In a word, the Oscar has been for many years in a row, and there is a lack of the best film that is widely accepted by the public-the excellent film that most judges and most viewers agree with.

Dune won six "Decoration Awards" without any surprise.

#04

In all fairness, Belfast, The Power of Dogs and Listening Girl have their own advantages, but none of them have reached the shocking level, nor have they really achieved the goal. The constant shift of the weather vane tells us that it is very important for movies to appeal to feelings. Even people in the industry will ultimately decide the choice of the best movie by watching whether a movie moves people.

This phenomenon that emotion trumps reason is also reflected in the biggest surprise of this award ceremony, that is, will smith punched chris rock with an old fist, and then when he delivered his acceptance speech, he burst into tears, pointing out that everything he played was to protect his family and to defend his own beating behavior. (I think it's very inappropriate and even mean for chris rock to make that joke when he knows that Mrs Smith shaved her head for health reasons. However, when he hosted the Oscar, his jokes were known for their meanness. )

Will smith's action shocked the scene, and also made this ordinary Oscar instantly have a topic and heat.

Movies need careful calculation, but some things can't be done by calculation. Netflix spent a lot of money to make the best film in the Oscar. Last time, Rome was short of breath. This time, The Power of Dogs was on the verge of success, but it was overtaken by a small piece produced by Apple in the last lap. Yes, streaming media finally won the Oscar for the first time, but it was not Netflix.

Looking at Apple's initial approach (almost without any publicity), it seems that I never thought that "Listening Girl" had Oscar potential. If the film's creator predicts that he will win the grand prize, maybe his creation will have a burden, maybe he will add something noble, but he may lose its natural beauty.

Apart from Smith's fist and tears, Troy Kotsul is the most touching scene among the winners, although it has been "rehearsed" many times in the foresight award. This year's four performance awards have a clear leader except for a little suspense after the film, and they are well deserved. I won't expand it here.

Troy Kotsul, who won the best supporting actor for his father's role in Listening Girl, is deaf, and the audience shook their hands instead of clapping to celebrate him.

#05

But I want to talk a little about the Japanese film "Drive My Car". The film was obviously presented by the film critics, and Oscar just followed up. When a large number of judges sat down to watch the film, I, who had always followed Hollywood, could clearly feel that everyone's manners had become tired. Many people euphemistically complained that the film was too long and too cold. Of course, they also admit that it has ideological and artistic pursuit, but a film about the feelings of husband and wife and lovers can't touch the feelings of the audience, so I'm afraid it can only be enjoyed as an academic paper.

If we compare the Korean "Parasites", especially the Korean "Minari", we can find that the Oscar judges may not discriminate against Asian films, but emphasizing alienation may not be a good way to win them, and their tolerance for boring films is limited. If "Drive My Car" can add a little sincerity and naturalness to "Yak in the Classroom" (a Bhutanese film nominated for best international film) and control the length of the film to two hours, maybe it can go further and even copy the achievements of "Parasite".

Because the narrative is too flat and dull, many fans also speculate that "Drive My Car" can't impress the Oscar judges.

Of course, all this analysis is wise after the event. All filmmakers want to make a blockbuster movie, but the reality is often very skinny. It is no wonder that this award ceremony has set up many memorials of classic old films, including The Godfather and Pulp Fiction, to give a pep talk to the industry. I'm afraid it's hard to make a film like that. Obviously, Hollywood has no ability to replicate that glory in recent years.

Hollywood's recession didn't start with the epidemic, and we can't just look for the reasons from the box office (including before the epidemic). Every year, Oscar nominated films should include outstanding people in the industry. If none of the ten films can appear or contain the best films of the year that can really form a * * * understanding, and they are ridiculed by overseas fans as "off-year" year after year, then the Oscar will gradually lose everyone's attention and the influence of the whole Hollywood will gradually decline.

The selection of the "Popular Award" by netizens' voting may be because the mechanism is not scientific enough, and it seems to have been hijacked by fans. Not only can it not "turn the tide", but it is more like a funny joke. When Oscar can't provide a choice between business and art, all that remains is box office data, at least that is objective.

List of winners of the 94th Academy Awards

Best Picture

CODA

best director

Jane campion's The Power of Dogs

Best actor

Will smith's King Richard

Best Actress

Jessica Chastain's Tammy Faye's Eyes

Best Supporting Actor

Troy Kotsul's Listening Girl

Best supporting actress