With the airing of the 90th Academy Awards last night, the 2017-2018 awards season is officially over (thank god), leaving us all to take a huge breath and go back to enjoying our television, music, and movies without worrying over who’s going to win awards and who isn’t.
Hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, who tried desperately to navigate this year’s batch of Hollywood scandals, the Oscars viewership hit an all-time low, dropping double digits. For the last five years or so, the Academy Awards have been heavily disputed and contested for their lack of diversity and overall bad picks. Perhaps viewers grew tired of supporting the show or maybe there just wasn’t enough excitement for people to tune in.
But the awards weren’t all bad. In fact, there were a lot of great winners and moments in last night’s show. Most notably, Jordan Peele, director and writer of the movie Get Out, won best original screenplay, making history as the first black man to ever do so.
Jordan Peele delivered a speech full of motivational gems after becoming the first black writer to win an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay: pic.twitter.com/8Hdq2YBWrQ
— The Root (@TheRoot) March 6, 2018
Furthermore, advocates for the “#MeToo” and “Time’s Up” movements took to the stage to promote equality and women’s rights. And in the most powerful moment of the night, Best Actress winner, Frances McDormand asked all of the female nominees to stand with her in support of inclusion.
As for the awards themselves, everyone was expecting the strange yet somehow beloved favorite, the Shape of Water, to win big, and it did. Scooping up the coveted Best Director and Best Picture awards, this movie proved that a romance between a woman and a fish man, while very strange and unconventional, was apparently just what Hollywood wanted.
In addition, Disney’s Coco won Best Animated Feature as expected, along with Best Song for “Remember Me.” Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri also won big with Best Actress, Frances McDormand and Best Supporting Actor, Sam Rockwell. Best Actor went to Gary Oldman for the Darkest Hour, leaving many disappointed it didn’t go to Get Out star, Daniel Kaluuya. The rest of the films, including Dunkirk, Call Me by Your Name, and I, Tonya all managed to snag awards here and there, leaving no one heading home empty-handed.
Hopefully, in the coming years, the Oscars, as well as the other award shows, will find ways to fix their glaring issues (most notable being their lack of diversity) and raise viewership again. But now that award season is over, it’s time to get back to enjoying our entertainment stress-free and waiting to see what the next big hit will be.