The Academy Awards 2024: A Very Entertaining Night | FilmInk

After a tough year of labour strikes, box office uncertainty, and a horrendous array of socio-political events, The 2024 Academy Awards felt very much like a sweet party, and an enjoyable riposte to a world gone mad. And right from the beginning, it was obvious that The Academy had picked the right host in late night talk show fave Jimmy Kimmel, who’s done a great job in the past, and straight from the jump let the audience know that he was calm, comfortable and in charge. Kimmel’s opening monologue hit just the right tone, sitting pretty between pithy and fawning, best exemplified when he mentioned Greta Gerwig’s noted snub in the Best Director category for Barbie, but then promptly informed everyone in the room that they’d actually voted, so it was basically their fault. Kimmel’s interactions with Robert Downey Jr. about the actor’s druggy past were also gold, proving that having all these people on his TV show certainly helps when it comes to taking the piss out of them on the Oscars.

Kimmel’s delivery and timing was so on-point that even his gags about how long all this year’s films were, and the length of the ceremony itself (probably the oldest rope there is at awards shows), played well. The AI jokes (“Could Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts have been written by AI? Well, yes, it could have”) were great. His lighthearted takedowns of Bradley Cooper (“How many times can you take your mother as your date before you’re actually dating your mother?”) and Ryan Gosling (“You’ve won the genetic lottery”) were funny, and landed well, like most of his gags. Even Kimmel’s Yorgos dad joke raised a smile, and the appearance of his TV second banana Guillermo was actually pretty funny. If Billy Crystal is seen as the Oscars gold standard in terms of hosting, Jimmy Kimmel must be up there somewhere close to second. When he called all the techies out after his opening monologue in honour of this year’s strikes, the emotion was real, and was a fitting intro for what was to be a highly emotional ceremony.

Kimmel’s bit with a very, very game John Cena recalling the infamous streaker run behind David Niven at the 1974 ceremony was hilarious, with Cena daringly going near nude (thank God for that envelope!) to very amusingly present the Best Costume gong after a very funny argument with Kimmel. “The male body is not a joke,” Cena said in a fine comic performance. “Mine is,” responded Kimmel in what was certainly a highlight of the ceremony. John Cena definitely gets the award for literally putting his body on the line, and proved again that he’s a genuine comic talent.

Also, right off the bat, another winning decision was having past Oscar winning actors talk about this year’s nominees before the handing out of the awards, which opened with the ceremony’s first category of Best Supporting Actress. The words from past winners like Jamie Lee Curtis, Marry Steenburgen and Rita Moreno were genuinely moving, as were the responses provoked in the nominees, most of whom became genuinely, visibly, movingly emotional. There was highlight after highlight (Sam Rockwell’s tribute to Downey Jr. was hilarious, as was Nicolas Cage shouting out to Paul Giamatti), but Ke Huay Quan’s heartfelt connection with Sterling K. Brown was profoundly moving. Emma Stone, meanwhile, was obviously very excited about being surrounded by such great actresses (it was great to see Sally Field and Jessica Lange…but then again, it’s always great to see Sally Field and Jessica Lange) to collect her award for Poor Things. The phrase “it’s an honour just to be nominated” really rung true this year.

The Oscars this year were also an incredible platform for musical performances, with gifted chanteuse and songwriter Billie Eilish and brother/frequent collaborator Finneas O’Connell delivering a beautiful, richly emotive, lushly orchestral but ultimately simple version of Barbie’s “What Was I Made For?”, which was very, very well received by the audience. The performance of “Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)” from Killers Of The Flower Moon by Osage Nation dancers was not only fucking incredible, but also denoted a major cultural moment for Hollywood, with American cinema’s historic treatment of its native peoples nothing short of an often lamentable horror.

Yes, that was fucking incredible and culturally relevant, but the show was well and truly stolen by former Mouseketeer Ryan Gosling, who stepped right up for a wildly entertaining, Busby Berkley-inspired performance of Barbie’s brilliant song “I’m Just Ken”, which boasted bravura dancing and choreography, and, yes, a blistering but very tasteful guitar solo from maestro Slash from Guns’N’Roses, and an appearance from Wolfgang Van Halen! Cheque, please! The only bummer was that the song lost to Billie Eilish…but that’s a damn fine tune too…so, okay.

The presenters were, as always, a mixed bag, with Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt hilariously playing out the Barbenheimer rivalry on stage, giving it 110% before saluting the stunt people of Hollywood. Twins stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny De Vito reunited (“We both tried to kill Batman”), and had a truly great fun moment with Batman himself, Michael Keaton, playing along in the audience. Kate McKinnon and America Ferrera were great, and Steven Spielberg (“To whom have I been sending my tasteful nudes?” asked McKinnon) goofed very nicely from the crowd.

A nice touch was having cameras backstage prior to the presenters taking stage, with amusing glimpses at legends like Michael Keaton, Catherine O’Hara, Chris Hemsworth, Steven Spielberg candidly interacting before taking to the stage and then leaving it. It’s always fun to get a peek behind the curtain at big, glitzy events like this, and this was a fun add-on. The “In Memoriam” section is always very, very sad, and in a year when we lost William Friedkin, Robbie Robertson, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Glenda Jackson, Alan Arkin, Richard Lewis and many more, it was just as heartbreaking as ever.

In terms of winners, Oppenheimer was the unsurprising hit of the ceremony. There were a few surprises, with Poor Things performing very well, and pulling a sweep in the make-up and costuming type categories, and Anatomy Of A Fall grabbing Best Screenplay, while American Fiction stole some of Oppenheimer’s thunder in the Best Adapted Screenplay category. Robert Downey Jr. was a deserving winner for Oppenheimer and gave an expectedly superb and self-deprecating acceptance speech, thanking his stylist (!) and the various people who’ve rescued him from himself over the course of his career. Christopher was his usual eloquent, elegant, humble self when picking up the Best Director award, and so was Best Actor Cillian. In a nice final moment, the great Al Pacino presented Oppenheimer with the Best Film Award, wrapping up a fun, fairly fast-paced Oscars ceremony.

Unfortunately, the Oscars were on Channel 7 this year, which meant viewers had to tolerate ads for Home & Away, Farmer Wants A Wife (really? Still going?), The 1% Club (fuck off), and the new streaming aggregator Hubbl, being repped by Andy Lee and Hamish Blake. Sure, they seem like nice enough guys, and they can certainly be funny, but do these fucking pricks really need any more fucking money? One can only hope that they will be donating their obviously very considerable fees from this shameless cash-grab to charity. How about it, fellas? Do the right thing! Or at least stop pretending you’re just “normal” guys, okay?

All said and done, The 2024 Academy Awards felt like a major success. And what about the fashions? Sorry, go elsewhere for that…

 For a full list of winners, head to The Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences official website.