While the talk of the town seems to be the surprise dominance of “Parasite” at last night’s Oscars, there’s still plenty of other winners worth discussing. And how best to do that than to just present the various awards speeches from the winners?
Leading the way, we have two-time award winner, Renee Zellweger, who capped off her awards season run of Best Actress wins with one more on Oscar night. Her speech seems to be one of the more debated entries from last night, as it came right on the heels of Joaquin Phoenix’s socially-conscious, soul-baring speech. Zellweger seemed to go the more traditional route with her acceptance.
Brad Pitt, on the other hand, has been using his awards season dominance to entertain audiences with fairly funny acceptance speeches. But last night, the actor went a bit more somber and heartfelt, with a dash of political.
Laura Dern kept it classy, as she is wont to do, with her acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actress. She made many viewers grab some tissues early on with her mentioning of her parents, the incomparable Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd.
While Bong Joon-ho might have stole the Screenplay talk with his Original Screenplay trophy last night, Taika Waititi scored another surprise win for Best Adapted Screenplay for “Jojo Rabbit” and took the time to make a few jokes and encourage indigenous folks to pursue an artistic career path, no matter what.
Pixar won big with “Toy Story 4” taking home Best Animated Feature, and the filmmakers delivered a nice acceptance speech, capping off a series of films that has spanned generations.
“American Factory” and “Learning How To Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re A Girl)” took home Best Documentary and Documentary Short Subject, respectively, offering some of the more impassioned acceptance speeches of the night.
Roger Deakins won. Enough said.
Elton John and his writing partner Bernie Taupin took home Best Original Song.
Even though she hasn’t gotten the headlines that Joaquin Phoenix might have for “Joker” or the surprise wins by Bong, Hildur Guðnadóttir might have the speech of the night for her acceptance of the Best Original Score trophy for her work in “Joker.” She was the first woman since 1997 to take home the honor.
No surprise that “Bombshell” took home Best Makeup & Hairstyling, but the speech is definitely worth checking out.
“1917” might not have gotten any of the big awards, but the film did pick up some well-deserved Oscars for Sound Mixing and Visual Effects.
The same for “Ford v. Ferrari,” which picked up Best Editing and Sound Editing.
Many thought that Quentin Tarantino might go home with a Screenplay trophy, or maybe, just maybe a surprise Best Director, but instead, “Once Upon a Time” took home the aforementioned Best Supporting Actor trophy, as well as the following Production Design honor.
“Little Women” was also not shut out, thanks to a win in Best Costume Design, which is well-deserved.
Also, we can’t forget Best Live-Action Short and Animated Short, which always honor filmmakers that are willing to give some of the best speeches of the night.