This coming Sunday evening the 91st presentation of the Motion Picture Academy Awards will take place. So what? you ask. Well at our house it is almost a religious experience All the Nicewangers are film fanatics, so Oscar night is a night of celebration. There will be long winded stories that will recall the glories of Oscars of long, long ago. It’s not a gift giving occasion but it’s close. There will be predictions of winners, drinking games, critiques of speeches, castigations of winners who in our collective opinions were not worthy, and cheers when our predictions are accurate
I have only seen one of the Best Picture nominated films this year and that is Black Panther. This is heresy in my family and I am sure I will be made to regret it. However, much of our evening will be nostalgia and trivia — I shine at these moments.
The 1990 award show was the longest and least watched show in it’s history. Last year’s BP winner The Shape of Water was a beautifully photographed sci-fi romance that was supposed to be a remake of Creature from the Black Lagoon. The Academy has vowed not to let the event run over 3 hours. There will not be a host. There was an attempt to have the technical achievements awards presented during commercial breaks but after a mutiny was threatened by Academy members, that idea was withdrawn. So we will see how this year’s awards shape up.
The Academy Award show I remember best was the 1971 Award show that saw George C. Scott win Best Actor for Patton, but he refused the Award. Goldie Hawn gasped OMG as she read Scott’s name. I remember in 1973 when Sacheen Littlefeather read Marlon Brando’s rejection of his Godfather Oscar because of his objection to the way Native Americans were portrayed in movies by Hollywood. Sally Field’s “You really like me” acceptance speech still stands out in my mind. I remember Jessica Tandy as the oldest winner at age 80 until Christopher Plummer won at age 82. Plummer is also the oldest person to receive an Oscar in any category. Tatum O’Neal is the youngest Oscar winner in any category. At age 10 she won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for Paper Moon. Clint Eastwood was the oldest man to win a Best Director Oscar at age 74 for Million Dollar Baby.
Meryl Streep has the most acting nominations for an actor or actress — with like 200 or so. We won’t even go into that. Kate Hepburn has four Best Actress Oscars. Daniel Day Lewis has three Best Actor Oscars. Walt Disney Studios has won the most Oscars with 32.
Peter O’Toole had 8 nominations without winning. Richard Burton had 7 nominations without a win. Glenn Close has 7 nominations including this year for The Wife. Maybe 2019 will finally be her year. Amy Adams, a favorite of mine, has 6 nominations including this year for Best Supporting Actress for Vice.
Academy Awards actually mean very little except to the winner’s ego. They are often a popularity contest and the reason for individual awards are as varied as the number of people who vote in the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences. As for my picks, I am going out on a limb and say Rami Malek wins Best Actor for his Freddie Mercury performance in Bohemian Rhapsody. As to rest, I will let you know at a later date.
The Boss wants to put in her 2 cents. Our son Chris and I did a really good job last year with seeing like 7 out of the 9 nominated movies, but this year with his work schedule we’ve only seen 4 out of 8 (he did see 5). Some nominated movies have come and gone already. I ate so much popcorn last year, I’m still carrying the extra poundage.
Steve neglected to mention we have a contest on who picks the most winners and we’ve all won at one time or another or tied – but who remembers? The prize is bragging rights.
I usually fix chili, because it’s easy to eat and you can carry around while keeping track of winners.
I do hope Glenn Close wins and my son and I think Christian Bale as Dick Cheney in Vice has a good chance. Best Picture is still up in the air for me. I really did like “Green Book” though.
Our kids grew up watching so many movies that Robin Hood to our son has always been Errol Flynn and our daughter couldn’t believe the other 4th graders didn’t know who Cleopatra was when she dressed as her for Halloween — obviously they had never seen Elizabeth Taylor.
My 95 year old mother-in-law is a movie fan too and when she and Steve start talking movies I am in awe at all the details they know – it’s kinda of scary. Steve gets calls from his sister asking about old movies a lot. Got questions? E-mail snicewanger@gmail.com
OSCAR Trivia: The Oscar statuette weighs 6 3/4 pounds, and stands 13 1/2 inches high. It was named by Margaret Herrick, the Academy librarian, who remarked in 1931 (upon seeing the statuettes), “Why, it looks like my Uncle Oscar!”