Greetings all! Here we are, another Oscars ceremony over and done with. There was a lot of the same old formula - the opulent glamour, the callous award snubs. But there wasn't half as much controversy and outrage this time around. And I have to say - that’s a good thing. I hope I speak for a lot of people when I say that most of us just wanted a nice, chill, enjoyable ceremony without the manufactured offenses and tantrums of prior years. We got enough of those going on in the White House!

Thankfully, ‘nice’ and ‘chill’ is what we got - plus a little dose of the right kind of political commentary here and there.

Random notes and thoughts as follows:

Conan O’Brien Was A Solid Host

After the somewhat bland procession of Jimmy Kimmel in the presenting role last year, it was good to have a few proper laughs with a better late-night talk show host on hand to provide them (alright, I’m biased).

It was the usual Conan stuff - mostly good-natured, the odd zinger, and a bit of irreverence when the proceedings needed it. (No sign of The Masturbating Bear though, sadly.). He also left plenty of room for sympathetic thank-yous to those in the industry affected by this year’s wildfires, as well as praise for the firefighters who battled them. 

Sure, it might have all been a bit ‘safe’, but after a couple of years of needless controversy stealing the spotlight, it was required. Seriously, who do you want, Ricky Gervais? 

Actually, yes. Can we have him next year?

Hulu’s Coverage Was A Disaster… Almost

Cutting cable seemed like such a good idea when the idea got popular a few years back. No more paying for channels you never watch! Such a fanciful notion abruptly ended for me on Sunday evening though, when Hulu decided to go down for the first hour of the ceremony. 

I was literally there on the Roku trying to log in again and again to get to ABC, cursing and blinding as I went, to no avail. Part of me had the dark suspicion that one of the chancers I’d shared my password with had cruelly changed it on me. But nope - turns out it was an ill-timed, rather infuriating outage. 

Hulu's feed also cut out again while Anora director Sean Baker was giving his pro-movie theatre speech towards the end of the ceremony. I wonder why?

A Time For Tearjerkers…

Oscars 2025 will be remembered for some emotional moments, provided by those who were either picking up awards or doing the presenting. Zoe Saldaña won Best Supporting Actress for her role in Emilia Perez and gave such a heartfelt speech - which included a shout-out to her mother in the Dolby Theatre audience - that surely no one could help but feel happy for her. And I haven’t even watched Emilia Perez!

There were a few more moments for the heart-strings in store. In particular, Morgan Freeman provided the opening for the ever-contentious Memoriam segment, giving a genuinely somber tribute to the late Gene Hackman as he did so. But my personal fave was with Andrew Garfield, who just before presenting the Best Animated Feature award alongside Goldie Hawn, turned to his co-presenter and, seemingly impromptu, told her just how much his late mother loved her movies. Bless.

…And Political Drama

Interpersonal, social, or global - there’s always time for a bit of political vernacular at the Academy Awards.

Once again, the Israel-Palestine conflict took centre stage with No Other Land, a film produced by constituents of both countries, winning Best Documentary. Given No Other Land’s focus on the resumed destruction of West Bank settlements by Israeli forces, its victory was certain to be a moment in and of itself. But upon winning the award, directors Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham came up to make a joint speech calling for the restoration of the two-state plan - a defiant protest in the face of shifting US policy on the matter. The speech itself was warmly received. If only the buffoons in Washington could share such sentiment.

Other than that, things were curiously muted. Best Supporting Actor winner Kieran Culkin (A Real Pain - not him, the film) showed some deft political manoeuvring as he paid tribute to his Succession co-star and fellow nominee, Jeremy Strong - albeit with a bleeped-out F-bomb in tow. The pair had been rumoured to have had bad blood with each other in the build-up to the awards. Conan O’Brien was also on hand to weigh in on other fierce debates, offering a gag on the ever-lasting Lamar-Drake war by joking that the former was soon coming out to call the latter a 'paedophile’. He also couldn’t resist a dig - albeit a slender one - at the Trump administration. With Anora picking up six Oscars, Conan dropped commentary on the film’s rampant success on the night, adding: “I guess Americans are excited to see somebody finally stand up to a powerful Russian”.

No exact mention of the Orange One’s name, but the target was obvious. Kimmel’s ‘jail time’ retort last year was sharper, though.

Were Wallace and Gromit Robbed?

I had to add commentary on this for the sake of British interest. All British hopes were pinned on the clearly obvious formality that Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl would pick up the Oscar for Best Animated Feature this year. I watched it at Christmas - it was brilliant. The best since Wrong Trousers, in fact. How could it lose?

Turns out, the real 'formality' was that Flow, a Latvian CG-animated tale about a cat swept off on an adventure with other animals by a catastrophic flood, would pick up the award just like it did at the Golden Globes. Still, some distinctly patriotic fist-shaking was in need. I mean, the sheer audacity of some other film picking up accolades at the expense of my childhood heroes? If there isn’t an inquest, surely the only option is to ban America (and Latvia) from the BAFTAs?!

But no. No further protest is needed because Flow is both absolutely charming and absolutely brilliant. Its simple but powerful tale about the cyclic nature of life, and our need to co-exist with each other to survive, had my wife and I enthralled when we watched it last night. 

I’ll die on a hill when I say Feathers McGraw is one of the most cunningly understated villains of all time, but ya know. Oscars. Flow deserved at least one. And well done to Latvia on their first.

Orchestral Ejections

Some fun was had with the Dolby Theatre orchestra, whose wrath for those who inevitably let their rambling acceptance speeches go on for way too long was evident. One of the four who picked up Dune II’s Best Visual Effects award didn’t even get a chance on the mic. He walked up to it, opened his mouth and immediately - painfully - got played off. 

What did that guy lack that Adrien Brody didn’t? Probably a Best Actor award, but that’s beside the point. Either way, Brody’s acceptance speech for his work in The Brutalist broke records as his five-minute defiance of the Dolby orchestra is certain to go down as a historic moment. It was also a well-meaning monologue, if obviously meandering. Perhaps he just didn’t want it to end because it meant talking to his wife about Halle Berry afterward?

And Finally…

• Wicked’s award for Best Production design was obvious the moment it went head-to-head visually with the other nominees in the build-up to the winner being announced. All the same - no nomination in this category for Alien: Romulus?

• Social media around the event was, predictably, outraged at every little event that unfolded. A few highlights from my own feeds: complaints of it being too tame (we really need to walk it back from Chris Rock getting slapped, folks..), complaints of Conan’s attempt at Mandarin being racist (by the usual suspects - white people), and complaints about David Lynch not being given enough time during his mention in the Memoriam segment. Lynch's mention lingered longer than the rest, and the audience cheered and applauded throughout. What does it take to satisfy people?

• Maggie Smith didn’t get half the time Lynch did, and that’s its own travesty.

• Former Yuck frontman Daniel Blumberg winning Best Original Score with The Brutalist was a little moment for fans of late 2000s shoegaze bands (that’s right - all six of us). Hope to check out Cafe Oto when I’m next home in London.

• Not a great deal of cringe on the whole, but the whole Best Original Score award segment was a bit ugh. Mick Jagger. Camille. Emiliaaaa. Emiliaaaa. If there was a moment for a giant anvil to descend from the heavens, that was it.

That’s all - see you again next year for Oscars 2026! Provided the world hasn’t burned down by then…