2017 Academy Awards Retrospective

A Little Princess...

Amores perros...

Y tu mamá también...

21 Grams...

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban...

Children of Men...

Pan's Labyrinth...

Babel...

Hellboy 2: The Golden Army...

Biutiful...

Gravity...

Birdman...

The Revenant...

The Shape of Water.

The Three Amigos. Cuarón... Iñárritu... del Toro. United in Oscar glory at last!

I will not lie, I may not have said that he was my favourite director of 2017, but when Guillermo del Toro won Best Director last night, I cried victorious tears... and then cried more victorious tears when The Shape of Water won the night entire!!! The first fantasy since Return of the King to win Best Director and Best Picture, and it's about damn time! I don't even care if it messed up my ballot to a tie with last year's all-time low of 14/24 correct. del Toro is my modern icon. He's a fantasist, a humanitarian, an incredible visual stylist, an incredibly sincere person, the best speech writer in history, he even gave a dedication to young filmmakers everywhere which gave me just the slightest bit of hope... You've earned this, del Toro! No one can take this away from you... not even Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway!

Honestly, like 2015, even if I was wrong in an uncomfortable amount of categories, I'm happy that I was because I could not fault the films that won in each category. I know I came down hard on Three Billboards in my build-up to this point, but that was more paranoia over the possibility that I may end up having an all-new Birdman... and even in that case, I may be able to look at Birdman in a new light now that the three Mexicans finally share this honour. By the time the Screenplay awards came and went, I finally settled into the assurance that Three Billboards wasn't going to win, at which point, I could easily say, Rockwell and McDormand were the right people to honour from that particular movie - and that they were two of the other best speechifiers of the entire evening!  As I said in my live tweet when McDormand called for all the female nominees to stand up together at once, "McDormand, YOU WIN EVERYTHING!" Her speech was so good that even if you didn't know what 'inclusion rider' meant, you knew it was something powerful and important and it meant something to everyone there! I'll say it: I'm actually glad she won, because otherwise, we would not have gotten that epic a moment!

The rest of the ceremony, no matter however wrong I was, honestly goes without saying. Although, I was surprised by how few gaps there were between really great speeches. After Rockwell dedicated his Oscar to Philip Seymour Hoffman - bravo - I feel like it took until Sound Mixing and Gary Rizzo, who may not have given that unique a speech, but it was the cutaway to his daughter sitting in his seat, that made me think: Any nominee who brings their child with them to the Oscars is officially the BEST PARENT EVER!!! More great moments especially came from the screenwriters. James Ivory was beautifully subdued and honestly lyrical in his acceptance of Call Me by Your Name's one Oscar, proving that he's great at more than just writing speeches in scripts but in reality too... And then Jordan Peele won! And I screamed in joy! I had expected Greta Gerwig to be the upset in this category, but this was just as awesome, if not slightly more so, as the first African-American screenwriter to win this award! He may be one of the few filmmakers to actively thank the audience for going to see his film; it was our pleasure, sir! Gary Oldman had a lovely moment himself, paying tribute to his 99-years-young mother, asking her to 'put the kettle on', that was wonderful. Allison Janney could have stopped at 'I did it all by myself' and I would have unquestionably believed her, that was awesome. Rachel Shanton signing during her speech on behalf of her young star, what a wonderful way to represent her. Coco winning Best Animated Film, and the music being cut off just in time to allow Robert Lopez to pay tribute to his mother, amazing- Stop me now or I'll drown!

The winners that I got wrong were all pretty well-deserved in their own right. It probably counts as an accomplishment that Blade Runner 2049 won both Visual Effects and the long overdue Cinematography for Roger Deakins. Those two often go together, but it gives that film which not a lot of people saw in theatres a lot of well-deserved validation...

...

I guess that's the only one that I hadn't yet mentioned, so I'll just move on by saying, the rest of the ceremony was very entertaining too!

Now I will be fair, I did not get to hear all of Kimmel's punchlines during the evening, as I was too busy trying to think of my own jokes on Twitter, but I will continue to say this, he is absolutely a natural host for this show. The jet-ski skit was an amusing addition to the show, and hey, it went to the one award-winner from my favourite movie of the year, Phantom Thread! Nice job, Mark Bridges, you got something extra! What's more, though, the 'prank' this year, with the film-going audience and thanking them for going to the movies, that was friggin' awesome! It compensates for the bit of awkwardness that happened last year with the random bus tour, and it made the night feel so optimistic and friendly, which was a very good counterpoint to all the other very important statements that were made during the ceremony.

As expected, this was a very political evening, a potent reminder of the events of last year regarding female representation and the outing of Harvey Weinstein. There were so many very good moments of tribute, including the montage to the 'trail-blazers' of Hollywood, and those spectacular introductions to every single acting category! I want that editor's job so much, because they are absolutely boss! Emma Stone's got some serious spunk based on her line, 'These four men and Greta Gerwig'! YEAH! Also, if the Academy wants to do themselves some good next year, I have two suggestions... or three, just so that I can be fair to all of them: either hire Kumail Nanjiani... or Tiffany Haddish and Maya Rudolph as next year's host! They're all amazing presenters, they're hilarious, they gave life to the ceremony while also being very frank about current events, they'd do a great job next year! Make it happen!!!

I have been satisfied. There's nothing else that needs to be done. I do not need to win a ballot this year, because everything feels somehow right with the universe. It was a tense night for some time, but I can say that every winner for the year 2017 earned their piece and made their time to say what they needed to damn well worth it.

Now all that needs to happen is Nolan, Anderson and Gerwig tie for whatever they do next... how likely its that at this moment? Eh, it don't matter.

I'll see you in the coming year folks! Spread the love to each other!

"Inclusion rider!"