5 takeaways from the Oscars

The 90th Academy Awards were held Sunday night in Los Angeles. The Daily Orange Screen Time columnists offer five takeaways from the prestigious awards ceremony.

Biggest surprise

Erik Benjamin: Quite frankly, the biggest surprise was the lack of surprises! Usually there’s a major upset or two at the Oscars, but this year everything essentially fell into place the way we expected. The most surprising development was probably Jordan Peele’s win for Best Original Screenplay for “Get Out.”

The most pleasant surprise, though, was the focus given towards the movements of today. They were apolitical and rather classy.

Mike O’Connor: “Blade Runner 2049” taking the award for Best Visual Effects was a pleasant surprise. The film I expected to win this award was “War for the Planet of the Apes,” the third installment in a franchise that has been breaking special effects barriers for the last half a decade.

Another “Blade Runner” win last night was Roger Deakins’ long overdue and much-deserved award for cinematography. Yet another great surprise was Jordan Peele taking the prize for Best Original Screenplay for “Get Out.”

Most predictable

E.B.: Again, these Oscars were pretty in line with everyone’s expectations, especially in the acting races where these winners were essentially locked up since December. While I felt the winners were all deserving, I felt the telecast as a whole was rather predictable and unexciting. This will be a well-remembered Oscars for the progress made — but, as a show, it was certainly unmemorable despite host Jimmy Kimmel’s best efforts.

M.O.: “Phantom Thread” was, as expected, incredibly under-represented this Oscars. However, it was nice to see the film at least receive the much-deserved award for Best Costume Design.

Other expected recognitions were Gary Oldman and Frances McDormand receiving Best Actor in a Leading Role and Best Actress in a Leading Role, respectively.

Up-and-coming entertainment figure we’ll see more of

E.B.: This year’s Oscars were so exciting because not only were the represented films really groundbreaking, but there’s so much to expect from this group.

“Get Out” was Jordan Peele’s first film. Greta Gerwig is just getting started. Timothée Chalamet is only 22. Sam Rockwell was basically an unknown, and is now an Oscar winner.

M.O.: The obvious standout at this year’s Oscars was Timothée Chalamet. Though he didn’t walk away with the award for Best Actor, this young talent was all over the screens at this year’s awards. He is, as Matthew McConaughey said on the red carpet before the awards began, “here to stay.”

Also, now that Guillermo del Toro is officially a multi-Oscar winner, we can look for many more enchanting films to come out of this incredibly original filmmaker.

What do the winners indicate about future trends in movies?

E.B.: These Oscars were all about inclusion. Not just for women, but for all minorities and different groups, including sexually active fish.

I think the trend from this year’s Oscars is celebrating not just a specific type of movie for a specific audience, but all sorts of films spanning various genres and populations.

M.O.: The obvious trend this Oscars was a strong representation for women. The night of celebration for the new and existing host of female artists came to a head with Frances McDormand’s powerful speech.

Guillermo del Toro winning Best Director and “Coco” taking the award for Best Animated Feature Film were also both huge steps for Mexican culture and history in cinema.

Any other final thoughts?

E.B.: These Oscars were no doubt a cultural landmark, especially in terms of representation. I appreciated the parity among the winners, showing that this year had many great films instead of one truly outstanding one.

However, I do think it was a bit of a letdown of a telecast. Kimmel was really subdued, as funny as he was, with minimal memorable moments outside of some good speeches. The show dragged a bit, and though less is often more, I could have used more tonight.

M.O.: This Oscars, like it or not, was a milestone (with) so many great moments where we witnessed barriers of all kinds being torn down. The academy and cinema as a whole are better because of this year’s awards.

Erik Benjamin is a senior television, radio and film major. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at ebenjami@syr.edu and followed on Twitter @cokezeriksugar.

Michael O’Connor is a freshman television, radio and film major. His column appears biweekly. He can be reached at moconn03@syr.edu.