As the Oscars are still sparkling in my brain, and I’m trying to avoid all the opinions online about who-should-have or who-should-not-have won this-or-that-award that could ruin the experience for me lol. I just love everything about the celebration of movies! Cinema has saved and inspired my life time and time again, and watching the Oscars every year gives me so much respect for the people who dedicate their life to their artistic craft.
I already mentioned A Complete Unknown last week, so this Monday’s mood board is going to be about some of my other favourite Oscar nominees and winners!
I couldn’t stop recommending Flow as soon as I watched it, so Latvia’s first ever Oscar win (for best Animated Feature Film) made me the happiest of the night! When director Gints Zibalodis said in his acceptance speech “Remember: we’re all in the same boat.” I started bawling of course haha. Also EXTRA excited when host Conan O’Brien called out Estonia afterwards (TWICE!): “The ball’s in your court, Estonia!” (For those readers who don’t know, I’m half Estonian, so any mention of our tiny country makes me light up.)
I LOVED Sing Sing!!! I don’t want to spoil anything but please please please if you love acting you will LOVE this movie! I wanted to head off to an acting class as soon as I saw it, and I was crying throughout the film (in a good way lol). It’s based on a real story and they used some of the ex-prisoners who were part of the actual troupe!
Watching Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande so relaxed in their red carpet interviews and then LITERALLY MINUTES LATER sing flawlessly in the opening act on the Oscar’s main stage made my jaw drop. Talk about PROFESSIONALS! IMO Cynthia Erivo needs more applause for the fact that she put on an accent and sang LIVE while doing STUNTS (and wearing fabulous costumes- congrats Paul Tazewell😭🙏🏻❤️) in Wicked!!! Also fun fact: Even though my scene got cut, my first ever acting credit in a movie was for Needle in a Timestack with Cynthia!
The locations and set dec and obviously (they won) cinematography for The Brutalist was exquisite! Every shot could’ve been saved on my pinterest boards, but I think the images that are most memorable for me were the ones in the diner, Carrara, and the library. Did any stick out in your mind? Also congrats Adrien Brody for a much deserved win and heartfelt speech!
Anora was one of my favourites, but I was SO surprised it got so many wins! The thing I loved most was how the first half of the film was a whirlwind (so dreamy and fun with Anora on her best behaviour!) going on for a little longer than the traditional good vibes of a “first act”, and then the second half had such realistic dialogue and pacing- with this change were brought back down to reality just like the titular protagonist. Also YES to Sean Baker for encouraging us to support indie films in movie theatres! It really does make us all feel more connected to humanity when we experience a movie all together at the same time!
The aesthetics of The Substance are a delight and I was so happy to see a horror film that wasn’t focused on being ‘scary’ in the traditional sense! It was so clever but at the same time never took itself too seriously. The metaphors and imagery will be talked about for years to come for sure. I can’t wait to see the Halloween costumes for it this year!
I’m going to end with the only film that was on my must-see list that I haven’t gotten to yet but can already tell I’ll like: I’m Still Here which won for Best International Feature Film! It’s Carnival in Brazil right now, so apparently they celebrated hard for their first Oscar win! What’s really made me want to watch this film was actually the lead Fernanda Torres and directer Walter Salles’ pure joy and kindness in all of their interviews. If two people with those vibes made a movie, you know there has to be a good story waiting. AND! Torres’ mother Fernanda Montenegro was also in the film and nominated for an Oscar previously for Salles’ other film Central Station! Time for me to go on a Walter Salles binge-marathon I think…
That’s all for this week✨! Did you get around to watching all the nominees or are there still any on your to-see list?
Here are my opinions nobody asked for: Flow was fantastic (Badger loved to watch it), I'm Still Here was magnificent and I'm devastated that she didn't win best actress because she deserved it and I also wanted a fellow Brazilian and woman named Fernanda to make Oscar history. Believe it or not, I still haven't watched the Substance I think Colin watched it while I was on one of my trips last year. Brutalist was my favorite, Anora was good but don't think it deserved most of the awards it received, and we started to watch Wicked last night and it's unbearably bad I'm surprised--THAT being said, those two girls can SING! Such talent.
Here are my opinions nobody asked for: Flow was fantastic (Badger loved to watch it), I'm Still Here was magnificent and I'm devastated that she didn't win best actress because she deserved it and I also wanted a fellow Brazilian and woman named Fernanda to make Oscar history. Believe it or not, I still haven't watched the Substance I think Colin watched it while I was on one of my trips last year. Brutalist was my favorite, Anora was good but don't think it deserved most of the awards it received, and we started to watch Wicked last night and it's unbearably bad I'm surprised--THAT being said, those two girls can SING! Such talent.