Johnny Deadline: Random Notes on the 2025 Oscars

 by JB

The Oscars were... interesting this year. Entertaining. Frustrating. Why should this year be any different?

1) The show began with a Wizard of Oz medley, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” from the 1939 film, “Home,” from The Wiz, and “Defying Gravity” from Wicked. This opening number made you believe that someone put some thought into this; it wasn’t just dumb, as the ceremonies’ opening numbers often are. It gave all the tens of thousands of theater kids in the nation exactly what they had tuned in for. Also, starting off with Ariana was probably good for ratings, don’t you think?

2) Conan appeared out of Demi Moore’s back fissure after she took the substance. This was icky good. He wound up going back in for his shoe. I thought Conan’s monologue was pretty pedestrian, but thought the John Lithgow joke was gold. Conan explained that winners going over time this year would not be played off by the orchestra, they would simply cut to Lithgow in the audience looking disappointed. The camera then cut to Lithgow, who did not disappoint. My wife reports that the cutaway to Lithgow has already become a meme.

3) Conan then performed a brief production number titled “I Won’t Waste Time,” which should have been cut because the show would later need these four minutes so it wouldn’t go 45 minutes over time. Hulu simulcast the Awards with ABC, but apparently no one told Hulu the show traditionally goes over time. My friends watching on Hulu report the feed cut off promptly at 9:30pm CST, right in the middle of Sean Baker’s Best Director acceptance speech. Their screens just went blank. Classy, Hulu.

4) Robert Downey Jr presented the award for Best Supporting Actor and continued last year’s innovation of talking about each of the nominees before announcing the award. I liked it last year, and I liked it this year. Oddly, as the show fell further and further behind, they dropped this for both Best Actor and Best Actress.

5) Kieran Culkin’s story about asking his wife for another child was one of the best speeches of the night.

6) At this point, the Academy had managed to give out a total of one award in 30 minutes… It was going to be a long night.

7) Thirty-seven minutes in, Flow won Best Animated Feature, making our own Rob DiChristino a very happy man.

8) An hour and five minutes into the proceedings, Anora wins its first Oscar, Sean Baker for Best Original Screenplay.

9) An hour and twenty minutes into the proceedings, The Substance wins its ONLY Oscar of the evening, for Best Makeup, continuing the Academy’s near-century long bias against horror films.

10) The James Bond Tribute was eight minutes the broadcast could have used at the end. Just ask Hulu.

11) An hour and twenty minutes into the proceedings, Anora wins its second Oscar, Best Editing for Sean Baker.

12) Is this the first year where none of Best Song nominees were performed? We were told to go to a website to see the nominees. I would gladly have sacrificed 1) half of Conan’s monologue, 2) his “I Won’t Waste Time” bit, and 3) the James Bond medley in order to hear the nominated songs during the ceremony.

13) Ben Stiller was one of the best presenters. His (very funny) Best Production Design bit was a highlight of the evening.

14) At this point in the proceedings, the Academy had given out a total of twelve awards in two hours. Sigh.

15) Two hours and eight minutes into the proceedings, No Other Land won Best Documentary Feature, one of the few winners in this category to never be shown theatrically in the United States. It doesn’t have a distributor.

16) Two hours and twenty-two minutes into the proceedings, Dune Part Two wins for Best Sound Design and Best Visual Effects.

17) Having California Wildfire First Responders tell jokes with which Conan was uncomfortable was a funny bit.

18) I was wondering if the Academy was going to have enough time to add Gene Hackman to the “In Memoriam” montage, but I needn’t have worried. Morgan Freeman prefaced the annual segment with a heartfelt tribute to Hackman. This year’s montage was very moving.

19) Two hours and fifty minutes into the proceedings, Lol Crawley wins Best Cinematography for The Brutalist. I think he deserved this simply for reviving Vista-Vision to shoot this fine film! Look it up.

20) Nothing against Quincy Jones, but his eight-minute tribute was time the broadcast needed at the end. Just ask Hulu.

21) Three hours and seventeen minutes into the proceedings, and Adrian Brody’s eleven-minute acceptance speech would have worked better as an e-mail.

22) Sean Baker wins Best Director for Anora, and asks, “Where did we fall in love with the movies? The theater.” Thanks, Sean.

23) Mikey Madison wins Best Actress in an upset for Anora, ensuring that Frederic March and Anthony Hopkins would be the only two actors in almost a hundred years of Oscar to win for a horror film. Damnit.

24) Three hours and forty minutes into the proceedings, presenters Billy Crystal & Meg Ryan make Anora’s triumph complete. It wins Best Picture. Hulu subscribers are apparently still shaking their heads and wondering which film won the prize.

25) I live in Southern California now, so I was able to watch the Oscars live at 4pm. The red carpet show started at noon! Then, at around 9pm, ABC re-ran it, so I got to watch it again. Lucky me.