What was with that bizarre Oscar ending? – KIRO 7 Information Seattle

The 93rd annual Academy Awards have always been a bit surreal this year.

The pandemic changed many of the usual rhythms and traditions of the Oscars on Sunday night. There was a glamorous red carpet, but no spectators or teams of publicists. There were personal winners without a mask, but not in the usual order, and the speeches were never drowned out by play-off music.

The differences this year were compounded by a television show controlled by producers Steven Soderbergh, Jesse Collins, and Stacy Sher that wanted a new look for an often cumbersome, persistently immutable ceremony.

But what about that ending? How staged was Glenn Close’s dance? And where, oh where, was the play-off music? Here is my best attempt at answering some of the nocturnal confusions.

THE END – WHY?

The Oscars have seen more dramatic and shambolic endings (“Envelopegate” was just four years ago), but this may have set a new bar for anti-climactic measures. You would swear someone even played a sad trumpet.

On Sunday, the show’s producers said they wanted to “take a few big turns” on the show. It turned out that the normal order of awards was changed. The best director, usually one of the final awards, was given out in the middle of the show. The best picture was the penultimate and the last two awards of the evening were best actress and best actor. Probably the thought was that best actor would go to Chadwick Boseman (he won practically every trophy for best actor leading up to the Oscars). and thus end the ceremony with a meaningful tribute.

But there had been indications of a surprise. Two weeks earlier, Anthony Hopkins won the BAFTAs, an award he was also absent for – though the show managed to track him down in his native Wales to speak to the BAFTA press. The Oscars had urged nominees to attend if possible or to join from a remote location. But 83-year-old Hopkins (who won an Oscar for the oldest actor, his second) chose not to travel to Los Angeles or the London hub. Chivalrous living legends who love the Welsh countryside can do that. It wasn’t until the next morning that Sir Anthony posted an Instagram thank you video and a few words about the late Boseman with a bucolic outlook. “When I was 83, I didn’t expect to receive his award, I really didn’t,” he said.

Posthumous Oscars are also hard to come by. There’s a reason it has only happened twice to actors (Peter Finch and Heath Ledger) so far. To some voters, it may seem like a wasted vote as the award winner is not there to accept it. And one of the longest Oscar seasons ever (the ceremony was postponed by two months) may have lost momentum for Boseman, who passed away last August. Some may feel that he’s already been honored by previous awards like the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild Awards. Perhaps Thursday’s Independent Spirit Awards heralded Riz Ahmed (“Sound of Metal”) over Boseman.

The Oscars didn’t always end in the best picture, but it’s been over 40 years since any other category lasted. Even the best picture winners, who usually end the show with trophies, hadn’t expected it.

“It was certainly a surprise,” Nomadland producer Dan Janvey told reporters behind the scenes. “I think a lot of us grew up watching the Oscars and I got used to it being the last.”

But on Sunday the Switcheroo category culminated in an absent winner and a strange finale on the empty stage – a fitting ending to a thoroughly strange year of film.

WHERE WAS THE PLAY-OFF MUSIC?

No snark was part of this year’s Oscars mandate, Sher said. From top to bottom, the show was a heartfelt celebration of the cinema and the evening’s nominees. The introductions were lengthy and detailed. And when the winners clutched their Oscars, they were given more leeway. Not once did music director Questlove turn up the music. This was partly because the show had more time. The best song nominees’ performances were taped and broadcast on the red carpet during the preshow, meaning the show – which also featured few comedy bits – was not in a race. That went along with the overall tone of the show: Seriously celebrating the art and craft of filmmaking. Soderbergh noted ahead of the show that talent in front of the camera was only a fraction of a movie set.

WHY DOES FRANCES HAVE MCDORMAND HOWL?

“We give this to our wolf,” said McDormand and accepted the award for the best picture for “Nomadland”. McDormand, producer and star of Chloé Zhao’s film, let a howl that might hint at her nomadic, lone wolf character arise in a melancholy, open-road tale about the basic needs of life. But McDormand’s howl was more clearly poignant as a way to honor Michael Wolf Snyder, the film’s production mixer, who died in March at the age of 35. “Howling at the moon is for Wolf,” Zhao told the press. McDormand previously said of Snyder in a statement to Variety: “Wolf recorded our heartbeat. Every breath we breathed. To me, he’s ‘nomad land’.”

WHY DOES THE SHOW LOOK DIFFERENT?

For the broadcast, Soderbergh designed a film with opening credits (the cast were moderators), a seductive opening tracking recording with Regina King and all the technical aspects of the film. That included a letterbox format with a frame rate of 24 instead of the typical TV rates of 30 or 60. Whatever you thought of the show, it had to be the best looking Oscars in years.

WAS THE DANCE INCREASED BY CLOSE UP?

Of course it was. Close did her best to suggest her knowledge of Experience Unlimited’s “Da Butt” (in Spike Lee’s “School Daze”), but Lil Rel Howery admitted during the post-show that her music trivia bit had been discussed earlier on The Still, 74-year-old Close is ready to boogie shortly after losing an Oscar for the eighth time – a record for live performers.

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Follow AP film writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP

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For full coverage of this year’s Oscars, please visit: https://apnews.com/hub/academy-awards