Apologies for posting this blank earlier today. Am updating it now.

I will be live blogging during the Academy Awards tonight as I have been for a few years.

Red Carpet

Started watching red carpet coverage starting at 4. It’s been a long time since I watched it this early.

Liking Laverne Cox on the carpet and Christian Siriano’s panel.

Ceremony

This year’s plan to bring out former winners to announce nominees is really great.

It’s spectacular to see Mary Steenburgen and Rita Moreno there.

Da’Vine Joy-Randolph’s award was most well deserved indeed and that speech was spectacular.

All the animated shorts should be viewed. War is Over won for messaging and love of the Beatles, but it wasn’t the best film by any means.

Jimmy Kimmel is in full dad-joke mode this year.

ANATOMY OF A FALL!!! Hell, yeah!

Cord Jefferson’s speech is espousing what I’ve wanted from the studios for twenty years.

I was thinking earlier today how awesome it is that John Cena seems up for anything based on his new Amazon movie and now he does the naked bit on the Oscars. 🤣😂😅😂🤣🤣😅🤣

Gonna be hard to top Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling’s patter before the stunt montage.

RDJ’s speeches this season have been great.

I haven’t seen Michael Keaton’s reprise of Batman but the Oscars might have provided something better.

The Last Repair Shop is a lovely and moving documentary that is streaming on Disney+. Watch it.

20 Days in Mariupol is next on my tough-watch must-see documentary list.

If Bert Sugar is your thing it’s on Netflix. It’s very much not mine, I suggest you seek out the other nominees.

Unusual for a non-action movie to get a Best Sound award but I don’t dislike it. It should happen more often.

OK, “I’m Just Ken” was worth the wait.

Billie Eilish and company sneaking by the Academy president is one of the better moments of the night.

Conclusion

Posts were admittedly a bit light this year because of a small viewing party I had. Thought it was a good show overall.

There actually was some drama because while Oppenheimer winning was not a surprise, the trajectory of the winners didn’t make that seem like an entirely sure thing.

The moment was a bit deflating due to Al Pacino’s slight fumble on the reading of the envelope, though.

For Short Film Saturday for most of the coming year I will revisit the animated shorts that were presented in snippets by the King of Cartoons on Pee-Wee’s Playhouse. And here you’ll get to see the whole thing.

I’ve written about both these things in passing if not in a dedicated post that are linked in my mind. They’re two of my newer cinematic traditions that occur as the year winds down that don’t just allow me to slow down for a minute and reflect, but demand it. One is the TCM Remembers video which is always graceful, respectful, inclusive and omits the postmortem popularity contest of the applause at the Academy Awards In Memoriam the other is Criterion’s gift of room tone. The “Remembers” video is self explanatory. For those unaware, room tone is the practice of recording the tone while of a space in order to smooth out potential audio issues in post. Everyone is quiet, but no space is truly silent and that natural tone is what filmmakers need. Recording room tone always struck me as the most meditative practice on a film set and a short video of it to watch and listen to it is quite soothing.

So here are both the aforementioned 2023 videos.

Criterion Room Tone 2023.