And the Oscar for most boring Academy Awards ceremony goes to: 2021! Congratulations! For a year full of boring and lackluster award shows, this year’s Oscars presentation outshone them all! Even with all of the star power found within the show’s presenters, this year’s award show was an amazing snorefest. Sure, we knew that it was going to be different than normal, but man, could they have made it any boring-er? Everything you love about the Oscars – gone! No host, no opening number and no music performances. Surprise reactions? None. Live music? Nope – just a D.J. Lots of chatter by various celebrities and endless award speeches? Plenty.

Steven Soderbergh promised that this year’s award show would look more like a movie than an award show. Really? Moving the camera around while a person speaks is hardly like a movie experience. Maybe a documentary. A really long, boring documentary. For a production made by people in the entertainment industry, there was little entertaining to be found here tonight.

I will say, that this year’s show was definitely more sophisticated than previous presentations and it did offer some nice touches and some surprising moments. It will take a long time for Daniel Kaluuya to live down talking about his parent’s sex life during his acceptance speech for Actor in a Supporting Role. Yuh-Jung Youn, winner of the Actress in a Supporting Role award, was just adorable during her acceptance speech. Glenn Close twerking was … interesting. Honestly though, the best part of this year’s Oscars were the commercials – and we can see them anytime. Some of the speeches went on for what seem liked forever while ironically, the names of the people featured during the memoriam were flashed on the screen so quickly it was nearly impossible to read them.

In a weird change of pace, the Best Picture award winner (Nomadland) was handed out before the Leading Role Actress and Actor. While I am happy that Anthony Hopkins won for Best Actor, he wasn’t there to accept the award, which made the night even more anti-climatic. And that was it. (Heavy sigh.)

And the winners were:

Actor in a Leading Role: Frances McDormand, Nomadland
Actor in a Supporting Role: Daniel Kaluuya / Judas and the Black Messiah
Actress in a Leading Role: Anthony Hopkins / The Father
Actress in a Supporting Role: Yuh-Jung Youn, Minari
Animated Feature Film: Soul
Short Film (Animated): If Anything Happens, I Love You
Short Film (Live Action): Two Distant Strangers
Cinematography: Mank
Costume Design: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Sound: Sound of Metal
Visual Effects: Tenet
Writing (Adapted Screenplay): The Father
Writing (Original Screenplay): Promising Young Woman
International Feature Film: Another Round
Documentary (Feature): My Octopus Teacher
Documentary (Short Subject): Colette
Film Editing: Sound of Metal
Makeup and Hairstyling: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Music (Original Score): Soul
Music (Original Song): “Fight for You” from Judas and the Black Messiah
Production Design: Mank
Directing: Chloe Zhao, Nomadland
Best Picture: Nomadland