Stuart Heritage
Twelve awards left. We can do this.
Gwilym Mumford
Sixteenth time unlucky for Diane Warren, whose first Oscar nomination came in 1987 for Mannequin. She’ll surely be back next year with another best song nominee though. Meanwhile, two hours into the ceremony, and Emilia Perez, which everyone assumed was doomed, currently has the joint most Oscar wins! Admittedly with only two, alongside Anora.
El Mal wins best song
Stuart Heritage
That’s the song from Emilia Pérez, which means that the film has now two Oscars, which is two more than you would have thought. The speech ends with the winners singing the word Emilia over and over again; one of them very enthusiastically, the other one so unenthusiastically that he looked like he’d rather die than participate. I might be wrong, but they might have also been played off. What an absolute dog’s dinner. More of this please.
Gwilym Mumford
As Zoe Williams points out in her piece on why Wicked should win best picture, 9m tulips were sourced and planted for the film’s opening scene. By a Norfolk tulip farmer no less. That’s the lengths you need to go to to win best production design – up your game, fellow nominees!
Stuart Heritage
Jagger is presenting best song. Usually the best song nominees are performed at the Oscars, but this year that hasn’t happened, because they needed to fill 45 minutes with people singing Thunderball or whatever. It’s a weird choice. Not even in the nominee film are they really letting us hear the song.
Stuart Heritage
Mick Jagger gets a standing ovation, which is probably more than the winner of his award will get. This is followed by several minutes of Jagger’s observational standup comedy. Hulu viewers, be thankful for your technical difficulties.
Wicked wins best production design
Stuart Heritage
Production designer Nathan Crowley and set decorator Lee Sandales take the stage and are very nice to Jon M Chu and the cast. It’s a brief, brisk speech. This might be because Mick Jagger is presenting the next award.
Stuart Heritage
Ben Stiller is here, doing a jokey bit like he used to 20 years ago. He’s praising production designers while trapped in a hole. And to think, he could have spent that time singing a James Bond theme.
Gwilym Mumford
Zoe Saldaña again avoided mentioning Karla Sofía Gascón during her awards speech – the only nod she’s given to her co-star since the emergence of those tweets was at the Baftas. Saldaña’s awards season campaign has been a masterclass in careful distancing.
Zoe Saldaña wins best supporting actress
Stuart Heritage
“Mommy!” she weeps immediately after taking the stage. This isn’t an unexpected win – it was probably the most guaranteed of the night – and Saldaña is making the most of it. She’s crying. She tells her husband that he hung the moon. She cries again. She makes a statement about immigration. She cries again. Is this the best acceptance speech we’ve seen tonight? No, but it is certainly the most acceptance speech.
