Spectator’s Arts and Entertainment department shares their thoughts about this year's Oscars.

In a move that surprised no one, Timothée Chalamet did not win his category at the Oscars last night. This was after his controversial statement regarding ballet and opera, in which he referred to them as dying art forms. His loss at the Oscars may or may not have been influenced by this, but what is certain is that many cheered Chalamet’s loss to Michael B. Jordan, particularly art enthusiasts who didn’t appreciate his snarky remark. In fact, Marty Supreme, the movie for which Chalamet’s performance was nominated, didn’t win any of its nine nominations. Perhaps Chalamet is at fault and requires further PR training.

- Maggie Miao

The Oscars last night featured a shocking tie in the best live action short film category, with the two winners being “The Singers” and “Two People Exchanging Saliva.” At the Oscars, everybody—the audience, the announcer, and especially the nominees—expects a single winner. So, when the results show two winners, are they both expected to feel fulfilled? Should ties even be allowed? Despite the initial confusion, the announcer, Kumail Nanjiani, handled the situation well, assuring the audience he was “not joking,” urging them to “calm down,” and even making the comical remark that it was “ironic that the short film Oscar is going to take twice as long.”

- Kaity So

I am LIVID. The quality of acting by Michael B. Jordan is nowhere near the level of Timothée or DiCaprio, for that matter. The fact that he plays two characters is immaterial because he played them in a mediocre manner. He is hardly the protagonist of his own film. I’ll concede that Sinners deserves the award for best casting, but Jordan is sidelined by the sublime personalities of relatively unknown actors in his film. Conversely, Timothée is the soul of his film; his arc and self-destructive personality are far more memorable than Jordan’s twins. He encapsulates American individualism in the best way possible. He lost because of politics. In the most quintessential, Marty Mauser way, he missed his shot because of his own mishegoss. At least “Golden” won.

- Oscar Scribner

The fact that Marty Supreme won zero of its nine nominations is honestly very predictable after Chalamet’s comments. If anything, the loss only serves as a reminder of the “cancel culture” we seem to inhabit and how powerful one wrong sentence can be. While his comments from February were quite ignorant, the Oscars only continued the backlash. It also sent a message to the entire industry that you can be put down instantly if you misspeak. Other than that, most of the show went about as normally as I expected, except for the tie between the two short films—that was interesting to see. Additionally, as a Korean-American myself, I was proud to see Korean influence on American society continuing to grow, with KPop Demon Hunters and “Golden” winning the Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song awards, respectively. Hopefully, this pattern of Korean recognition at the Oscars that started with Parasite in 2019 and Minari in 2021 will continue for years to come.

- Noah Choi

I thought the results for this year were pretty predictable overall. Though I haven’t watched it yet, Marty Supreme not winning any awards is disappointing yet unsurprising despite its generally positive reception; perhaps this incident is a reminder for everyone, especially public figures, to appreciate all forms of art, and to at the very least be more careful with their words. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Kpop Demon Hunters had won awards for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song, making it the first K-pop song to win an Oscar. It was a well-deserved win, given its popularity and undeniably amazing quality. It was odd that their speech was cut off, however. The movie also benefited from the fact that the nominees for both categories were relatively mild; even though I don’t doubt the quality of the other nominees, Kpop Demon Hunters was the obvious pick from popularity alone. I always love to see more Asian, especially Korean-American, representation in a pretty diverse global context like the Oscars. I hope to see it more in the future.

- Rachel Hong

It’s quite upsetting that One Battle After Another won as many categories as it did. It’s even more upsetting that it won Best Picture over Sinners. In a competition between two movies discussing racial violence and politics, one would think that One Battle After Another would attempt to portray its female characters as anything other than stereotypes instead of condemning them to the same fate society has. Instead, we receive a half-baked attempt at “depth,” and scenes that were supposed to show the difficulties of motherhood and enhance Perfidia’s character instead focus entirely on a closed door and the White father, with mediocre dialogue and an uninspired score. On the other hand, Sinners adeptly addresses Black exploitation and racialized tensions and contains a beautiful blues score. I mean, the scene of Pearline (Jayme Lawson) singing “Pale, Pale Moon” deserves every single award ever conceived.

- Sasha Silakov

Marty Supreme not winning a single one of its nine nominations is incredibly surprising. Yes, Timothée Chalamet made some very negative statements about ballet and theatre, but those comments only gained controversy after the voting period ended. Although Michael B. Jordan gave a memorable performance in Sinners, Chalamet embodied Marty Mauser’s character phenomenally in a way that not many other actors could. Not only that, but the movie was also nominated in several other categories that don’t relate to Timothée Chalamet, yet it didn’t win in any of those.

- Molly Gupta

Was Timothée harsh in his delivery? Yes. Was he also right? Yes. Michael B. Jordan is obviously an amazing actor who has done great work in many films (Creed, Black Panther, Sinners, etc). However, his win over Chalamet was completely undeserved; although he was great, Chalamet had a career-defining performance that brought so much life to Marty. Conan O’Brien was a great host who told some very funny jokes. This brought genuine levity to the show, making it feel less forced than last year’s with Jimmy Kimmel. Overall, the Oscars this year was definitely better, albeit very predictable and still plagued by the Academy’s issues.

- Kabir Madan

It's distasteful to be arguing that they picked Michael B. Jordan because he was the more DEI choice. If that were true, then it would not be the case that only six black men have ever won Best Actor in Oscars history. I also understand people's thoughts about the Oscars choosing the safer option of Jordan over Chalamet in light of the latter’s recent comments, but if that was true, why wouldn’t they pick DiCaprio or even Ethan Hawke? Jordan put on a performance informed by history, culture, and deep thought about his characters, and it showed. Timothée played another overly ambitious, self-obsessed white guy that viewers have seen in every action movie for the past 20 years. Timothée is the driving force of a great movie, and the fact that it received no accolades this award season is surprising, but “in the pursuit of greatness,” he can wait his turn and give Jordan his time to shine. Marty Mauser is such a stagnant and unlikeable character, especially compared to Jordan’s characters with their heart and soul. Showing such care and familial love towards another person is such an impressive feat, and Jordan pulled it off flawlessly.

- Stella Kubersky

While I would agree that it was not the best movie of the year objectively, my heart would have loved to see F1 win more. I really enjoyed that film and found it to be incredibly entertaining and well-made, so it wins for my own personal Academy Awards. That said, I think that Jessie Buckley certainly deserved Best Actress for Hamnet, though I will admit that I did not watch the other movies. Buckley’s performance held so much weight to it and was able to communicate life events so painful and taboo that they are not even spoken about in real life. KPop Demon Hunters winning Best Original Song and Best Animated Feature shows an impressive, new critical ceiling that popular foreign-influenced media is able to achieve in the US.

- Emi Shimada

Most people are debating things like who should have won Best Actor or Best Original Screenplay, but I think it might be interesting to shine a light on the musical side of things, since that is one of the most important parts of any movie. Best Original Score going to Ludwig Göransson for Sinners was a great choice in my opinion—his soundtrack for Sinners mixed his cinematic style very well with the southern tinge based on the movie's setting. And, of course, as much as I dislike the song, “Golden” winning Best Original Song is pretty monumental, as it is the first K-Pop song to do so in the history of the Oscars.

Riley Martin

Super upsetting that Marty Supreme didn’t win a single one of the awards that it was nominated for. The movie was hilarious, so unique, and not boring for even a moment. The characters are compelling and authentic, and Timothée Chalamet delivered one of the best performances we have ever seen from him, even if it wasn’t the emotional, heartwrenching acting of Beautiful Boy (which it often seems like is the only thing people want from Chalamet). I also think that playing two characters in one film (which many are saying is what was so incredible about Michael B. Jordan in Sinners) is not that impressive a feat. The technology has been out for a while: Dove Cameron did it in Liv and Maddie! Overall, I’m sure Sinners and the other films were great, but Marty Supreme was so New York and fantastic, and I would have liked to see it get its flowers.

- Mira Anant