Oscars 2020 - Surprises Galore

After a one-year hiatus, it felt good to host our Oscars party once again, and it turned out to be a great night to be watching with friends.

I only got 9 predictions right out of 24 (compared to Totty who led with 14, or Earl, who outscored us all from his home with an astonishing 20), but watching Bong Joon Ho's Parasite become the first foreign-language film ever to win Best Picture was truly exhilarating. Especially since we only watched it the night before. (It's a great but intense film - watch it before someone spoils it for you!)

The party itself was a lot of fun, as usual. Glory outdid herself getting all the decorations set up, and the dessert-heavy pot luck table was well-received by everyone.

Pete generously loaned us his kegerator again, and the Buena Vista Brown from Alley Kat was also a welcome addition to the festivities.

Most importantly, it was wonderful to have friends old and new take a night of tv-viewing and turn it into a wonderful occasion celebrating our appreciation of cinema.

Sadly, I "won" our March of the Dead drinking game, having recognized 8 names from the "In Memoriam" roll and not realized they were dead:

Diahann Caroll
Danny Aiello
Barry Malki
Robert Evans
Andre Previn
Franco Zeffirelli
Branko Lustig (one of the best Oscar speeches I've seen!)
John Singleton

Pete was close behind with 7, but dang! I either need to stop reading credits or start paying more attention to the obituary notices in the L.A. Times and Variety.

With the growing influence of online Oscar prognosticators like GoldDerby.com et al, we have moved away from a "most correct guesses" model for our prize, so now each correct prediction gets you a raffle ticket. You only need one to win, but Totty's 14 gave him the edge and he picked up the movie tickets!

I'd also printed up some Oscar Bingo cards but we failed to get a winner this way, so a second draw saw Pete walk away with the 2020 Preview issue of Total Film Magazine.

Once again, the lack of a host for the telecast saw things finish up at a reasonable hour, but needing some time to absorm the damage from March of the Dead, the night ran a little late anyhow.