This was the Oscar party that nearly wasn't - I really wasn't feeling it in the days leading up to the 97th Academy Awards. Despite my best intentions I had only seen two of the ten nominees for Best Picture, I was bummed about Denis Villenueve getting snubbed for a director nod for Dune Part 2, we'd had some bad family news earlier in the week and then Glory and Audrey were away visiting Oma this weekd so I was on my own for decorating and setup (not my forte!).
And to be clear, the setup is not a whole lot of work. I smoked a brisket for the meat course (17 hours, but it's not like you need to pay a whole lot of attention the whole time), and a delightful pot luck covers the food angle, and we recycle the decorations from year to year so there is little to no procurement involved. But the decorations are important, because without them, you aren't hosting a party, you are just watching tv with friends. So we did all the things we usually do.
A lot of surprises this year, and a few categories got blanked, with none of the guests correctly predicting a winner. Pete got the most correct predictions with nine, but Andrew's two correct guesses won him the draw for the movie tickets.
Pete also led the March of the Dead with seven and I was close behind with five, some of whom I had probasbly forgoteen I'd known about (Dabney Coleman, Roger Corman, M. Emmet Walsh, John Amos, Jon Landau (producer)).
And the moment people started arriving, I was glad I had overcome my reluctance. "Hearing that Pete and Ellen had watched six films this weekend, including a best picture nominee this wvery morning, filled me with joy. Celebrating movies is not only a worthwhile endeavour, it is a household tradition going on more than twenty years now.
A lot of us were gratified to see an indie film like Anora walk away with as many trophies as it did (Best Picture, Director, Actress, Adapted Screenplay and Editing), especially with so many people referring to it as 'strip club Cinderella'.
And there were some tremendous speeches again this year - not the laundry list of thank-yous, and not Adrien Brody's extended play, but the plea for peace in Gaza from the Israelis-Palestinian filmmakers of No Other Land, or Sean Baker (Anora) pleading for more commitment to seeing movies in and making movies for big screens. Even Conan O'Brien's mock ad for "CinemaStream - a building designed for streaming films" touched on this.
So yes, despite not really having a dog in the fight this year, I am glad I watched and even gladder to have a group of movie-fan friends willing to come and watch with us!
