Women and feminist proclamations shone today at the Oscars, prizes without great surprises that served Hollywood to redeem themselves for the countless sexual scandals in their midst and to forget the embarrassing mistake of last year’s ceremony.
Entertaining, but without being very funny or spectacular, and political, although without powerful speeches that go down in history, the 90th edition of the Oscars had a predictable record and yielded its focus of attention to women, after movements such as “Me Too “(Me too) or” Time’s Up “(Time is up) have shouted against machismo and claimed equality.
Frances McDormand, Oscar for best actress for “Three ads in the suburbs”, left one of the most exciting moments of the night when she asked all the Oscar-nominated women to stand up.
“We all have stories to tell and projects that need funding, but do not talk to us (of that) at tonight’s parties, invite us to your offices in a couple of days or you can come to ours, which you prefer,” he said. the most acclaimed speech of the evening.
Four female stars such as Jane Fonda, Helen Mirren, Jennifer Lawrence and Jodie Foster presented the awards for best actor and best actress.
The usual thing is that the Oscar winner for best actor delivered the best actress the following year, but Casey Affleck, winner in 2017 for “Manchester versus the sea”, renounced this tradition in the face of protests over an old case of sexual harassment.
“It’s a new day in Hollywood with challenges for all of us, but nobody will ever forget those that came before us, those that opened the way for my generation and those who come behind,” said Lawrence.
Emma Stone, who presented the Oscar for best director for Guillermo del Toro, praised in her presentation the only woman nominated: “These four men and Greta Gerwig created masterpieces this year.”
In addition, Salma Hayek, Ashley Judd and Annabella Sciorra, three victims of sexual harassment by Harvey Weinstein, claimed the “Me Too” movement.
“The changes we are seeing are led by powerful new voices, different voices, and uniting is a wonderful chorus to finally say that the time (of the abuses) is over,” said Sciorra.
Jimmy Kimmel, who returned as master of ceremonies to the Oscars, took advantage of his congratulations to Del Toro and “The form of water” to address sexual scandals.
“Thanks to Guillermo we will remember forever this year as the year in which the men shit so much that the women started to go out with fish,” he said.
“The world is watching us, we have to set an example,” Kimmel said, in a more serious tone, saying that “Me Too” and “Time’s Up” are achieving “a positive change”.
With a very baroque decor and full of brightness at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, the Oscars played the trick of nostalgia for their 90 years in a gala in which the videos abounded recalling milestones of the seventh art.
Less incisive and inspired than in 2017, Kimmel hit a joke by taking stars like Gal Gadot or Emily Blunt to surprise viewers who were enjoying a movie at a nearby movie theater.
“When you hear your name, do not get up immediately, give us a minute, we do not want another ‘thing’,” Kimmel said, referring to the unfortunate colophon of last year, when “La La Land” was declared the Oscar winner for best film despite that, in reality, “Moonlight” was the winner.
The Oscars were also in charge of redeeming Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, who returned this year to announce the Oscar for best film.
“It’s a great pleasure to see you again,” commented Beatty wryly, who, when Del Toro went up to pick up the Oscar for best film for “The Water’s Way,” urged him to verify that, in effect, his name was in The cardboard.
And a hero of “Star Wars” as Mark Hamill showed his comic when opening an envelope to unveil one of the winners: “Do not say ‘La La Land’, do not say ‘La La Land'”.
Respect for immigrants was also a central theme of the night.
“I am an immigrant, like Alfonso (Cuarón), like Alejandro (González Iñárritu), like my compadres and like many of you,” Del Toro said.
“The best thing about our art is that it erases the lines in the sand, we have to keep doing that when the world tells us to make them deeper,” the filmmaker added.
“To all the ‘dreamers’ (dreamers) out there, we are with you,” said Lupita Nyong’o, a Kenyan actress born in Mexico, and Kumail Nanjiani, originally from Pakistan, as a sign of support for the “dreamers”, the hundreds of thousands of undocumented youth who came to the US of children and that depend on the protection of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
And Rachel Shenton, winner along with Chris Overton of the Oscar to the best short film for “The Silent Child”, gave shape to a tender moment when pronouncing her speech in sign language as a tribute to deaf children. David Villafranca.
