LOS ANGELES — Jimmy Kimmel got the 90th Academy Awards underway with an opening monologue that mixed Harvey Weinstein punchlines with earnest comments about reforming gender equality in Hollywood.
At the Dolby Theatre ceremony Sunday, Kimmel dove straight into material about last year’s infamous best-picture flub.
“I do want to mention, this year, when you hear your name called, don’t get up right away,” said Kimmel. “Give us a minute.”
But while Kimmel spent a few moments on the fiasco known as EnvelopeGate, he expended far more minutes frankly discussing the parade of sexual harassment allegations that have coursed through the movie business in the wake of the revelations regarding Weinstein. Kimmel called the show “a night for positivity” but he also spoke straightforwardly about the industry’s poor record for female directors and equal pay.
“We can’t let bad behavior slide anymore,” said Kimmel. “The world is watching us.”
The night’s acting honors are considered fairly locked, and the first award of the evening – as expected – went to Sam Rockwell for his supporting performance in Martin McDonagh’s “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.”
Raising the award as he was played off, the veteran character actor shouted: “For my buddy, Phil Hoffman.” The winner with the shortest acceptance speech was promised a Jet Ski.
The ceremony is the crescendo of one of Hollywood’s most tumultuous awards seasons ever – one that saw cascading allegations of sexual harassment topple movie moguls, upended Oscar campaigns and new movements launched to improve gender equality throughout the industry.
No Golden Globes-style fashion protest was held by organizers of Time’s Up, the initiative begn by several hundred prominent women in entertainment to combat sexual harassment. Their goals go beyond red carpets, organizers said in the lead-up to the Oscars. “We did the dress code thing and now we’re doing the work,” said (hash)MeToo founder Tarana Burke on the red carpet.
Yet the (hash)MeToo movement is sure to have a prominent place in the awards. Greta Gerwig (“Lady Bird”) is just the fifth woman nominated for best director. Rachel Morrison “Mudbound” is the first woman nominated for best cinematography. Ashley Judd, the first big-name actress to go on the record with allegations of sexual misconduct against Harvey Weinstein, is among the scheduled presenters.
Before he was tossed out of the film academy after a storm of sexual harassment and sexual abuse allegations, Weinstein was for the last two decades the grand poobah of the Oscars. By one study’s findings, Weinstein was thanked more often than God in acceptance speeches.
The parade of sexual harassment allegations has made the normal superficial red carpet a place of sometimes more serious discussion than attire. Scrutiny was falling Sunday on E! host Ryan Seacrest after his former stylist, Suzie Hardy, alleged sexual harassment against the red-carpet regular. Seacrest has denied it and E! has supported him. Best supporting actress Oscar nominee Mary J. Blige said Seacrest is “fighting for his life right now.”
It’s been an unusually lengthy – and often unpredictable – awards season, already an increasingly protracted horse race begun as most of the contenders bowed at film festivals last September. The Academy Awards were moved a week later this year because of the Olympics.
While the night’s acting categories are widely expected to go to Frances McDormand (“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”), Gary Oldman (“Darkest Hour”), Allison Janney (“I, Tonya”) and Sam Rockwell (“Three Billboards”), the long season hasn’t produced a clear best-picture favorite.
Guillermo del Toro’s monster fable “The Shape of Water” comes in with leading 13 nominations, but many peg Martin McDonagh’s darkly comic revenge drama “Three Billboards” as the front-runner despite the film’s divisiveness among critics. And still, many aren’t counting out Jordan Peele’s horror sensation “Get Out” or Christopher Nolan’s World War II epic “Dunkirk,” which is expected to dominate the technical categories.
The field is made up largely of modest independent film successes except for the box-office phenomenon “Get Out” ($255 million worldwide after opening on Oscar weekend 2017) and “Dunkirk” ($255 million).
Twenty years ago, a “Titanic” sweep won record ratings for the Oscar broadcast. But ratings have recently been declining. Last year’s show drew 32.9 million viewers for ABC, a four percent drop from the prior year. Even more worrisome was a slide in the key demographic of adults aged 18-49, whose viewership was down 14 percent from 2016.
Movie attendance also hit a 24-year low in 2017 despite the firepower of “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” ’’Beauty and the Beast” and “Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2.” An especially dismal summer movie season was 92 million admissions shy of summer 2016, according to the National Alliance of Theater Owners.
But this year is already off to a strong start, thanks largely to Ryan Coogler’s “Black Panther,” which many analysts believe will play a prominent role at next year’s Oscars. In three weeks, it has already grossed about $500 million domestically. The film’s star, Chadwick Boseman, will be a presenter Sunday.
This year, the academy has prohibited the PwC accountants who handle the envelopes from using cellphones or social media during the show. Neither of the PwC representatives involved in the mishap last year, Brian Cullinan or Martha Ruiz, will return to the show.
However, multiple reports say that Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway will be returning to again present best picture, a year after they announced “La La Land” as the winner instead of “Moonlight,” because Cullinan handed them the wrong envelope. The “Bonnie and Clyde” duo will, 12 months later, get “take two.”
With just a few minutes before the show started, Kimmel and his team emerged from his dressing room chanting, “Let’s get it right this time!”
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