Smoke hasn’t cleared from the fire that is the 88th Academy Awards—a.k.a. the most awkward Oscars night ever. During the three-hour show: Stacey Dash walked awkwardly on and off stage; Sacha Baron Cohen brought his awkward Ali G. character; and every key figure graced with the elusive audience reaction shot awkwardly half-smiled. Told you. The most awkward Oscars night ever.
That isn’t to say that it wasn’t historic either. Here are some of the “first time” moments that happened at this year’s Oscars.
Scrolls for Award winners
The Oscars debuts a new feature called “scrolls” this year. Through it the winners no longer had to thank a bazillion people during their acceptance speeches, as names would only scroll on an honestly illegible type and I should say, at the risk of sounding like a tech blogger, dimly designed lower third. Proved useful on some occasion. It exists. O.K.
Leonardo DiCaprio won, team internet!
About a ton of internet memes in, it finally happened. Leo’s first Oscar for Best Actor. I’m confused however as to why he had to be that guy that wins an Oscar after years of trying, and in his acceptance speech talks about anything but an Oscar.
Was it wrong to expect a different reaction from Leo?
This one for example?
Ennio Morricone won his first too, in case we hope you were wondering.
Here’s someone else who got his first Oscar (but has no wealth of viral memes and/or games whatsoever):
Ennio Morricone’s score for Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight is his first Oscar win. He was six Oscar noms and fifty-seven years in to his career before he’d gotten gold. The man famously scored Sergio Leone’s Spaghetti Westerns including the seminal The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly.
First Filipino to (technically) win an Oscar
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Ronnie Del Carmen. Photo via 8List.PH.
Inside Out went home victorious with the Best Animated Feature award, winning against Charlie Kaufman’s critically revered Anomalisa. A co-writer of the Disney animation happens to be Filipino (co-screenwriter Ronnie Del Carmen), so there’s that, I guess, if you want to get your #pinoypride in check. The first Filipino to (technically) have won an Oscar.
First time the Oscars was so screwed-up it overlooked Abe Vigoda on its “In Memoriam”
Abe Vigoda died this year at age 94.
Criminal: forgetting a key Hollywood figure like Abe Vigoda to include in the Oscar’s “In Memoriam” on a year that, to say the least, cracks with controversy. His daughter expressed her disappointment by the Academy, calling the overlook simply “an injustice.”
Vigoda’s most famous role was that of Salvatore “Sal” Tessio in The Godfather.
#OscarSoWhite
No black actors and actresses were included in the Oscars’ list of nominees. People cried foul. Some decided to boycott the show entirely.
This is the first time when a perfectly capable Oscars host receives very uncomfortable laughs. Chris Rock, luckily, does the job with sheer aplomb. He addressed the elephant in the room, made people awkward, and made them relaxed. At the end of the night, he came out the real winner.
But, this was the first time it grew a pair too
Lady Gaga took with her a few dozen of sexual assault survivors and performed her song “‘Till It Happens To You.” Brie Larson, who won Best Actress, came onstage and hugged each of them post-Gaga’s performance. When Robin Roberts asked Kerry Washington about her stance on the whole #OscarSoWhite controversy, here’s what she’s got to say: “A lot of people have asked me why I’m here tonight. And the thing that I’ve been thinking about is that I look at the history of movement—the history of change. A lot of voices are needed at the table.
“For me, I felt like my heart and my voice are best used at the table,” she adds. “It’s about making sure that our films, and the awards that we give for films, represent humanity.”
