Oscars 2020: Brad Pitt claims first acting Academy Award, as Margot Robbie misses out for Bombshell
Parasite has upset Hollywood heavyweights at the Academy Awards, where Eminem divided the audience, and Brad Pitt won his first Oscar.
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Parasite has continued its stunning winner’s streak, becoming the first foreign language film to ever win Best Picture at the Oscars.
The history-making film took four of the biggest awards, with the announcement eliciting a standing ovation from the audience inside the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.
“We never imaged this to ever happen, we are so happy,” said actress Yeo-jeong Jo through a translator.
As Oscars organisers tried to darken the stage to end the Parasite team’s speeches, the crowd started yelling “up, up, up”, to let them finish.
“I (would) really like to thank director, Bong,” she continued.
“I like everything about him, his smile, his crazy hair, the way he talks, the way he walks and specially the way he directs.
“What I really like about him is his sense of humour and the fact that he can really be making fun of himself and he never takes himself seriously.”
Backstage, filmmaker Bong Joon Ho said in reaction to winning the Acamedy award: “It’s really f***ing crazy!”
Parasite won best film, best foreign film, best director and best original screenplay.
EMINEM’S BIZARRE OSCARS REDO
There were equal parts confused expressions and head-popping when rapper Eminem took the Academy Awards stage, performing an expletive-bleeped, faux orchestra-assisted version of Lose Yourself.
There were plenty of quizzical looks among the Oscars audience and chatter on social media, as people wondered why that song in particular was chosen to honour music in film during today’s 92nd Academy Awards.
Eminem famously missed out on collecting the first ever Oscar for a rap song, giving the 75th Academy Awards ceremony held in 2003, a miss because he was certain he wouldn’t win.
Instead, he fell asleep on the couch watching cartoons with his daughter.
So, 18 years later, there were more than a few puzzled expressions when he popped up at the end of a montage introduced by Lin Manuel Miranda celebrating the presence of pop songs in film.
Slim Shady performed a strings-laden, expletive-free remix of Lose Yourself from his 2002 biopic Eight Mile in front of a faux orchestra and there were plenty of actors there for it, rapping along to the track.
And the entire audience got to their feet for a standing ovation
“Look, if you had another shot, another opportunity … Thanks for having me [Academy]. Sorry it took me 18 years to get here,” he posted online to explain his surprise performance.
Billie Eilish’s screwed-up face and a shot of Martin Scorsese allegedly asleep – he was closing his eyes to escape the bursts of white light pulsing from the stage – quickly flooded social media as meme metaphors for those unhappy with Eminem’s presence on the Oscars stage.
In another musical moment, collaborators Bernie Taupin and Elton John shared an Oscar for best original song for I’m Gonna Love me Again from the biopic, Rocketman.
Elton paid tribute to Taupin.
“Thank you to Bernie who has been the constant thing in my life, when I was screwed up, when I was normal. He’s always been there for me,” John said.
Elton also sent a message to his two sons, whom he left behind in Sydney during his Australian tour for a flying visit to Hollywood for Oscars weekend.
At an emotional backstage press conference, Sir Elton declared he “wouldn’t be here” if it weren’t for Taupin.
“This is for him,” he said of his second Oscar, which was Taupin’s first.
“This is for my partner of 53 years. This is the man who started the journey.
“I am so thrilled for him, because I love him so much.”
JOAQUIN’S EMOTIONAL WIN
Joaquin Phoenix won his first Oscar, being recognised as best actor for his role in Joker.
He was up against, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonathan Pryce, Antonio Banderas and Adam Driver, delivering an emotionally-charged speech that referenced his commitment to veganism and his late brother, River Phoenix.
His first Academy Award win follows months of controversy over Joker, the origin story about Batman’s nemesis, which stoked fears of inciting violence even as it hoarded nominations and awards.
“We share the same love, the love of film. This form of expression has given me the most extraordinary life,” Phoenix said, before launching into an emotional call for Hollywood to “use our voice for the voiceless” and “fight against injustice.”
He ended his speech with a tearful tribute to his brother River, who died of a drug overdose in 1993 aged 23.
“Run to the rescue with love and peace will follow,” Phoenix said, quoting River.
Renée Zellweger won her second Oscar, for her nuanced portrayal of Judy Garland in the last years of the fabled performer’s troubled life.
The Best Actress recipient described making the biopic Judy as one of the most “meaningful experiences of my life”.
“Ms Garland, you were certainly among the heroes who unite and define us, and this is for you,” Zellweger said.
BRAD’S FIRST ACTING OSCAR
Earlier, Brad Pitt won the Oscar for best supporting actor – the first gong handed out at Hollywood’s night of nights.
It was Pitt’s first Academy Award for acting, and continued a clean sweep of awards season for his role as a charmingly faded stuntman in Quentin Tarantino’s comeback film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Pitt described the award as the “honour of honours”, and made the first political allusion of the evening, saying the 45 seconds he got on stage to make a speech was “longer than they gave John Bolton”, referring to US President Donald Trump’s former national security advisor and the impeachment saga in which he was not permitted by the White House to testify.
“I’m thinking maybe Quentin makes a movie about it – in the end the adults do the right thing,” Pitt said.
He also paid tribute to Tarantino and thanked his co-star Leonardo DiCaprio.
“Leo, I will ride on your coat-tails any day man, the view is fantastic,” Pitt said.
“This is for my kids who colour everything I do, I adore you.”
Backstage, Australian entertainment reporter Angela Bishop picked up the sought-after first question for Pitt when he entered the backstage interview room after being photographed with his Oscar.
“G’day, what’s your tinder profile going to say now?”, she asked, to laughs from the hundreds of reporters gathered in the room, many of whom had put up their hands to ask a question of the superstar.
“You’ll just have to look it up!”, he told her.
Bishop then asked if Pitt had help writing his acceptance speeches during awards season, which have drawn plenty of praise and laughs.
Pitt responded that because speeches make him nervous, “this time I thought I would put some work into it”.
“I have some funny friends that helped me with some laughs,” he said.
He did not want to comment on his children when asked about them, other than saying that he wouldn’t mind if they grew up to want to become actors.
When he was asked: “Are you having the time of your life?”, he said: “No. I hope not, I hope I got other sh*t going on.”
And Kiwi filmmaker Taika Waititi also won his first Oscar, for best adapted screenplay for the offbeat drama-comedy Jojo Rabbit.
MARGOT MISSES OUT
Australian nominee Margot Robbie missed out on Oscar for Bombshell, with Laura Dern winning best supporting actress for her knockout performance in Marriage Story.
Dern’s Oscar was the first to be won by her acting dynasty family, with both parents Dianne Ladd and Bruce Dern having previously been nominated.
Dern said she was honoured to be “finally holding the statute”, particularly given she had brought along her mother and daughter to the ceremony.
“My mother was very moved, and that just makes me so happy to stand up and sing their praises,” Dern said backstage.
“They literally got me here and artistically got me here as well, so it means a lot.”
‘QUENTIN, I LOVE YOU’
Parasite, the darkly comic South Korean class drama, sparked the first huge upset of the night with a best director gong for Bong Joon-ho.
Sam Mendes (1917), Quentin Tarantino (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) and Martin Scorsese (The Irishman) had been considered frontrunners.
“After winning best international feature I thought I was done for the day and ready to relax,” said Bong through a translator.
He also paid tribute to his fellow nominees.
“When I was at school, I studied Martin Scorsese’s films,” he said through a translator.
“Just to be nominated was a huge honour. I never thought I would win.”
“When people in the US were not familiar with my film, Quentin always put my films on his list,” he said through a translator.
“Quentin, I love you,” he said in English.
“I would like to get a Texas chainsaw and split the Oscar in five, and share it with all of you,” his translator said.
Bong finished by saying in English: “Thank you. I will drink until next morning. Thank you.”
STANDOUT OSCARS MOMENTS
The Oscars opened with a lively number from singer/songwriter and actress Janelle Monae and Billy Porter, which drew a standing ovation from the star studded audience.
Comedians Steve Martin and Chris Rock, who have both previously been Oscars hosts, were the first on stage and joked about their “incredible demotion”, which they blamed on Twitter.
They took digs at last week’s disastrous counting at the Iowa caucus, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s love life and some of the leading nominees.
The pair also joked about the lack of female nominees for director and the fact there is just one black nominee.
NOMINEES AND WINNERS
BEST PICTURE
Ford v Ferrari
The Irishman
Jojo Rabbit
Joker
Little Women
Marriage Story
1917
Once Upon in Hollywood
Parasite – WINNER
BEST DIRECTOR
Martin Scorsese, The Irishman
Todd Phillips, Joker
Sam Mendes, 1917
Quentin Tarantino, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Bong Joon-ho, Parasite – WINNER
ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Cynthia Erivo, Harriet
Scarlett Johansson, Marriage Story
Saoirse Ronan, Little Women
Charlize Theron, Bombshell
Renée Zellweger, Judy – WINNER
ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Antonio Banderas, Pain and Glory
Leonardo DiCaprio, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Adam Driver, Marriage Story
Joaquin Phoenix, Joker – WINNER
Jonathan Pryce, The Two Popes
ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Kathy Bates, Richard Jewell
Laura Dern, Marriage Story – WINNER
Scarlett Johansson, Jojo Rabbit
Florence Pugh, Little Women
Margot Robbie, Bombshell
ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Tom Hanks, A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood
Anthony Hopkins, The Two Popes
Al Pacino, The Irishman
Joe Pesci, The Irishman
Brad Pitt, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – WINNER
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Rian Johnson, Knives Out
Noah Baumbach, Marriage Story
Sam Mendes and Krysty Wilson-Cairns, 1917
Quentin Tarantino, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Bong Joon-ho and Han Jin-won, Parasite – WINNER
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Steve Zaillian, The Irishman
Taika Waititi, Jojo Rabbit – WINNER
Todd Phillips and Scott Silver, Joker
Greta Gerwig, Little Women
Anthony McCarten, The Two Popes
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Rodrigo Prieto, The Irishman
Lawrence Sher, Joker
Jarin Blaschke, The Lighthouse
Roger Deakins, 1917 – WINNER
Robert Richardson, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
ANIMATED FEATURE
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
I Lost My Body
Klaus
Missing Link
Toy Story 4 – WINNER
ORIGINAL SCORE
Joker, Hildur Guðnadóttir – WINNER
Little Women, Alexandre Desplat
Marriage Story, Randy Newman
1917, Thomas Newman
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, John Williams
ORIGINAL SONG
“I Can’t Let You Throw Yourself Away,” Toy Story 4
“I’m Gonna Love Me Again,” Rocketman – WINNER
“I’m Standing With You,” Breakthrough
“Into the Unknown,” Frozen 2
“Stand Up,” Harriet
Originally published as Oscars 2020: Brad Pitt claims first acting Academy Award, as Margot Robbie misses out for Bombshell
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