10 Oscar Quick Hits, Including Netflix’s Near Shut Out, and a Good Night for Women . . . Sort Of

1.  “Parasite” made history, becoming the first foreign-language movie in Oscar history to win Best Picture.  That covers 92 years.  It also took home Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Feature Film.

If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s available to buy or rent on YouTube, Google Play, Amazon, Vudu, iTunes, and FandangoNow.  And it’ll probably be popping up in some theaters again, so keep an eye out for that too.

2.  All the big wins for “Parasite” were NOT good news for Netflix, which didn’t get much love from the Academy . . . again.  Netflix came in with 24 nominations, which was more than any other studio.

But it only won TWO:  Laura Dern won Best Supporting Actress for “Marriage Story”, and “American Factory” won Best Documentary Feature.

Laura is the first actor in a Netflix production to ever take home an Oscar.

“Marriage Story” was lucky to walk away with ONE win from its six nominations.  “The Irishman” was completely shut out, despite getting 10 nominations . . . as were the Netflix movies “The Two Popes”, “I Lost My Body”, and “Klaus”.

(Here’s a rundown of the number of awards each movie won.)

3.  There was a lot of talk about the lack of female directors being nominated . . . again . . . but women did better last night than they have in the past.

Across the 24 categories, 26 men and 13 women took home Oscars this year . . . which is 33% female.  That beats the previous record set last year when women accounted for 27.8% of the 54 winners.

(There were two more female winners last year, but since some categories have groups of winners, last year there were actually 15 more winners overall.  So, this was a record year for the PERCENTAGE of female winners.)

4.  Songwriter Diane Warren was NOT one of the female winners.  So her incredible streak of Oscar nominations without a win has grown to 11.

She was nominated for her song “I’m Standing with You” from “Breakthrough” . . . but she lost to Elton John and Bernie Taupin, who won for “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” from “Rocketman”.

5.  Also, it is now official that no woman won a writing award at the Oscars in the 2010s.  Both Krysty Wilson-Cairns of “1917” and Greta Gerwig of “Little Women” were nominated for writing awards this year.  But both lost.  The 2010s is now the first decade without a winning female writer since the 1960s.

6.  When “Hair Love” won the Best Animated Short Film category, co-director Matthew A. Cherry became the second athlete after the late Kobe Bryant to ever win an Oscar.  He spent time with several NFL teams . . . the Bengals, Jaguars, Panthers, and Ravens . . . but never made it into an actual NFL game.

Cherry’s co-director Karen Toliver became the first black woman ever to win an Oscar in any animation category.

7.  In a touching moment, “Peanut Butter Falcon” actor Zack Gottsagen presented an award with his co-star Shia LaBeouf.  And in the process, Zach became the first presenter with Down syndrome in Oscar history.  And we have Shia to thank for that.  Shia was offered the presenting gig, and he said he’d only do it if he could share that moment with Zach.

8.  Josh Gad, who you’d know as the voice of the snowman from the “Frozen” movies, introduced Idina Menzel, and he made a reference to John Travolta calling her “Adele Dazeem” several years ago.

He said, quote, “The iconic and brilliant Idina Menzel, pronounced exactly as it is spelled, is our Elsa.”  (Here’s video.)

9.  Believe it or not, Brad Pitt’s Oscar last night for “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” was just his second Oscar . . . and his FIRST for acting.  He won his first Oscar six years ago when “12 Years a Slave” won Best Picture because he produced it.

He was previously nominated THREE times for acting:  “12 Monkeys”, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”, and “Moneyball”.  He was also nominated as a producer for “Moneyball” and “The Big Short”, but neither won Best Picture.

10.  The “#OscarsSoWhite” campaign has another layer now, because a British report is decrying how few BRITISH people were honored.  It points out that last night’s ceremony was the first time since 1998 that the four acting categories were all won by WHITE AMERICANS.

There were five British winners overall last night, which was the same as last year.

(There are several reports on the BEST and WORST moments from the ceremony, here and here.)