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 As the producers had promised,
the 93rd annual Academy Awards ceremony marked a
dramatic departure from televised Oscar
presentations of the past, with no opening
monologue, no live orchestra or any of the
glitzy song-and-dance numbers that typically
fill the show.
Performances of the five Oscar-nominated best
original songs were relegated to pre-recorded
presentations broadcast during a two-hour
pre-show ahead of the main event on the
Disney-owned ABC network.
What the three-hour broadcast lacked in music
was more than made up for in talk, with
presenters and winners alike given license to
indulge their inner story tellers.
Critics' early reaction was mixed. TVLine's
review ran under the headline: "Hollywood's
biggest night forgets how to entertain with a
sluggish, humorless ceremony." But Deadline
Hollywood countered: "Unconventional, intimate
ceremony reinvigorates Hollywood's big night and
makes history."
The New York Times, saying Oscar producers
failed to achieve their stated aim of making the
telecast more like a film, described the show as
"a cross between the Golden Globes and the
closing-night banquet of a long, exhausting
convention."
The very setting for Hollywood's highest honors
was unlike any before it, a ballroom decorated
in a quasi-cabaret style inside Union Station,
the ornate but decidedly less conventional venue
of a railway pavilion in downtown Los Angeles.
Coronavirus-related travel restrictions and
public health measures forced a complete
overhaul of the show, limiting attendance to
just a few hundred nominees and presenters, some
contenders joining the festivities by satellite
from international locations.
The show itself opened with a camera following
actress Regina King, dressed in a shimmering
blue, sequined evening gown, as she strode
through the grand hall of the rail station and
onto the stage, surrounded by stars and their
guests seated at socially distanced tables and
booths arrayed around the room.
King, the 2005 best supporting actress winner
whose feature directorial debut "One Night in
Miami" was nominated for three awards this year,
noted that the celebrities in attendance would
be seen without face coverings while on camera.
But she said the stars were, nevertheless,
adhering to strict COVID-19 safety guidelines
that have allowed Hollywood to resume
productions in recent months.
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 "Tonight we are following all
the rigorous protocols that got us back safely,"
she said. "Just like on a movie set, when we are
rolling, masks off. And when we’re not rolling,
masks on."
Events surrounding the Minneapolis trial of the
former policeman convicted of murdering George
Floyd, and renewed calls for sustaining the
struggle against racial injustice in America,
weighed heavily on the Oscars as well.
"If things had gone differently this past week
in Minneapolis, I might have traded in my heels
for marching boots," King said in an early
moment that sought to strike an awkward balance
between celebration and social consciousness.
"I know that a lot of you people at home want to
reach for your remotes when you feel like
Hollywood is preaching to you," King said. "But
as the mother of a Black son, I know the fear
that so many live with, and no amount of fame or
fortune changes that."
While the scaled-back proceedings made for a
more subdued and more intimate affair than
usual, the evening was not without its lighter
moments.
Actor Lil Rel Howery and musician Questlove
teamed up to lead a round of Oscar song trivia,
ending with veteran actress Glenn Close,
nominated this year for her role as an
Appalachian grandmother, standing up to shake
her backside to a recording of the 1988 funk hit
titled "Da Butt."
One of the greatest changes from traditional
Oscar presentations during Sunday's telecast was
a marked expansion in the length of speeches
given by the winners, who normally are "played"
off by the orchestra if their thank-yous run
past 45 seconds.
Filmmaker Steven Soderbergh, one of three
co-producers of this year's event, had
encouraged recipients in advance to "tell a
story" and personalize their acceptance
speeches.
The enlarged oratorical dimension of the show
appeared to be welcomed by the star-studded
audience at Union Station, but it remained to be
seen how it would play at home with television
viewers in the Oscar ratings, which have already
experienced a steady decline in recent years.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles;
Editing by Howard Goller)
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