92nd Academy Awards

92nd Academy Awards
The 92nd Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored films released in 2019 and took place on February 9, 2020, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, beginning at 5:00 p.m. PST / 8:00 p.m. EST. During the ceremony, the AMPAS presented Academy Awards (commonly referred to as Oscars) in 24 categories. The ceremony, televised in the United States by ABC, was produced by Stephanie Allain and Lynette Howell Taylor and was directed by Glenn Weiss. Three months earlier in a ceremony at the Ray Dolby Ballroom of the Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood held on October 27, 2019, the Academy held its 11th Annual Governors Awards ceremony.
Parasite won four awards including Best Picture, becoming the first non-English language film to win that award. Other winners include 1917 with three awards, Ford v Ferrari, Joker, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood with two awards, and American Factory, Bombshell, Hair Love, Jojo Rabbit, Judy, Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You're a Girl), Little Women, Marriage Story, The Neighbors' Window, Rocketman, and Toy Story 4 with one. The telecast garnered 23.64 million viewers, making it the third-least watched Oscar broadcast since 1974 when Nielsen began keeping records of viewership.
Winners and nominees
The nominees for the 92nd Academy Awards were announced on January 13, 2020, at the David Geffen Theater of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, California, by actors John Cho and Issa Rae. Joker led all nominees with eleven nominations; The Irishman, 1917, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood tied for second with ten nominations each. This marked the first time in Oscars' history that four films each earned ten or more nominations.
The winners were announced during the awards ceremony on February 9, 2020. Parasite became the first non-English language film to win Best Picture. It was also the sixth film nominated for both Best Picture and Best International Feature in the same year. Furthermore, its four wins tied it with Fanny and Alexander and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon as the most-awarded foreign language films in Academy Awards history. With his wins in Best Picture, Director, and Original Screenplay, as well as his accepting of the award for International Feature Film on behalf of South Korea, Bong Joon-ho was the second person to collect four statuettes in a single ceremony since Walt Disney at the 26th Academy Awards held in 1954 and the first to do so for a single film.
As a result of Joaquin Phoenix winning Best Actor for his performance as the titular character in the film Joker, he and Heath Ledger, who previously won for playing the same character in 2008's The Dark Knight, became the second pair of actors to win for portraying the same character in two different films. Scarlett Johansson was the twelfth actor to receive double acting nominations in the same year. With her nominations in Best Actress and Best Original Song for Harriet, Cynthia Erivo became the third consecutive person to earn acting and songwriting nominations for the same film after Mary J. Blige for 2017's Mudbound and Lady Gaga for 2018's A Star Is Born. Best Original Score winner Hildur Guðnadóttir was the third woman to win for composing a musical score and the first one to do so for a dramatic musical score. Honeyland became the first film to be nominated for both Best International Feature Film and Best Documentary Feature.
Awards
Winners are listed first, highlighted in boldface, and indicated with a double dagger.
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Parasite – Kwak Sin-ae and Bong Joon-ho, producers Ford v Ferrari – Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping and James Mangold, producers
The Irishman – Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and Emma Tillinger Koskoff, producers
Jojo Rabbit – Carthew Neal, Taika Waititi and Chelsea Winstanley, producers
Joker – Todd Phillips, Bradley Cooper and Emma Tillinger Koskoff, producers
Little Women – Amy Pascal, producers
Marriage Story – Noah Baumbach and David Heyman, producers
1917 – Sam Mendes, Pippa Harris, Jayne-Ann Tenggren and Callum McDougall, producers
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – David Heyman, Shannon McIntosh and Quentin Tarantino, producers
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Bong Joon-ho – Parasite
Martin Scorsese – The Irishman
Todd Phillips – Joker
Sam Mendes – 1917
Quentin Tarantino – Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
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Joaquin Phoenix – Joker as Arthur Fleck / Joker
Antonio Banderas – Pain and Glory as Salvador Mallo
Leonardo DiCaprio – Once Upon a Time in Hollywood as Rick Dalton
Adam Driver – Marriage Story as Charlie Barber
Jonathan Pryce – The Two Popes as Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio
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Renée Zellweger – Judy as Judy Garland
Cynthia Erivo – Harriet as Harriet Tubman
Scarlett Johansson – Marriage Story as Nicole Barber
Saoirse Ronan – Little Women as Josephine "Jo" March
Charlize Theron – Bombshell as Megyn Kelly
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Brad Pitt – Once Upon a Time in Hollywood as Cliff Booth
Tom Hanks – A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood as Fred Rogers
Anthony Hopkins – The Two Popes as Pope Benedict XVI
Al Pacino – The Irishman as Jimmy Hoffa
Joe Pesci – The Irishman as Russell Bufalino
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Laura Dern – Marriage Story as Nora Fanshaw
Kathy Bates – Richard Jewell as Barbara "Bobi" Jewell
Scarlett Johansson – Jojo Rabbit as Rosie Betzler
Florence Pugh – Little Women as Amy March
Margot Robbie – Bombshell as Kayla Pospisil
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Parasite – Screenplay by Bong Joon-ho and Han Jin-won; story by Bong Joon-ho
Knives Out – Rian Johnson
Marriage Story – Noah Baumbach
1917 – Sam Mendes and Krysty Wilson-Cairns
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – Quentin Tarantino
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Jojo Rabbit – Taika Waititi; The Irishman – Steven Zaillian;
Joker – Todd Phillips and Scott Silver;
Little Women – Greta Gerwig;
The Two Popes – Anthony McCarten;
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Toy Story 4 – Josh Cooley, Mark Nielsen and Jonas Rivera How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World – Dean DeBlois, Bradford Lewis and Bonnie Arnold
I Lost My Body – Jérémy Clapin and Marc du Pontavice
Klaus – Sergio Pablos, Jinko Gotoh and Marisa Román
Missing Link – Chris Butler, Arianne Sutner and Travis Knight
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Parasite (South Korea) in Korean – directed by Bong Joon-ho Corpus Christi (Poland) in Polish – directed by Jan Komasa
Honeyland (North Macedonia) in Turkish and Macedonian – directed by Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov
Les Misérables (France) in French – directed by Ladj Ly
Pain and Glory (Spain) in Spanish – directed by Pedro Almodóvar
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American Factory – Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert and Jeff Reichert The Cave – Feras Fayyad, Kirstine Barfod and Sigrid Dyekjær
The Edge of Democracy – Petra Costa, Joanna Natasegara, Shane Boris and Tiago Pavan
For Sama – Waad Al-Kateab and Edward Watts
Honeyland – Ljubomir Stefanov, Tamara Kotevska and Atanas Georgiev
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Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You're a Girl) – Carol Dysinger and Elena Andreicheva In the Absence – Yi Seung-Jun and Gary Byung-Seok Kam
Life Overtakes Me – John Haptas and Kristine Samuelson
St. Louis Superman – Smriti Mundhra and Sami Khan
Walk Run Cha-Cha – Laura Nix and Colette Sandstedt
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The Neighbors' Window – Marshall Curry Brotherhood – Meryam Joobeur and Maria Gracia Turgeon
Nefta Football Club – Yves Piat and Damien Megherbi
Saria – Bryan Buckley and Matt Lefebvre
A Sister – Delphine Girard
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Hair Love – Matthew A. Cherry and Karen Rupert Toliver Dcera (Daughter) – Daria Kashcheeva
Kitbull – Rosana Sullivan and Kathryn Hendrickson
Mémorable – Bruno Collet and Jean-François Le Corre
Sister – Siqi Song
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Joker – Hildur Guðnadóttir Little Women – Alexandre Desplat
Marriage Story – Randy Newman
1917 – Thomas Newman
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – John Williams
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"(I'm Gonna) Love Me Again" from Rocketman – Music by Elton John; lyrics by Bernie Taupin "I Can't Let You Throw Yourself Away" from Toy Story 4 – Music and lyrics by Randy Newman
"I'm Standing with You" from Breakthrough – Music and lyrics by Diane Warren
"Into the Unknown" from Frozen II – Music and lyrics by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez
"Stand Up" from Harriet – Music and lyrics by Joshuah Brian Campbell and Cynthia Erivo
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Ford v Ferrari – Donald Sylvester Joker – Alan Robert Murray
1917 – Oliver Tarney and Rachael Tate
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – Wylie Stateman
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – Matthew Wood and David Acord
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1917 – Mark Taylor and Stuart Wilson Ad Astra – Gary Rydstrom, Tom Johnson and Mark Ulano
Ford v Ferrari – Paul Massey, David Giammarco and Steven A. Morrow
Joker – Tom Ozanich, Dean Zupancic and Tod Maitland
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – Michael Minkler, Christian P. Minkler and Mark Ulano
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Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – Production Design: Barbara Ling; Set Decoration: Nancy Haigh The Irishman – Production Design: Bob Shaw; Set Decoration: Regina Graves
Jojo Rabbit – Production Design: Ra Vincent; Set Decoration: Nora Sopková
1917 – Production Design: Dennis Gassner; Set Decoration: Lee Sandales
Parasite – Production Design: Lee Ha-jun; Set Decoration: Cho Won-woo
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1917 – Roger Deakins The Irishman – Rodrigo Prieto
Joker – Lawrence Sher
The Lighthouse – Jarin Blaschke
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – Robert Richardson
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Bombshell – Kazu Hiro, Anne Morgan and Vivian Baker Joker – Nicki Ledermann and Kay Georgiou
Judy – Jeremy Woodhead
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil – Paul Gooch, Arjen Tuiten and David White
1917 – Naomi Donne, Tristan Versluis and Rebecca Cole
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Little Women – Jacqueline Durran The Irishman – Sandy Powell and Christopher Peterson
Jojo Rabbit – Mayes C. Rubeo
Joker – Mark Bridges
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – Arianne Phillips
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Ford v Ferrari – Andrew Buckland and Michael McCusker The Irishman – Thelma Schoonmaker
Jojo Rabbit – Tom Eagles
Joker – Jeff Groth
Parasite – Yang Jin-mo
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1917'' – Guillaume Rocheron, Greg Butler and Dominic Tuohy
Avengers: Endgame – Dan DeLeeuw, Russell Earl, Matt Aitken and Dan Sudick
The Irishman – Pablo Helman, Leandro Estebecorena, Nelson Sepuvelda-Fauser and Stephane Grabli
The Lion King – Robert Legato, Adam Valdez, Andrew R. Jones and Elliot Newman
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – Roger Guyett, Neal Scanlan, Patrick Tubach and Dominic Tuohy
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Governors Awards
The Academy held its 11th annual Governors Awards ceremony on October 27, 2019, during which the following awards were presented:
Honorary Academy Awards
David Lynch "For fearlessly breaking boundaries in pursuit of his singular cinematic vision."
Wes Studi "In recognition of the power and craft he brings to his indelible film portrayals and for his steadfast support of the Native American community."
Lina Wertmüller "For her provocative disruption of political and social norms delivered with bravery through her weapon of choice: the camera lens."
Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award
Geena Davis For her work fighting for gender-parity in media through her Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media.
Films with multiple nominations and awards
Presenters and performers
The following individuals, listed in order of appearance, presented awards or performed musical numbers.
Presenters
Performers
Ceremony
Originally in April 2017, the Academy had scheduled the 92nd ceremony for February 23, 2020. However, due to record low television viewership and ratings attained by recent Oscar broadcasts, the AMPAS Board of Governors decided to move the date for the 2020 gala by two weeks to February 9 in hopes of combating film awards season fatigue. This marked the earliest date on which the ceremony has been held. Furthermore, in light of the recent success of last year's hostless ceremony that resulted in an improvement in ratings, ABC entertainment president Karey Burke announced the event would proceed without a host for the second consecutive year. Burke stated the ceremony would feature "huge entertainment values, big musical numbers, comedy, and star power".
Several other people participated in the production of the ceremony. Production designer Jason Sherwood designed an ambitiously technological stage design for the ceremony which prominently featured a sculptural shell that protruded toward the audience and 1,100 Swarovski crystals. Furthermore, the stage itself was used to display movie clips and nominations graphics packages instead of projecting those images onto a regular rectangular screen. Rickey Minor served as musical director and conductor for the ceremony. Musician Questlove served as an in-house DJ during the gala. Rapper Eminem made a surprise appearance during the ceremony to perform his Oscar-winning song "Lose Yourself" from the 2002 film 8 Mile after being absent from the 75th ceremony in 2003 to perform the song. During the performance of excerpts from the Best Original Score nominees, Eímear Noone became the first woman to conduct the orchestra during an Oscar ceremony.
Category renaming and rule changes
During its board of directors meeting in April 2019, the Academy voted to rename the Best Foreign Language Film category to Best International Feature Film. In a press release justifying the name change, International Feature Film Committee co-chairs Larry Karaszewski and Diane Weyermann stated, "We have noted that the reference to 'foreign' is outdated within the global filmmaking community. We believe that international feature film better represents this category, and promotes a positive and inclusive view of filmmaking, and the art of film as a universal experience." However, the requirement for nominees to have the majority of their dialogue be in a language other than English remained in force.
Rule changes were also approved by the AMPAS Board of Directors. The category of Best Makeup and Hairstyling was expanded from a roster consisting of three nominees to five nominees, with the pre-nominations shortlist also expanded from seven films to ten. In addition, the Academy voted to drop the requirement of eight theatrically-released animated feature films in a calendar year in order for the category of Best Animated Feature to be activated, and nominations voting in that category would be open to all active Short Films and Animation Branch members. Finally, prospective nominees for Best Animated Short Film and Best Live Action Short Film could now premiere theatrically in either Los Angeles County or New York City in order to be eligible for consideration.
Box office performance of Best Picture nominees
When the nominations were announced, seven of the nine films nominated for Best Picture had earned a combined gross of $747.2 million at the American and Canadian box offices at the time. Joker was the highest-grossing film among the Best Picture nominees with $334 million in domestic box office receipts. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood came in second with $141.1 million; this was followed by Ford v. Ferrari ($111 million), Little Women ($74 million), 1917 ($39.2 million), Parasite ($25.4 million), and Jojo Rabbit ($22 million). Box office grosses for The Irishman and Marriage Story were unavailable due to their distributor Netflix's policy of refusing to release such figures.
Critical reviews
The show received a mixed reception from media publications. Some media outlets received the broadcast positively. Television critic James Poniewozik of The New York Times wrote, "The ceremony was most effective when it simply got out of the way of its stars' shine." He added, "At its absolute best, this Oscars succeeded with what you can't script: great artists being recognized, and recognizing others." Matthew Gilbert from The Boston Globe commented, "Sometimes, a few good moments are enough to get you there. And there were a few good ones throughout the Oscarcast Sunday night, which, like every Oscarcast ever, hosted or host-free, predictable or filled with surprises, jubilant or downbeat, was longer than it needed to be." Entertainment Weekly columnist Darren Franlch remarked, "The 2020 Oscars were a bit of a shambles, and we can definitely lose all the introducers next year. But the last hour had the quality of a well-deserved coronation. Four wins for Parasite? I was so happy that I lost myself."
Others were more critical of the show. Columnist Kristin Turnquist of The Oregonian quipped, "If the 2020 Oscars broadcast was competing for a 'Most Confusing Mess of an Awards Show' trophy, it really hit the mark. But that's the best that can be said for the 92nd Annual Academy Awards, which, despite a few surprises, was mostly predictable and seemed to go on forever." Television critic Lorraine Ali from the Los Angeles Times wrote, "This year's Oscars ceremony showed an art form in dire need of a relevancy check. Instead we got the biggest rap act of 2002 and a whole lot of jokes about the industry's inability to see its own stasis." Entertainment editor Bruce Miller of the Sioux City Journal noted, "Because it lacked focus (a host was needed), this year's Academy Awards rambled as much as Zellweger and Phoenix. Someone like Jimmy Kimmel or Ellen DeGeneres could have prevented some of the train wrecks and made more of its wins.
Ratings and reception
The American telecast on ABC drew in an average of 23.64 million people over its length, which was a 20% decrease from the previous year's ceremony. The show also earned lower Nielsen ratings compared to the previous ceremony with 13.6% of households watching the ceremony. In addition, it garnered a lower rating among viewers between ages 18-49 with a 5.3 rating among viewers in that demographic. Furthermore, some media outlets pointed out that the 62nd Grammy Awards that were broadcast on CBS two weeks earlier earned a higher 18-49 demographic rating with a 5.4 figure. It earned the lowest viewership for an Academy Award telecast since figures were compiled beginning with the 46th ceremony in 1974.
In July 2020, the show received nine nominations at the 72nd Primetime Creative Arts Emmys. Two months later, the ceremony won two of those nominations for Outstanding Production Design for a Variety Special (Jason Sherwood and Alana Billingsley) and Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Variety Series or Special (Paul Sandweiss, Tommy Vicari, Biff Dawes, Pablo Munguia, Kristian Pedregon, Patrick Baltzell, Michael Parker, Christian Schrader, John Perez, Marc Repp, and Thomas Pesa).
"In Memoriam"
The annual "In Memoriam" segment was presented by Steven Spielberg. Singers Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell performed The Beatles song "Yesterday" during the tribute.
Kobe Bryant – athlete, producer
Rip Torn – actor
Barbara Hammer – filmmaker
Patricia Blau – visual effects
Bernie Pollack – costume designer
Steve Golin – producer, executive
Paul LeBlanc – hairstylist
John Briley – writer
Diahann Carroll – actress, singer
Terry Jones – writer, director, actor
Catherine Burns – actress
Agnès Varda – director, writer
Wayne Fitzgerald – title designer
David Foster – producer
Danny Aiello – actor
Buck Henry – writer, actor, director
Stanley Donen – director, choreographer
David V. Picker – producer, executive
Barry Malkin – film editor
Robert Forster – actor
Robert Evans – producer, executive, actor
Richard Williams – animator
Machiko Kyō – actress
James R. Alexander – sound mixer
Anna Karina – actress
D. A. Pennebaker – documentarian
Leonard Goldberg – producer, executive
Fernando Luján – actor
André Previn – composer, conductor
Peter Mayhew – actor
Sylvia Miles – actress
William J. Creber – production designer
Godfrey Gao – actor
Bibi Andersson – actress
Michael Lynne – executive, producer
Gene Warren Jr. – special effects, visual effects
Alvin Sargent – writer
Doris Day – actress
Anna Udvardy – producer
Sid Ramin – composer, arranger
Michelle Guish – casting director
Sidney Sheinberg – executive, producer
Ben Barenholtz – distributor, executive, producer
Joss Williams – special effects
Piero Tosi – costume designer
Kenneth Walker – hairstylist
Rutger Hauer – actor
Syd Mead – designer, concept artist
Harriet Frank Jr. – writer
Franco Zeffirelli – director
John Witherspoon – actor
Bernard Chevry – producer
Seymour Cassel – actor
Peter Fonda – actor, director, writer
Branko Lustig – producer
Gerry Smith – marketing executive
John Singleton – director, writer, producer
Kirk Douglas – actor, producer
See also
Autograph suit of Sandy Powell
List of submissions to the 92nd Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film
Notes
References
External links
Official websites
Oscars Channel at YouTube (run by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences)
News resources
Oscars 2020 at BBC News
Oscars 2020 at The Guardian''
Other resources
Academy Awards ceremonies
2019 film awards
2020 in Los Angeles
2020 awards in the United States
Television shows directed by Glenn Weiss
February 2020 events in the United States