The Oscars are dedicated to celebrating the best movie moments of 2023. While it delivered plenty of beautiful, uplifting and hilarious speeches. There were also some awkward moments that made us wonder what we were watching. We’re helping you out by boiling the extra long show down to the best and worst moments of the 2024 Oscars.
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Best: Phenomenal Female Oscar Winners
The Best Supporting Actress Oscar was presented by a lineup of badass Oscar winning women, including Jamie Lee Curtis, Mary Steenburgen, Lupita Nyong’o, Rita Moreno and Regina King. They celebrated the five women nominated with beautiful stories of their talent and generous spirits. It was a fitting moment for Women’s History Month.
Best: Da’Vine Joy Randolph’s Crowning Moment
At this point, what can we say about Da’Vine? All of her acceptance speeches have been inspiring and unforgettable. She has handled every step of this awards journey perfectly and we can’t wait to see where she goes next.
“Ron Van Lieu, I thank you when I was the only black girl in that class, when you saw me and you told me I was enough,” she said during her speech. “And when I told you I don’t see myself, you said, “That’s fine. We’re going to forge our own path. You’re going to lay a trail for yourself.”
Worst: Octavia Spencer and Melissa McCarthy’s Weird Banter
The longtime friends are two of the most talented women in the business. There’s no excuse for how bad this weird Chip N’ Dale ridiculousness was. They were presenting the screenplay awards, which means this definitely should’ve been better.
Best: The Root Alum Cord Jefferson Wins an Oscar
“American Fiction” has been one of the spectacular films caught in the wake of “Oppenheimer’s” awards season sweep, so we’re super excited to see writer/director Cord Jefferson win the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar. Since he’s a Root alum, we’re especially proud to see a member of the family get his moment. That’s right! The Root won an Oscar!
Worst: John Cena’s Full Monty
John Cena is always willing to poke fun at himself, but this bit where he was supposedly naked was just awkward and silly. He committed to the skit, but it stole focus from the best costume design award.
Best: Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling’ Trash Talk
Ahead of co-starring in “The Fall Guy,” the Oscar nominees took a moment to celebrate the stunt community. However, things went downhill fast when the duo couldn’t put the “Barbenheimer” feud behind them and the trash talk got personal, mean and hilarious.
Best: Jon Batiste Is a Special Talent
Jon Batiste is incapable of giving a bad performance. When he’s on stage, it’s clear he loves what he’s doing. He’s so extraordinarily talented that we’ve literally run out of ways to describe his brilliance.
Worst: Ridiculously Short Original Song Performances
Yes, The Oscars is a long show and the cuts have to come from somewhere. However, making the Best Original Song performers sing criminally short versions of their nominated tracks feels like a bad place to cut time. I mean we didn’t need John Mulaney to describe the entire plot of “Field of Dreams.” Turns out they were saving all the time for “I’m Just Ken.”
Best: Ryan Gosling’s ‘Kenergy’
Props to the actor for bringing all the campy “Kenergy” of his Oscar nominated “Barbie” performance to the stage. We weren’t sure how this was going to play live, but once again his charm proved undeniable and he stole the show.
Best: Andrea Bocelli’s Beautiful Tribute
We lost so many legends in 2023, the In Memoriam segments at these award shows have been an emotional gut punch. The Oscars also delivered a lovely tribute to those we’ve lost, with Opera great Andrea Bocelli and his son Matteo Bocelli performing “Time to Say Goodbye.”
Awkward: Best Actress
Congrats to Emma Stone. This absolutely isn’t about her. Sally Field, Jennifer Lawrence, Michelle Yeoh, Charlize Theron and Jessica Lange all celebrated this year’s nominees. What made it feel awkward was the fact that Halle Berry is still the only Black woman to win this award, so if she’s not available, there’s no Black women represented.
Best/Worst: Jimmy Kimmel
We can go ahead and call Jimmy’s return to the hosting gig a push. He wasn’t outright bad, but he also didn’t do anything groundbreaking or fresh. If you watch his late night talk show, you got a longer version of that.
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