Oscar Ceremony: The Greatest Oscar Presentation
Friday, February 7, 2020 at 12:28PM 
Remember the Oscar ceremony in February 2009. Hugh Jackman was the host, he brought the house down with his charming opening number. Then it was time for the first award of the evening, best supporting actress. Five former winners came out and what transpired was without doubt the best Oscar presentation in the history of the Academy.
The gasps. How? What? Who? They repeated the same scenario 3 more times that night with the other acting awards. Nothing beat the surprise of that first one though. As someone who loves acting and actors, it was valhalla. A long stretch of time spent on celebrating each nominated performance by previous Oscar winners. No one was in a rush, the jokes were minimal, it was sincerne, it was earnest, it worked.
The winner from the year before Tilda Swinton talked about Marisa Tomei. Whoopi Goldberg got Amy Adams, Goldie Hawn waxed poetic about Taraji P Henson. Eva Marie Saint paid tribute to Viola Davis and the eventual winner Penelope Cruz was congratulated in Spanish by Anjelica Huston. Bring this back Academy. I don't care how long it is or how too earnest it could get, this is why we tune to the ceremony and why we talk about it all year.
Reader Comments (55)
I too thought it was great, but am glad they have not really done it again since. I know they did it once more, the year after but with co-workers rather than past winners and that was painful to watch.
I liked it fine, certainly more than my unsentimental dad (who had zero patience for such luxuriant flattery), but I was actually relieved when they went back to the traditional presentations because... CLIPS!
LOVED this. I do wish, however, that they still played the actor's Oscar clip. I still, to this day, wonder what they all would have been!
murtada, agreed wholeheartedly! no offense to anyone, but i feel like you can see a clip from the movie anywhere. this concept is theatrical and special, and we got 20 more oscar winners onstage that year! plus, the very best part, for me, is that every single nominee got a real tribute, so the "winner" just seemed like the person picked from the group...but everyone got their moment in the sun, which is the whole point of the nominations.
I think about this constantly, loved it. Kudos to Bill Condon. Every year I hope the producers do it again, my take for this year, just because:
•ACTOR•
Banderas intro by Penélope Cruz or CZJ
DiCaprio intro by Kate Winslet
Driver intro by Greta Gerwig
Phoenix intro by Reese Witherspoon
Pryce intro by De Niro
•ACTRESS•
Erivo intro by Viola Davis
Johansson intro by Bill Murray
Ronan intro by Ryan Gosling
Theron intro by Michael Fassbender
Zellweger intro by Colin Firth
•SUPP ACTOR•
Hanks intro by Sally Field
Hopkins intro by Emma Thompson
Pacino intro by Diane Keaton
Pesci intro by Marisa Tomei
Pitt intro by Jessica Chastain
•SUPP ACTRESS•
Bates intro by James Caan
Dern intro by Jeff Goldblum
Johansson intro by Robert Downey Jr.
Pugh intro by Michael Shannon
Robbie intro by Jared Leto
It was heaven, although I will forever pity Richard Jenkins, who got Adrien Brody - and Brody had nothing better to start his encomium with than the words "If you google Richard Jenkins..."
Everything after didn't matter. The damage was done.
For me the best presentation was when Sophia Loren and four other actresses introduced Meryl Streep, etc.
This was so fucking boring. No one was interested in what they were saying - only in the Oscar verdict so... :)
While I loved seeing Oscar winner of old, I think this distracts from the true stars of the nights - the nominees. I think a better solution would to have previous Oscar winners present other categories throughout the night as opposed to Marvel actors promoting their summer blockbusters.
This was one of the best Oscars ever - Hugh was amazing. They went through the movie making process with the tech categories and these acting presentations.
My favorite presentation of all time was Meryl Streep & Lily Tomlin giving the Lifetime Achievement award to Robert Altman.
I hated it. Too much ass kissing, fake tears, fake emotion, it dragged for waaaaaaay too long, and nobody really cared about what they were saying. All people really care about are the results.
I remember the Meryl Streep one was a bit humiliating for the other nominees in her category. They were like- Oh, here she is, heaven sent, the greatest of the greats, the most special and important and holy and blessed human being to ever walk the earth.
Oh, and there are four other nobodies in this category too.
I remember: I loved it when Whoopi said to Amy: it 's not easy to be a nun. Super funny!
Am I the only one who felt this was creepy and very "cultish"...As if the new.l winner was being inducted into some sort of secret society.
I remember the way Marion Cotillard pronounced "Kate Winslet" so distinctly! I also remember Shirley MacLaine essentially saying that Anne Hathaway had no chance winning the award that year, and I remember scoffing aloud in my Oscar party.
They didn't show acting clips this year though right?
Is this Oscar presentation Tilda's worst performance ever? "A strippah need nevvvvvah take off huh digniTy with huh cloathes!" The others are so charming and relaxed lol. I love any glimpse of Whoopi-as-entertainer which are vanishingly rare.
Nope!!! Absolutely not, this was annoying, dragged the show, and what was worst, it deprived us from actually seeing what they were honoring, which is their performances. A well chosen acting clip says more than anything you can say in one of these speeches (I know the acting clips are rarely well chosen, but you get what I mean)...
The idea was good but i remember that when i watched the ladies coming out i thought "NOOOO". They ruined a potentially memorable moment::Javier Bardem giving the Oscar to Penélope Cruz. The first spanish actor winner giving the award to the first spanish actress winner .....that also are a couple!!. I'll never forgive Oscar for that.
But talking about favorite presentations, I like when actors doesn't seem like models just reading a teleprompter with beautiful words an looks more natural
An example can be when Mark Rylance decided to use his own words in a moment of his speech to talk about about how healthy is the opposition
But my favorite presentation is when Sandra Bullock introduce the nominees in a fresh and funny way before giving the award to Colin Firth.
Huston's last name is misspelled in the tags.
@Erick
So funny and so true. I imagine the new "member" marked as a beef with the base of the statuette while everyone cheers: Paimon! Paimon!
The comments just goes to remind us that you can never please everyone. This is also on the all timer list for me. So special and memorable and the whole joy of Oscar night SHOULD be seeing all the movie stars possible in one night.
I loved it too, and I think the nominees loved it the most. They all looked visibly touched, and that year it truly was an honor just to be nominated.
I'm so glad you did this article and i remember this ceremony and i absolutely LOVED how they did this.
Erick, I think it *is* like being inducted into a secret society. Anjelica Huston said that, backstage after the announcement, Whoopi Goldberg turned to Penelope Cruz and said "you will never be the same again. Now you're Penelope Cruz, Oscar winner." Huston herself said that, as ridiculous as it sounds, she felt she had been reborn in a way after her own Oscar win.
In a way, it does make it more of an honor just to be nominated, but I can also see how it would make losing sting more (just like the "Oscar family album" reunions of past and newly minted winners at the end of the 1997 and 2002 Oscars). It really hammers home that you missed your chance to join the club.
I kind of wish they had stuck with the past winners format for one more year though so we could have possibly had Judi Dench talking about Mo'Nique in Precious.
With you 100%, Murtada!!
I'm surprised that so many people didn't like it. I thought it was enormously fun and when the 5 ladies came out it felt like such a big deal to be welcomed to the club. I spent the rest of the night wondering who would present the other awards.
I don't know if this would payoff if they did it every year. But I wouldn't mind if they did it every few years (maybe on the 5s and 10s).
This was memorable and gave the nominees their turn in the sun. It definitely helped when the past winner actually watched the nominee he/she was referring to. Maclaine/Hathaway, Hawn/Henson, Kline/Ledger, Huston/Cruz and Kingsley/Rourke were so effecting because it seemed like they were fans and meant what they were spouting. Bring this back!
I can really do without an Oscar host and their dumb jokes and political statements at a ceremony that is recognizing 'the best.' I have to say that seeing 4 previous Oscar winners sing the praises of a nominee was quite enlightening and I too wish that this practice would return. Even if you didn't win, hearing a previous winner compliment your work was like a win in itself. It was great to see them 'welcoming someone to the club.' How horrifying last year to see Maya, Amy and Tina from SNL give Regina King her award! Why are those 3 there and not Sam Rockwell/Alison Janney?!?
FYI-They did show the Oscar clips at this ceremony before they opened the envelope. Seems that there must be some copyright law or something forbidding this. Stinks to look up previous acting winners on Youtube and not see what 'Oscar clips' were presented with various nominees.
It was bloody awful!
Loved it. Too often past winners are forgotten. This was a celebration of Oscar's past and present. Unfortunately, the second time it was done, it didn't feel fresh anymore.
This really felt like a move to do something special and memorable for the nominees, even more so than for audiences at home. I've never seen actors more moved during a presentation and even the 4 who didn't win got their own award of sorts that night. Anne Hathaway is never going to forget that moment she had with Shirley MacLaine.
I remember this being so special! They all seemed to be touched with emotion and honor, and it was a fun way to bring back iconic Oscar winners.
I will say, the idea of Javier Bardem giving Penelope her Oscar is something I really would’ve loved to see tho…
BUT the year following or whenever they brought out coworkers or people who were somehow adjacently related to the nominee did not work the same…
@Amanda, what are you talking about? All the women were gracious (the award was jointly presented by Oscar winners Marion Cotillard, Nicole Kidman, Halle Berry, Shirley MacLaine, and Sophia Loren, each of whom praised the nominees).
I have mixed feelings about this. I like the concept, in theory, of incorporating past winners but remember it going on for too long. It also made the actors seem so much more important than everyone else. Yes, we know they’re the glamorous draw card for TV ratings but no need to rub it in. In the end it felt disrespectful to the other categories to spend sooooo much more time on actors.
That was a nice idea until Cuba Gooding Jr. opened his mouth. He is so awful.
I agree 100%, I always hope that they'd bring this back.
While it no longer surprises me on this blog, the negativity of the comments to this particular post baffle and annoy me. How can self-professed fans of cinema not appreciate the sheer glory of seeing 20 former Oscar winners. And it was pretty clear that the nominees really appreciated it.
TOM - I agree how annoying it is that the Academy removes the actors' clips from its YouTube uploads, but this year did NOT have clips, at all.
No one seems to be asking the most important question about that clip: Who was that most gorgeous man sitting next to Marisa Tomei??? Was it Tom Hardy?? It looked like him, but these days he really works hard to fashion himself as anything but beautiful (which is a loss for us all).
This is my favourite decision the Academy has ever made in terms of how the show is run. I found it utterly delightful. I have no idea why an Oscars nerd wouldn’t be moved by the way they honoured the nominees that year. I wish they did it every year.
The actor sitting next to Marisa was Logan Marshall Green and StinkyLulu used to babysit him!
I loved this presentation, maybe in part because I had done the Supporting Actress Smackdown that year and had seen all four films. I agree that the nominees seemed genuinely moved. Eva Marie Saint’s intro (“Sometimes an actress delivers a performance so powerful that with just one small scene, she finds herself a seat at The Kodak Theater. This year, that happens to you, Viola Davis”) still gives me chills, as does Goldie’s, because it’s so damn GENUINE (“There’s a scene in Benjamin Button when Brad Pitt goes up to his mother and he realized how much he has missed her, and we realize that we did, too”). I also loved Best Actress, in which Shirley MacLaine tells Anne Hathaway to sing more (she would eventually win an Oscar for a musical), and Halle Berry had a moment of solidarity with Melissa Leo about independent cinema.
The following year with coworkers wasn’t as memorable, but to avoid stumbling through a speech at my friend’s wedding, I pretended to be Oprah discussing Gabourey Sidibe.
I liked it a lot. The oscars should always celebrate yesterday, today and tomorrow and that was a superb way of threading that needle.
This was the best Oscar ceremony since at least March, 2002. I loved everything about it. The five previous winners praising that year's crop of nominees was pure gold. The nominees seemed genuinely moved. We don't need clips, we do need a good, old fashioned movie star as host, and a beautiful production. They should have locked that year's producer in to a 20 year contract.
Tilda's Lanvin is to die for.
How could anyone not like this clip, or the one for best actress in the same night? Both presentations were very moving.
@luiserghio. I love your idea!
That was the best Oscar broadcast of my lifetime. Such a classy show.
Hated it. Without the clips, it’s awful. And I hate how the official Oscar YouTube segments don’t have the movie clips.. what, they couldn’t get the rights for a 12-second clip??
Eva Marie Saint proving that beautiful women that age naturally keep their individual charm and attractiveness.