The Oscars 2020 saw many of the Academy Awards go according to plan, but there was still room for some big surprises and major snubs. The 92nd Academy Awards, which as usual took place at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, Los Angeles, and for the second year in a row didn't have a host, was in many ways a more straightforward, less controversial year than we've seen recently.
In part that's because of the strength of the nominees across the board, with many deserving winners filling the Best Picture slots and similarly other categories being of the ilk where most people would've been happy with any 2-3 winning from those nominated. The bigger controversies, such as a lack of women up for Best Director, had come earlier in awards season after the Oscar nominations were announced, leaving Hollywood largely free for a night of hand-clapping and back-patting.
As ever, a number of narratives and frontrunners had emerged, and the Oscars 2020 stuck to the script for many of these... until, well, it didn't. Across the night there were a few awards that didn't go the way most people had expected. Here are the biggest snubs and surprises from the 2020 Oscars winners.
Surprise - Ford v Ferrari Wins Best Sound Editing Over 1917
Sound Editing is among the smaller, more technical awards given out on Oscars night, but that didn't make it less of a surprise when it was Ford v Ferrari taking home the little gold man. While Sound Editing and Sound Mixing can sometimes diverge, it's still more common for them to both go to the same movie, in part, perhaps, because many voters simply aren't fully aware of the differences (which is why they're considering making it just one award in future). Considering 1917 was an epic war film (a favorite in this category) and the Best Picture frontrunner, then it seemed a shoo-in for both Sound awards, but Ford v Ferrari served as something of a surprise on the night. It's hard to say that this was indicative of 1917 not winning Best Picture, but it was at least significant in being the first sign that Sam Mendes' movie wouldn't fully have things go its way at the 92nd Academy Awards.
Snub - Avengers: Endgame Doesn't Win Best Visual Effects
Looking at the sorry history of Marvel movies at the Oscars, and it's perhaps not too much of a surprise that Academy voters chose to give 1917 the Best Visual Effects Oscar over Avengers: Endgame. Nonetheless, this is still a stinging snub for the MCU: Avengers: Endgame is the biggest movie of all time, and the conclusion to the entire decade-plus-spanning journey so far. With that, there was a sense that voters might want to give such a significant film (at least in terms of dominating box office and discussion) some recognition, and Visual Effects was the only place to do that. Alas, the Oscars once again opted for smaller, more subtle effects work than the mass-scale VFX of a Marvel movie (as they did with First Man over Avengers: Infinity War last year).
Snub - The Irishman Gets Completely Shut Out Of The Oscars
As soon as The Irishman was announced, it was an Oscars frontrunner. With Martin Scorsese directing, Robert De Niro starring, and support from Al Pacino and Joe Pesci, its awards season bonafides were determined long before De Niro's face had underwent any CGI de-aging. That was borne out in the nominations, with The Irishman receiving 10 in total, but this year has also seen the narrative shift, as The Irishman has become less and less of a true contender. It may have had all the major noms, but from them it received a grand total of zero wins. Pesci was unlucky that this was Brad Pitt's year, while The Irishman might've also had hopes (or at least would've been deserving of) Best Editing, Adapted Screenplay, and above all Best Visual Effects. Whether it's the movie's 3.5 hour runtime that put voters off, a muted response once The Irishman hit Netflix, or still some lack of desire to reward the streaming service, The Irishman was completely shut out at the Oscars 2020.
Surprise/Snub - Bong Joon-ho Beats Sam Mendes For Best Director
While Best Picture was seen as a two-horse race between Parasite and 1917 heading into the Oscars 2020, Best Director seemed like much more of a lock for the latter. Sam Mendes has been cleaning up in the Best Director categories all awards season: the Golden Globes, BAFTAs, and Critics' Choice Awards all plumped for Mendes as Best Director, with 1917 seen as a real technical achievement and incredible feat of direction. Most importantly, Mendes also won the Directors Guild of America award, which is the best bellwether going for the Best Director award. Prior to Mendes, only one director this decade had picked up the DGA but not the Oscar, and that was Ben Affleck, who wasn't nominated by the Academy Awards and whose snub was considered so egregious it helped propel Argo to a Best Picture win. Before that you have to go all the way back Rob Marshall and Chicago in 2002, which also won Best Picture. Parasite's Bong Joon-ho has been beloved on the awards circuit this year, and he is incredibly deserving of the award, but it's nonetheless a huge surprise that he took home the little gold man here, and a big snub for Mendes and 1917.
Surprise - Parasite Wins Best Picture
Awards season started off with a few films seemingly in the Best Picture Oscar race - Once Upon A Time In Hollywood was seen as a serious contender at the turn of the year - but they'd all been seen off as it was whittled down to just two films: Parasite and 1917. Heading into the night, it was an extremely tough call, and while Parasite had the greater buzz and seemingly more goodwill, conventional wisdom still held that this was 1917's award to lose. After all, it had won the top prize at the Producers Guild of America awards, which prior to the Oscars 2020 had picked seven of the last nine Best Picture winners, including last year's somewhat shock winner Green Book. Alongside the top prizes at the Globes and the BAFTAs, it put 1917 in a strong position. At the same time, Parasite faced the uphill battle of not being in the English language, with no foreign-language film having ever won Best Picture before. And, with Bong Joon-ho taking Best Director, recent form suggests these two prizes are often split. Still, against those odds, the love for the movie - and likely the Oscars' preferential ballot system - shone through in the end, with Parasite claiming Best Picture in a big, welcome underdog victory to cap off the 2020 Oscars.