🎧 What We Learned from the Oscars
My final (really!) analysis with a murderers' row of experts
In the final scene of Joel and Ethan Coen’s Burn After Reading, two CIA officers played by David Rasche and J.K. Simmons recap the ludicrous twists of the film we’ve just seen. “What did we learn?” an exasperated Simmons asks. “I guess we learned not to do it again. I’m fucked if I know what we did.”
I think about those CIA agents every year around this time, when Oscar season is over and the twists and turns of the campaign trail should, in theory, reveal themselves as part of a grand plan that got us here. So this year, for one last Oscar season episode of the Prestige Junkie podcast, I decided to pose that question to everyone who’s spoken on the pod this season: What did we learn from this year’s Oscar race?
My guests, a true murderers’ row of journalists and awards experts and Ankler contributors, came with a glorious range of answers, from a silly but maybe also serious theory about a cursed Oscar dress color to a startling trend in recent best picture winners that I hadn’t even thought of before. Another important takeaway: “If you see Emma Stone at the Oscars, expect chaos,” says Vanity Fair’s Chris Murphy. “Wherever there is an Oscar surprise, Emma Stone is literally right there.”
We’re not here to rehash this year’s specific awards, but rather to try and figure out what they can tell us and how they fit in with the 96 years of Oscar history that came before.
The list of guests, in the order you’ll hear them: Esther Zuckerman, Jordan Hoffman, Richard Rushfield, Tyler Coates, Michael Shulman, Sam Adams, Rebecca Ford, Shirley Li, Matt Patches, David Canfield, Murphy, Sean Fennessey, Alison Brower and Chris Feil.
Next week I’ll be back with a look ahead at next year’s race, along with some foolishly early best picture predictions. For now, enjoy the final word on the 2025 Oscars — and after that I promise we never have to talk about the chances and choices of Emilia Pérez or Conclave ever again.