Oscar Grace
A moment of grace can change everything.
I remember watching the Academy Awards in 2004. Bill Murray—one of my favorite actors—had been nominated for the Best Actor Oscar that year for his movie Lost in Translation.
At the Oscars, the camera lingers on the faces of each of the losing nominees after the winner has been announced. (We like to see the pain and disappointment of others, I suppose.) I remember Bill Murray looking particularly crushed when Sean Penn was announced as the winner. He had to have known that he’d never get back there again, particularly as he has made a career as a comic actor and not as someone who takes on the sorts of dramatic roles that are like catnip to the Academy.
I was reminded of that moment when I saw the award given for Best Director at last night’s 2020 Academy Awards. The Korean director Bong Joon-Ho was announced as the winner, and then the camera lingered on the faces of the four losing directors: Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarentino, Sam Mendes, and Todd Phillips. (I thought Mr. Phillips looked particularly disappointed.) Seeing the real-time disappointment of men who have been working their entire lives to win something made me uncomfortable; I felt sorry for them.
And then Bong Joon-Ho made his speech, and the entire feel of the moment changed. The whole thing is worth watching.
Mr. Bong first deftly recognizes Martin Scorsese in such a pure and heartfelt way that the entire audience gives Martin Scorsese a standing ovation. Then, he credits Quentin Tarentino with generously promoting his films in American when no one had heard of him, and then he tells Todd Phillips and Sam Mendes that he wishes he could cut the Oscar statuette in pieces and share it with them. Todd Phillips grins. It’s as if grace has been poured out on the entire theater, with everyone just grateful to be there and experience it.
It’s such a beautiful moment.
Grace changes everything.