Jessie Buckley is having a dramatic few days. Backstage at the Oscars, the first Irish woman ever to win Best Actress is clutching her weighty award in both hands and thinking about a milestone of another kind entirely. “My daughter got her first tooth this week,” says the 36-year-old, on what is by coincidence her first Mother’s Day as a parent. “It feels like some kind of crazy alchemy that all of these things are colliding on a day like today.”
Buckley got pregnant a week after she finished filming Hamnet, Chloé Zhao’s heartwrenching drama about William Shakespeare and his wife Agnes grappling with the death of their young son. She saw the finished film for the first time eight months later, so it’s hardly surprising she’s finding tonight highly emotional. Frankly, she’s not the only one.
Here at the 98th Academy Awards, the mood is about as poignant and moving as anyone in the often cynical press room can remember. It helps that the joy and excitement are spread around, with no overwhelming winner sweeping the night. The headlines will nevertheless be dominated by One Battle After Another, which wins Paul Thomas Anderson his first Oscars (three of them!) after a 27-year wait since his first nomination: Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and the coveted Best Picture.
However, Ryan Coogler’s Sinners is also deservedly rewarded, with the director winning Best Original Screenplay and star Michael B Jordan taking home Best Actor (leaving Marty Supreme’s Timothée Chalamet empty-handed). Reflecting on his win, Coogler gets in on the high emotion as he recalls the impact his late Uncle James unknowingly had on the now Oscar-winning film, by playing Coogler the blues from a young age. “He was the closest thing I had to a grandfather,” says Coogler. “So I contemplate that man. I’m so proud that he gave me the gift of his stories about the Mississippi... He continues to give me gifts.”
Jordan himself also reflects on the giants that came before him, using his winners’ speech to pay tribute to previous Black Oscar winners, including Sidney Poitier, Denzel Washington and Halle Berry. Even more history-making is the victory of Sinners’ Autumn Durald Arkapaw, who becomes both the first woman and the first person of colour ever to win the Oscar for Best Cinematography.
Backstage, she says the award is “bigger” than her now. “A lot of little girls who look like me will sleep really well tonight because they want to be cinematographers,” she says. “Just getting this award, so many girls will be inspired when they weren’t before.” She references Yeah Yeah Yeahs singer Karen O, as well as Coogler, when she adds: “I heard Karen O say once at a concert – she’s such a badass – ‘You have to see you to be you.’ Ryan gives us, the women in the film, those opportunities. He trusts us. He’s opened those doors. I knew, if this was going to happen, it would happen with someone like him.”
If there are teary eyes behind the scenes, the ceremony itself proves almost as moving. The centre point of the night is the lengthy In Memoriam segment, which features a weepy tribute to Rob Reiner by Billy Crystal, and sweet memories of Diane Keaton singing Girl Scout songs, shared by Rachel McAdams. The showstopper, however, is Barbra Streisand singing “The Way We Were” after sharing her memories of the “intellectual cowboy” Robert Redford.
Even host Conan O’Brien, who generally keeps things light, is moved to a moment of sincerity by the emotion of it all. “Tonight is an international event,” he says towards the end of his monologue. “If I can be serious for just a moment, everyone watching right now, around the world, is all too aware that these are very chaotic, frightening times. It’s at moments like these that I believe that the Oscars are particularly resonant – 31 countries across six continents are represented this evening, and every film we salute is the product of thousands of people speaking different languages, working hard to make something of beauty.”
That optimistic ideal is borne out by winners that include Joachim Trier for Sentimental Value, David Borenstein and Pavel Talankin for the documentary Mr Nobody Against Putin, and “Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters becoming the first K-pop song to win an Oscar, with the film also winning Best Animated Feature.
On top of all that, Amy Madigan pulls off a rare victory for the horror genre by winning Best Supporting Actress for Weapons, while One Battle After Another’s Cassandra Kulukundis wins the first ever Oscar for casting, and there is even a rare tie – just the seventh in Academy Awards history – as The Singers and Two People Exchanging Saliva share the prize for Best Live Action Short Film.
In keeping with the general mood, The Singers producer Jack Piatt reckons the tie is just wonderful. “For me, that was incredible,” he tells the assembled press. “We’ve got to know all the other filmmakers, so that was really special. I wish there could be a five-way tie, to be honest.”
If there’s any danger of it all getting overly sentimental, it’s left to Buckley to puncture that serious air. Asked if she has a message for her family and fans, who’ve stayed up late into the night back in Ireland to support her, she keeps it simple: “Don’t go to bed,” she says. “Keep partying!”
