2020 Oscars: Full Winners List + Reviews of the Show

The New York Times James Poniewozik

One thing a host can do is give the broadcast a shape and a voice when nothing else provides them. And this year’s show seemed to feel the vacuum more, turning out a grab bag of emotional high moments and perplexing uses of time. ... The ceremony was most effective when it simply got out of the way of its stars’ shine.

Deadline Dominic Patten

The 2020 Oscars bellowed out for a ringmaster to harness what soon became a lackluster circus. ... To bring out ex-SNL duos like Bridesmaids co-stars Maya Rudolph and Kristen Wiig or Downhill‘s Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Will Farrell and have them caught in a leg hold trap of bad writing and clear network time killing is a sin on any Sunday, but especially Oscar night.

Vanity Fair Richard Lawson

Sure, the Academy has been sheepishly apologetic about the length of the ceremony for decades now. But now that they’re actually concretely addressing it, it almost plays as a too-guilty concession, an eschewing of self-serious pomp and grandeur that makes the whole thing feel a little thin. I know; it’s unfair to rag on the Oscars for being so bloated for so many years, and then rag on them for attending to that complaint, but there it is. Maybe this show is damned either way.

The Washington Post Hank Stuever

Hostlessness is not the Oscar’s problem, not really. ... The more rote the Oscars become, the more they stand in contrast to what has perhaps become the most entertaining movie awards show — the Film Independent Spirit Awards, which took place Saturday afternoon and aired on cable channel IFC. Held under a big tent near the beach in Santa Monica, the Spirit Awards have much of what viewers say they want from these affairs: spontanaiety, diversity and the general idea that going to a star-studded event (even vicariously, on television) ought to be a lot of fun.

The Hollywood Reporter Daniel Fienberg

Like the Emmys back in the fall, this year's Oscars were a roller coaster of bizarre producing and directing decisions, a few of which paid entertainment dividends, but most of which contributed to a show that ran far over the allotted three hours and gained more of its highlights from off-the-cuff moments than scheduled bits. ... Maybe every award show doesn't need a host? This one sure did. The structure and fluidity that a host can help provide was exactly what this telecast was missing, which doesn't mean that a Billy Crystal or Ricky Gervais would have solved everything that was weird about what was a telecast without a clear theme, message, agenda or cohering purpose.

The Oregonian Kristi Turnquist

If the 2020 Oscars broadcast was competing for a “Most Confusing Mess of an Awards Show” trophy, it really hit the mark. But that’s the best that can be said for the 92nd Annual Academy Awards, which, despite a few surprises, was mostly predictable and seemed to go on forever.

Time Andrew R. Chow

While the Oscars were also hostless last year, it really felt like this time there was no one in charge. Award winners were allowed to drone on for minutes, with the producers seemingly too meek to try to play anyone off.

Gold Derby Tony Ruiz

While last year’s ceremony was more of a daring experience, this year’s comparatively by-the-numbers event showed signs that the [host-free] experiment might need to come to an end. Thankfully the ceremony was saved by a little historic Korean film, whose presence injected some much-needed joy and energy into an otherwise listless ceremony.

Variety Caroline Framke

The 92nd annual Academy Awards quickly lost its own plot amid a million distractions courtesy of ABC’s frenetic, often baffling production decisions. But then, through the sheer pleasure of the groundbreaking winners of “Parasite” breaking through the expected narrative to triumph, the show became something far more beautifully chaotic than the show’s producers could have hoped for.

IndieWire Ben Travers

So much of what was put forth during the 2020 Oscars simply didn’t work, and it would’ve added up to an ugly failure on all fronts — if not for our Lord and Savior, Director Bong.

Boston Globe Matthew Gilbert

Sometimes, a few good moments are enough to get you there. And there were a few good ones throughout the Oscarcast Sunday night, which, like every Oscarcast ever, hosted or host-free, predictable or filled with surprises, jubilant or downbeat, was longer than it needed to be. Just when you thought it was time to jump ship, for instance right at the top of the night when Janelle Monáe led dancers and Billy Porter through a largely unnecessary musical number, they pulled you back in with something small.

Star Tribune [Minneapolis] Neal Justin

Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph, who used their stage time to “audition” for dramatic roles, were dynamite; they always are. In fact, the case has never been stronger that they — or some other female combo from the “Saturday Night Live” family — should be front and center throughout the evening, especially if your goal is to throw a feel-good party that won’t trigger internet trolls.

Sioux City Journal Bruce Miller

Because it lacked focus (a host was needed), this year’s Academy Awards rambled as much as Zellweger and Phoenix. Someone like Jimmy Kimmel or Ellen DeGeneres could have prevented some of the train wrecks and made more of its wins.

Los Angeles Times Lorraine Ali

This year’s Oscars showed an art form in dire need of a relevancy check. Instead we got the biggest rap act of 2002 and a whole lot of jokes about the industry’s inability to see its own stasis.

Entertainment Weekly Darren Franich

[Grade: B+] Certain elements seemed to be awkwardly straining for youth appeal. ... There were other hiccups in the production that felt like problems somebody decided to invent. ... The 2020 Oscars were a bit of a shambles, and we can definitely lose all the introducers next year. But the last hour had the quality of a well-deserved coronation.

Vox Emily Todd VanDerWerff

But where the 2019 awards were sprightly and largely entertaining, the 2020 awards felt like they had absolutely no focus. As it became more and more clear that the Academy would award Best Picture to an international film for the first time, less-anxious viewers could instead focus on the curious choices in how the show was staged and produced. ... It’s entirely possible that the problem with this year’s award show wasn’t the lack of a host, but its inability to decide which elements of a traditional host to keep and which to jettison.

Vulture Jen Chaney

The most maddening thing about this year’s Oscars, which featured many delightful moments, including a semi-surprising Best Picture win for Parasite, wasn’t that it ran late. It was that there was absolutely no reason it needed to run late. If just a few segments had been snipped and some awkward transitions had been finessed, this could have been one of the best Oscar broadcasts in recent memory. It came close, but didn’t quite get there.

The Telegraph Ed Power

[4 of 5 stars] It was glamorous and surreal, indulgent and heartfelt. ... The most memorable moments were also the most orthodox.

Slate Willa Paskin

Without a host and with so many musical performances, the show felt different than usual, a little less grueling, but also a little weirder.