2020 Academy Awards

Overview

The 2020 Academy Awards is the 92nd annual Oscars awards ceremony, honoring the achievements of directors, actors, and production crews of the film industry during 2019. The ceremony was dominated by South Korean thriller Parasite, which won several high-profile awards, including Best Picture, making it the first non-English language film to win the honor. It won over several high-profile American films including Joker, Marriage Story and The Irishman.

Background

On January 13th, 2020, the Academy announced the nominees for the 92nd annual Academy Awards.^[1] Joker led the field with 11 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director (Todd Phillips), and Best Actor (Joaquin Phoenix). South Korean thriller Parasite was also nominated for Best Picture and Best Director (Bong Joon-ho). Other films with multiple nominations include Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, Sam Mendes' 1917, Martin Scorsese's The Irishman, Greta Gerwig's Little Women, Taika Waititi's Jojo Rabbit, and Noah Baumbach's Marriage Story.

Developments

The awards took place on February 9th, 2020.^[2] Parasite won the most awards of the night, taking home four Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Feature Film.^[3] It was the first non-English language film to win Best Picture. 1917 won the second most awards of the night with three. Joker won two awards, including Best Actor for Joaquin Phoenix. Renee Zellweger won Best Actress for her portrayal of Judy Garland in Judy. Brad Pitt won Best Supporting Actor for Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood and Laura Dern won Best Supporting Actress for Marriage Story.

Related Memes

Confused Billie Eilish

Confused Billie Eilish or Disgusted Billie Eilish refers to Billie Eilish's reaction to Maya Rudolph and Kristen Wiig singing at the 92nd Academy Awards. After the clip was tweeted by MTV News and others, it gained popularity as a reaction video and reaction image online, primarily on Twitter.

During the 92nd Academy Awards ceremony, comedians Maya Rudolph and Kristen Wiig sang while presenting awards for Best Production Design and Best Costume Design. While Rudolph and Wiig were singing, the camera briefly cut to singer Billie Eilish in the audience, who made a confused face. On the same day, MTV News tweeted the clip, with the video accumulating over 3.1 million views and the tweet garnering over 2,800 retweets and 24,500 likes in 12 hours (shown below).

In the following hours, multiple reaction memes based on the image and the video were posted on Reddit and Twitter. For example, a tweet by @misterpatches received over 170 retweets and 1,000 likes within 12 hours (shown below, left). A tweet by @JacobsonAZach received over 270 retweets and 2,000 likes (shown below, right).

Joaquin Phoenix's Acceptance Speech

Joaquin Phoenix's Milk Speech refers to actor Joaquin Phoenix's acceptance speech for receiving the "Best Actor in a Leading Role" award at the 2020 Academy Awards. During his speech, he spoke out against drinking cow's milk saying "we feel entitled to artificially inseminate a cow and when she gives birth we steal her baby even though her cries of anguish are unmistakable and then we take her milk that's intended for a calf and we put it in our coffee and in our cereal." The statement incited commentary on Twitter either mocking or celebrating the statement.

On February 9th, 2020, Twitter user @ditzkoff tweeted an image of dancing joker with the caption, "tfw you drink almond milk" which garnered over 4,200 likes in a day (shown below, left). That same day, Twitter user @OrangePaulp used the me explaining to my mom image captioned "Joaquin explaining milk to the audience" in a tweet which accumulated over 2,200 likes in a day (shown below, right).

Eminem's "Lose Yourself" Performance

Eminem's 2020 Oscars Performance refers to American rapper Eminem's 2020 surprise performance of his 2002 rap "Lose Yourself" at the 2020 Academy Awards. On the night of the performance, many Twitter users commented on the indifferent or confused reactions of the audience members. On February 9th, 2020, Eminem performed "Lose Yourself" live during the 2020 Academy Awards. YouTuber ePro Live: Support for Eminem uploaded the performance to YouTube and gained over 572,500 views in a day (shown below).

That night on Instagram, Eminem shared a clip from the 2003 Oscars in which he wasn't there to accept an award for 8 Mile with the caption "Look, if you had another shot, another opportunity… Thanks for having me @theacademy. Sorry it took me 18 years to get here." The post garnered over one million likes in a day.

On February 9th, 2020 many Twitter users quickly took notice of the seemingly confused celebrity reactions. Twitter user @JarettSays tweeted several pictures of celebrities with the caption, "the reactions to that Eminem performance were so good #Oscars" (shown below). The tweet received over 9,500 likes and 2,200 retweets in a day.

That night, many Twitter users commented on Martin Scorsese's reaction shot which made him look like he was sleeping. Twitter user @missemilyblunt shared a clip of the reaction with the caption, "eminem really interrupted scorsese’s nap like that" (shown below). The tweet accumulated over 430 likes in a day.

Search Interest

External References