The 2025 Oscars: ‘Anora’ Has the Greatest Day

Sean and Amanda sit down moments after the conclusion of the 2025 Academy Awards to discuss ‘Anora’ and Sean Baker’s historic night. They discuss Baker taking home four Oscars for the same film, the uneven nature of the telecast and speeches, which films petered out before Hollywood’s biggest night, and much more. Plus: the results of Sean and Amanda’s final Oscar predictions as well as their Big Oscar Bet from back in September (0:00). Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins Senior Producer: Bobby Wagner Video Producers: John Richter and Cory McConnell Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Hi, everyone. It's Amy Poehler, and I'm launching a new podcast called Good Hang. In preparation for that, I asked some of my friends to send in some videos and give me some advice.

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• 0:43Sean Fennessey?

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• 1:22Sean Fennessey?

  I'm Sean Finacy.

• 1:23Amanda Dobbins?

  I'm Amanda Dobbins.

• 1:24Sean Fennessey?

  And this is The Big Picture, a conversation show about the 97th Academy Awards they have just concluded. We are here, and we have just witnessed the utter domination of Enora. Amanda, how are you feeling right now?

• 1:37Amanda Dobbins?

  I am feeling like a woman who is about to have access to one of the finest DVD collections, and Blu-ray, and steel box, and 4K, and VHS, and formats that haven't even been invented yet. But I will find them, and I will color coordinate them in your garage, for it is now my domain.

• 2:00Sean Fennessey?

  I don't think that that's what was agreed to. Nevertheless, you're referring, of course, to our big Oscar bet, which I think you won because of one of the victories tonight.

• 2:09Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes.

• 2:10Sean Fennessey?

  And one of those victories belonged to Sean Baker, who is the...

• 2:13Amanda Dobbins?

  One of many victories of Sean Baker's victories throughout the night.

• 2:16Sean Fennessey?

  He won four Academy Awards tonight. A truly, historically astonishing performance at the Oscars.

• 2:22Sean Fennessey?

  Enora was nominated for six Oscars and won five of those Oscars. Poor Yur Borisov goes home empty handed. Otherwise, the Enora team kicked ass. Sean Baker won for Best Picture along with Samantha Kwan and Alex Koko, his co producers. He won for Best Director. He won for Best Screenplay and he won for Best Editing. And I noted on the social media app X that if the casting Oscar were eligible this year, which it will be next year, he probably would have won for that too because he cast the film Enora. This is an amazing thing. On top of that, Mikey Madison in a late breaking, come from behind victory.

• 2:57Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 2:57Sean Fennessey?

  Triumped in the Best Actress race over Demi Moore, who was running the table all the way up until BAFTA.

• 3:02Amanda Dobbins?

  Who had the, she was seated front and center.

• 3:05Sean Fennessey?

  She had the leading spot.

• 3:07Amanda Dobbins?

  There.

• 3:07Sean Fennessey?

  And, and she lost. And this is, it is the greatest day for Enora. This is an absolutely amazing moment for that movie, which is a very small movie. As Sean Baker said, made for only $6 million. He's been making movies for over 20 years. It is, when it came out, we said this is a culmination of everything that he's interested in as a filmmaker, of the style that he pursues. And I, I am just blown away that this actually happened. I mean, we sort of predicted it would happen and still I'm kind of blown away by it.

• 3:34Amanda Dobbins?

  It is surprising. We did not predict the Mikey Madison because Demi Moore had been so strong. And we didn't predict editing. We predicted Conclave because it had won at the BAFTAs and a couple of other precursors. And we just didn't believe that Enora could go this hard and have a full sweep. And it really did. And so that is amazing because it was not quite how the season was shaking out. Or let's put it another way, the last few months or the middle months, when we started this, this whole thing, when we did our big Oscar bet, which was in September, thank you very much for doing it so early to accommodate various events in my life.

• 4:13Sean Fennessey?

  Worked against me, it turns out.

• 4:14Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, but you know, we, as far as the race goes, we came back to where we started with Enora because you and I both predicted it to win Best Picture.

• 4:24Sean Fennessey?

  We had a big flashing arrow at this film for many, many months, in part because it won the Palme d'Or at Cannes. And that has been a hugely predictive moment at the movies.

• 4:31Amanda Dobbins?

  So things got a little interesting in November, December, January, as they always do. And, and it was sort of fun, but so I think we're surprised because first, because we were right, sort of, or because, well, a little bit.

• 4:44Sean Fennessey?

  It's not that. To me, it's much more about what this movie is and what it represents and how, what it, it's just oppositional to what Hollywood is right. Which is that the last 20 years have been a story about the sort of widening gap between the IP havers and everyone else. And last year was an interesting synthesis of those two things with Oppenheimer and Christopher Nolan, where he really kind of brought, I think, both ethics to the Academy Awards. This year, there wasn't really anything that was competing in that way. Wicked and Dune Part Two had no chance. Enora, though, aside from Maybe I'm Still Here, is the smallest movie here. You could argue it's even smaller than Nickel Boys in some ways, just because of like the studio that was behind it and being independently financed and all these other things. And the fact that it's about a sex worker.

• 5:29Sean Fennessey?

  Its lead is relatively unknown unless you're a huge fan of the Scream series or going down the call sheet on Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

• 5:36Amanda Dobbins?

  Which we do on this podcast.

• 5:37Sean Fennessey?

  We certainly do. We have discussed Mikey Madison in the past on the show before Enora happened. But nevertheless, like, this is highly, highly unusual. And it is yet another chapter in this decade-long story of the Academy Awards no longer looking anything like it did for the previous, let's just say for the scope of our lives, roughly 30 years. Which, I don't know, what do you make of this movie in particular being the next chapter in this story?

• 6:01Amanda Dobbins?

  I think, obviously, five Oscars. I mean, it almost does the historic sweep. It's just that it did not have a Best Actor eligible. It had several supporting actors competing against each other. That, to me, is, I guess it's a little strange, but also, I like this film so much and I have met so many people who really like this film. And yes, it's, you know, small and it's about sex workers, but it also, like, won the Palm. It won, like, every, not every single precursor, but it won PGA, DGA, W. Did he win a WGA as well? Yeah, I mean, it literally won everything. So, I'm not that, not as surprised. I do also think the more we start to talk in historical terms, like,

• 6:44Amanda Dobbins?

  Oppenheimer is actually the outlier of the last 10 years. And the further along that we get in it and the more that cinema gets divided into IP world and independent cinema, passion projects, small things, the Academy is starting to favor the small stuff. And it's not really starting. That's sort of happened 10 years ago.

• 7:07Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, obviously, the massive increase in membership in the Academy has meant that different kinds of movies are being recognized. We've talked about how it's become significantly more international in addition to the independent films. One thing to keep in mind about Enora, too. This is basically a rom com. It's it's it's got a sour note at the end.

• 7:24Amanda Dobbins?

  You don't need to say it like that.

• 7:25Sean Fennessey?

  I'm not, I'm not saying anything negative. I think I'm saying it that way because is it, is it Annie Hall? Is that the last time a rom com won Best Picture? I'm just off the top of my head.

• 7:34Amanda Dobbins?

  I think so.

• 7:35Sean Fennessey?

  I can't think of another one. I mean, this is very unusual. We always talk about how comedies are never recognized by the Academy. So a movie like this, which does have, you know, some social import and it has ideas and it's gritty and all of those things.

• 7:45Amanda Dobbins?

  It is very funny, but I think if we were drafting it, for example, in one of our movie drafts, I think we would let it play in comedy and also in drama.

• 7:54Sean Fennessey?

  I agree, I agree.

• 7:55Amanda Dobbins?

  So I think even there, it's it's slightly different than an Annie Hall or an It Happened One Night, which, you know, is a precedent in another way of. Can we like, can we foot this? Can this be like sweeps all five? I mean, this is, this is a pretty historic Oscar achievement in terms of the level of the awards.

• 8:13Sean Fennessey?

  You mean in the tradition of The Silence of the Lambs, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest? Yeah, I mean, it, I think particularly because Baker won the Best Editing Award himself.

• 8:23Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 8:23Sean Fennessey?

  That it feels like this Titanic achievement. And obviously the titular character, the actress who portrayed her is recognized. I, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm slightly flummoxed by this because I, I think I don't totally know what it means. And it might just be because, as you said, when we were in the room 20 minutes ago, you were like, this has just been a weird year. And so for a movie like this to run the table just feels like a representation of that. That's not really a criticism of the film. It's just in my, you know, stacked brain. I'm like, how in the world did we get here?

• 8:52Amanda Dobbins?

  It's, it's been a weird year and I think it's, it's going to continue to be weird years. And I think some of your frustration is just, we don't totally know. We do know how to pick them because we read the things, but right now, March 2nd, 2025, we have no idea what the next year of the Oscars is going to look like. We don't know.

• 9:11Sean Fennessey?

  Yes, I do. Wicked for good, running the table.

• 9:13Amanda Dobbins?

  You were saying that out loud.

• 9:14Sean Fennessey?

  The big five.

• 9:15Amanda Dobbins?

  We will revisit that.

• 9:16Sean Fennessey?

  Best Actor, Jeff Goldblum.

• 9:18Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay, just, just save it. He's not an actor in that, is he? He's not Best Actor in that?

• 9:24Sean Fennessey?

  I, I don't know. I have never seen the second half.

• 9:25Amanda Dobbins?

  Of the show. Who knows? I mean, I guess he's the wizard. Sure. And he plays some sort of role. People who love that show right now are at home screaming about I'm mad at you. With love and respect can go somewhere else to get their wicked enthusiasm. Okay? And there is, there are plenty of spaces on this earth and I am happy for them. But you can sing as many songs as you want, as loud as you, as you can at the Oscars. You can't make me like it. So that is what I have to say. You are right that we don't know where 2026 is going. Um, we might maybe later this week on the show, we might pick some potential winners for this upcoming season. I would have not had a Nora on the five for six on my board at this time last year.

• 10:07Amanda Dobbins?

  And during one of the commercials, I think when we were, we were puzzled by the, the lack of trailers being showed. What the hell was that? Well, because I don't think there are that many movies in the pipeline. I think the movies that the studios do want to like, like sell big. They don't want to sell to Oscar audiences. I mean, it's a weird, weird time. I could recall. You went to the bathroom during Ballerina. It was Ballerina, right? Ana Armus was there and it was like John Wick. Yes, that's Ballerina. I know, I know, but you weren't in the room and I didn't totally look up from my phone at that juncture because I was trying to log into the big picture Instagram, which I, as a 40 year old, was stymied. That's, that's okay. That's what maybe why your Instagram follower numbers are not that high. It was a little, it was like two factor authentic, you know, it wasn't me. I see, I see.

• 10:52Amanda Dobbins?

  But you were saying, I, you know, no movies have come out this year that we feel like super confident will be nominated for Oscars. And at this time last year, we had challengers or not quite, but it was about to be released. Yeah, I was saying by the end of March, we had Dune part two, we had challengers and we had civil war. And I was like, we have a real movie culture. We have interesting movies that are doing some business at the box office that are have ideas in them and so on, so forth. We don't, it doesn't feel that way this year. This is all my way of saying it's a weird year in a, in a weird phase of movies and just like a weird new life that we live in. And I, and the way that we see these things and sort like Oscar races in our head has already changed, but I think we sort of need to accept that it's totally different now. It is, and yet this is the third year in a row.

• 11:36Sean Fennessey?

  Where it felt like an engine picked up steam.

• 11:40Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 11:41Sean Fennessey?

  And it just started going down the track and it could not be deterred. And that happened for Enora maybe a little bit later than it happened for Everything Everywhere All at Once and Oppenheimer in the two previous years. But in both, in all three cases, you had these big multi-win kind of behemoth qualities to the winners. Which is actually very old Hollywood. It isn't the previous generation where it felt like everybody was like, and one for you, and one for you, and one for you. This was five for Enora, three for The Brutalist.

• 12:10Amanda Dobbins?

  One for me.

• 12:11Sean Fennessey?

  Was, uh, two for Conclave, two for Wicked. Like the, you know, it was a lot of dominance at the top, you know, it was very top-heavy tonight, as it has been for the last few years. I'm not sure if that's representative of much. Let me ask you this. What did you think about the telecast? Did you think it was a good show? Ran about three hours and forty-five minutes.

• 12:29Amanda Dobbins?

  There was an hour in the middle when I thought I was gonna die.

• 12:31Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 12:32Amanda Dobbins?

  Uh, it involved a lot more singing than I want from any ceremony in my life besides a Beyonce concert, really.

• 12:39Sean Fennessey?

  Put all the lowlights in a separate discussion area of this podcast.

• 12:43Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 12:44Sean Fennessey?

  We will get there, I promise you.

• 12:45Amanda Dobbins?

  You asked me.

• 12:45Sean Fennessey?

  Yes, yes, I did.

• 12:47Amanda Dobbins?

  And, and, and as a result of the, the lost hour and the singing, it felt very it felt very long. I, I did think that there were some interesting pacing, pacing choices. There were four awards given out in the first hour. That said, I really enjoyed Conan O'Brien. That is, you and I were just giggling like two little kids throughout every bit that he did. It worked. If he, if the target audience was us, he nailed it.

• 13:13Sean Fennessey?

  I thought he was fantastic.

• 13:16Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 13:16Sean Fennessey?

  And I am an elder millennial who taped Conan O'Brien's show in the late nineties on VHS. So I am very biased on this issue.

• 13:24Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 13:24Sean Fennessey?

  He is my tempo in many ways. He's both of our tempos in many ways.

• 13:28Amanda Dobbins?

  But I would like to clarify, I didn't tape anything.

• 13:29Sean Fennessey?

  No, you didn't. No, you've never taped a thing in your life, um, until you enter the ADU.

• 13:33Amanda Dobbins?

  That is not true. I taped the Good Will Hunting Oprah Oscar special in nineteen ninety-seven.

• 13:39Sean Fennessey?

  You have shared that. Where is that tape now, I wonder?

• 13:43Sean Fennessey?

  Anyhow, Conan is uniquely suited to this because he's simultaneously full of it and self-deprecating. And that is the apotheosis of Hollywood. Hollywood people at their best know how to say, I'm a star.

• 13:57Amanda Dobbins?

  Look around, everyone. Look at me. And they also know how to say, hey, but also like I'm humble. You know, I know, I don't get too bit. Well, not everyone did tonight and we will get there. But I, I thought he was really, really well suited. Why don't we use this as an opportunity to talk about the best moments of the night, which is brought to you by Audi, who with the Q6 e-tron have taken a huge leap forward. It's optimized inside and out for an engaging dynamic and effortless drive. Okay, Conan O'Brien, who came out and did a monologue immediately after a wicked Wizard of Oz medley. And a brief, we love L.A. like movie montage to start the movie, to start this show, which, you know, made me tear up despite myself. It was very sweet. I did wonder if the show was very understandably,

• 14:39Amanda Dobbins?

  but maybe a bit obtusely L.A. centric and a little bit alienating to the many, many, many other people who, obviously we've had a terrible year here in Los Angeles and it's right to honor what's happened here. And Conan O'Brien did at the end of his very funny monologue, do it like an earnest, straight to camera bit about why we're doing the show and this, and the silliness about like what movies can mean even in terrible times like these in L.A. and beyond. So the show honored the city beautifully. Yeah. Conan crawled out of Demi Moore's substance carcass and began with a very funny monologue that I think probably split the difference between, I would say maybe the Jimmy Kimmel, like, aren't these movies crazy?

• 15:22Amanda Dobbins?

  And Tina and Amy, like, aren't you guys all idiots? Right. Strategy. And it started off gentler and then kind of worked its way to, there was, you know, it got to Carla Sofia Gascón and, and singled her out, but also never repeated anything hateful, which was good. That was nice. And just, you know, made a joke at Jimmy Kimmel's expense, which was funny. That was funny. And then we got into, there were some Timmy jokes around there, which was just like a good natured, like, that's another guy who understands the game. Sitting in the front row. Yeah. Happy to be there. And then we got to all the Amazon content, which was very funny. I was laughing very hard. Yeah. And, and kind of the meanest of the bit, but like the, the main target of the monologue

• 16:05Amanda Dobbins?

  was the faceless corporate entity that is ruining cinema and also our lives. I guess so. Yeah. Um, it was a pretty unspar-

• 16:12Sean Fennessey?

  But also not over long and overdrawn monologues sometimes in shows like this. Obviously, Conan has given been giving monologues for thirty plus years. He knows how to do this really well. It did actually feel like kind of watching one of his shows.

• 16:24Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, that's because he was like warming the crowd up. And between the jokes, he was doing his classic physical comedy, reading the room, being like, oh, you won't like it. You know, dancing, shimmying. Yeah, which is just, again, you and I were just like already in fits.

• 16:40Sean Fennessey?

  We were.

• 16:41Amanda Dobbins?

  In the room, I couldn't tell whether they knew to laugh.

• 16:44Sean Fennessey?

  Felt mostly warm, I would say.

• 16:46Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, but a little nervous.

• 16:48Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, definitely. Well, it's been it's been a complicated year, you know? There was, there was a, one of my favorite jokes was about how there was no AI used in the making of the telecast. But there was child labor, which is, you know, a risque joke, but a very funny joke.

• 17:03Sean Fennessey?

  Aside from Conan and Conan, you know, he also he brought out the the tune to Sandworm to perform for us during his crazy musical number.

• 17:10Amanda Dobbins?

  Adam Sandler.

• 17:10Sean Fennessey?

  And Adam Sandler, that was also a highlight, a great moment. Again, really appealing to the forty two year old men.

• 17:16Amanda Dobbins?

  You know, excuse me, excuse me.

• 17:20Sean Fennessey?

  You like the Sandman?

• 17:21Amanda Dobbins?

  Of course, I grew up in the nineties.

• 17:23Sean Fennessey?

  What's your favorite Happy Madison production?

• 17:25Amanda Dobbins?

  Uh, let's see, it's probably Happy Gilmore.

• 17:29Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 17:29Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 17:30Sean Fennessey?

  You know, Happy Gilmore two is coming out this year.

• 17:31Amanda Dobbins?

  I do know that I know that, uh, what's his name, Travis Kelsey? Sorry, I forgot the football season ends and it just falls out of your head.

• 17:37Sean Fennessey?

  Is he in the film?

• 17:38Amanda Dobbins?

  I, well, he was wearing a hat for a while, so I think so.

• 17:41Sean Fennessey?

  He's not retiring, just a heads up.

• 17:42Amanda Dobbins?

  He's not?

• 17:43Sean Fennessey?

  He's not, no, he announced he will, he will return.

• 17:45Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay, just like James Bond. And we will return to that.

• 17:50Sean Fennessey?

  Other great moments, the Kieran Culkin speech after he won for best supporting actor. Now, this was one of the most obvious and predictable awards of the night. In fact, it opened the show. Kieran Culkin has been doing a funny thing with his speeches where it seems like he is simultaneously not prepared and also remarkably prepared. I get the impression he has one of those great brains where he can just remember any bit he comes up with.

• 18:12Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes.

• 18:12Sean Fennessey?

  In this particular case, kind of weird and sweet and a little raw. But a little right, particularly in exchange with his wife.

• 18:22Amanda Dobbins?

  Incredibly memorable.

• 18:23Sean Fennessey?

  Very, very.

• 18:24Amanda Dobbins?

  And it just as for those of us watching at home, one of, you know, one of the great Oscar speeches. I hope it's okay between them because it was based on an acceptance speech he gave at the Emmys a year or two ago, winning for Succession. And he thanked his wife and thanked his kids. And he was just like, thank you so much. He said, if I won, that we could have another kid. So like, get ready.

• 18:47Sean Fennessey?

  And he said, not only that, but I haven't brought this back up to you after our handshake in a year.

• 18:52Amanda Dobbins?

  No, no, no, no, you're stepping on it. You're stepping on it. Okay. I was setting it up.

• 18:56Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 18:56Amanda Dobbins?

  That's what happened at the Emmys.

• 18:58Sean Fennessey?

  Oh, okay.

• 18:59Amanda Dobbins?

  And that was in the speech at the Emmys.

• 19:01Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 19:01Amanda Dobbins?

  And then promoting a real pain, I think it was New York Magazine did a long piece with him and, and his wife was there, Jazz, is I believe her name. And they talked like pretty openly about how that moment at the Emmys kind of made her uncomfortable. And he was like, I shouldn't have done it. And she explained it to me and this, that and the other. And we're talking, you know, so I have all that in my brain when he wanders up. He gives a very good speech, perfect comedic timing. And then at the end, he says, I have not brought this up in a year, but like I swear. And he tells the story of the, the Emmys and that speech. And then walking home with like, or leaving the Emmys with his wife. And I think he kept saying, and M was there too.

• 19:43Amanda Dobbins?

  And I believe that's Emma, Emily Stone, producer of a real pain and two time Oscar winner herself. And basically his wife was like, I guess I did say that. I didn't know that you were going to say that. And anyway, at some point she says, if he's like, maybe we should get four. And she says, okay, if you win an Oscar, I'll give you four. And he's like, and so he retells the whole story as the kicker to winning an Oscar for the speech. And the camera's cutting to her and bless her, like she is, she's playing along. If she's not okay with it, then she's handling that behind closed doors. And I, and I hope she is heard.

• 20:20Sean Fennessey?

  She married Kieran Culkin. I have to imagine this kind of thing happens fairly often.

• 20:24Amanda Dobbins?

  That's, that's all very true. So I like, I hope it's okay with them so that we can all enjoy it. Cause it was a little weird, but it was pretty charming.

• 20:30Sean Fennessey?

  It was very funny and very memorable. It was definitely a moment. And then I, you know, I think obviously we mentioned that. Sean Baker, I think, gave three very good speeches. He gave a best director's speech that is etched in my heart. It is exactly how I feel about the world when it comes to movies, which is that, you know, Baker has been advocating loudly and sincerely for the movie theater experience, at least ever since I met him eight years ago. And certainly since he's had a platform to talk about this stuff. And he has gone out of his way at a couple of award shows, and I thought most eloquently tonight, to say, "The experience of movies is built on sharing it with people in a communal space, and that movie theaters are under threat," which is, of course, a subject we talk about ad nauseam on this show,

• 21:13Sean Fennessey?

  I think to many listeners frustration, frankly. But the truth is, it's a real problem, and everyone's worried about it. And watching movies at home is kind of eroding something that was very special about this culture that we celebrate on the show. And it was honestly very, very nice to hear him so directly and clearly say, "This matters. We have to fight for it." I can't make it any more clear to you. Let's please protect going to movie theaters.

• 21:39Amanda Dobbins?

  But I thought, and possibly because he'd just won his third Oscar of the night, but like joyfully, and with a sense of this is something, this is something that I love and that everyone in this room loves. And this is what we can do to protect it and to encourage it, and to foster it in the next generation. Take your kids to the movies. I'd love to if you'd screen them, you know, before naptime.

• 22:02Sean Fennessey?

  And my mom took me to movies when I was five.

• 22:04Amanda Dobbins?

  And it's her birthday. It was great. And so I was, you know, perfectly enunciated, right on message, but also totally just spot on.

• 22:13Sean Fennessey?

  Yes, and accurate to what the experience with him has been for all of awards season, which is he's been charming, thoughtful, not over the top.

• 22:23Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 22:23Sean Fennessey?

  Very sincere. And the Q6 e-tron features a new panoramic digital stage that gives the passenger their own optional second screen. Perfect for watching those last couple Best Picture nominees you still haven't gotten around to. Plus, you get powerful performance, smooth and refined driving dynamics, and a comfortable ride. Learn more at AudiUSA.com. Always pay careful attention to the road and do not drive while distracted. Okay, let's go back to big awards. Best Actress and Best Actor. We mentioned that Mikey Madison won, which means that Demi Moore lost.

• 22:53Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 22:54Sean Fennessey?

  And that was tough.

• 22:56Amanda Dobbins?

  That was tough. I, you know, and they kept cutting to her.

• 22:59Sean Fennessey?

  Yes.

• 23:00Amanda Dobbins?

  I would say that.

• 23:01Sean Fennessey?

  She was in the Jack Nicholson seat.

• 23:02Amanda Dobbins?

  She was. And in general, the reaction shots were not as plentiful as I would have liked them to be. And they weren't chosen with Amanda's, you know, interest in mind.

• 23:14Sean Fennessey?

  You wanted to see pure agony on her face the entire time?

• 23:17Amanda Dobbins?

  No, I was throughout the telecast.

• 23:19Sean Fennessey?

  Oh, I see.

• 23:20Amanda Dobbins?

  There weren't as many.

• 23:21Sean Fennessey?

  There weren't as many. That's true.

• 23:21Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, they were not really like, you know, doing crowd work. And maybe it's because, um, as, as Chris Ryan phoned in from the set of The Odyssey R, like, half of Hollywood is, uh, on set on Christopher Nolan's next film, The Odyssey.

• 23:33Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 23:34Amanda Dobbins?

  And so maybe there just like wasn't enough star power for them to, to do the audience stuff. But poor Demi Moore, once she lost, that carrot was on her.

• 23:43Sean Fennessey?

  It was. In the pre-show, I shared with you that I had some real last minute concerns about this race. And I said, I think what I said was, I feel like Inora is either gonna win one award.

• 23:52Amanda Dobbins?

  Mm-hmm.

• 23:52Sean Fennessey?

  Or it's gonna go crazy. And that one of the ways it would go crazy would be not just the four for Sean, but that Mikey Madison, after really only winning at BAFTA, would win here. Oscar historically loves an ingenue. It hasn't loved an ingenue much in the last five, 10 years. Not since the Brie Larson, Jennifer Lawrence era.

• 24:11Amanda Dobbins?

  Right. Except for, you know, I guess Emma Stone has already won an Oscar, but Emma Stone handed one last year and handed it to Mikey Madison. And I was like, those are two, two women younger than me.

• 24:22Sean Fennessey?

  That's true. That's true. That's true. Emma Stone, you know, for our purposes is, is.

• 24:27Amanda Dobbins?

  I understand. She's running Hollywood. Yeah, but.

• 24:29Sean Fennessey?

  Nevertheless, I was very surprised by this win, broadly speaking, and it seemed like Mikey Madison was kind of surprised. She gave a very nice but quiet and subtle speech that was just like, wow, I can't believe this happened. Um, nothing compared to, you know, the blaring witticisms of Kieran Culkin or Zoe Saldana's, like, deep emotionality or Adrian Brody's elongated thoughts about.

• 24:56Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes.

• 24:56Sean Fennessey?

  Love and hate in the world. I mean, this was a very modest, quiet moment. And you know that Demi Moore just had a burner in her pocket and it just, we never got to hear it. Fascinating.

• 25:07Amanda Dobbins?

  And was sitting right there.

• 25:08Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah. And the thing that I mentioned to you. We were in the pre-show is, you know, if you look back at Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler, or Sylvester Stallone for Creed, or our friend Van Lathan helpfully pointed out Eddie Murphy for Dreamgirls is another really good example of this happening. It sometimes seems like an it's time moment for a box office powerhouse, and then it doesn't really happen.

• 25:27Amanda Dobbins?

  And they just don't go for it.

• 25:28Sean Fennessey?

  They actually go the opposite direction with a relative unknown, or a smaller character actor, or some, you know, and this is something we gotta be careful of when we do our jobs here on the big picture. We gotta watch out for this. This keeps happening.

• 25:38Amanda Dobbins?

  How close do you think it was?

• 25:40Sean Fennessey?

  Probably really close.

• 25:41Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 25:41Sean Fennessey?

  Probably really close.

• 25:42Amanda Dobbins?

  Do you think, and head to head, do you think Mikey Madison still wins? Or do you think Fernanda Torres is pulling some votes?

• 25:50Sean Fennessey?

  I think she pulled a lot of votes from older voters away from Demi Moore.

• 25:53Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 25:53Sean Fennessey?

  I think that that, we had not yet seen a race with these five actresses competing in this way, which we mentioned in the pre-show as well. And Demi Moore and Fernanda Torres, both veteran performers, two very different kinds of actors, two very different kinds of movies, but you know, the biases are real. Younger people are gonna vote for younger people, older people are more likely to vote for older people. Mikey Madison won.

• 26:14Amanda Dobbins?

  Do you think there's any just kind of, people only watched Anora? Like, I, I, I'm wondering, seriously.

• 26:20Sean Fennessey?

  Out of all the movies?

• 26:21Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah. I mean, how much of that is just kind of, well?

• 26:23Sean Fennessey?

  I think I'm Still Here was late breaking, and The Substance is a tough sit.

• 26:27Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 26:27Sean Fennessey?

  And The Substance, you know, it had been rumored as like a potential best screenplay winner a couple of months ago. That didn't happen. It did win makeup, which is a feat unto itself, and it deserved to win makeup, but you've heard me say a hundred times at this point, forget about Anora being a strange Oscar movie. The Substance is the least Oscar movie that's ever been nominated for an Oscar. So I'm sure that was working against her in some respects. Pretty interesting, though. I mean, she gave great speeches all the way through. Every interview I heard from her, she was really good. It's tough. That's a tough beat.

• 26:57Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, and you really, I mean, and she had the full winner dress. I mean, she looked great.

• 27:00Sean Fennessey?

  Yep.

• 27:01Amanda Dobbins?

  Seated in the front row, you know, I just, it, there's something, CAA was, you know, thanked a million times tonight, as, as it always is.

• 27:10Sean Fennessey?

  Would you like to thank them right now?

• 27:12Amanda Dobbins?

  And, you know, I, and they did have a lot of winners, but I'm just imagining like the angry phone calls and yelling that's going on in a certain wing, and, and the wrath that, and the way those people are gonna talk to each other about what happened, that it just makes me really uncomfortable.

• 27:27Sean Fennessey?

  I don't know what else you can do other, other than just tip your cap to the Anora wave. I mean, that was just something.

• 27:32Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, I don't think anyone employed at CAA is gonna do that, but.

• 27:34Sean Fennessey?

  Perhaps we'll hear from them. Best actor.

• 27:38Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 27:39Sean Fennessey?

  I was feeling a little shaky on this one, but not that shaky. I was, you know, I heard the SAG, kept hearing the SAG stat in my ear, but it never really seemed like Timothy Chalamet. Timothy Chalamet will return. He will compete again. I'm not really worried about him. He seems to be on a path.

• 27:52Amanda Dobbins?

  I mean, he is Leo, right? So he's gonna have to wait a while and then like sleep in a bear suit or whatever.

• 27:57Sean Fennessey?

  Yes, they are gonna make him earn it.

• 27:58Amanda Dobbins?

  And then he's gonna get a million dollars from Rolex, which I'd like to come back to that at some point.

• 28:01Sean Fennessey?

  We certainly can. I had that on my list as well.

• 28:03Amanda Dobbins?

  Watch that commercial many times.

• 28:05Sean Fennessey?

  Adrian Brody won again. He adds himself to the very short list of two-time acting Academy Award winners. In fact, we just lost Gene Hackman, which is something that we have not had the chance to talk about on this show. He too is a two-time best acting winner and I wouldn't say that they're very similar performers. So that's kind of where the comparisons end. They have different energies. But Adrian Brody is remarkable in The Brutalist. He gave a very long speech that was simultaneously, I found touching and self-regarding, which felt very old-school Oscars to me. What did you think of his speech?

• 28:39Amanda Dobbins?

  I noticed that it was silent in, in, in our viewing room, but also just the Oscars. And he, and he was speaking in a very drawn-out, you know, thoughtful or long manner. And he does have a presence, Adrian Brody. And so everyone was just kind of there.

• 28:58Sean Fennessey?

  Waiting on his words.

• 28:59Amanda Dobbins?

  Exactly. And in much the same way that, you know, The Brutalist, just at some point, he is, is drawing you in emotionally. That is like a lot of the work. I, so I found myself moved by it, even though it kept going, you know? And then I liked it when he told them to turn the music off. That's, you know.

• 29:18Sean Fennessey?

  I've been here before.

• 29:19Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That, I mean, it's respect, you know? And that's when the, like, the Hollywood starts peeking out.

• 29:25Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 29:25Amanda Dobbins?

  And I, he, he drove around to, you know, the message of love, not hate, but he got there in the end.

• 29:33Sean Fennessey?

  He did.

• 29:34Amanda Dobbins?

  And I agree, so.

• 29:37Sean Fennessey?

  I think he's run, he ran a very sincere campaign, wasn't telling a lot of jokes in his interviews. You know, I talked to him. He was very similar when we spoke. He was very, very thoughtful and. Deliberate in every answer, but took every question he received very seriously. And he's just an amazing actor.

• 29:53Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 29:53Sean Fennessey?

  And it's clear that Hollywood forgot for 20 years, in part because of the parts he took or the parts he was offered, or whatever may have happened in his career over that time. But when he gets his hands on the right role, he can do something interesting. I thought it was interesting, the way that he located the arc of an actor's career, especially a successful actor, who the way it ebbs and flows, which is something that you and I talk about all the time.

• 30:16Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 30:17Sean Fennessey?

  This person's hot, they're on our list, they're not on our list, they're a box off of success, this movie was a flop. Adrian Brody has kept himself relevant, obviously by appearing in Succession, being great in Wes Anderson movies, but as I've said, like, he's really been in pretty small genre stuff.

• 30:33Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 30:33Sean Fennessey?

  For the most part, for the last 15 years. And he literally in the speech was like, I'm gonna make this the, a step in a redemption story. I'm now gonna pursue something more, something bigger, I'm gonna try to do more and succeed again. It was almost like he was pumping himself up during his own second best actor acceptance speech.

• 30:52Amanda Dobbins?

  And I think still also wallowing a little bit in what he clearly felt was the wilderness of the last 20 years.

• 30:58Sean Fennessey?

  Yes.

• 30:59Amanda Dobbins?

  You know, as he was, he was speaking, and I think he said, this is a reminder, things can go away, but you can also get them back, but something to that effect. And I was just thinking about the person who did not win in his category, Timothy Chalamet. Wait, wait, I don't think it's gonna go away for him.

• 31:16Sean Fennessey?

  No, he'll be okay.

• 31:17Amanda Dobbins?

  You know, he'll be fine. So even as he didn't win, I was like, well, it's, it's gonna be okay, because I don't think he's gonna have a, an Adrian Brody wilderness, period.

• 31:27Sean Fennessey?

  You never know.

• 31:27Amanda Dobbins?

  You never know.

• 31:28Sean Fennessey?

  Coming out of The Pianist, his win for The Pianist, when he was the youngest winner of all time.

• 31:32Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 31:33Sean Fennessey?

  You would have said, this guy's the next Al Pacino, he's the next Robert Duvall.

• 31:37Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 31:37Sean Fennessey?

  He's like the next. He may not be the most beautiful, you know, movie star of all time. But when he is given a part, he can crush it. He is, you know what I mean?

• 31:45Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, no, no, I know.

• 31:46Sean Fennessey?

  He's a 70s movie star. He's not a 2000s movie star. Nevertheless, the win, I think we both saw coming for a very long time. Good speech. Zoe Saldana, once again, gave a very emotional speech.

• 31:58Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes.

• 31:59Sean Fennessey?

  Talked about her parents as immigrants. Talked about how she was the first woman of Dominican, the first person of Dominican descent to win an Academy Award. You know, Amelia Perez has been the black dove of this entire award season in many ways. But Zoe Saldana has never wavered. She's won everywhere. This is probably one of the biggest steamroll best supporting actress campaigns of all time.

• 32:21Amanda Dobbins?

  Shows up looking amazing, totally prepared, dynamite speech every single time. So, I mean, you know, and she really, she is, she projects to the, to the rafters.

• 32:33Sean Fennessey?

  Sometimes when races get settled like this early on, I get annoyed. I think often of the very odd Renee Zellweger Judy run.

• 32:41Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 32:41Sean Fennessey?

  Which I was very cranky about throughout that entire season. I felt both of the supporting actor and actress races were like this this year, where everyone just sort of landed on something and there was no room for discussion. But I don't really have anything bad to say about Zoe Saldana. When I saw that movie, she was really the only thing I could think about from that movie, so.

• 32:59Amanda Dobbins?

  And she's very talented and she does a lot of blockbuster movies, you know, so, and, and some that we even like. So credit to her for that.

• 33:06Sean Fennessey?

  No question.

• 33:07Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, she's great. Also learned tonight that she also has a son named Cy. And I didn't know that.

• 33:13Sean Fennessey?

  Did you get a spelling?

• 33:14Amanda Dobbins?

  It's C Y.

• 33:14Sean Fennessey?

  Oh, wow.

• 33:15Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, so shout out. Another Cy mom.

• 33:17Sean Fennessey?

  Cy twins.

• 33:18Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 33:19Sean Fennessey?

  That's nice.

• 33:19Amanda Dobbins?

  So we've got the suit and we have Cy's in common.

• 33:21Sean Fennessey?

  Yes, and so many other things.

• 33:24Amanda Dobbins?

  And a love for the film center stage. I hope she loves it. I've probably seen it more times than she has, but.

• 33:29Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, and also a love for Pya Khan, the whale from Avatar, The Way of Water.

• 33:33Amanda Dobbins?

  I like sea creatures.

• 33:35Sean Fennessey?

  Is that true? You don't like birds?

• 33:37Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, I'm freaked out by them.

• 33:38Sean Fennessey?

  Okay, let's keep that in mind for future discussion.

• 33:40Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 33:58Sean Fennessey?

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• 34:57Sean Fennessey?

  What other awards popped out to you that were really notable? We talked about director, we've talked about the big six at this point. What struck your fancy during this telecast? Well, let's just, actually, let's say for the record, I predicted seventeen out of twenty-three. You predicted fifteen out of twenty-three.

• 35:13Amanda Dobbins?

  Sixteen.

• 35:14Sean Fennessey?

  Sixteen, sixteen out of twenty-three. Which is not bad, it's not great.

• 35:18Amanda Dobbins?

  The shorts really, really messed us up.

• 35:21Sean Fennessey?

  Yes, I went over three on the shorts. Did you as well?

• 35:23Amanda Dobbins?

  I also went over three.

• 35:24Sean Fennessey?

  So that's not ideal. Animated feature, let's talk about that one. I find that one very interesting as well. You predicted that one correctly.

• 35:29Amanda Dobbins?

  I did.

• 35:30Sean Fennessey?

  You predicted Flow.

• 35:30Amanda Dobbins?

  I did.

• 35:32Sean Fennessey?

  Flow, of course, was strong this year, was also nominated an international feature. And it beat The Wild Robot, which is what I predicted. And I consider this, once again, a sign of the old days are gone at the Academy Awards. Flow, is Flow the single smallest movie to have ever won a major award at the Academy Awards? And when I say major award, screenplay, acting, picture, and then the three international documentary and animated. Is it the single smallest, I mean, I think less than fifteen people worked on this movie? It's, the budget is miniscule.

• 36:10Amanda Dobbins?

  No dialogue?

• 36:11Sean Fennessey?

  It has no dialogue. It is made on software that anyone can download, that is free, called Blender. And it just won Best Animated Feature, overcoming Universal, Disney.

• 36:26Sean Fennessey?

  Aardman and Netflix, it's just an amazing thing.

• 36:30Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 36:30Sean Fennessey?

  It's a beautiful movie.

• 36:31Amanda Dobbins?

  People really love that cat. And the, and the capybara. I'm very, I'm happy for Mallory Rubin.

• 36:36Sean Fennessey?

  She was delighted by this movie.

• 36:37Amanda Dobbins?

  I'm happy for Chris Ryan, who's seen the, the film flow, you know?

• 36:42Sean Fennessey?

  His first animated feature, right?

• 36:43Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, so there we go.

• 36:44Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, good for him. Congratulations, Chris. Best documentary feature, No Other Land won.

• 36:50Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 36:51Sean Fennessey?

  And the recipient, you know, I made a mistake on the, on the predictions episode. I said that the events in the film take place in Gaza. I meant to say West Bank.

• 36:57Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 36:58Sean Fennessey?

  Which is, which the filmmakers, I thought, spoke quite eloquently about.

• 37:02Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes.

• 37:02Sean Fennessey?

  And why they chose to make this movie and why this movie is important. And it was the, one of very few moments in the night where someone who won an award or a host or a presenter openly acknowledged world events.

• 37:16Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes.

• 37:16Sean Fennessey?

  There was like an, ooh, aren't I naughty moment from Conan O'Brien about standing up to Russian power.

• 37:21Amanda Dobbins?

  Right, and why Inora was doing so well.

• 37:23Sean Fennessey?

  Yes, but occupation and the destruction of homes in the West Bank and in the community that is portrayed in that movie. I thought both filmmakers spoke very eloquently.

• 37:33Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes.

• 37:33Sean Fennessey?

  It was not the booing and hissing that some feared because of, you know, some of the...

• 37:39Amanda Dobbins?

  Right, though, you know, the, I suppose the letters haven't been written yet.

• 37:44Sean Fennessey?

  No, and I'm sure that they will be.

• 37:45Amanda Dobbins?

  I'm sure that they will be.

• 37:45Sean Fennessey?

  And I'm sure there will be.

• 37:46Amanda Dobbins?

  It was, it was very quiet in the, in the room and not, not as much, um, no, no standing ovations.

• 37:53Sean Fennessey?

  No standing ovation.

• 37:54Amanda Dobbins?

  Very, very polite.

• 37:56Sean Fennessey?

  I, I was looking very closely at Selena Gomez and Samuel L. Jackson.

• 38:00Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 38:00Sean Fennessey?

  Who introduced this award and Selena Gomez, I would say gently clapped and Samuel L. Jackson had his hands in his pockets.

• 38:08Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes, but I also, with respect to Selena Gomez, I think that it was sort of like the auto clap where she was trying not to...

• 38:15Sean Fennessey?

  It seemed polite. We can't read intention into their actions, but I was looking because it's very rare that you see extremely famous people. Have to have a reaction to a moment like that, like a real world issue that actually matters to people.

• 38:28Amanda Dobbins?

  And to the winners actually speaking to the people in the room and to this country and to our foreign policy and the ways that it is failing. And so, yeah, I mean, it was an amazing and fascinating moment that most people seem to just want to lean on. And that's another one where I noticed that the production, they were not cutting to anyone.

• 38:49Sean Fennessey?

  No, although I was wondering if they would cut to Guy Pearce, because Guy Pearce very notably was wearing a free Palestine pin, which is something he has been wearing throughout award season, but they did not. I assume ABC was attempting to be very careful during that moment. Nevertheless, interesting to see that it happened and that that group and the body itself actually went for that movie. Because it upended whatever our questions or concerns were about that when we talked about the category. International feature. You hold on to Emilia Perez.

• 39:18Amanda Dobbins?

  Listen, I was trying some things. You can't be great if you don't try some things.

• 39:22Sean Fennessey?

  I agree, and you know who else would agree with that is Jacques Audiard. You know, he tried to do something great and he did not succeed with the film Emilia Perez, which was the odds on favorite for many months in this category in particular. And it lost to I'm Still Here, the Brazilian entrant, the Walter Salas film starring Fernando Torres. He gave a nice, quiet speech. Walter Salas, very good filmmaker. He, of course, does not get this award. The nation of Brazil receives this award.

• 39:48Amanda Dobbins?

  Listen, I think that they are at least appreciative. So congratulations.

• 39:52Sean Fennessey?

  The whole nation?

• 39:52Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes.

• 39:52Sean Fennessey?

  Or their government?

• 39:53Amanda Dobbins?

  I think, well, I'm not getting into that. I just said that the people on the internet who are excited about Brazil get this award in my mind, and I'm happy for them.

• 40:03Sean Fennessey?

  Sure. Yeah. Kind of a weird category. They need to rethink this whole category. This one country gets to submit a film, makes no sense. It's well intentioned because they don't want like five French films because they have a thriving film industry.

• 40:17Amanda Dobbins?

  And that would have been a problem 20 to 30 years ago, but now because the Academy is so much more international, you have more international features making it into Best Picture on a regular basis, which is great.

• 40:28Sean Fennessey?

  Yes, and way more access to world cinema. So I think that, I'm sure that this is. Been discussed ad nauseam inside the Academy. They just need to change this. It doesn't make sense. It's, I'm still here is a, is a good winner, but it's a bit strange. The music categories quickly. El Mal won for best original song, which is, it won because you wore this suit tonight. You look wonderful.

• 40:51Amanda Dobbins?

  Thanks so much.

• 40:51Sean Fennessey?

  I'm very proud of your bravery.

• 40:53Amanda Dobbins?

  Thank you.

• 40:54Sean Fennessey?

  And.

• 40:55Amanda Dobbins?

  Did we, did we get any?

• 40:56Sean Fennessey?

  Who's more uncomfortable in their suit tonight, me or you?

• 40:58Amanda Dobbins?

  Any clarity on what the, what El Mal, El Mal means? Um. Did you get any feedback?

• 41:04Sean Fennessey?

  Didn't, didn't hear from anyone. No one was reaching out to me during the show. Best score, of course, we got Daniel Blumberg.

• 41:09Amanda Dobbins?

  Wait, wait, wait. So it means the evil, as I was correct, but yeah.

• 41:12Sean Fennessey?

  Evil, the bad, yeah.

• 41:13Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, you, no, no, no.

• 41:14Sean Fennessey?

  Whoa, whoa.

• 41:15Amanda Dobbins?

  We're gonna have to talk about the acceptance for original song.

• 41:18Sean Fennessey?

  Oh, right.

• 41:19Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 41:20Sean Fennessey?

  Well, I guess we're starting the lowlights portion of the conversation early.

• 41:24Amanda Dobbins?

  Do you want me to, you want it, you just wanted to talk about winners and then we can have like the airing of grievances?

• 41:29Sean Fennessey?

  Uh, yes, I think that's a good idea. In general, this.

• 41:32Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 41:32Sean Fennessey?

  Prize was given by Mick Jagger.

• 41:35Amanda Dobbins?

  That was cool.

• 41:36Sean Fennessey?

  Uh, and honestly Mick looked great.

• 41:38Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes.

• 41:38Sean Fennessey?

  He's 81 years old. He made a joke about being younger than Bob Dylan, who did not show at the award show, no surprise. Shout out to you, Bob. Thank you for everything you've given me. Um. And Mick just smiling through the whole thing.

• 41:50Amanda Dobbins?

  Jaunty, loved it.

• 41:52Sean Fennessey?

  He was having a great old time.

• 41:53Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 41:53Sean Fennessey?

  Shalameh seemed to enjoy that and he gave a prize to El Mal. Best score, Daniel Blumberg. He won for The Brutalist, which is a magnificent.

• 42:03Amanda Dobbins?

  A wonderful score, completely deserving. They had the, the Academy Orchestra play snippets live. I, I would have liked to hear more and from The Brutalist, I would have liked to hear the bum, bum, bum, bum. I guess they did get it when he won.

• 42:19Sean Fennessey?

  Yes.

• 42:19Amanda Dobbins?

  Um, but it was cool to have them. And overall, throughout the night, they did a good job. Thumbs up to the orchestra.

• 42:27Sean Fennessey?

  The orchestra did well.

• 42:27Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 42:28Sean Fennessey?

  Um, best sound and best visual effects went to Dune Part Two.

• 42:31Amanda Dobbins?

  Mm hmm.

• 42:32Sean Fennessey?

  There was some speculation a complete unknown might come in on best sound.

• 42:34Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 42:35Sean Fennessey?

  I expressed some confusion. Also, the explanation that I shared on the predictions episode about the difference between sound mixing and sound editing apparently was completely wrong.

• 42:43Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 42:43Sean Fennessey?

  And I've been scolded by members of the sound community.

• 42:46Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 42:46Sean Fennessey?

  Um, and to them, I'd like to say, uh, I do not apologize. I, I'm an idiot and everyone knows this. Um. Dune Part Two winning a couple of awards, something occurred to me, which I also shared on social media. There was a film once upon a time called The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

• 43:00Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 43:01Sean Fennessey?

  This film was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and it won two prizes. It won Best Sound Editing and Best Visual Effects. It was the second film in a trilogy, much anticipated. This year, Dune Part Two was nominated for five Oscars, including Best Picture, and it won two, Best Sound and Best Visual Effects. Dune Messiah, I ask?

• 43:24Amanda Dobbins?

  I love you and your numbers, and I need you to Google the plot of Dune Messiah.

• 43:28Sean Fennessey?

  I don't want to.

• 43:29Amanda Dobbins?

  I like how-

• 43:30Sean Fennessey?

  Enora just won Best Picture.

• 43:32Amanda Dobbins?

  How-

• 43:32Sean Fennessey?

  Everything, everywhere, all at once, won Best Picture.

• 43:34Amanda Dobbins?

  And still, I say to you, Sean, I need you to understand what's gonna be happening in Dune Messiah.

• 43:40Sean Fennessey?

  The Shape of Water won Best Picture.

• 43:41Amanda Dobbins?

  And yet again, sir, I say, you know, it's, it's fine. Let's see how long I can go without spoiling it for you.

• 43:48Sean Fennessey?

  You will never spoil it for me. It will be spoiled for me when I sit to watch the film.

• 43:52Amanda Dobbins?

  No, I know, but like at some point, I'm just gonna yell out something, you know? I can't do it. It's like at the tip of my tongue right now. I'm not going to.

• 43:58Sean Fennessey?

  Dead Bobby in here with a Trent gun.

• 43:59Amanda Dobbins?

  But I'm just saying, they haven't even started filming yet. It's gonna be like four years of you being like, this will definitely be Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.

• 44:05Sean Fennessey?

  I'm not saying it definitely will be.

• 44:07Amanda Dobbins?

  Well-

• 44:08Sean Fennessey?

  Here's what I'm, here's what I'm putting in a circle around.

• 44:09Amanda Dobbins?

  All I'm saying is worms.

• 44:10Sean Fennessey?

  I'm putting a circle around the fact that this is what Hollywood thinks it's doing.

• 44:14Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 44:15Sean Fennessey?

  It thinks it's prepared, because Hollywood is also not Red Dune Messiah. You know who's Red Dune Messiah?

• 44:20Amanda Dobbins?

  Nerds.

• 44:20Sean Fennessey?

  No one I know. No, that's not true. A lot of people here at The Ringer have read Dune Messiah, and they too have said it's very weird, but I don't think that the folks voting for the Oscars really know that. And so they're, they're gearing up to award a film that may not deliver on the promise, the way that The Return of the King did, which was a very triumphal,

• 44:38Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 44:39Sean Fennessey?

  satisfying, not titener of, of a final installment.

• 44:42Amanda Dobbins?

  They destroy- Sauron?

• 44:45Sean Fennessey?

  Yes, the Eye.

• 44:46Amanda Dobbins?

  The Eye. Yeah, that was me doing the Eye. Thank you.

• 44:48Sean Fennessey?

  This is the Eye.

• 44:49Amanda Dobbins?

  Um, poor Denis Villeneuve had like a middle seat way in the back. It was so disgraceful.

• 44:54Sean Fennessey?

  You think they stood up to let him go to the bathroom?

• 44:56Amanda Dobbins?

  Ray Corbeau was definitely seated like in Rosie or whatever.

• 45:00Sean Fennessey?

  Same with Sean Baker. Why are these people sitting so far back?

• 45:02Amanda Dobbins?

  At least they had aisle seats, you know?

• 45:04Sean Fennessey?

  They did.

• 45:04Amanda Dobbins?

  They did. So they had easy access and also just like-

• 45:06Sean Fennessey?

  Well, then he didn't have to get up for anything.

• 45:07Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, I know, but it's just, it's insulting.

• 45:10Sean Fennessey?

  Okay. Um, I don't, not sure I totally understand the Sean. Did they not want to give away the game by not seating Sean Baker too close? Why was he in the 19th row when he had to go up there four times?

• 45:22Amanda Dobbins?

  I think he was like in the third or fourth row.

• 45:24Sean Fennessey?

  That's, no, that's not true.

• 45:25Amanda Dobbins?

  You think he was all the way back?

• 45:27Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 45:27Amanda Dobbins?

  He was at least in the center on the aisle. He was like center aisle and Corbeau was on the, on the right aisle.

• 45:33Sean Fennessey?

  Let's stop recording, drive to the Dolby Theater and we'll map out the whole room. Um.

• 45:38Amanda Dobbins?

  And then go to Johnny Rafferty.

• 45:41Sean Fennessey?

  Any other, what other notable awards did we have this evening? Not too many more. Production design, of course, went to Wicked, as did Best Costumes. We talked about that. I thought Paul Tazwell's speech was wonderful.

• 45:50Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, great designer.

• 45:51Sean Fennessey?

  Costume designer for Wicked.

• 45:52Amanda Dobbins?

  Also great fit.

• 45:53Sean Fennessey?

  Uh, he looked fantastic.

• 45:55Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 45:55Sean Fennessey?

  Um, that does raise a question though, which is one of my real pet peeves. Do you want to start, do you want to start bitching? Do you want to start saying, here's what sucked and here's what I didn't like? What do you think?

• 46:06Amanda Dobbins?

  And I don't know how much more positivity I have. We've gone through all the good stuff. Enora was my favorite movie of the year and it won, so like good job, Academy.

• 46:16Sean Fennessey?

  That was great. Uh, I want to shout out June Squibb and Scarlett Johansson.

• 46:21Amanda Dobbins?

  Very funny.

• 46:21Sean Fennessey?

  Their presentation together was amazing. Apparently June Squibb is the star of Scar Joe's forthcoming directorial debut. She did a great bit about how she's actually Paul Skarsgård in makeup to present the makeup Oscar. That was very, very funny. Um.

• 46:34Amanda Dobbins?

  Andrew Garfield and, and Goldie Hawn, just absolutely. Andrew Garfield on the, on the run of a lifetime, the role of a lifetime.

• 46:41Sean Fennessey?

  I'm, I'm not seeing anything like this in my life. Simultaneously Cougar Bait and the most desirable 40-year-old man in Hollywood?

• 46:51Amanda Dobbins?

  The glasses were there, the pendant, I, he was wearing a pendant. I don't know if it was the exact same.

• 46:57Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 46:58Amanda Dobbins?

  Looked great, just to add a few-

• 46:59Sean Fennessey?

  Another velvet suit, right?

• 47:00Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes. Escorting Goldie Hawn, supporting Goldie Hawn, A+ stuff.

• 47:06Sean Fennessey?

  That was nice.

• 47:06Amanda Dobbins?

  Congratulations to him.

• 47:08Sean Fennessey?

  Um.

• 47:08Amanda Dobbins?

  You think he makes it into the gold party tonight?

• 47:10Sean Fennessey?

  Why would he not?

• 47:11Amanda Dobbins?

  I don't know. I just, you know.

• 47:13Sean Fennessey?

  Andrew Garfield?

• 47:13Amanda Dobbins?

  I don't, he hasn't won an Oscar.

• 47:15Sean Fennessey?

  He was Spider-Man.

• 47:17Amanda Dobbins?

  Not the best one.

• 47:19Sean Fennessey?

  Well, that's debatable, you know, that's the, he's not in the best movies.

• 47:22Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 47:22Sean Fennessey?

  But did he really embody Peter?

• 47:25Amanda Dobbins?

  I like him very much.

• 47:27Sean Fennessey?

  I do as well. Um, I wish him all the best and if he's actually dating Monica Barbaro,

• 47:33Sean Fennessey?

  salute to you, sir.

• 47:34Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 47:35Sean Fennessey?

  I thought Amy Poehler was very funny presenting, uh, Ringer podcaster, Amy Poehler. She had some of the best lines of the night. She presented animated, animated feature and animated short. Is that right? No, that can't be right.

• 47:47Amanda Dobbins?

  Writing. No, she presented both screenplay because they were jokes about how terrible writing is.

• 47:51Sean Fennessey?

  We didn't mention Peter Strawn, one for Conclave, which had been much predicted.

• 47:55Amanda Dobbins?

  Nice bit with his daughter and the sweater.

• 47:57Sean Fennessey?

  Yes, it was for her, but not hers.

• 47:58Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes.

• 47:59Sean Fennessey?

  Um, which is something I can relate to. Most of the objects in my bedroom are for Alice, but they do not belong to her and never will. Um, I don't know, Quincy Jones tribute?

• 48:10Sean Fennessey?

  Not bad.

• 48:11Amanda Dobbins?

  Not bad.

• 48:11Sean Fennessey?

  Not anything.

• 48:12Amanda Dobbins?

  Listen, I'm always happy to see Whoopi and Oprah.

• 48:14Sean Fennessey?

  Mm-hmm.

• 48:15Amanda Dobbins?

  Um, a lot of energy at a moment when we on the, Queen Latifah then performed a song from The Wiz.

• 48:20Sean Fennessey?

  Yes, the second song from The Wiz performed that night.

• 48:23Amanda Dobbins?

  Um, there was, there was a great moment about halfway through before the rest of the crowd really got into it. But Coleman Domingo, who is seated, I believe, right next to Demi Moore.

• 48:32Sean Fennessey?

  Mm-hmm.

• 48:32Amanda Dobbins?

  Or maybe one other, but front and center.

• 48:35Sean Fennessey?

  He was vibing.

• 48:36Amanda Dobbins?

  He knew to stand up and just dance immediately. And he is, he is bringing the right energy to all of these.

• 48:42Sean Fennessey?

  Agreed. He also looked great.

• 48:43Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 48:44Sean Fennessey?

  Um, I thought the, the fire department tribute was nice and I liked them giving the roast jokes to

• 48:51Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes.

• 48:52Sean Fennessey?

  the officials from the fire department, particularly the Joker 2 joke, which was

• 48:55Amanda Dobbins?

  It was very funny.

• 48:56Sean Fennessey?

  super funny and raw. There was a Rolex commercial that I enjoyed featuring several masters of cinema.

• 49:02Amanda Dobbins?

  It aired again.

• 49:03Sean Fennessey?

  Yes.

• 49:04Amanda Dobbins?

  While you were.

• 49:05Sean Fennessey?

  A second time?

• 49:06Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes.

• 49:06Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 49:07Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 49:07Sean Fennessey?

  Martin Scorsese was at the center of this commercial. Leonardo DiCaprio was in it.

• 49:12Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 49:12Sean Fennessey?

  Was Inaritu in it?

• 49:15Amanda Dobbins?

  Big Jim was in it.

• 49:16Sean Fennessey?

  Jim.

• 49:17Amanda Dobbins?

  With a great, a great shot of Big Jim like in a rattan chair on the set of the Titanic with like the water.

• 49:22Sean Fennessey?

  Yes, with the Omega right on his wrist. I enjoyed that.

• 49:26Sean Fennessey?

  And yeah, you know, normal stuff. Just guys on $20 million sets directing $300 million movies wearing $80,000 watches.

• 49:35Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 49:36Sean Fennessey?

  Who among us?

• 49:37Amanda Dobbins?

  So there was another Rolex commercial that before, at the very beginning of the show, and I don't know where you were, but.

• 49:44Sean Fennessey?

  You make it sound like I was like on my paper route. Where did I go?

• 49:49Amanda Dobbins?

  No, you're outside. You weren't in the theater. And it was your more traditional. I mean, there was like a lot of Roger Federer, which obviously caught my eye. Some Tiger in there. I believe Coco Goff was in the mix. And so it was like athletes. And then sort of surprisingly to me, ended on Leo. On like the very last image, which that director's commercial actually does end on Leo. So if Leo's in his Rolex era, good for him, I guess.

• 50:14Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah. I mean, these one battle after another budgets aren't going to pay for themselves.

• 50:20Amanda Dobbins?

  I guess so.

• 50:21Sean Fennessey?

  Okay, let's go to the, let's go to the Black Lodge. Let's go to the Dead Space. Let's go to the place where all things go to die.

• 50:27Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 50:28Sean Fennessey?

  There were some unfortunate things during this telecast. What would you say was the most unfortunate thing that you witnessed?

• 50:34Amanda Dobbins?

  Well.

• 50:35Sean Fennessey?

  Amanda's hater corner has commenced.

• 50:39Amanda Dobbins?

  So I think that there were two incidents during which you felt the need to share with the world your displeasure at being so close to me.

• 50:49Sean Fennessey?

  That's not entirely true, but okay.

• 50:51Amanda Dobbins?

  And so the first was actually not the nadir of the night. I thought it was in the moment. But there was worse to come. But we will start with the James Bond tribute, which I, I love James Bond.

• 51:05Sean Fennessey?

  You do.

• 51:07Amanda Dobbins?

  And I, I didn't want any of this. And it was not made clear why we were saluting James Bond tonight of all nights. Like, I don't think it was like, hey, Amazon took over, so I guess we gotta, well, throw a wake here.

• 51:21Sean Fennessey?

  My understanding was, is that it was, it happened because Barbara Broccoli, Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson were honored by the Governor's Awards. And they were, they, in identifying who were the recipients this year, which included Richard Curtis, Juliet Taylor, I'm forgetting one other really important person. Nevertheless, they were also acknowledged and they used that as a segue to perform what felt like an in memoriam for James Bond. It was sort of like a weird sexy funeral dirge.

• 51:54Amanda Dobbins?

  The other person was Quincy Jones.

• 51:55Sean Fennessey?

  Quincy Jones.

• 51:56Amanda Dobbins?

  So he did actually get, yeah, later. Um, yeah, so it started with Margaret Qualley of, of The Substance, performing a dance number with many other dancers, and she was good, but...

• 52:12Sean Fennessey?

  I thought that was appropriate because Bond is famed for casting the young, beautiful woman, and she seems like the kind of actress you might find in a Bond movie in the future. That wouldn't stun you if it was like Margaret Qualley is Dr. Alexandra Snake Pit.

• 52:26Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, so...

• 52:28Sean Fennessey?

  Don't steal that name, Amazon. Dr. Alexandra Snake Pit, Pit, Pit is, is copyrighted here by the show.

• 52:35Amanda Dobbins?

  I, I feel I have said this before on previous post Oscars broadcasts, and I admire dance and even dance in cinema.

• 52:46Amanda Dobbins?

  But very often, there's a ballet on my Oscar stage for absolutely no reason, including an in memoriam one year. And it's at some point, you have to ask yourself, why is this ballet happening on my Oscar stage? And I don't know if there was a good reason for the, for, for, for this particular one.

• 53:06Sean Fennessey?

  Well, it got worse.

• 53:07Amanda Dobbins?

  Exactly.

• 53:08Sean Fennessey?

  You know, it wasn't just that there was a brief ballet. It turned into a musical review.

• 53:13Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 53:13Sean Fennessey?

  Which... I am not the Bondologist that you are, but to these, these virgin ears.

• 53:20Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes.

• 53:20Sean Fennessey?

  It was not good. Not, not, there was, these were not good choices.

• 53:24Amanda Dobbins?

  There are many good, you know, Bond themes.

• 53:27Sean Fennessey?

  Of course.

• 53:28Amanda Dobbins?

  Some, some of our greatest living artists have, have written and performed songs.

• 53:33Sean Fennessey?

  Like Sam Smith.

• 53:35Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, I didn't endorse that one. But first we had Lisa from Blackpink.

• 53:40Sean Fennessey?

  Uh huh.

• 53:40Amanda Dobbins?

  Perform Live and Let Die.

• 53:42Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, she's currently starring on The White Lotus.

• 53:44Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh yeah, I, I started season two. I gotta.

• 53:46Sean Fennessey?

  Congratulations.

• 53:47Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, thanks. I'm gonna get there.

• 53:48Sean Fennessey?

  Speed it up. We're on to season three, lady.

• 53:52Sean Fennessey?

  That was two years ago.

• 53:55Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay, so Lisa was doing Live and Let Die.

• 53:58Sean Fennessey?

  Yes, an amazing song.

• 54:00Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 54:02Sean Fennessey?

  First of all, where was Axl Rose? That's really my question.

• 54:05Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 54:05Sean Fennessey?

  Like, okay, Paul couldn't do it. He just did SNL 50. He's in his cryo chamber. He's got to power up for another 75 day tour. I understand. I respect, Paul's the GOAT.

• 54:13Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 54:14Sean Fennessey?

  Let's get Axl.

• 54:15Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 54:16Sean Fennessey?

  Let's put Axl in a mankini. Let's just get him out there.

• 54:18Amanda Dobbins?

  Great.

• 54:19Sean Fennessey?

  He's still smoking it.

• 54:20Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 54:20Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 54:21Amanda Dobbins?

  Not done. So that goes on for a long time. I also just want to note that all of these performers were allowed multiple verses.

• 54:27Sean Fennessey?

  That's true. That was weird.

• 54:29Amanda Dobbins?

  So then out comes Doja Cat to sing Diamonds Are Forever.

• 54:33Sean Fennessey?

  Yes.

• 54:34Amanda Dobbins?

  In a key different than the key being performed by the accompanying orchestra. We'll leave it at that.

• 54:40Sean Fennessey?

  I won't leave it at that. She was out of tune and it was a train wreck.

• 54:43Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, that was.

• 54:45Sean Fennessey?

  It was very weird.

• 54:45Amanda Dobbins?

  And it went on and on and on. And, and, and we're like, we're talking like eight minutes of like James Bond review at this point. And it's not done. And then they start playing the strains of one of the great Bond anthems and one of the only good original song winners. In our time. And someone other than Adele is brought out to perform Skyfall.

• 55:11Sean Fennessey?

  Yep.

• 55:12Amanda Dobbins?

  I was so angry.

• 55:14Sean Fennessey?

  Yes.

• 55:15Amanda Dobbins?

  I was just absolutely yelling at the top of my lungs.

• 55:17Sean Fennessey?

  This is when I sent out a missive about being concerned about being so close to you.

• 55:20Amanda Dobbins?

  And she got a second verse too.

• 55:23Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 55:23Amanda Dobbins?

  What are we doing?

• 55:25Sean Fennessey?

  I actually didn't think Ray was that bad.

• 55:26Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, but she's not Adele.

• 55:28Sean Fennessey?

  No, she's, what do you think Adele was doing tonight?

• 55:30Amanda Dobbins?

  Is she still in Vegas? Is she with Chris Paul? I don't know.

• 55:33Sean Fennessey?

  Chris Paul?

• 55:34Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 55:34Sean Fennessey?

  No, Rich Paul.

• 55:35Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, Rich Paul, sorry. Chris Paul is a basketball player.

• 55:38Sean Fennessey?

  That would be shocking. That would be, now that would be a headline.

• 55:40Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 55:41Sean Fennessey?

  If Chris Paul started dating Adele? She left Rich Paul at the aisle? Okay, um.

• 55:47Amanda Dobbins?

  That was really tough.

• 55:48Sean Fennessey?

  It was really bad. It smacked of weird 2010's Oscars, you know? Where it'd be like, and now a tribute to cars on film. Do you like driving in cars like we do? Here's a man dressed as a car performing the Bolchoi Ballet. You know, like, it's just really weird.

• 56:05Amanda Dobbins?

  Now I'm just imagining how psyched knocks would be. What's that man doing? Um, it does, but it wasn't even like weird enough.

• 56:14Sean Fennessey?

  It wasn't weird.

• 56:15Amanda Dobbins?

  You know, when you, when I think about 2010's Oscars, I think about Anne Hathaway and James Franco, like Trainwreck or whatever, that Seth MacFarlane, like, show us your boobs number or all the, you know, bad decisions that I didn't enjoy, but at least.

• 56:30Sean Fennessey?

  I wrote that song.

• 56:32Amanda Dobbins?

  You and Camille? We'll get there.

• 56:35Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 56:35Amanda Dobbins?

  It's coming.

• 56:38Amanda Dobbins?

  I'm just warming up. But, um, this was just like boring and bad?

• 56:43Sean Fennessey?

  It was, it was, you know, it felt like two things at once. It felt like a feint towards younger listeners, like, or younger watchers.

• 56:48Amanda Dobbins?

  Sure.

• 56:49Sean Fennessey?

  Like, don't turn off the telecast, Ray is coming up, kids. Um, did you not go to Inora in the theater? Perhaps you'll want to listen to Doja Cat sing a 50-year-old Bond theme. So that was weird. And then on the other hand, it also felt like, and this is entirely speculation, but it felt like perhaps the broccoli family was like, hey, guess what? We sold Bond, Bond is dead.

• 57:09Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 57:09Sean Fennessey?

  So tell everyone Bond is dead and this new thing is not Bond. What we were doing was Bond, but we sold it.

• 57:15Amanda Dobbins?

  Mm-hmm.

• 57:16Sean Fennessey?

  And so let's honor what it was. Now you could make the case that because of the ending of No Time to Die, it was not the worst idea to honor Bond, but that movie was two and a half years ago? So why didn't we do it then?

• 57:26Amanda Dobbins?

  So you think that this was like Barbara Broccoli programming and sending out a subliminal message of, like, RIP my family's entire history? Here's Doja Cat?

• 57:36Sean Fennessey?

  Uh, frankly, I do.

• 57:38Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay, well.

• 57:39Sean Fennessey?

  Well, I mean, otherwise, why would the telecast do that?

• 57:42Amanda Dobbins?

  I have no idea. It was baffling. Okay.

• 57:46Sean Fennessey?

  It was. I'm searching for answers. Okay, so that wasn't the worst thing that you saw. You, you, you were yelping a bit during that period, but not?

• 57:54Amanda Dobbins?

  No, I think I was like actively yelling. Once, once they gave Ray a second verse, with all respect to her, I was just like, this is not Adele. You will not do this to my beloved Skyfall.

• 58:03Sean Fennessey?

  What's your favorite Doja Cat album?

• 58:07Amanda Dobbins?

  I just, it was, it was very long. And in general, there was just a lot of singing at this Oscars. As I said to you at some point, it felt like the Tonys. Um, but it was the Oscars.

• 58:19Sean Fennessey?

  Okay, we're, we're

• 58:19Amanda Dobbins?

  Then we're getting to

• 58:20Sean Fennessey?

  around Amanda's hater corner to the other side of the corner. Now, what, what lives on that corner?

• 58:26Amanda Dobbins?

  What do you mean?

• 58:27Sean Fennessey?

  I'm just trying to set you up for

• 58:28Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, original song? Yeah, okay. I was just like doing some geometry.

• 58:31Sean Fennessey?

  Wait, where am I?

• 58:32Amanda Dobbins?

  Like, which corner?

• 58:33Sean Fennessey?

  Did you drop a pin?

• 58:35Amanda Dobbins?

  Do I have to come up with a new name for the corner? Yes. Um, so Camille and, and the other French guy won for El Mal from Amelia Perez.

• 58:46Sean Fennessey?

  Yes.

• 58:47Amanda Dobbins?

  And they got up and, and gave a whole speech. And it was about how El Mal is about, you know, corruption and other stuff. And, and that was fine. And they talked for a long time. And then, just as the music was starting, uh, Camille started singing.

• 59:05Sean Fennessey?

  Well, she was attempting to lead a sing-along

• 59:07Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes.

• 59:07Sean Fennessey?

  with the crowd. Unfortunately, none of the songs in Amelia Perez are memorable, and everyone now hates that movie.

• 59:14Amanda Dobbins?

  But she also kept going. And for some reason, the music, which I, I thought for the most, they were responsive, you know, they were reactive, but the music did not drown her out. And it just kept going and going and going. And I was just curled up in a fetal position. It was absolutely awful.

• 59:33Sean Fennessey?

  It wasn't good. It wasn't good. Um, it's not a good category?

• 59:37Amanda Dobbins?

  No.

• 59:39Sean Fennessey?

  I think they need to rethink that category as well.

• 59:40Amanda Dobbins?

  I do, as, as, as you know.

• 59:42Sean Fennessey?

  Um.

• 59:44Amanda Dobbins?

  Unfortunately, even under my new, like, rules for the, the category, which would be it has to be a song that is in the, in the text and in the story of the film. It can't just be like tacked on at the end.

• 59:57Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 59:58Amanda Dobbins?

  Uh, Al Mal would qualify. However, under my new rules, you would also have to vote for good songs. So in that sense, it would be a no.

• 1:00:07Sean Fennessey?

  Who is allowing you to institute new rules?

• 1:00:10Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, I'm, I'm now in charge of the Academy.

• 1:00:12Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 1:00:13Amanda Dobbins?

  Because that comes with the, the access to your ADU. So congratulations to me.

• 1:00:19Sean Fennessey?

  We're gonna have to go back maybe later this week and just replay what it is I actually agreed to. Cause now I think there's some fanciful notions of what's actually gonna transpire in that space. Uh, I, I mean, what else? What else from this show? Conan had very few kind of pre-taped bits. He had Cinema Streams was really the only one of note, which also featured Martin Scorsese, which was very funny.

• 1:00:41Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:41Sean Fennessey?

  But felt more like an SNL sketch. Kimmel would do some of those from time to time in the last few years as well.

• 1:00:45Amanda Dobbins?

  Very few presenter bits, which I, you know, can really go both ways.

• 1:00:51Sean Fennessey?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:00:52Amanda Dobbins?

  There, you can sit through some really tough ones. On the other hand, when done right, they are a pop of celebrity, of, of humor, you know, they're memorable and you get to see some famous people. I guess we didn't really see that many, like, big movie stars besides the nominees.

• 1:01:09Sean Fennessey?

  No, and there were some, none of these, there's nothing wrong with any of these people, but Miles Teller and Miley Cyrus, or Darrell Hannah by herself.

• 1:01:17Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 1:01:18Sean Fennessey?

  Just seemed like kind of an odd collection. I thought it was very nice when Quentin Tarantino came out to give Best Director, a prize he has not been given at the Academy Awards. And as soon as he walked out, I knew Sean Baker was gonna win, cause Sean and, and Quentin are friends, and Sean frequents Quentin's movie theater, and there is a nice synchronicity there, and I thought Sean was very sweet about, you know, what Quentin's movies are and what they've meant to him. But, um, it was just a, kind of, an odd group of presenters, and I, some of it was like, sure, everybody's shooting the Nolan movie, and some of it was like, okay, maybe the Oscars are no longer Hollywood prom. And some of it was just like, were these purposeful choices? I, I, I couldn't really figure it out. I did like Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan at the end.

• 1:02:03Amanda Dobbins?

  That was nice.

• 1:02:03Sean Fennessey?

  That was a very inspired choice and they were both good.

• 1:02:05Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah. And they, and they used the When Harry Met Sally IP for good instead of for mayo. So.

• 1:02:11Sean Fennessey?

  They use to sell, oh, they, yeah, if they have commercials.

• 1:02:14Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:14Sean Fennessey?

  What kind of mayo is it?

• 1:02:16Amanda Dobbins?

  I don't remember.

• 1:02:16Sean Fennessey?

  As you know, I don't eat mayo. I will have an aioli.

• 1:02:19Amanda Dobbins?

  We, yes, yeah.

• 1:02:20Sean Fennessey?

  I'm on the record about that.

• 1:02:21Amanda Dobbins?

  Are there any flavors of aioli that you turned down? Because they're just too mayo. They're not, they aren't like far enough on the spectrum towards aioli.

• 1:02:29Sean Fennessey?

  Cat litter flavored or like a sewer flavored. I'm not really into those. But so, you know, you're, you're, you're lemon aioli, your garlic aioli.

• 1:02:36Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:36Sean Fennessey?

  Absolutely.

• 1:02:36Amanda Dobbins?

  Lovely.

• 1:02:37Sean Fennessey?

  I'm, I'm, I'm in.

• 1:02:38Amanda Dobbins?

  They, they were very nice.

• 1:02:40Sean Fennessey?

  It was nice to see them.

• 1:02:41Amanda Dobbins?

  Thirty-five years ago, Billy said, was his first time hosting the Oscars.

• 1:02:45Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, I think I might've mentioned that I enjoyed listening to Crystal on Conan's pod a few months ago. And they talked a lot about the Oscars in part because Conan was getting ready. And I wonder with Conan now, I mean, he no longer has a talk show. He, I think he still has a series on Max, which is more of a travel show. And he has kind of settled into this emeritus, we can all agree that this guy is fun role.

• 1:03:12Amanda Dobbins?

  He podcasts, right?

• 1:03:13Sean Fennessey?

  He of course has a huge podcast.

• 1:03:14Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, I was gonna say, excuse me.

• 1:03:16Sean Fennessey?

  No, but I mean, in terms of like, aside from, not that podcasting isn't a very important work.

• 1:03:19Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, I was gonna say.

• 1:03:20Sean Fennessey?

  And should be honored at the Academy Awards.

• 1:03:22Amanda Dobbins?

  He is our peer, okay?

• 1:03:23Sean Fennessey?

  He is our peer. Many people are saying I'm peers with Conan O'Brien. He certainly feels like somebody who could host this show five times in a row.

• 1:03:30Amanda Dobbins?

  I really liked it.

• 1:03:31Sean Fennessey?

  I don't know if he would have the same magic as the first time, but he just is very well suited to this kind of thing. And it's a hard job.

• 1:03:38Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:38Sean Fennessey?

  And it's been hard for them over the years to find people. One of the reasons why they've gone back to Kimmel so many times is because he's one of the very few people who not only can do it, but is good at it. So, I don't know. I thought that was nice that it, that all of that worked out. The telecast still being a little under four hours?

• 1:03:52Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:54Sean Fennessey?

  Even I, who loves this shit, was like, this is Dragon in the Middle?

• 1:03:58Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes. Too many performances there. We spent a lot of time on almost everything. And, you know, I actually really liked the Fab Five presenters for both costume design and cinematography.

• 1:04:13Sean Fennessey?

  That was where I wanted to end this. Thank you for reminding me.

• 1:04:15Amanda Dobbins?

  And I liked that because instead of, you know, I believe last year it was used in the acting categories. And this year, actors from each of the films came and spoke to either the costume designer or the cinematographer who had worked on the film and that, and was able to illuminate, and I think a very specific way, why, what those individual people do to the film and what it means to the larger product that you see. So I thought that was great. I really liked it. That obviously does take more time. And you're doing, if you're doing that in the craft categories, but you're not cutting down because we got a lot of clips, and so you're getting clips in other categories.

• 1:04:58Amanda Dobbins?

  And then you're just not turning the dial off on some speeches that just went way, way too long. And I'm not talking about Adrian Brody. I'm talking about, you know, I don't need to single people out. But there were just some people that didn't stop talking. So...

• 1:05:14Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah. I mean, that's always the case, right?

• 1:05:15Amanda Dobbins?

  There was just, there was no place, there were no cuts at any point.

• 1:05:21Sean Fennessey?

  I think this is obviously a really hard show to produce. And it always goes somewhere between three hours and 20 minutes to three hours and 50 minutes because things like that happen. People talk too long. Some bits don't work as well, or a performance is longer than it was during rehearsal. This year was yet another year in which like someone like Adrian Brody, who's winning one of the four or three biggest awards of the night, is getting cut off after 90 seconds or 75 seconds. And I, my reaction to that is always like, why the fuck are we even here?

• 1:05:51Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:52Sean Fennessey?

  Like, this is the best actor of the year. Why are we cutting this person off? Like, what, how does this make any sense? If people are watching the show right now, they're not going to turn it off because Adrian Brody went 45 seconds too long before Best Picture? That's fucking idiotic. But it's because the shows are so front-loaded and they're not managed properly. This happens every year. So I'm not like casting aspersions on this year's producers. It always happens. Nevertheless, the presenters thing, that's definitely one of the reasons why it was longer. I liked that. That particular strategy that you highlighted, which is bringing out people who are associated with the film, who are actors, who are good at reading lines, who can speak to the craft, but not make it boring. I didn't like the weird inconsistency with the acting performances,

• 1:06:36Sean Fennessey?

  where we had Devine Joy Randolph and Robert Downey Jr., both of whom are great and I thought did fine jobs at this, but basically kind of like gave little mini speeches about each nominee in the supporting categories. But then in the actor and actress category-

• 1:06:50Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes, but we know exactly why.

• 1:06:51Sean Fennessey?

  But is it only because of Carlos Sofia Gascón?

• 1:06:53Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes, it is, because you turned to me-

• 1:06:54Sean Fennessey?

  That's fucking stupid.

• 1:06:54Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, a lot of things are stupid at the Oscars, but you did also turn to me, I think during Devine Joy Randolph's presentation to say, "So they're just gonna have Emma Stone come out and say this about, like, and speak about Carlos Sofia Gascón, like nothing happened?" And you were like, "They can't do that, right?"

• 1:07:11Sean Fennessey?

  And they didn't do it.

• 1:07:12Amanda Dobbins?

  And they didn't do it. They had to make a choice. I, you know, I agree that it was-

• 1:07:15Sean Fennessey?

  Weird compromise, though. So like, we saw clips for the Best Actor and Best Actress, but we didn't see clips for the supporting actors? Why?

• 1:07:21Amanda Dobbins?

  I don't know.

• 1:07:22Sean Fennessey?

  I don't know. I didn't like that. As you know, I want clips. People really thought that there were gonna be clips, and then there ultimately were.

• 1:07:28Amanda Dobbins?

  Right, but not in the acting categories.

• 1:07:30Sean Fennessey?

  Not in the acting categories, but there were like in screenplay, for example.

• 1:07:32Amanda Dobbins?

  Not in supporting, but there were in actor and actress.

• 1:07:36Sean Fennessey?

  Yes, and in screenplay, and in a bunch of others, too.

• 1:07:38Amanda Dobbins?

  I don't know. You know, there were a lot of inconsistencies. It honestly felt like there were a lot of fixes in this, whether it was substituting for like people who couldn't be there to present or sit in the front row trying to, you know, fix things like who actually wants to present Best Actress.

• 1:07:55Amanda Dobbins?

  Like, they were patching it together. And to their credit, like, there weren't any obvious problems in the show.

• 1:08:02Sean Fennessey?

  No.

• 1:08:03Amanda Dobbins?

  It was just a little strangely paced, I think. They didn't give out a single award until 4:30 PM PST, so that's 30 minutes into the show. Which, that's a long time.

• 1:08:14Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, two and a half hours in, they had nine awards to give out left. That's not the best pacing, but it's not that big of a deal. To me, it's more like you could feel the seams- Almost entirely maybe because of the Amelia Perez thing, which just kind of threw everything into a wrinkle.

• 1:08:30Amanda Dobbins?

  And I think like attendance just seemed a little low in terms of non nominees. I don't think, there were very few people not affiliated with a nominated film, who you recognize in the audience, with the exception of Adrian Garfield.

• 1:08:47Sean Fennessey?

  That's a great point.

• 1:08:47Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:48Sean Fennessey?

  And certainly your Leo, Ben, Matt, Cruise, Denzel, Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, that whole, this is the third year in a row, we've been saying like, these people do not go.

• 1:09:00Amanda Dobbins?

  No.

• 1:09:01Sean Fennessey?

  They do not, there's not a reason to go for them anymore, which feels different, right?

• 1:09:07Amanda Dobbins?

  It does, it doesn't feel like prom in the same way. And I think maybe that doesn't matter for younger audiences, who like, don't care that much about seeing Meryl Streep or whatever. But to me, one of the appeals of the Oscars has always been like, all the famous people in a room together, having to interact.

• 1:09:26Sean Fennessey?

  Yep.

• 1:09:27Amanda Dobbins?

  And we don't really, we didn't see them really interacting very much, just because that's not the way the telecast was scheduled, and people weren't, they weren't cutting back and forth. And it, and it seemed like there weren't that many people there, beyond the cast of Enora and the cast of The Brutalist.

• 1:09:43Sean Fennessey?

  Yep.

• 1:09:44Amanda Dobbins?

  Conclave, I guess a few people were there, but here, let's talk about Conclave for a second, which just, I guess it won one award?

• 1:09:52Sean Fennessey?

  One award.

• 1:09:53Amanda Dobbins?

  And they were all there, but how do you feel about having worn a Pope's hat? Not a Pope's hat, a Cardinal's hat, sorry.

• 1:10:00Sean Fennessey?

  I feel, I feel fine.

• 1:10:01Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:10:02Sean Fennessey?

  My long history with Christianity is documented on this podcast.

• 1:10:06Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:10:08Sean Fennessey?

  It's a film I enjoyed. I think what happened is right. I think if it had won Best Picture, that would have been even stranger.

• 1:10:14Amanda Dobbins?

  I completely agree, but I, like, four hours ago, we were like, oh no, it could be a lot of things.

• 1:10:20Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, I definitely thought there was a chance it could win. And as usual, I would love to know what the, what the data could tell us about the voting results. I don't feel that it is as close as it was, given how many awards they won and the fact that Mickey Madison also won. Now I'm like, good lord.

• 1:10:36Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:10:36Sean Fennessey?

  Maybe Enora really significantly outpaced everything, but. That's the thing is like, we were talking about like, oh, could a movie like The Brutalist Bagel? It didn't. A Complete Unknown did, and Conclave only went one for eight or nine, whatever it was nominated for, which are not great showings. Um, even Amelia Perez won two Academy Awards. So,

• 1:10:59Sean Fennessey?

  you know, better luck next time, popes.

• 1:11:01Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:11:02Sean Fennessey?

  Seems like Pope Francis is in better health.

• 1:11:04Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, I'm glad to hear. I actually, I forgot to check up on that.

• 1:11:07Sean Fennessey?

  I spoke with him today. He said, hey, man, good luck on the show. Hope you guys do well. Um, any closing thoughts?

• 1:11:14Amanda Dobbins?

  So you think it wasn't even close? You think it was just a Nora all the way through? I mean, I, I tend to agree with you.

• 1:11:20Sean Fennessey?

  Five for six.

• 1:11:21Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah. Do you think that that suggests just a greater, like, people just really like a Nora? Do you think that there were just a lot of a Nora, like, first ticket ballots? Do you think?

• 1:11:32Sean Fennessey?

  I think the general consensus, both among movie fans and people within the Academy, is that this is a fine, maybe even good year and not a great year.

• 1:11:42Amanda Dobbins?

  Completely agree.

• 1:11:43Sean Fennessey?

  That a Nora is the film that everyone could most agree on, that they had a good time with, that had good craft, and had thoughtful ideas that you were presented with, but were not solved.

• 1:11:53Amanda Dobbins?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:11:54Sean Fennessey?

  Which is something that the Oscars used to not like and now likes a lot. And I find that interesting. A sort of like semi-ambiguous downer ending can now win you an Academy Award. And so I think it just, it succeeded in part because of who it was competing against, which is the case every year, right?

• 1:12:13Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, I think so. I am also wondering, do you think it was just the most widely seen in the Academy, anyway? Because I'm, you know, imagining like a lot of people being like, well, I haven't watched that many, but here a Nora's,

• 1:12:26Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 1:12:26Amanda Dobbins?

  you know, kind of got some.

• 1:12:28Sean Fennessey?

  I think it had the longest shelf life other than Dune Part Two because it was rubber stamped at Cannes.

• 1:12:34Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:12:35Sean Fennessey?

  And that rubber stamping really matters. You know, we saw Anatomy of a Fall win a screenwriting Oscar last year, a movie that like, in the past would never be competing at the Academy Awards. So I guess we'll have to keep a close eye on what's going to win the Palm this year. You won't be there, and neither will I.

• 1:12:51Amanda Dobbins?

  You don't know that I won't be there.

• 1:12:53Sean Fennessey?

  You gonna go?

• 1:12:53Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, listen, it's March, you know?

• 1:12:55Sean Fennessey?

  You should wear that suit to honor Jacques Audiard.

• 1:12:58Amanda Dobbins?

  This suit has not ripped yet. But I just like, I just have to, actually, that's not true. I have a change of clothes.

• 1:13:04Sean Fennessey?

  Nine fourteen, the night is young.

• 1:13:06Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, no, but I don't think I'm.

• 1:13:07Sean Fennessey?

  What are you gonna go do after this?

• 1:13:08Amanda Dobbins?

  It's a great question. Um, I was not invited to any parties. So that's actually not true. I was invited, Mia invited me to the party, but I, I think traffic is gonna be pretty tough.

• 1:13:18Sean Fennessey?

  You were not invited to the Universal party, eh?

• 1:13:19Amanda Dobbins?

  No, they didn't. They invited you?

• 1:13:21Sean Fennessey?

  They did, yeah.

• 1:13:23Amanda Dobbins?

  You know, I also really, I was not invited to the Wall Street Journal party with Harrison Ford, the Wall Street Journal magazine party, even though I know the editor, Sarah Ball, who's a great editor.

• 1:13:31Sean Fennessey?

  Interesting.

• 1:13:31Amanda Dobbins?

  Sarah, I would have loved to come to your party.

• 1:13:33Sean Fennessey?

  What's the median age at that party? Seventy-four?

• 1:13:35Amanda Dobbins?

  It looked fun. It was at the chateau. I'll show up. I don't care. I can hang.

• 1:13:40Sean Fennessey?

  Hard to believe you're not getting these invites. Um, well, this has been a kind of fun Oscar season. I missed you for the first three months. I want to thank Joanna Robinson. Joanna will be joining us later this week.

• 1:13:51Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, good.

• 1:13:51Sean Fennessey?

  On the Mailbag to talk about her thoughts.

• 1:13:53Amanda Dobbins?

  I didn't know. In person?

• 1:13:55Sean Fennessey?

  In person. She's here in Los Angeles.

• 1:13:56Amanda Dobbins?

  That's really great news for me.

• 1:13:57Sean Fennessey?

  Which will be really fun. I'm very curious. We heard from her a little bit during the show, but she helped me out enormously while you were on leave. So that was great.

• 1:14:04Amanda Dobbins?

  She's wonderful. I'm really excited to see her. Also, I guess she's here for the whole,

• 1:14:08Sean Fennessey?

  The White Lotus Run.

• 1:14:08Amanda Dobbins?

  I want to go get a drink with Joanna.

• 1:14:09Sean Fennessey?

  I sent her a note. I sent a note to her and Rob Mahoney that I'm been very mixed on Severance, but I've been really loving their podcasts, so.

• 1:14:16Amanda Dobbins?

  They're wonderful at podcasting, even though Rob is my nemesis.

• 1:14:19Sean Fennessey?

  Yes. Um, we'll find some, uh, opportunities to ask her what she thought. Maybe she'll totally disagree. Maybe she'll say Enora is hot trash and should be deleted from all the hard drives of the world.

• 1:14:29Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay, yeah.

• 1:14:30Sean Fennessey?

  Do you think she'll say that?

• 1:14:30Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes, absolutely.

• 1:14:31Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 1:14:32Amanda Dobbins?

  I think I, that sounds exactly right.

• 1:14:33Sean Fennessey?

  Bobby Wagner, any closing thoughts? Well, one of my closing thoughts is that Joanna is gonna be really disappointed that Amy Adams did not win for her performance this year in the film The Night Bitch. Or just Night Bitch, no the. Did we lose that social network style?

• 1:14:46Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:14:47Sean Fennessey?

  No, lose the night, lose the the. It's just Night Bitch. I guess my final thoughts are here are that, you know, I crunched the numbers. The second time because you questioned my math earlier. I was so offended by that. All this hard work that I put into the big Oscar bet. What's that all about?

• 1:15:00Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:15:01Sean Fennessey?

  Um, I didn't, I didn't, I never questioned you. I believe in you. So the final outcomes.

• 1:15:06Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes, let's, let's get some great graphics work going down here as I get my close up.

• 1:15:11Sean Fennessey?

  We're trying to get this episode up as quickly as possible. So we will not be getting great graphics. We're going. Amanda's going Marvel executive moment. Like, we just gotta get back with some more CGI. Just more Red Hulk.

• 1:15:22Amanda Dobbins?

  Just take it apart.

• 1:15:23Sean Fennessey?

  More red. Final predictions outcomes. Amanda, you predicted 16 of 23. I predicted 17 of 23.

• 1:15:31Amanda Dobbins?

  Right, but we didn't, like, there's no consequence to that.

• 1:15:36Sean Fennessey?

  Well, the consequence is you lost. And for the big Oscar bet.

• 1:15:40Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 1:15:40Sean Fennessey?

  You scored 43 points.

• 1:15:42Amanda Dobbins?

  I did.

• 1:15:42Sean Fennessey?

  And I scored 40.

• 1:15:43Amanda Dobbins?

  I did.

• 1:15:43Sean Fennessey?

  And it all came down to Sean Baker over Brady Corby.

• 1:15:47Amanda Dobbins?

  In best director.

• 1:15:48Sean Fennessey?

  In best director.

• 1:15:49Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes, it did.

• 1:15:50Sean Fennessey?

  So you win whatever that prize is.

• 1:15:52Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes.

• 1:15:53Sean Fennessey?

  Which we'll have to listen to on maybe Wednesday's episode of the show.

• 1:15:56Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay. I'm so thrilled. Thank you so much. We did it.

• 1:16:01Sean Fennessey?

  We did what?

• 1:16:02Amanda Dobbins?

  Thank you, everyone.

• 1:16:04Sean Fennessey?

  Well, speaking of that Wednesday episode, people can submit questions for it, right? Our post Oscars hangover mailbag. Thank you, Bobby. Very good point. What is the email address that people should send questions to? Big Pick Mailbag at gmail dot com. Yes. B I G P I C Mailbag at gmail dot com. Let's just say I don't think the ratings will be super high for this telecast. We will talk about that.

• 1:16:26Amanda Dobbins?

  Are you gonna lose any sleep over that?

• 1:16:28Sean Fennessey?

  No, I, as you said, as I said, I've kind of.

• 1:16:30Amanda Dobbins?

  You've let go?

• 1:16:30Sean Fennessey?

  Let go of a lot of that stuff, but it is, it's relevant, I think, to what we do. And we'll talk about if there's any blowback from the parties. What do you think?

• 1:16:40Amanda Dobbins?

  I mean, it is only 917 here, so, you know, get in touch. I guess by the time people are listening to this, I'll be asleep.

• 1:16:46Sean Fennessey?

  I've got a, a black car waiting to take me to the chateau right now. So, see you guys later. Thanks so much to Bobby Wagner, our producer, for his work on this episode and throughout award season. Thank you very much to John Richter and Cory McConnell on the video side for taking care of us for the pre-show and for this episode.

• 1:17:01Amanda Dobbins?

  And for sitting through the entire award show with us and listening to me yell.

• 1:17:05Sean Fennessey?

  In lieu of Jack Sanders as well.

• 1:17:07Amanda Dobbins?

  Thank you.

• 1:17:07Sean Fennessey?

  Who also was helping us throughout the season. This is not the end of the show, but it is mercifully the end of this season.

• 1:17:13Amanda Dobbins?

  Jack, bon voyage. Enjoy.

• 1:17:14Sean Fennessey?

  Enjoy Sweden and parts unknown. Thank you all to the listeners and watchers of this show. Two people in their 40s doing their best. We'll be back later this week.

• 1:17:42Speaker 04

  Your sausage McMuffin with egg didn't change. Your receipt did. The sausage McMuffin with egg extra value meal includes a hash brown and a small coffee for just $5, only at McDonald's for a limited time. Price and participation may vary. Promotion pricing may be lower than meal pricing.

• 1:17:58Speaker 03

  What's the secret to being a great host this season? Keeping things deliciously simple, like mixing Simply Cranberry into a festive drink as guests arrive, or serving up a warm mug of Simply Apple on a chilly night. That means less time behind the scenes and more time in the moment with everyone. Crafted with real fruit, Simply juices and fruit drinks make any holiday drink effortless, inviting, and completely delicious. Simply, say yes to simple.