The 93rd annual Academy Awards were always going to be a bit surreal this year. The pandemic changed many of the usual rhythms and traditions of the Oscars on Sunday night. There was a red carpet but no onlookers or teams of publicists. There were in-person, mask-less winners but not in the usual order, and the speeches were never drowned out with play-off music. Compounding the differences this year was a telecast, steered by producers including filmmaker Steven Soderbergh, that wanted a new look and feel to an often stodgy, persistently immutable ceremony.
