Amazon has a solid record of success at the Academy Awards, scoring dozens of Oscar nominations and a handful of wins for its studio business over the past nine years.
Amazon MGM Studios was shut out of the race this year, but the tech giant still got a mention in host Conan O’Brien’s monologue to open the show on Sunday night.
“Amazon Studios didn’t receive any nominations this year,” O’Brien said (at the 6:44 mark in the video below). “Yeah. Also, shut out: Walmart, Alibaba, and Chewy. Why isn’t the website I order toilet paper from winning more Oscars!?”
Amazon’s rise from e-commerce juggernaut to real Hollywood player began in earnest more than 10 years ago, and it was the first streaming service to win an Oscar in 2017, when the studio took home three awards.
Sunday was not the first time the company has ended up in O’Brien’s Oscars crosshairs. Last year, the host joked about Amazon’s takeover of the James Bond franchise and founder Jeff Bezos’ arrival at the ceremony in an Amazon box.
Sunday’s show was peppered with a number of tech references, including how artificial intelligence can’t replace the human creators behind animation, as well as a look at how classic films can be cropped for the smartphone generation.
O’Brien took a shot at another streamer with a joke about Netflix and CEO Ted Sarandos, who was in attendance. “It’s his first time in a theater!” O’Brien said, before mocking Sarandos’ fake take (below) on why people would gather in such a place.
In a bid to preserve classic films for the smartphone generation, O’Brien spotlighted a studio named Ventura Crossroads, which is committed to “making movies very tall and very skinny.”
It’s not easy to reach a younger audience addicted to screens, especially with a broadcast television event dedicated to films they didn’t see in a theater. O’Brien lowkey tried anyway.
The Oscars are moving to YouTube in 2029 and O’Brien showed what that could look like for viewers who aren’t used to such abrupt commercial interruptions.
And finally, Oscar nominee Leonardo DiCaprio — the “King of Memes” — did it again, and again, with a little help from O’Brien.
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