The 90th Academy Awards were last night, which is basically a celebration of all the movies none of us saw in the past year. It seems like more and more of the movies that get nominated for these awards are obscure, smaller films that don't have a big following outside of the film world. Think back to the days of Fargo, Titanic, and Shakespeare In Love. Even more recently movies like Tropic Thunder were not the "artistic" movies seen at the Oscars this year.
Is that because more "mainstream" movies are bad, or is it that the way we view "good" movies is changing? Who really knows? But one thing is for sure, the Oscars in 1998 were different than those today. Let's start with the big winners:
Best Song
In 1998, Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" stole the show and won Best Original Song for Titanic. This year, the animated film Coco took home the award with the song "Remember Me" written by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez.
Best Supporting Actress
In 1998, Kim Basinger was awarded for her role in L.A. Confidential. This year, Allison Janney won for her role in the biopic I, Tonya.
Best Supporting Actor
The late Robin Williams showcased his dramatic skills in Good Will Hunting and earned himself the golden statue in 1998. As for this year, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri actor Sam Rockwell received the honor.
Best Actress
Thanks to her phenomenal acting in As Good As It Gets, Helen Hunt took home her first Academy Award in 1998. This year, Frances McDormand took home her second trophy thanks to her performance in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.
Best Actor
Jack Nicholson won alongside his co-star Helen Hunt for his role in As Good As It Gets. Gary Oldman took the award in 2018 for his part in Darkest Hour.
Best Movie
Titanic was the runaway winner of 1998, and this year it was The Shape Of Water. If you didn't know they were separate movies, it almost looks like some sort of weird sci-fi sequel.
The movies nominated were all pretty big deals, and a lot of people had seen them. That's why watching the awards used to be so much fun! You had things to compare it to. Now watching them is like watching something in a different language. Who's going to win? I have no clue, I don't even know half of these names.
And if that wasn't enough nostalgia for you, here are some more pictures from the 1998 Academy Awards that will make you feel really old.
Frances McDormand was a presenter at the 1998 Academy Awards after winning Best Actress for her role in Fargo the year before.
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck were basically children who won for Best Original Screenplay after writing Good Will Hunting.
Seriously, they even brought their moms.
Then there was Cher, who frankly was fairly subdued compared to her usual outfits.
Drew Barrymore was going through her rebellious phase, trying to ditch her child actor image.
Then, of course, the Judds were there. The third one is named Naomi, because we know you definitely forgot.
Tyra Banks was also there for some reason.
So was American figure skater Tara Lipinski.
Robin Williams attended with his wife Marsha Garces and his mother, Laurie Williams.
Madonna brought her brother.
Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum were dating at the time.
And Kim Basinger was married to Alec Baldwin.
Matt Dillon attended with Cameron Diaz.
And finally, Queen Celine attended with her husband Rene Angelil.