For yet another year, Academy Awards, formally known as Mr. NDA, has delivered excitement, unpredictability, an amazing light show by the technical team and an overall great night of laughter and dazzling talents.

As most people associated with Notre Dame Academy would understand, Academy Awards this year featured 14 juniors and seniors, handpicked by their high school peers. 

Having 14 individuals is one of the differences from this year than the previous years of the show, where there were traditionally 15 competitors.. This was due to the unavailability of some of the selected students. 

“Unfortunately I was too busy with hockey to be in the Academy Awards, but it’s still a joy to watch,” said Riley Onell, one of the contestants who had to drop out.  The hockey team arrived late to the show but early enough to enjoy most of it. 

One of the other differences, that almost everyone noticed who attended the show, was the creativity and design of the light show by the tech crew.

“I thought the light show and fog brought out the contestants’ true talent and made everything come together perfectly,” said senior Evan Skaletski.

The contestants, despite  the challenging moments of stage fright and feelings of nervousness, all seemed to have a good time.

“I thought Academy Awards was an overall success. I enjoyed having fun with all the other contestants. One of the challenging aspects was coming up with my dance, which I did in less than 36 hours before the show,” said senior Evan Witczak.

“I loved the experience itself and being able to be a part of it for two years, you get to be around people that you wouldn’t normally be. This year, it was challenging to balance the musical and getting everything ready for Academy Awards, but I wouldn’t change a thing,” said senior Max Timmer.

The students, teachers, parents and relatives in the crowd enjoyed the display of talent Saturday night as well.

“All the contestants seemed to enjoy each other, they all looked like they really worked well together, and it felt like less of a competition and more of just a group of people having fun,” said Logan Skaletski, a senior who attended the show.

“My favorite part of the show was probably watching Joel Meglic perform Moving with Meggy,” said Keegan Gille, a senior who attended and also performed in the show.

“I think it’s always fun to see how well the contestants put on a show for their peers, family and friends and to see how they support each other in helping everyone be successful,” said Mr. Brian Bobinski, math teacher who tallied the votes at the show.

Waiting to learn the winners was  just as suspenseful as waiting for the show the week prior.

The Mr. Congeniality Award went to Evan Walczyk, third place was Henry Wied, second place to Charles Peterson and the winner of Academy Awards 2020 was junior Owen Campbell.