The 94th Academy Awards, named “CODA”, awarded Hollywood’s top honor for a streaming service for the first time in Best Picture, a ceremony that also saw Will Smith stepping on stage and slapping Chris Rock. Gone.
Cyan Heder’s “CODA,” which first premiered at a virtual Sundance Film Festival in the winter of 2021, began as an underdog but slowly emerged as a feel-good favorite of the Oscars. It also had a very deep-pocketed backer in Apple TV+, which received its first Best Picture Academy Award on Sunday, less than three years after the service launched.
It also gave Netflix another near-miss defeat, the seasoned streamer who has tried in vain to make best picture for years. Its best chance, Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog”, came with 12 major nominations. It won one for Campion’s direction.
But “CODA” rode the wave of goodwill driven by its cast including Marley Matlin, Troy Kotsur, Emilia Jones, and Daniel Durant. It is the first film in which a largely deaf cast has won the Best Picture award. “Koda” managed despite being one of the least nominated films with only three films coming out on Sunday. The “Grand Hotel” has won the Best Picture award no less than four times since 1932.
Kotsur also won the Best Supporting Actor award for becoming the first male deaf actor to win an Oscar, and only the second deaf actor to do so, joining his co-star and “Koda” co-star Matlin.
“This is for the deaf community, the CODA community and the disabled community,” said Kotsur, signing off the stage. “This is our moment.”
Many, however, were talking about another moment. After Chris Rock, as a presenter, joked to Jada Pinkett Smith that he was looking forward to the sequel to “G.I. Jane”, Will Smith stood up from his seat near the stage, reached up to Rock, and asked him to Killed. After sitting back, Smith yelled at The Rock “Keep my wife’s name out of your mouth.” When The Rock, who mocked Jada Pinkett Smith when she hosted the Oscars in 2016, protested that it was just a “G.I. Jane” joke, Smith repeated the same line.
“It was the greatest night in the history of television,” said Rock, before presenting the oddly best documentary, which went to Questlove’s “Summer of Soul (…or When the Revolution Wasn’t Television) “
That moment shocked Dolby Theater audiences and home audiences. At the commercial break, presenter Daniel Kaluuya came to hug Smith, and Denzel Washington led him to the edge of the stage. The two talked and hugged and Tyler Perry also came to talk.
Smith, who played Venus and Serena Williams’ father in “King Richard,” later won his first Oscar, Best Actor in a Show. So Smith took the stage again soon after in what was likely to be one of the most infamous moments in Academy Awards history. His acceptance speech oscillated between a defense and an apology.
“Richard Williams was a fierce defender of his family,” Smith said in his first comment. Smith then shared what Washington told him: “At your highest moment, be careful because that’s when the devil comes for you.”
Ultimately, Smith apologized to the Academy and his fellow nominees.
“Art imitates life. I look like a crazy father,” said Smith with a laugh. “But love will drive you crazy.”
After the show, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences issued a statement saying it “does not condone violence of any form.” The Los Angeles Police Department said it was aware of a slapping incident at Oscar, but said the man involved had refused to file a police report.
Until then, the ceremony – in the form of the Oscars and the revival of the movies – was going quite smoothly. Ariana DeBos became the first Afro-Latina and openly LBGTQ actor to win an Academy Award for Supporting Actress. Jane Campion won an Oscar Best Director for “The Power of the Dog,” her open-field psyche that bends and elevates Western conventions.
Campion, who was the first woman to be nominated in this category (previously for 1993’s “The Piano”), is only the third woman to win Best Director. This is the first time women have won the directing award, since Nomadland filmmaker Chloe Zhao won last year.
Best Actress went to Jessica Chastain, who also won her first Oscar. Chastain won for her sympathetic portrayal of televangelist Tammy Faye in “The Eyes of Tammy Faye”, a film she also produced.
After record-low ratings and a pandemic-ridden 2021 show, producers turned to one of the biggest stars around — Beyoncé — to close the Oscars this year with the aim of reviving the awards place in pop culture. After an introduction to Venus and Serena Williams, Beyoncé performed her “King Richard” eponymous song, “Be Alive”, in an elaborately choreographed performance from a lime-colored, open-air stage in Compton, where the Williams sisters Grown up
Hosts Wanda Sykes, Amy Schumer and Regina Hall then resumed broadcasts from the Dolby Theater.
Sykes, Schumer and Hall poked fun at major Hollywood issues such as pay equity – they said three female hosts were “cheaper than a man” – the Lady Gaga drama that Sykes called a “House of Random Accents” at the Golden Globes. The situation (now included in the In Memoriam package, Sykes said) and Leonardo DiCaprio’s girlfriend. His most important political point came at the end of his routine, in which he promised a great night and then pointed to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
“And for you guys in Florida, we’re going to have a gay night out,” Sykes said.
The first broadcast award, appropriately, went to Ariana DeBos, whose win comes 60 years after Rita Moreno won it for the same role in the 1961 original “West Side Story.” DeBose thanked Moreno for leading up to “tons of Anitas like me.”
“Imagine this little girl in the back seat of a white Ford Focus, look into her eyes: You see a queer, openly queer woman of color, an Afro Latina, who found her strength in life through art. And that’s, I guess, what we’re here to celebrate,” DeBoss said. “So if anyone’s ever questioned your identity or you find yourself living in a gray space, I promise you this – There really is a place for us.”
The Disney hit “Encanto,” inspired by its chart-topping soundtrack, won the award for Best Animated Film. Lin-Manuel Miranda, who penned the film’s hit songs, missed the ceremony after his wife tested positive for COVID-19. One of the most acclaimed films of the year, Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s three-hour Japanese drama “Drive My Car” won the Best International Film Award.
Two years after the pandemic, and on Sunday under a hot California sun, Hollywood’s glamor ritual took hold again, with a flush red carpet and a COVID-tested audience. Before the exchange with Smith, Rock happily commented: “No one is wearing a mask. Tonight just taking raw dog breath. ,
To help recapture the cultural spotlight, Oscar musical performances (Billy Eilish, Reba McEntire), film anniversaries (“The Godfather,” “Pulp Fiction,” “White Men Can’t Jump”) and many more mention were more dependent. The “Encanto” breakout song, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” is as close as possible. Ukraine-born Mila Kunis led a 30-second silence for Ukraine. Some stars, such as Sean Penn, lobbied the Academy for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to speak at the ceremony.
But apart from a few blue ribbons seen on the red carpet, politics was rarely central stage. Instead the Oscars dazzle and movies double as escapes. The producers brought in artists like BTS and Tony Hawk to add more audiences. Some things worked better than others. The fan favorite award, as voted on by Twitter users, was carried forward by Zack Snyder fans, who voted for Snyder’s version of “Justice League” and his “Army of the Dead”.
Feel good films also did well. ‘Koda’ also won the award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Kenneth Branagh’s autobiographical “Belfast”, an affectionate family drama bathed in nostalgia and shot in black and white, took home best original screenplay.
Eilish and his brother Finnance won for their Bond theme “No Time to Die”, a song released before the pandemic began.
The Academy Awards went off-camera on Sunday, with the first eight awards being presented at the Dolby Theater the night before the start of the ABC broadcast. Dolby was largely full for the 7 p.m. EDT pre-show, dubbed “golden hour” by the Academy. The speeches were later edited into the broadcast.
“Dune” went all out for an early lead in those early awards, and it kept it up overnight. The biggest blockbuster of this year’s 10 Best-Picture nominees, “Dune” won the major six awards for production design, cinematography, editing, visual effects, sound and Hans Zimmer’s score.
Greg Fraser’s cinematography win didn’t stand a chance for Oscar history. Some were in favor of Ari Wenger, who inspired Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog” to become the first woman to win Best Cinematography, the only Oscar category never won by a woman in her nine decades of Academy Awards. went-plus history
Best Makeup and Hairstyling went to Linda Dowds, Stephanie Ingram and Justin Raleigh for “The Eyes of Tammy Faye”. Chastain was among several members of the Academy who thought that all awards should have been handed out live during the broadcast. Chastain hugged each of the winners as he took the stage.
The reason behind the change in this year’s telecast was the concern about the rapidly falling ratings of the Oscars. While declines have been common at all major network award shows, last year’s show attracted only 10 million viewers, less than half the 23.6 million the year before. A decade ago, it was closer to 40 million. Will Thappad’s voice be heard ‘helping to increase ratings across the globe?
“Welp,” tweeted Oscar producer Will Packer after the show. “I said it wouldn’t be boring.”