Oscar’s Recap 2022
A night of CODA, Dune, and Will Smith.
The 2022 Academy Awards were certainly a spectacle and a slight rebound from the show’s historically low ratings back in 2021. While the incident with Will Smith and Chris Rock may have dominated the news, it shouldn’t minimize the hard work of this year’s nominees.
There were many important wins last night, such as Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog) becoming the first female director to win twice and Ariana Debose (West Side Story) becoming the first openly queer woman of color to win for supporting actress. Jessica Chastain (The Eyes of Tammy Faye) finally got her best actress win and Troy Kotsur (CODA) became the first deaf winner in the supporting actor category. His moving speech and the audience’s use of silent applause made for a beautiful moment.
Not to mention CODA’s deserving best picture win. It became the first streamer film and the first Sundance premiere to win the most coveted award. This marks the turning point we’ve been anticipating — streamers being as powerful as traditional production companies. I wouldn’t have expected Apple TV to be the first, but this certainly positions them for a successful future with their originals. Plus, we probably needed this heartwarming coming-of-age story to win this year.
We saw Dune rightfully sweep the technical categories with achievements in cinematography, editing, visual effects, production design, sound, and original score. It emerged as the biggest winner of the night and the hype will surely continue for the next film in the adapted series.
The broadcast did have some clear issues, though. While I appreciated the attempts for audience interaction with “fan favorites”, the segment failed to deliver. Minamata and Army of the Dead were listed as top fan favorites of 2021 over Spider-Man: No Way Home, despite being much less successful. Internet trolls weighed in, making it hard for the popular vote to truly reflect the reality. In addition, the controversial decision to pretape eight categories left many upset by the time cuts. Several heartfelt speeches, such as one by the makeup and hairstyling team from The Eyes of Tammy Faye, were removed. The broadcast still weighed in at 3 hours and 40 minutes, making it difficult to fit everything in.
There were also several nomination snubs that remained top of mind during the broadcast, with missing best picture nominations for Spencer and Tik Tik Boom. Perhaps the two should’ve replaced Don’t Look Up.
While some may think the Will Smith debacle will reflect negatively on the Academy, it will likely have the opposite effect. It clearly sparked discussion this morning, which will continue for a long time. The incident likely raise views for next year’s show, with many wondering if something as chaotic will happen again. There’s always some kind of spectacle that sparks discussion, but it usually doesn’t involve a slap in the face. Maybe next year Will and Chris will acknowledge the incident. Maybe we’ll get some jokes and some interesting audience reactions. Curiosity will surely drive viewers.
The incident will remain infamous in Oscar’s history - probably even more infamous than the Moonlight and La La Land fiasco back in 2017. Even so, it’s important that we don’t overlook the nominees and winners we were celebrating last night.