THE LATEST ON HOLLYWOOD'S BIGGEST RACES
APRIL 01, 2022
Your Complete Guide to a Wild Oscar Night
What an Oscars, right? With its rousing best-picture win, CODA made history for its nascent streamer studio and predominantly deaf lead cast. Ariana DeBose became the first openly queer woman of color to win an acting Academy Award. Questlove won best documentary for his directorial debut. Jessica Chastain came out on top in a historically topsy-turvy best-actress race. So much to talk about!
Alas, the nature of post-Oscars discourse hasn’t been quite so celebratory. Instead, the aftermath of best-actor champ Will Smith slapping presenter Chris Rock live onstage, after the comedian made a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, continues to completely dominate the coverage.
I’m David Canfield, and with the Awards Insider team, I’ve spent the past week keeping up with every twist and turn in this unfortunate saga, which seems to change shape by the hour. The Academy is likely to discipline Smith via suspension or expulsion—it feels safe to say that we should not expect him to present next year’s best-actress Oscar, as is tradition—with the final decision set to come as soon as April 18, when the organization’s board of governors meets. By that time, though, I’m sure a few dozen more reports will surface to further complicate our understanding of what exactly happened inside the Dolby Theatre. (And we were in the room, so we do have some insight of our own.)
Beyond the dramatic headlines, there were major takeaways from Sunday night’s ceremony and the Academy’s selections. The feel-good, less technically impressive CODA triumphing over The Power of the Dog—which quadrupled CODA’s nomination count—marked a huge upset in the battle for the first streamer best-picture victory. More subtly, the indie’s victory signaled what it takes to win best picture in an era where theatricality matters less and likability matters more. Admiration only gets you so far.
This is the second time in four years that Netflix has won best director (this time for a very deserving Jane Campion) and not best picture. The two awards used to go hand in hand for the Academy, but thus far the studio’s pricey investment in great filmmakers doing career-best work hasn’t been enough to take it all the way. As I wrote in my analysis of what Sunday night’s Oscars meant for the campaign wars going forward, this may result in a change in strategy—but I hope that the daring work Netflix has proudly kept in the conversation doesn’t further disappear from the landscape.
As for next year’s Oscars? Yes, we’re already talking about that, so stay tuned for Little Gold Men’s annual predictions special, dropping on Thursday. In the meantime, it’s not like Hollywood has gone into hibernation for the summer. (Heck, Smith’s outburst meant we didn’t even get a week off.) As the dust slowly settles on the main fiasco, Emmy season is quietly ramping up. We’ve got our first contender interview of the season up with Severance’s Adam Scott, and starting next week, we’ll begin outlining how the big TV races are shaping up. I mean, really, aren’t we all ready to move on to something new?
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