It was the night of surprises. Of two huge surprises.
Let’s start with the second, the triumph of “CODA” as Best Film, a film about a family in which all its members are deaf and dumb, except for their daughter, a CODA (Child of Deaf Adult), who is torn between pursuing her dreams or staying by her family’s side as an interpreter of their day-to-day life.
“CODA” was nominated for three oscars and won all three.
With his award for Best Supporting Actor, Troy Kotsur He became the first deaf-mute man to win an Oscar, something that his partner in this film Marlee Martin did when she won Best Actress with “Children of a Lesser God” in 1962. “CODA” also won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay and became the first production on a streaming platform (Apple TV+) to be chosen as Best Picture.
And the first surprise, of course, was the violent incident starring Will Smith. The actor was sitting at one of the tables near the stage when from there Chris Rock made a joke about the lack of hair of Jada Pinkett-Smith, Will’s wife.
“I hope to see her in GIJane 2”, was Rock’s joke, who surely didn’t know that Jada suffers from alopecia and has talked about it.
Immediately, Smith he walked over to Rock and struck him, apparently with an open hand, across the face. The comedian was totally surprised and Smith returned to his table, from where he yelled at him, twice: “Get my wife’s name out of your fucking mouth.”
Shortly after, Smith went up to collect his award for Best Actor for “King Richard” and began his speech with a phrase that justified his previous reaction:
“Richard Williams was a fierce defender of his family”, she said shaking, with tears in her eyes, before thanking Venus, Serena and the Williams family for trusting her with “their story”.
“I want to apologize to the Academy, to my fellow nominees. This is a beautiful moment and I am not crying for winning an award, it is not about that, but for being able to shed light on all the people who have made this project possible”, he continued.
“Now I look like a crazy dad, like Richard Williams,” he joked. “Love leads you to do crazy things”.
“I hope the Academy invites me again”, he finished, without apologizing to Chris Rock and among the majority Standing applause from those present.
Until then the night flowed normally, more agile than on other occasions. We’ll soon find out if TV audiences are back after last year’s debacle, but these Oscars 1986 had a more entertaining schedule. Even without the Will Smith incident.
The host trio of Regina Hall, Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes made those present laugh from the first joke: “This year the Academy decided to have three female presenters because it was cheaper than hiring a man.”
The three actresses did not let puppet with a head -and there was already a first joke about the relationship between Jada and Smith- and they even scandalized guests like Jessica Chastain -winner of the Oscar for Best Actress for “The Eyes of Tammy Faye”-, who raised her hands incredulous face at the jokes coming from the stage.
The first Oscar of the night for Best Supporting Actress went to Ariana DeBose for the same role as Anita in West Side Story with which Rita Moreno won in 1962 the first Oscar for a Latino.
“I am the second Latina to win an Oscar. I am Afro-Latina and gay”, claimed DeBose in the press room after the ceremony.
Another Latina, Rachel Zegler, presented the award for Best Special Effects (which won “Dune”) and joked about his last-minute invitation to attend the gala: “Dreams sometimes come true… very quickly.”
The Colombian Sebastián Yatra performed “Dos Oruguitas”, one of the songs from “Encanto”, in a dark blue suit different from the one he wore on the red carpet, where he appeared in pale pink. Later another song from the same film, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno”, stole the show with a surprise appearance by Meghan Thee Stallion.
And precisely the Best Animated Film went to “Encanto” from Disney Animation Studios. The directors dedicated the award to all of Colombia, the country in which the plot takes place, and demanded the space that Latinos deserve in Hollywood. “We deserve to be here.”
For the second consecutive year, a woman won Best Direction
Jane Campion became the third woman to win Best Direction for “The Power of the Dog”, but the film produced by Netflix was the big favorite for Best Picture and had 12 nominations. Only Campion’s was taken.
There were also times to look back. It was recalled that the James Bond franchise meets 03 years, perhaps in a wink from the Academy to commercial cinema that in recent years had very little presence.
Francis Ford Coppola, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino received a long standing ovation for the 50 years of “The Godfather”, in one of the most endearing moments of the night.
Another memorable moment was the appearance of Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman and John Travolta to recall a scene from “Pulp Fiction” before to deliver the award for Best Actor.
The Best International Film went to the favorite “Drive My Car” from Japan, in a year where there was no Hispanic representation among the nominees. “Summer of Soul” took the award for Best Documentary. Kenneth Branagh won his first Oscar after 8 nominations for the original screenplay for “Belfast”.
The ceremony also had a moment of silence to remember the victims of the war in Ukraine, who presented on screen with the hashtag #StandWithUcraine.
This is how we live live The Oscar Awards 2022