The 94th Academy Awards happened Sunday night, and boy oh boy is there a lot to discuss. So many events unfolded during the star-studded ceremony hosted by Wanda Sykes, Amy Schumer and Regina Hall, that I don’t even know where to begin. Timothée was shirtless! Kristen wore shorts! Billie wow’ed! Beyoncé slayed! Megan surprised! Will Smith physically assaulted someone!
And then of course, there were the actual awards. The little Sundance picture that could, Apple TV+’s CODA became the first movie from a streaming platform to win Best Picture, beating heavyweight juggernauts like The Power of the Dog and West Side Story in the three categories it was nominated in. Still, some of the year’s biggest movies also ended up striking gold, between Cruella’s costume design snag, Dune’s domination in the technical categories and West Side Story’s history-making acting win (more on that below). Most importantly, I correctly predicted 24 of the 27 awards—a big step up from last year’s measly 16/27.
Having recently announced a Twitter hiatus, I decided to compile all of my hot takes into a highly opinionated blog post recapping the event. Read further for my thoughts on Will Smith, CODA, fan-voted categories and more.
On Will Smith and Chris Rock
This isn’t a gossip blog, but I’d be remiss to start this without first acknowledging the elephant in the room. Even if you didn’t watch the ceremony, you’ve probably heard by now that Will Smith walked onto the stage Sunday night to slap Chris Rock across the face as the latter presented the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. The cause of his ire? An unscripted comment the comedian made about the actor’s wife, who has been vocal about her experience with alopecia. Later that night, Smith addressed the situation in an awkward, yet impassioned acceptance speech after winning Best Actor for his performance in King Richard. Rock is reportedly not pressing charges, and Smith has since apologized for his conduct.
As someone who is not a big Chris Rock fan precisely because I find his humor hostile and cheap, I must admit I thoughtlessly supported Smith in the heat of the moment, and was initially surprised to find out that he was getting condemned online. Having rewatched the entire clip this morning, I’ve arrived at a more nuanced opinion.
Let’s take a moment to analyze the situation, piece by piece:
The full joke: “Jada, I love you. G.I. Jane 2—can’t wait to see it!”
The initial reaction: Will Smith laughs along with the audience; Jada Pinkett Smith looks unamused and rolls her eyes. The crowd’s tone suddenly changes.
What came after: Rock giggles and excuses himself. Smith storms onto the stage and smacks him across the face, then sits back down. The crowd cheers, thinking it’s part of an extended comedy routine. Rock tries to make light of the situation, then gets interrupted by Smith, who yells, “keep my wife’s name out your fucking mouth.”
There’s certainly the question of why Smith laughed before he attacked Rock. Did he not understand the joke initially? Did his wife’s reaction—or Rock excusing himself—change how he felt about it? Was there underlying beef between them? We can only speculate, but one thing is clear: it’s really no one’s place to tell Smith how to feel about a joke made at the expense of his wife, just as it’s no one’s place to tell Jada how to feel about unsolicited comments regarding her appearance.
It’s easy to call a joke or an offhand remark from someone else inoffensive when we’re not the subject of the slander, right? The reality is that at least two people—including the person who the joke was directed at—were offended, making Rock’s comment offensive by definition. There’s no way around that part of the equation.
The question then becomes whether or not Smith’s reaction was warranted. Heading up to the stage to slap someone over the line, “Jada, I love you. G.I. Jane 2—can’t wait to see it!” was certainly a bit much. But was cursing appropriate? Would it have been enough for him to yell from his chair? What about his justification during that awkward acceptance speech? I personally think the showrunners are at least partially at fault for letting a presenter go unscripted like this, making someone who wasn’t even part of the ceremony the butt of his joke.
“In this business, you gotta be able to have people disrespecting you, and you gotta smile and you gotta pretend like that’s ok,” the actor said later that night. “Art imitates life. I look like the crazy father, just like they said about Richard Williams. But love will make you do crazy things.”
At the end of the day, we’re talking about a guy defending his wife against a remark that seems to have hit a sore spot for the family (their son, Jaden, tweeted what appears to be a message in support of his parents later that evening). We can condemn Will Smith’s brash actions, but we shouldn’t judge him for having a moment of anger, or for bearing his emotions later on.
On the Winners
As chaotic as the changing tides of public opinion were this awards season, the final wins all ended up being pretty predictable. In fact, I ended up guessing 24 of the 27 categories correctly. Two of the ones I got wrong were really just a result of second-guessing; Dune was always going to dominate the technical fields á la Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), and I should have predicted that instead of assuming that the Academy would spread the love amongst the Best Picture nominees like they did last year. As it turns out, Denis Villeneuve’s acclaimed sci-fi epic took home a whopping six awards, and three of the other Best Picture nominees—Don’t Look Up, Licorice Pizza and Nightmare Alley—won nothing.
Between witnessing Dune’s positive turnout and seeing the wonderful cast and crew of CODA accept the award for Best Picture, I can’t say I’m too mad at the ceremony even if some of my preferred wins didn’t happen. Among the biggest disappointments for me, The Windshield Wiper took the award for Best Animated Short despite being the worst contender in an otherwise excellent roster of nominees. The two screenplay awards were also really boring this time around. Although I expected this to happen, Belfast had no business winning Best Original Screenplay over Licorice Pizza and The Worst Person in the World. Ditto for CODA snatching Adapted Screenplay from Dune and Drive My Car.
Although I’ve previously made jabs at CODA for being a fish among sharks, the Sundance charmer proved to be a formidable Best Picture winner with an inspiring underdog narrative. The film also nabbed a Best Supporting Actor award for its breakout star, Troy Kotsur, who I was full-on rooting for along with West Side Story’s Ariana DeBose in the opposite category. Kotsur is the first deaf man to ever win an acting Oscar, and DeBose first Afro-Latina (and second Latina overall), to do the same.
Another cause for celebration? Jane Campion’s Best Director win for The Power of the Dog comes 28 years after she got nominated for The Piano. This makes her the only woman to ever get nominated twice in that category. Following Nomadland’s historic streak in 2021, Sunday’s ceremony marked the first time two women won Best Director back to back, and the first time two female-directed films won Best Picture two years in a row.
On the Ceremony
Although every announcement leading up to the AMPAS showed every indication that this year’s ceremony would be a mess, it actually ended up being quite enjoyable—violence and drama aside. To finish the recap, get caught up on the good, the bad and the meh below.
The Good
Variety Entertainment: Following last year’s ceremony, which was drier than Arrakis, the AMPAS decided to amp up the entertainment factor, structuring this year’s show with movie clips and live performances. These included an amazing opening number by Beyoncé as well as a star-studded rendition of “We Don’t Talk About Bruno.”
The Bad
Two Hosts Too Many: Although each of the three hosts was funny individually, there was very little chemistry between them. The Wanda Sykes segments also far-outshined the Regina Hall and Amy Schumer ones, begging the question of why Sykes couldn’t just helm the ceremony by herself. I laughed more during the clip of her at the Academy Museum than I did during all of Hall’s parts put together. That costume bit was funny, though.
The Meh
Pre-Recorded Awards: Last month, the AMPAS announced they’d be cutting nine categories from the live show, filming them before the ceremony and re-editing them into their program. Rightfully, people got upset. Some Academy members threatened to give up their memberships. Others protested by abstaining from the final vote. Guillermo Del Toro even addressed the issue during the Critics Choice broadcast.
Admittedly, the entire affair ended up working out much better than anyone expected, as the presentation of these awards were edited almost seamlessly into the televised ceremony, resulting in a well-paced show that honored all of the winners. Still, the mere decision to trim people’s airtime in order to make room for stupid, fan-voted awards and inappropriate celebrity hijinks devalues their crafts. I can’t say I advise the AMPAS to do this again next year.