Beyond the Screen #12: Who Won at Oscars 2022
Well, as seems to be the case more and more often these days, the most unpredictable moments at the Oscars had little to do with who won or lost. Everyone knows the big story to come out of last night’s ceremony, but we’d like to focus on the winners, even if the Academy is having trouble doing so.
After a late-in-the-day surge in popularity, CODA managed to snag Best Picture, becoming the first film distributed by a streaming service to do so, whilst cleaning up in its other categories (Adapted Screenplay for writer-director Sian Heder and Actor in a Supporting Role for Troy Kotsur, who’s interpreter could be heard welling up as Kotsur, the first deaf male actor to be recognised by the Academy, gave an emotional speech dedicated to his father and the “wonderful deaf theater stages, where (he) was allowed and given the opportunity to develop (his) craft as an actor”). The Power of the Dog, nominated in a whopping 12 categories, ended up only garnering Jane Campion her first Best Director win, after dominating the awards season conversation and being the odds-on favorite for best picture. Instead, it joins a number of films that received one statue each (including King Richard, Cruella, West Side Story, Drive My Car, Summer of Soul, No Time to Die and Belfast, for which Kenneth Branagh won Best Original Screenplay).
Dune picked up the most awards of any film on the night; six of its ten nominations, mostly in technical and craft categories awarded off-air and edited into the broadcast in truncated clips (including Best Sound, Best Film Editing, Best Production Design, Best Visual Effects, Best Cinematography and Best Original Score). Among these were cinematographer Greig Fraser with his first win, and Hans Zimmer’s second following The Lion King in 1995, having been nominated for his work as a composer 9 times in the interim. Zimmer’s score for No Time to Die had been shortlisted, but ultimately the film’s only win was for Best Original Song, making Billie Eilish (co-song-writer along with her brother Finneas) the first Oscar winner born in the 21st century. Beyonce’s ‘Be Alive’, from the King Richard soundtrack, opened the ceremony with a performance on the Compton tennis courts Venus and Serena Williams practiced on as young prodigies, whilst all other Best Original Song nominees performed on stage at the Dolby Theatre (plus an Oscar-specific adaptive performance of ‘We Don’t Talk About Bruno’, which was not put forward for consideration by Disney, but was deemed by organizers a more valuable use of time than broadcasting the full speeches of several winners).
Encanto and Drive My Car made good on the clear frontrunner status they held in Animated Feature and International Feature respectively, as did Questlove’s Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) for Documentary Feature, leaving Flee to walk away with nothing in all three of its categories. Riz Ahmed, nominated for Actor in a Leading Role just last year, scored his first win for his Live Action Short Film, The Long Goodbye, while The Queen of Basketball nabbed Documentary Short Subject, and artful Animated Short The Windshield Wiper outdid the presumed favorite Robin Robin from beloved stop-motion animation studio Aardman.
Costume Design went to Cruella’s 11-time-nominated Jenny Beavan, while the work on The Eyes of Tammy Faye to transform Jessica Chastain for her role was recognised in the Best Makeup and Hairstyling category. Chastain herself secured the film’s second prize for Best Actress, delivering an emotional speech touching on suicide awareness and recent discriminatory legislation targeting the LGBTQ+ community. Ariana Debose cruised to her Actress in a Supporting Role victory as Anita in West Side Story, becoming the first openly queer woman of color and the first Afro Latina to do so, 60 years after Rita Moreno won for the same role, herself the first Latina to win an Oscar. Rounding out the acting categories, Will Smith was awarded his long-awaited Best Actor trophy, having clouded the moment by slapping presenter Chris Rock on stage minutes before his tearful acceptance speech.
Two further “awards” were presented during the ceremony; #OscarsCheerMoment and #OscarsFanFavorite, with winners selected via public engagement on Twitter. Naturally, several films present in both categories have rabid-fanbases which arguably dampen the supposed legitimacy of this measure meant to ingratiate the ceremony with the general movie-going public. Zack Snyder films took home both honours; the #OscarsFanFavorite of 2021 was Army of the Dead, whilst the number one #OscarsCheerMoment of all time went to a scene from Zack Snyder’s Justice League wherein the Flash “Enters the Speed Force”.
And so great films like Nightmare Alley, Tick, Tick… Boom!, Parallel Mothers, and many more are left without an Oscar to their name, but it bares considering that 2021 has been an excellent year for film, and competition was stiff. Fiascos aside, the best we can hope for is that all of the films nominated at the 94th Academy Awards receive the boost in viewership and appreciation they deserve. Co-host Regina Hall summed the evening up nicely; “I guess it’s a memorable Oscars, let’s just say that.”
Here’s the full list of Winners and Nominees:
Best Picture
• “CODA” — Winner
• “Belfast”
• “Don’t Look Up”
• “Drive My Car”
• “Dune”
• “King Richard”
• “Licorice Pizza”
• “Nightmare Alley”
• “The Power of the Dog”
• “West Side Story”
Actor in a Leading Role
• Will Smith, “King Richard” — Winner
• Javier Bardem, “Being the Ricardos”
• Benedict Cumberbatch, “The Power of the Dog”
• Andrew Garfield, “tick, tick…BOOM!”
• Denzel Washington, “The Tragedy of Macbeth”
Actress in a Leading Role
• Jessica Chastain, “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” — Winner
• Olivia Colman, “The Lost Daughter”
• Penélope Cruz, “Parallel Mothers”
• Nicole Kidman, “Being the Ricardos”
• Kristen Stewart, “Spencer”
Animated Feature Film
• “Encanto” — Winner
• “Flee”
• “Luca”
• “The Mitchells vs. the Machines”
• “Raya and the Last Dragon”
Cinematography
• “Dune,” Greig Fraser — Winner
• “Nightmare Alley,” Dan Laustsen
• “The Power of the Dog,” Ari Wegner
• “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” Bruno Delbonnel
• “West Side Story,” Janusz Kaminski
Directing
• Jane Campion, “The Power of the Dog” — Winner
• Paul Thomas Anderson, “Licorice Pizza”
• Kenneth Branagh, “Belfast”
• Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, “Drive My Car”
• Steven Spielberg, “West Side Story”
Documentary Feature
• “Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)” — Winner
• “Ascension”
• “Attica”
• “Flee”
• “Writing with Fire”
Documentary Short Subject
• “The Queen of Basketball” — Winner
• “Audible”
• “Lead Me Home”
• “Three Songs for Benazir”
• “When We Were Bullies”
International Feature Film
• “Drive My Car” (Japan) — Winner
• “Flee” (Denmark)
• “The Hand of God” (Italy)
• “Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom” (Bhutan)
• “The Worst Person in the World” (Norway)
Original Song
• “No Time To Die” from “No Time to Die,” music and lyric by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell — Winner
• “Be Alive” from “King Richard,” music and lyric by DIXSON and Beyoncé Knowles-Carter
• “Dos Oruguitas” from “Encanto,” music and lyric by Lin-Manuel Miranda
• “Down To Joy” from “Belfast,” music and lyric by Van Morrison
• “Somehow You Do” from “Four Good Days,” music and lyric by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell
Production Design
• “Dune,” Production Design: Patrice Vermette; Set Decoration: Zsuzsanna Sipos — Winner
• “Nightmare Alley,” Production Design: Tamara Deverell; Set Decoration: Shane Vieau
• “The Power of the Dog,” Production Design: Grant Major; Set Decoration: Amber Richards
• “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” Production Design: Stefan Dechant; Set Decoration: Nancy Haigh
• “West Side Story,” Production Design: Adam Stockhausen; Set Decoration: Rena DeAngelo
Visual Effects
• “Dune,” Paul Lambert, Tristan Myles, Brian Connor and Gerd Nefzer — Winner
• “Free Guy,” Swen Gillberg, Bryan Grill, Nikos Kalaitzidis and Dan Sudick
• “No Time to Die,” Charlie Noble, Joel Green, Jonathan Fawkner and Chris Corbould
• “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” Charlie Noble, Joel Green, Jonathan Fawkner and Chris Corbould
• “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” Kelly Port, Chris Waegner, Scott Edelstein and Dan Sudick
Makeup and Hairstyling
• “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” Linda Dowds, Stephanie Ingram and Justin Raleigh — Winner
• “Coming 2 America,” Mike Marino, Stacey Morris and Carla Farmer
• “Cruella,” Nadia Stacey, Naomi Donne and Julia Vernon
• “Dune,” Donald Mowat, Love Larson and Eva von Bahr
• “House of Gucci,” Göran Lundström, Anna Carin Lock and Frederic Aspiras
Film Editing
• “Dune,” Joe Walker — Winner
• “Don’t Look Up,” Hank Corwin
• “King Richard,” Pamela Martin
• “The Power of the Dog,” Peter Sciberras
• “tick, tick…BOOM!” Myron Kerstein and Andrew Weisblum
Actor in a Supporting Role
• Troy Kotsur, “CODA” — Winner
• Ciarán Hinds, “Belfast”
• Jesse Plemons, “The Power of the Dog”
• J.K. Simmons, “Being the Ricardos”
• Kodi Smit-McPhee, “The Power of the Dog”
Actress in a Supporting Role
• Ariana DeBose, “West Side Story” — Winner
• Jessie Buckley, “The Lost Daughter”
• Judi Dench, “Belfast”
• Kirsten Dunst, “The Power of the Dog”
• Aunjanue Ellis, “King Richard”
Live Action Short Film
• “The Long Goodbye” — Winner
• “Ala Kachuu – Take and Run”
• “The Dress”
• “On My Mind”
• “Please Hold”
Animated Short Film
• “The Windshield Wiper” — Winner
• “Affairs of the Art”
• “Bestia”
• “Boxballet”
• “Robin Robin”
Original Screenplay
• “Belfast” (Kenneth Branagh) — Winner
• “Don’t Look Up” (Screenplay by Adam McKay and story by Adam McKay and David Sirota)
• “King Richard” (Zach Baylin)
• “Licorice Pizza” (Paul Thomas Anderson)
• “The Worst Person in the World” (Eskil Vogt and Joachim Trier)
Adapted Screenplay
• Siân Heder, “CODA” — Winner
• Jane Campion, “The Power of the Dog”
• Maggie Gyllenhaal, “The Lost Daughter”
• Ryûsuke Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe, “Drive My Car”
• Eric Roth, Jon Spaihts and Denis Villeneuve, “Dune”
Original Score
• “Dune,” Hans Zimmer — Winner
• “Don’t Look Up,” Nicholas Britell
• “Encanto,” Germaine Franco
• “Parallel Mothers,” Alberto Iglesias
• “The Power of the Dog,” Jonny Greenwood
Sound
• “Dune,” Mac Ruth, Mark Mangini, Theo Green, Doug Hemphill and Ron Bartlett — Winner
• “Belfast,” Denise Yarde, Simon Chase, James Mather and Niv Adiri
• “No Time to Die,” Simon Hayes, Oliver Tarney, James Harrison, Paul Massey and Mark Taylor
• “The Power of the Dog,” Richard Flynn, Robert Mackenzie and Tara Webb
• “West Side Story,” Tod A. Maitland, Gary Rydstrom, Brian Chumney, Andy Nelson and Shawn Murphy
Costume Design
• “Cruella,” Jenny Beavan — Winner
• “Cyrano,” Massimo Cantini Parrini and Jacqueline Durran
• “Dune,” Jacqueline West and Robert Morgan
• “Nightmare Alley,” Luis Sequeira
• “West Side Story,” Paul Tazewell
