After another exhaustively long awards season, the Academy Awards have finally been handed out. Sadly, all anyone is talking about is the slap heard around the world (we’ll get to that later). For a ceremony where many categories felt wide open, everything pretty much went according to plan.
I certainly wasn’t expecting to correctly predict 22 out of 23 categories, but sometimes you get it right. That being said, it will no doubt signal some disappointment that the Academy seemingly played it very safe this year. If only they’d also thought to hire security to guard the stage…
As is tradition, let’s take a closer look at everything that went down with the good, the bad, and the ugly of the 94th Academy Awards.
THE GOOD
A plethora of firsts. With a Best Picture victory that destroyed decades of rules and precedents, Apple TV+’s CODA made history as the first film from a streaming service to win the Academy’s big prize; something Netflix has been chasing for the last four years. It’s the first Best Picture winner to debut at the Sundance Film Festival (frankly, that’s genuinely shocking) and the first to win with three or fewer nominations since Grand Hotel in 1932. Troy Kotsur is the first deaf male actor to win an Academy Award for acting and only the second deaf acting winner overall after his co-star Marlee Matlin.
With her win for Best Supporting Actress for West Side Story, Ariana DeBose is the first Afro-Latina and openly queer woman of colour to win an Oscar for acting. With his win for Best Live Action Short Film for The Long Goodbye, Riz Ahmed is the first Muslin to win this category. With her win for Best Director for The Power of the Dog, Jane Campion is only the third female to win this category and this marks the first time in history females have consecutively won this award two years in a row.
Amy Schumer, Regina Hall, and Wanda Sykes. Overall, the three hosts did a decent job of keeping proceedings moving without overstaying their welcome. Their opening monologue was humorous and sharp. Their chemistry was strong. And they wisely avoided too many pointless skits that do little than add time to an already long ceremony. It didn’t all work (more on that shortly), but they were committed and spirited throughout. For my money, the best in show was Schumer, particularly the way she handled the mood in the room after “that moment.” To be honest, she could have hosted the show by herself. Hopefully, these three did enough to prove an Oscars host is a necessary inclusion in future ceremonies. Tina and Amy next year, please.
The return of nominee clips. I’m still scratching my head over the baffling decision to remove these clips from last year’s ceremony. Thankfully, they made a triumphant comeback this year. Please never remove them again.
The nominated performances. From Beyoncé opening the show with an elaborately staged version of “Be Alive” and Billie Eilish and Finneas’ haunting rendition of “No Time to Die” to Sebastián Yatra’s soulful take on “Dos Oruguitas” and Reba McEntire’s simple but captivating rendition of “Somehow You Do,” the live performances of the Best Original Song nominees were all terrific.
Jessica Chastain is finally an Oscar winner. Was Tammy Faye the best performance of her career? No. Is it possible she’ll deliver a better performance in the future? Yes. Do I really care? Not really. We get to call Chastain an Academy Award winner at last. And her gorgeous speech was easily the best of the night.
Riz Ahmed is one too. Ahmed was my personal pick for Best Actor last year for his astonishing performance in Sound of Metal. While I’d still love to see him win an acting Oscar one day, his victory for Best Live Action Short Film for The Long Goodbye will do for now.
Lady Gaga looking after Liza Minnelli. Enough said.
THE BAD
The eight categories not presented live. While I will admit this practice wasn’t as abhorrent as we feared, it still took away from properly acknowledging the winners and nominees in each category as we sped through each announcement as quickly as possible. The justification for cutting these categories was to keep the show at three hours. It did not work. The ceremony still clocked in at 3 hours and 42 minutes, which is 23 minutes longer than last year. It was an experiment that failed. Don’t do it again.
The “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” performance. ABC heavily publicising the fact the ceremony would feature the first-ever live performance of the #1 smash hit from Encanto. And it certainly started that way before it diverted into a bizarre truncated remix with odd new lyrics about the awards themselves (“We’re here to celebrate Oscars”) and a rap verse from Megan Thee Stallion. After hyping this performance, it was genuinely strange they didn’t just stage the song as written.
The publicly voted “awards.” It’s hardly surprising Zack Snyder fans completely hijacked the voting of the two awards the Academy introduced for reasons still completely unknown. Snyder’s Army of the Dead took out Fan Favorite Movie, while his re-edited version of Justice League scored the most cheer-worthy moment for The Flash entering the speed force. Hopefully, the laughable results of these two awards reminded the Academy this ain’t the MTV Movie Awards.
The In Memoriam segment. This is the moment that usually leaves the audience in tears. For the second year in a row, the Academy delivered a bizarrely upbeat tribute sequence that completely mishandled paying respect to those that left us in the last 12 months. A Gospel choir can be a wonderful thing, but having them sing a lively cover of “Spirit in the Sky” while dancing (!) is just baffling. No disrespect to the choir. It’s not their fault. But they did little more than distract your attention from what was being displayed on the screen. It’s also rather gauche to single out certain members of the tribute to receive individual mentions above others. By the time Jamie Lee Curtis came holding a clearly terrified little dog to pay tribute to Betty White, the whole thing was lost.
Kelly Slater, Tony Hawk, and Shaun White presenting a tribute to James Bond. Yeah, I still have no idea what that was about.
Paul Thomas Anderson walks away empty-handed yet again. It’ll happen one day, PTA.
THE UGLY
Will Smith and Chris Rock. There’s only one Oscars moment people are going to be talking about for the next few days. It’s not the groundbreaking Best Picture victory of CODA or the historic wins of Campion, Kotsur, and DeBose. It’s the moment the eventual Best Actor winner decided to take to the stage and slap/smack/punch (honestly, I’m still not sure which it was) Rock after a crass joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. Strap yourselves in for this one. I have a lot to say.
First things first; both Smith and Rock are in the wrong here. But as the old saying goes, two wrongs do not make a right. Rock referencing G.I. Jane in regards to Pinkett Smith’s bald head was a low blow. She has been bravely open about her battle with the auto-immune disease alopecia and the subsequent hair loss it brings. Making light of that was gross even at an event like the Academy Awards where “roasting” attendees is a classic element of the show.
It’s plausible Rock was unaware of Pinkett Smith’s condition, but that’s even more of a reason one should tread cautiously when choosing to make light of someone’s physical appearance. I completely accept that a golden rule of stand up comedy is that either everything can be made fun of or nothing can be. But comedy regarding someone’s physical attributes is low hanging fruit and beneath someone as sharp and intelligent as Rock.
Women are already subjected to enough vilification, judgment, and ridicule over their bodies and appearance, especially women of colour. It may have just been a throwaway line, but one that didn’t need to be said. And one that clearly offended Pinkett Smith. While her husband initially laughed at Rock’s joke, she was noticeably unimpressed.
At first, it seemed like that would be the end of it. Pinkett Smith threw Rock a side-eye that could burn the flesh off his face. The audience’s laughter died down. And Rock went to move on with his presentation of Best Documentary Feature. Then everything changed. Smith calmly walked on stage and completely altered the conversation of the 94th Academy Awards.
Defending your partner can be a beautiful thing. It can show how much you adore them. When someone disrespects the person you love, it’s only right to react. But reacting with violence is never acceptable. Never. Rock may have attacked Pinkett Smith with his words, but Smith retaliated with his hand. There is never a situation where that is admissible. And when Smith took to the stage again mere minutes later to accept Best Actor, his “explanation” was just as unacceptable.
Smith invoked everything from God, the Devil, and Richard Williams himself in an attempt to justify his assault. And don’t let anyone try and tell you that’s not what this was. Smith assaulted Rock. He spouted off lines about wanting to protect his family and refusing to accept that those in the industry have to just smile and take abuse. That’s all completely true, but still no reason for violence.
Smith’s actions and subsequent speech reeked of toxic masculinity, no matter how hard he bumblingly attempted to portray himself as both a saviour and a victim. The real victim is Pinkett Smith and you didn’t see her launching herself on stage. Women deserve to be protected, especially in this day and age. But the concept of a man as the “protector” of a woman becomes completely foul when defending her involves using your fists.
This situation could have played out in so many ways that would have painted Smith in such a better light. Imagine he stepped on stage, spoke to the audience about his wife’s battle with an embarrassing disease, and asked Rock to apologise for insulting her. Or imagine he had heckled Rock with a witty insult that brought the house down. He’d be the hero right now. His Best Actor win would have been even sweeter. Instead, it’s now forever tarnished, as is this ceremony.
Granted the producers of the show were caught completely unprepared for such a moment, but the fact Smith was able to manhandle a presenter and remain seated for the remainder of the show is unfathomable. You cannot tell me if a random audience member had assaulted a presenter they wouldn’t have been immediately ejected from the Dolby Theatre and blacklisted from the industry. Why was Smith allowed to remain after causing such an unspeakable disruption that completely railroaded the entire ceremony? Why were there no immediate repercussions for his actions? What kind of message is that sending?
I don’t want to be the “Won’t somebody please think of the children!” person, but Smith is idolised by young ones all around the world. Sure, they were unlikely to have been watching the Academy Awards, but they’re going to hear about it. They’re also going to hear he was honoured with an award just moments after smacking someone in the face. It sends a deeply confusing message that could be terribly damaging.
I’m not suggesting the Academy should have denied him the victory. He won that Oscar and nothing could change that. But allowing him to accept it in person after essentially committing a crime is truly baffling. It’s laughable the Academy tweeted after the show they don’t “condone violence of any form.” By doing nothing in the moment and letting Smith accept adulation later in the show sure seems like they are condoning his behaviour. They pathetically looked the other way to avoid an awkward situation.
At the end of the day, both men deserve judgment for their actions. One delivered a garbage joke. Another responded with unnecessary aggression. You don’t have to take sides. Both can be in the wrong. We had so many wonderful winners that deserve to be spoken about today. Smith has taken that moment away from literally all of them and should hang his head in shame.