Well, that was dramatic. If the whole La La Land and Moonlight debacle delivered an Oscars ceremony that would go down in history back in 2017, the 2022 Academy Awards just delivered another doozy: a night filled with shocking moments, surprising wins, and bizarre developments. Most notably, that Will Smith appeared to hit Chris Rock in the face live on stage, moments before going on to win Best Actor and deliver a lengthy tear-strewn acceptance speech. But more on that later.
First up, the biggest award of the night: the Best Picture win that the Producers Guild and Writers Guild Awards seemed to predict earlier in the week came to fruition, and CODA walked away with the little gold statue – overtaking former favourite The Power Of The Dog, Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast, and Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story. Elsewhere, Sian Heder’s film also won Best Adapted Screenplay (it’s adapted from a 2014 French film), and Best Supporting Actor for Troy Kotsur – victorious in all three categories for which it was nominated. Though Jane Campion’s film lost Best Picture, she did win the Director award – the second time she’s been nominated in that category, following The Piano in 1994.
The biggest winner of the night, though, was Dune. Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi epic won five trophies through the night, mostly in technical categories – bagging Cinematography, Sound, Editing, Original Score, and Production Design. However, most of those awards were handed out, controversially, before the main show began – with extracted footage spliced into the live broadcast. Elsewhere, there was a fairly even spread of wins – including Jessica Chastain for Best Actress in The Eyes Of Tammy Faye, Ariana DeBose for Best Supporting Actress in West Side Story, Kenneth Branagh for Original Screenplay for Belfast, and International Feature Film for Drive My Car.
But the biggest talking point of the night, and the bit sure to go down in Oscars history, was an on-stage confrontation between Chris Rock and Will Smith. Before he introduced the Documentary nominees, Rock cracked a few gags which, for the most part, went down well. But upon making a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved head (she’s previously spoken about dealing with alopecia), the mood soured significantly. After Pinkett Smith appeared disapproving of the joke, her husband strode on stage and appeared to strike Rock in the face (“Will Smith just smacked the shit out of me,” he said afterwards), before repeatedly shouting from the audience: “Keep my wife’s name out of your fucking mouth.”
Shortly after, Smith won Best Actor for his role in King Richard, giving an extended speech that seemed to reference the incident indirectly. “Richard Williams was a fierce defender of his family,” he said, referencing his role in the film. “Making this film, I got to protect Aunjanue Ellis, who is one of the most strongest, most delicate people I’ve ever met. I got to protect Saniyya and Demi, the two actresses who played Venus and Serena. I’m being called on in my life to love people and to protect people.”
It wasn’t the only surprise moment of the show – with Liza Minnelli accidentally giving away the Best Picture winner by holding her envelope the wrong way around on camera, a live performance of ‘We Don’t Talk About Bruno’ proving a disappointment (by largely not being a performance of ‘We Don’t Talk About Bruno’), and the fan-voted Most Cheer-Worthy Moment going to a Flash scene in Zack Snyder’s Justice League. You never quite know what’s going to happen at the Oscars – but this year, that was more true than ever.
Get the, er, blow-by-blow account of everything that happened over on our Live Blog, and read the full list of winners here.
Best Picture
Belfast
CODA
Don’t Look Up
Drive My Car
Dune
King Richard
Licorice Pizza
Nightmare Alley
The Power Of The Dog
West Side Story
Best Director
Kenneth Branagh – Belfast
Paul Thomas Anderson – Licorice Pizza
Jane Campion – The Power Of The Dog
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi – Drive My Car
Steven Spielberg – West Side Story
Best Actress
Jessica Chastain – The Eyes Of Tammy Faye
Olivia Colman – The Lost Daughter
Penélope Cruz – Parallel Mothers
Nicole Kidman – Being the Ricardos
Kristen Stewart – Spencer
Best Actor
Javier Bardem – Being The Ricardos
Benedict Cumberbatch – The Power Of The Dog
Andrew Garfield – Tick, Tick… BOOM!
Will Smith – King Richard
Denzel Washington – The Tragedy Of Macbeth
Best Supporting Actress
Jessie Buckley - The Lost Daughter
Ariana DeBose - West Side Story
Judi Dench - Belfast
Kirsten Dunst - The Power Of The Dog
Aunjanue Ellis - King Richard
Best Supporting Actor
Ciarán Hinds – Belfast
Troy Kotsur – CODA
Jesse Plemons – The Power Of The Dog
Kodi Smit-McPhee – The Power Of The Dog
JK Simmons – Being The Ricardos
Best Original Screenplay
Belfast – Kenneth Branagh
Don’t Look Up – Adam McKay & David Sirota
Licorice Pizza – Paul Thomas Anderson
King Richard – Zach Baylin
The Worst Person In The World – Joachim Trier & Eskil Vogt
Best Adapted Screenplay
CODA – Siân Heder
Drive My Car – Ryusuke Hamaguchi & Takamasa Oe
Dune – Eric Roth, Jon Spaihts & Denis Villeneuve
The Lost Daughter – Maggie Gyllenhaal
The Power Of The Dog – Jane Campion
Best Documentary Feature
Ascension
Attica
Flee
Summer Of Soul (...Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
Writing With Fire
Best Animated Feature Film
Encanto
Flee
Luca
The Mitchells Vs. The Machines
Raya And The Last Dragon
Best Cinematography
Dune – Greig Fraser
Nightmare Alley – Dan Lausten
The Power Of The Dog – Ari Wegner
The Tragedy Of Macbeth – Bruno Delbonnel
West Side Story – Janusz Kaminski
Best International Feature Film
Drive My Car (Japan)
Flee (Denmark)
The Hand Of God (Italy)
Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom (Bhutan)
The Worst Person In The World (Norway)
Best Costume Design
Cruella – Jenny Beavan
Cyrano – Massimo Cantini Parrini
Dune – Robert Morgan & Jacqueline West
Nightmare Alley – Luis Sequeira
West Side Story – Paul Tazewell
Best Sound
Belfast
Dune
No Time To Die
The Power Of The Dog
West Side Story
Best Film Editing
Don’t Look Up – Hank Corwin
Dune – Joe Walker
King Richard – Pamela Martin
The Power Of The Dog – Peter Sciberras
Tick, Tick… Boom! – Myron Kerstein & Andrew Weisblum
Best Original Score
Don’t Look Up – Nicholas Britell
Dune – Hans Zimmer
Encanto – Germaine Franco
Parallel Mothers – Alberto Iglesias
The Power of the Dog – Jonny Greenwood
Best Production Design
Dune – Zsuzsanna Sipos & Patrice Vermette
Nightmare Alley – Tamara Deverell & Shane Vieau
The Power Of The Dog – Grant Major & Amber Richards
The Tragedy Of Macbeth – Stefan Dechant & Nancy Haigh
West Side Story – Rena DeAngelo & Adam Stockhausen
Best Live Action Short Film
Ala Kachuu — Take And Run
The Dress
The Long Goodbye
On My Mind
Please Hold
Best Documentary Short Subject
Audible
Lead Me Home
The Queen Of Basketball
Three Songs For Benazir
When We Were Bullies
Best Animated Short Film
Affairs Of The Art
Bestia
Boxballet
Robin Robin
The Windshield Wiper
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Cruella
Dune
The Eyes Of Tammy Faye
House Of Gucci
Coming 2 America
Best Original Song
“Be Alive” – Beyoncé Knowles-Carter & Darius Scott (King Richard)
“Dos Oruguitas” – Lin-Manuel Miranda (Encanto)
“Down to Joy” – Van Morrison (Belfast)
“No Time to Die” – Billie Eilish & Finneas O’Connell (No Time To Die)
“Somehow You Do” – Diane Warren (Four Good Days)