“In this business, you have to put up with people being disrespectful to you and you still have to smile,” Will Smith said, crying in his confused, tearful speech. He wants to be a protector for others. Even before his win, Smith had caused a stir when, during a speech by presenter Chris Rock, he took to the stage to slap his colleague after he made a joke about Smith’s wife. The suspected scripted gag turned out to be serious when Smith shouted “Keep my wife’s name out of your fucking mouth” at Rock from his seat.
Previously, Jane Campion had won the Best Director category. New Zealander Campion became the first woman to be nominated twice for directing with her western drama The Power of the Dog. And she is only the third woman to win in the directing category. The 67-year-old already won an Oscar in 1994 – for the best original screenplay for “The Piano”.
Ariana DeBose, as Best Supporting Actress, started the series of awards at the Dolby Theater on Hollywood Boulevard. The 31-year-old was honored for her role as Anita in Steven Spielberg’s remake of West Side Story. She was later followed by a male favorite with 53-year-old actor Troy Kotsur for the deaf drama “CODA”. The actor — the second deaf person in the acting category to win an Oscar — delivered his acceptance speech in sign language, making it clear, “This award is dedicated to the entire deaf community.”
Meanwhile, CODA, the remake of the French original Do You Understand the Bèliers?, also won the Adapted Screenplays section. Old master Kenneth Branagh, on the other hand, was able to look forward to the trophy for the best original screenplay for his autobiographical film “Belfast” – as previously forecast. Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi adventure “Dune”, which has been nominated ten times, triumphed in the technical categories of sound, camera, editing, production design and visual effects in addition to the film music.
As expected, the Disney musical “Encanto” also won among the animated films, whose song “Dos Oruguitas”, which was also nominated, opened the series of music performances – in which superstar Billie Eilish later also appeared with her Bond title song “No Time to Die”. found, which was finally able to accept the Oscar. The group of favorites also included that of the Japanese candidate “Drive My Car” by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, who won the trophy in the category of the foreign Oscars. The Austrian contribution, Sebastian Meise’s “Great Freedom”, did not make it onto the shortlist of the last five.
At this point, Hans Zimmer’s victory in the film music division had been certain for a long time. The Academy, as organizer of the mega event, made the controversial decision to award eight of the 23 prizes in advance before the gala actually broadcast, which can then only be seen via video feed. The outsourced prizes also included categories such as editing or film music, with the latter being won by star German composer Zimmer for his score on “Dune”, which he celebrated in a hotel bar in Amsterdam rather than in Hollywood – presumably in protest against the show’s demotion.
The evening began with a welcome from tennis sisters Venus and Serena Williams, followed by Beyoncé as the opening gig, broadcast from a tennis court in Compton. Then the three comedians Amy Schumer, Regina Hall and Wanda Sykes took over – for the first time since 2018, the Oscars have provided a real moderation for the celebratory Hollywood gala. In addition to the classic triple conference for typical colleague dissent, the hosts also threw themselves into costumes of film characters and went into the auditorium to chat.
In the Dolby Theater itself, however, due to the still virulent pandemic, there was only room for 2,500 guests, not the possible 3,300. The nominees and their companions sit in the front areas of the Dolby Theater at a greater distance from each other and do not have to wear masks. Further back, on the other hand, the guests are more densely packed. In addition to proof of corona vaccination, everyone had to present two negative PCR tests in advance.
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