The Oscars were back in the Dolby Theater this year with social distancing and eight categories presented before the live show even began. While there was a joke about Samuel L. Jackson in hosts Regina Hall, Amy Schumer, and Wanda Sykes‘ opening bit, his Oscar moment presented by Denzel Washington, along with all the other Honorary Oscars were similarly not presented live. Despite containing one of the most WTF moments in Oscar history, the show oscillated between dragging and feeling weirdly chaotic. Ending with a somewhat shocking yet historic win for Sundance breakout hit “CODA,” this year’s Oscar ceremony was definitely one of the most unpredictable in recent memory.
READ MORE: Oscars 2022: ‘CODA’ Wins Best Picture, ‘Dune’ Takes 6 Awards [Full Winners List]
Snubbed: Ari Wegner and Female Cinematographers
In the first major loss for Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog,” Ari Wegner’s lush work transforming New Zealand into rural Montana lost to frontrunner Greig Fraser for the sci-fi favorite “Dune.” Wegner was only the second woman nominated in this category, after Rachel Morrison for “Mudbound,” and Wegner would have been the first woman to win in the category. Ironically, one of Fraser’s earliest jobs was lensing Campion’s previous film “Bright Star.” It’s only a matter of time before this glass ceiling is broken, but alas, this wasn’t the year.
Snubbed: Riz Ahmed’s First Oscar Not Presented Live
Among the categories shunted to a pre-recorded hour before the live telecast were the short films. Often this is where you see up-and-coming directors before they break big (like the time future Oscar-winner Taika Waititi lost to Andrea Arnold). This year’s nominees include last year’s Best Actor nominee for “Sound of Metal,” star Riz Ahmed. His win here for “The Long Goodbye” should have been a huge moment for a star-turned-filmmaker on the rise, but instead, it felt truncated and rushed, edited into the live broadcast after the fact. In his moving speech, Ahmed spoke to the power of story, saying “In such divided times we believe the role of story is to remind us there is no us and them, there’s just us.” Someone needs to remind the Academy that means short stories too.
Surprise & Snubbed: Kenneth Branagh Wins Best Original Screenplay
“Belfast” was the Oscar frontrunner back in September when it won the coveted TIFF Audience Award, and last night it took home its sole Academy win for writer-director Kenneth Branagh’s original screenplay. A love letter to his hometown, this marked the prolific actor/director’s first Oscar after four decades of cinema and having the distinction of being the only person with eight nominations spread over seven categories. Love it or hate it, sometimes the Oscar goes to someone who feels due. This year that person was Branagh.
Snubbed: Paul Thomas Anderson, Eleven-Time Loser
Branagh’s win of course means PTA’s loss – his eleventh straight since his first nomination for his “Boogie Nights” screenplay. Much like perpetual loser Diane Warren and her 13 win-less song nominations (she, too, lost again tonight), Anderson has been nominated for almost every film he has made and yet continues to walk away empty-handed. While “Licorice Pizza” was his most financially successful film to date, it raised more than one controversy during its campaign and that may have ultimately hurt its chances. Regardless, this is definitely not the last time we’ll see a nomination for Anderson, so maybe it’ll be lucky number. . .twelve.
Snubbed: “Nightmare Alley” Leaving Empty-Handed
Losing in all four of its nominated categories, the best chance Guillermo del Toro’s star-studded noir “Nightmare Alley” had to be rewarded was for its production design. It won Best Period Film at the Art Directors Guild Awards but lost the little gold man to “Dune,” which had previously won the same guild awards for Best Fantasy Film.
Snubbed: “Flee” Loses In Three Categories
The Danish animated documentary “Flee” from director Jonas Poher Rasmussen made history with its nominations in three major categories: Best Animated Film, Best International Film, and Best Documentary. It lost in all three. Despite its loss, it’s still wonderful to see that all three branches could see the strength of this film as it moves the art form forward.
Surprise: “The Windshield Wiper“
If you asked any Oscar pundit, including The Playlist’s own, you would have seen almost universal predictions for “Robin Robin” to win Best Animated Short. And it made sense. ‘Robin’ was produced by Aardman Animations which has won the Best Animated Feature Oscar and has been nominated three other times in that category. It was also well received, beautifully animated, and was quite entertaining. The short categories also have fewer voters as members have to prove they’ve watched all the nominees which made ‘Robin’ the most “accessible” of the five nominees. So, imagine everyone’s surprise when Alberto Mielgo and Leo Sánchez’s impressive “The Windshield Wiper” was announced as the winner instead. Mielgo has worked on projects such as “Love, Death & Robots,” and, for a time, on “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.” He also believes in animation for adults which made the gorgeous and sophisticated ‘Wiper’ stand out against ‘Robin’ and likely helped seal its win.
Snubbed: “West Side Story” Mostly Shut Out
When Steven Spielberg’s remake of the Best Picture winner “West Side Story” was first announced it seemed like a shoo-in for recreating that same Oscar glory. Despite being delayed due to a pandemic, beleaguered by its star’s off-screen scandal, and underperforming at the box office, the film did ultimately receive seven nominations, which landed shy of the original’s eleven nominations (ten of which it won). At the end of the night the splashy musical waltzed away solely with a Best Supporting Actress win for Ariana DeBose. Anita now joins Vito Corleone and the Joker as the only character to earn Oscars for multiple performers.
Surprise/Snubbed: “Dune” Sweeps Crafts, But Most Of Its Awards Weren’t Presented Live
Denis Villeneuve’s epic adaptation of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi novel “Dune” swept the below-the-line awards, winning in a whopping six categories – but only two of them were presented live. Wild that the categories the show producers relegated to the pre-recorded first hour of the ceremony is where one of the few big blockbuster films saw most of its glory. Something tells me that’s not the way to get the viewers they’re so desperately chasing.
Snubbed: Jane Campion The Only Win For “The Power of the Dog“
Despite a strong showing all awards season culminating with a leading twelve nominations heading into the Oscars, it seems the Netflix curse continues as Jane Campion’s Best Director win was the only award of the night for her revisionist western “The Power of the Dog.” Campion made history as the first woman ever to be nominated in the category twice, and with her win she joins Kathryn Bigelow for “The Hurt Locker” and Chloé Zhao for “Nomadland” as one of only three women to win in the Academy’s 94-year history.
Surprise: Sian Heder Wins Best Adapted Screenplay
With just three nominations, “CODA” was the little Sundance darling that could. After debuting at the 2020 virtual edition of the Sundance Film Festival, “CODA” won the U.S. Grand Jury Prize, U.S. Dramatic Audience Award, a Special Jury Ensemble Cast Award, and Sian Heder won Best Director in the U.S. Dramatic before being sold to AppleTV+ for a festival-record $25 million. It went into the Oscars with just three nominations and as the night closed it won all three: Troy Kotsur for Best Supporting Actor, writer-director Heder for Best Adapted Screenplay, and, due to its last-minute post-SAG awards surge, a surprise Best Picture win. Coming after “Nomadland”’s win last year, this marks the first time ever that two films directed by women have won Best Picture back to back. The winner may not have been the film everyone thought it was going to be, but that still looks like progress to me.
