Everything You Need To Know About The 2022 Oscars

It Was An Explosive Evening

The morning after the Oscars, the news is usually dominated by best-dressed lists and images of delighted winners clutching their Academy awards. This year, every headline is about Will Smith. The actor – who went on to win an Oscar for best actor later in the evening – was responsible for the biggest drama of the night when he punched comedian Chris Rock on stage. The altercation followed a joke from Rock about the actor's wife Jada Pinkett Smith. Referring to her shaved head, Rock said: "Jada, can't wait for GI Jane 2." Smith got up on stage and struck Rock before returning to his seat and shouting: "Keep my wife's name out of your f***ing mouth." Last year, Pinkett Smith revealed she had alopecia. 

Later on, as Smith returned to the stage to receive his first best actor award for his role as Serena and Venus Williams’ father in King Richard, he gave a tearful apology to the Academy – but not to Rock. “Richard Williams was a fierce defender of his family,” he said during his acceptance speech. “I know to do what we do, you gotta be able to take abuse, you gotta be able to take people talk crazy about you, in this business, you gotta have people disrespecting you and you gotta smile and pretend that it’s okay.”

It Was A Great Night For Women

Following last year’s historic win for Chloe Zhao’s Nomadland, last night’s ceremony saw a third female filmmaker – and the second in a row – take home best director. New Zealand/Australian director Jane Campion won the coveted award for her Netflix western The Power of the Dog, following in the footsteps of Zhao and 2010 winner Kathryn Bigelow, who won for The Hurt Locker. Elsewhere, director Sian Heder had a double win with Coda, a remake of French film La Famille Bélier which focuses on the only hearing member of a deaf family. The film, which was released via streaming service Apple TV+, won best picture and best adapted screenplay. 

The Results Were Varied

No single film dominated the winner lists this year. While Dune, the Timothée Chalamet-starring sci-fi thriller, went home with six awards – all in technical categories, which controversially weren’t announced as part of this year’s main ceremony – most of the other winners were spread across different films. Jessica Chastain won best actress for The Eyes of Tammy Faye; best supporting actress went to newcomer Ariana DeBose for West Side Story; best supporting actor went to Troy Kotsur for Coda; best original screenplay was awarded to Kenneth Branagh for Belfast; the best costume design winner was Cruella; best animated film went to Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Encanto; best documentary feature went to the excellent Summer of Soul; the best international film award was given to Drive My Car, a Japanese film based on a Haruki Murakami short story; and best original song went to Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas for ‘No Time To Die’.

There Were A Few Surprises

While The Power of the Dog dominated nominations with 12 across the categories, it only went home with one award. Coda, meanwhile, is surely the surprise hit of the season. Not only did the film walk away with best picture, best supporting actor and best adapted screenplay, it also became the first streaming-only film to win best picture. With his win, Kotsur becomes only the second deaf actor to win an Oscar, following in the footsteps of his Coda co-star Marlee Matlin, who won in 1987 for Children of a Lesser God. “This is dedicated to the deaf community, the Coda community and the disabled community,” he said while receiving his award. “This is our moment.”