28 Mar 2022
Amongst the controversy of an on-stage slap, the Oscars returned in 2022 with the major prize going to the streaming-only film CODA.
Sir Kenneth Branagh won his first Oscar for his Original Screenplay for Belfast, whilst Jane Campion became the third female director to win Best Director for The Power of the Dog, following on from Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker – 2010) and Chloé Zhao (Nomadland – 2021).
Summer of Soul took out Best Documentary, giving debut director Questlove a full house of wins amongst all the film awards ceremonies of the season. Drive My Car from Japan did the Bafta/Oscar double of Best Film in a Foreign Language.
Acting awards went to Jessica Chastain (Best Actress – The Eyes of Tammy Faye), Will Smith (Best Actor – King Richard), Ariana DeBose (Best Supporting Actress – West Side Story) and Troy Kotsur (Best Supporting Actor – CODA).
As was predicted, Dune took out most of the ‘craft’ awards including Best Cinematography, Editing and Sound Production.