The Oscars 2022: The Day of the Streamers

The Oscars ceremony last night may have been overshadowed by Will Smith’s reaction to Chris Rock’s tasteless joke about Will’s wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith, but hidden amongst that mayhem is a fascinating development: both the Best Picture and Best Director categories were won by streamer houses, the first time that has happened.

Best Picture was won by CODA, an Apple production, while Best Director was won by Jane Campion with THE POWER OF THE DOG, Netflix. It seems as though this year’s Academy Awards represent a coming of age for the streamers.

CODA beat THE POWER OF THE DOG to the Best Picture position in a close fought fight.

Notable amongst other winners was Will Smith for Best Actor for his portrayal of the Williams sisters’ father in KING RICHARD (Warner Bros); Ariana DeBose for Best Supporting Actress in WEST SIDE STORY (Disney), the first queer woman of colour to do so; and Kenneth Branagh for Best Original Screenplay in BELFAST (Focus Features), surprisingly perhaps his first Oscar.

Apart from the Will Smith debacle, one of the saddest moments in the ceremony from The Successity Blog’s perspective was that eight below-the-line Oscars categories were not televised. That does nothing to reflect the undoubted importance of the activities those categories represent to film production and the success of the relevant movies. Shame.