While CODA won the title for the best movie, Jane Campion earned the best director award for The Power of the Dog at the 2022 Oscars

PTI

CODA, an intimate and heart-warming story about a family, scripted history by becoming the first film with a cast of predominantly hearing impaired actors to win the top Oscar prize—the best picture at the 94th Academy awards in Los Angeles.

Key winners

BEST PICTURE CODA

BEST ACTOR Will Smith—King Richard

BEST ACTRESS Jessica Chastain —The Eyes of Tammy Faye

BEST DIRECTOR Jane Campion—The Power of the Dog

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR Troy Kotsur—CODA

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS Ariana DeBose—West Side Story

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY Belfast

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY CODA

BEST ANIMATED FILM Encanto

BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM

Summer of Soul

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM Drive My Car (Japan)

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE Dune

BEST ORIGINAL SONG No Time to Die from No Time to Die

Directed by Sian Heder, CODA, which stands for Child of Deaf Adults, edged past The Power of the Dog, Belfast, Dune, King Richard and West Side Story, among others, to take home the final and most coveted award of Academy Awards ceremony.

Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog, a study of toxic masculinity, seemed the initial front-runner in the race but CODA emerged a favourite in the last leg of the promotions.

The film, which also became the first movie from a streamer to win the best picture, bagged awards in all the categories that it was nominated for at the Oscars, as earlier in the day Troy Kotsur took home the best supporting actor trophy and later writer-director Heder bagged the best adapted screenplay honour. Producers Philippe Rousselet and Patrick Wachsberger collected the trophy for the best picture on stage as the film received a standing ovation from the audience members.

CODA presented the story of three adult family members who are hearing impaired and a fourth who is not, and seeks a singing career.

The film featured an ensemble cast of Kotsur, Daniel Durant, Marlee Matlin, Emilia Jones and Ferdia Walsh-Peelo. — PTI

Jane Campion wins best director award

Jane Campion smashed records and the glass ceiling as she earned the best director Academy Award for her psychological drama Western The Power of the Dog. This is her first Oscar win in the category. She also became the first woman to have been nominated twice in the best directing category and the only the third woman after Chloe Zhao’s win last year for Nomadland and Kathryn Bigelow’s win for Hurt Locker in 2010. The acclaimed Netflix film stars Benedict Cumberbatch, among others. PTI

Dune bags Best Visual Effects

Science fiction blockbuster Dune won its sixth Academy Award at the 94th Oscars as it clinched the title for Best Visual Effects. Namit Malhotra, the CEO of DNEG, computer animation and stereo conversion company, is India’s man of the hour as DNEG has worked on visual effects in Dune and No Time To Die. IANS

India’s Writing with Fire loses to American Summer of Soul

Writing With Fire, the Indian documentary that chronicled the rise of a newspaper run by Dalit women, lost to Summer of Soul (Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) in the best documentary feature category. The film, India’s sole representation at the Academy Awards, was considered a dark horse in the Oscars race with its feel-good story of Khabar Lahariya, India’s only newspaper run by Dalit women. It is directed by up-and-coming filmmakers Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh. Summer of Soul, the winner in the category, is directed by the Roots frontman Ahmir Thompson, best known by his stage name Questlove. The documentary is backed by David Dinerstein, Robert Fyvolent, and Joseph Patel, an American producer of Indian origin. PTI

Indian design on red carpet

Megan Thee Stallion, American rapper, chose to wear Indian designer Gaurav Gupta’s creation for the red carpet event. It is a fantasy biomorphic gown, inspired by a mystical sea creature. The gown was adorned with thousands of glass beads and precious crystals that are intricately embroidered all over; the creation took over 1,500 man hours to make. IANS.

Stalwarts Lata Mangeshkar, Dilip Kumar left out from ‘In Memoriam’ section

Melody queen Lata Mangeshkar and cinema veteran Dilip Kumar were not included in the ‘In Memoriam’ segment of the 94th Academy Awards, an apparent oversight from the organisers that left Indian fans enraged. The absence of two of Indian cinema’s giants from the 2022 Oscars ceremony was a glaring one, especially after the British Academy Film and Television Awards (BAFTA) honoured Mangeshkar and Kumar earlier this month. The fans expressed their anger on Twitter, slamming the Academy for omitting the two Indian legends.