Washington: Dune won six of the 10 awards it was nominated for in the 94th Academy Awards held today. Meanwhile, CODA hogged limelight at the 94th Academy Awards winning three big awards of the night – Best Film, Best Supporting Actor for the hearing-impaired Troy Kotsur and Best Adapted Screenplay.
The film, written and directed by Sian Heder, is an English remake of the 2014 French film La Famille Belier. The film touches upon the life of Ruby Rossi (played by Emilia Jones), the only hearing member of a deaf family, who struggles to strike a balance between her personal life and her family’s fishing business. CODA upset The Power Of The Dog which won only one of it’s 12 nominations – Best Director for Jane Campion.
The acting awards went to first time winners. Will Smith won Best Actor for King Richard,, Jessica Chastain won Best Actress for The Eyes Of Tammy Faye – she received her Oscar from Anthony Hopkins who did not appear at last year’s awards to collect his Best Actor Oscar but turned up this year to give Jessica her trophy.
Troy Kotsur became the second deaf actor to win an Academy Award after his CODA co-star Marlee Matlin. After receiving the award, Troy Kotsur thanked his family and the team of CODA. He also dedicated his award to the deaf and the CODA community. Ariana DeBose won Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Anita in Steven Spielberg’s remake of West Side Story – 60 years earlier, Rita Moreno won the Oscar for playing Anita in the original film.
Dune won six of the 10 awards it was nominated for. Japan’s Drive My Car won Best International Feature, Encanto won Best Animated Feature and India’s Writing With Fire missed out on Best Documentary Feature which went to Summer Of Soul.
Actors Regina Hall, Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes hosted the 94th Academy Awards in its traditional home of Los Angeles’ Dolby Theatre. Honorary Oscars were presented to Samuel L Jackson, Liv Ullmann and writer-actor-director Elaine May. Danny Glover received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
Slap & sorry
The award ceremony was rocked by an unbelievable exchange after Will Smith took offense to a joke made by Chris Rock about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.
The moment shocked the Dolby Theatre audience and viewers at home. At the commercial break, presenter Daniel Kaluuya came up to to hug Smith, and Denzel Washington escorted him to the side of the stage. The two talked and hugged and Tyler Perry came over to talk as well.
Fans took to Twitter to share their shock over the heated exchange which some guessed was staged.
Proud moment for India
The leading visual effects (VFX) and animation studio DNEG, led by Indian citizen Namit Malhotra, as the Chairman and CEO, has won an Oscar in the ‘Best Visual Effects’ category for its team’s work on Dune, at the Academy Awards.
DNEG had been nominated in the ‘Best Visual Effects’ category for its work on Dune and No Time to Die.