The big finale! CODA took home the award for Best Picture at the 2022 Oscars on Sunday, March 27.
The movie, distributed by Apple TV+, is the first film released by a streaming service to take home the biggest prize at the Academy Awards. Earlier in the evening, Troy Kotsur won the trophy for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as Frank Rossi. Director Sian Heder also won her first Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.
“You guys have made such a wonderful and loving family on screen, but also offscreen,” producer Philippe Rousselet said during his acceptance speech. “And everybody wants to be a part of it.”
CODA beat out Belfast, Don’t Look Up, Drive My Car, Dune, King Richard, Licorice Pizza, Nightmare Alley, The Power of the Dog and West Side Story for the award, which was presented by Lady Gaga and Liza Minnelli.
Many of the Best Picture nominees underperformed at the box office because of the coronavirus pandemic, but the category was still full of firsts. The Power of the Dog was the first film directed by a woman to receive more than 10 Academy Award nominations. Drive My Car was the first Japanese movie to be nominated for Best Picture, and CODA was the first film produced by Apple to earn a nod in the category.
Steven Spielberg‘s adaptation of West Side Story is the second adaptation of a previous Best Picture winner to be nominated in the category, after 1962’s Mutiny on the Bounty (which was a remake of the 1935 movie of the same name).
Though movie fans were excited for the return of a full red carpet after 2021’s Oscars ceremony was scaled back due to the coronavirus pandemic, the show has still drummed up plenty of controversy. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences faced a ton of backlash after they decided to cut the presentation of eight awards from the ceremony in an effort to shorten the broadcast.
After the Academy announced the decision in February, more than 70 film professionals — including previous Best Director winners James Cameron and Guillermo del Toro — signed a letter urging the organization to reverse the plan. The eight categories cut from the live show were Best Animated Short Film, Best Documentary Short Subject, Best Film Editing, Best Live Action Short Film, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Original Score, Best Production Design and Best Sound.
Ahead of the ceremony, Best Actress nominee Jessica Chastain said she was considering skipping the red carpet so she could witness the presentation of the trophy for Best Makeup and Hairstyling.
“If that means I’m not doing press on the red carpet or ABC or whatever it is, then so be it,” the Eyes of Tammy Faye star said during a March 17 appearance on the “Next Best Picture” podcast. “The most important thing for me is to honor the incredible artisans who work in our industry. So much attention is on the actors — we’re like the face in some ways — because you go to a movie and you see us. A lot of people don’t understand how beyond an actor a performance is.”
Spielberg, for his part, said he wasn’t happy about the cut categories, but he wasn’t optimistic that the Academy would change its mind.
“I feel very strongly that this is perhaps the most collaborative medium in the world,” he told Deadline earlier this month. “All of us make movies together, we become a family where one craft is just as indispensable as the next. I feel that at the Academy Awards there is no above the line, there is no below the line. All of us are on the same line bringing the best of us to tell the best stories we possibly can. And that means for me we should all have a seat at the supper table together live at 5.”
