SUNDAY, MARCH 27 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ EE E11
The 94 th Academy Awards
BY SONIA RAO
It’s safe to assume many movie
lovers will watch the 94 th Acad-
emy Awards this Sunday with
clenched fists. Because while
there are numerous opportuni-
ties for folks to become upset —
major changes to the telecast and
a surprisingly neck-and-neck best
picture race, in addition to the
usual ceremony complaints — the
Oscars are still the Oscars, and a
certain type of person will watch
them no matter what.
That’s the hope, anyway, as the
Oscars producers seem to be rely-
ing on that loyal audience to stick
around while they make drastic
changes to the show in an attempt
to lure in new viewers.
How far will they go? How
successful will they be? The re-
sults will likely influence Oscars
ceremonies for years to come. In
the meantime, though, here’s
what we do know about this one.
When and where are the
Oscars happening?
The Oscars are scheduled for
Sunday at 8 p.m. Eastern. The
show will air on ABC, as per usual,
and stream online through the
ABC app and services like Hulu
and YouTube’s live television
a dd-ons.
As the world adjusts to a “new
normal,” so, too, will the Oscars.
The ceremony, which last year
took place on a smaller scale at
Los Angeles’s Union Station, will
return to its home at the Dolby
Theatre, though still not filled
entirely to capacity. P roducers are
requiring nominees and guests in
the audience to show proof of
coronavirus vaccination and two
negative PCR tests, but the vac-
cine mandate will not extend to
performers and presenters (who
still have to be tested).
Who is hosting?
The return to form goes be-
yond location, as the Oscars will
also have a host for the first time
since 2018 — three hosts, actually.
Regina Hall, Amy Schumer and
Wanda Sykes will split the duties,
drawing upon their respective
backgrounds in comedy. Cer-
emony producer Will Packer said
in a statement that there would
be “many surprises in store! Ex-
pect the unexpected!”
What shouldn’t be expected,
thankfully, is the realization of
Schumer’s apparent pitch to have
Ukrainian President Volodymyr
Zelensky appear during the show
via satellite or a pretaped seg-
ment. The comedian said during
a recent appearance on “The
Drew Barrymore Show” that the
idea stemmed from there being
“so many eyes on the Oscars.” She
added, “I am not afraid to go
there, but it’s not me producing
the Oscars.” (It should be noted
that telecast ratings have steadily
declined over the years.)
Hall noted in an interview with
Deadline that the goal is to “keep
everything concise and really
fun.”
“You want to celebrate, and
roast a couple of people here and
there,” she said. “We want to make
sure it’s a really incredible night
because it’s t he first time the show
has had hosts in a couple of years.”
Who are the front-runners?
Jane Campion’s simmering
thriller “The Power of the Dog”
has been widely considered a
front-runner for best picture
throughout award season,
though Sian Heder’s “CODA” is
sneaking up on it. The latter, a
coming-of-age drama about a
teenager who is the only hearing
person in her family, picked up
major awards in the Oscars lead-
up, including top honors at the
Producers Guild of America
Awards.
“CODA” has also done well in
acting categories; supporting ac-
tor Tr oy Kotsur won the Screen
Actors Guild Award and seems
likely to snag the Oscar as well.
Supporting actress seems a toss-
up between long overdue wins for
Kirsten Dunst (“The Power of the
Dog) or Aunjanue Ellis (“King
Richard”), or another repeat SAG
triumph — for Ariana DeBose,
who would be the second actress
to win for playing Anita in “West
Side Story.”
Though best actor nominee
Denzel Washington (“The Tr ag-
edy of Macbeth”) is undeniably a
heavyweight, the category seems
to be “King Richard” star and SAG
winner Will Smith’s to lose. Best
actress boasts the oddest collec-
tion among the four acting cate-
gories, between Olivia Colman
(“The Lost Daughter”), Penélope
Cruz (“Parallel Mothers”), Nicole
Kidman (“Being the Ricardos”),
Kristen Stewart (“Spencer”) and
Jessica Chastain (“The Eyes of
Tammy Faye”), the last of whom
also won a SAG award.
And finally, best director: Cam-
pion is the first woman to be
nominated twice in the category,
following her 1994 nod for “The
Piano.” But could her insensitive
remarks toward Venus and Sere-
na Williams at the Critics Choice
Awards hurt her chances of beat-
ing Kenneth Branagh (“Belfast”),
Ryusuke Hamaguchi (“Drive My
Car”), Paul Thomas Anderson
(“Licorice Pizza”) and Steven
Spielberg (“West Side Story”)?
What changes have been
made to the telecast?
The Academy of Motion Pic-
ture Arts and Sciences an-
nounced in late February that
eight categories — best original
score, film editing, production
design, makeup and hairstyling,
sound, documentary short sub-
ject, live action short film and
animated short film — would be
removed from the live telecast.
Instead, their awards will be dis-
tributed beforehand in a taped
ceremony, of which clips will be
included in the main broadcast.
The last time the academy tried
to cut some categories from the
live telecast — seemingly in an
attempt to attract viewers who
might be less interested in techni-
cal awards — backlash prompted
the organization to reverse
course. This year, it seems to be
sticking with the decision. But
that doesn’t mean it has been well
received. Numerous Hollywood
guilds have expressed their disap-
pointment, in addition to a letter
written to academy president Da-
vid Rubin that was signed by
more than six dozen industry
professionals, including academy
darlings James Cameron, Guiller-
mo del Toro, Kathleen Kennedy
and John Williams.
Oscar-winning film editor Alan
Heim told The Washington Post’s
Tr avis M. Andrews that “the acad-
emy is looking to get a bigger
audience, but I don’t think they
know where the audience is.”
Is there a red carpet?
ABC will host two live pre-
shows Sunday afternoon in the
lead-up to the Oscars: a three-
hour broadcast of talent inter-
views and predictions beginning
at 1 p.m. Eastern and hosted by
ABC News’s T. J. Holmes and Amy
Robach, as well as another pre-
show on the ABC News app fea-
turing live red carpet interviews
from 4:30 to 6:30.
Tr aditional red carpet coverage
will air on the network from 6:30
to 8 p.m., hosted by fashion de-
signer Brandon Maxwell and ac-
tors Vanessa Hudgens and Ter-
rence J. E lsewhere, E! will have its
own offerings featuring actress
Laverne Cox as host from 5 p.m.
until the ceremony’s start.
Three hosts, two pre-shows, a return to Dolby: What to expect at the Oscars
all over the world. It was like
planting the seed of familiarity
with ASL.”
For Durant, “CODA’s” little-
movie-that-could narrative al-
ways circles back to Matlin, his
mother in the film. “Marlee has
been in Hollywood for 35 years,”
he says. “She could have focused
on acting, but she took it upon
herself to be there for deaf people
to look up to. So many hearing
people don’t understand this,
[why] we’re frustrated. At the
same time, I understand; it’s just
ignorance. You guys just didn’t
know. And Marlee’s taken all this
time to figure out how to inform
you guys. And now with this mov-
ie, here we are. Marlee’s job is
done, in a way.”
“I retire!” Matlin says with a
laugh. Then she recalls spending
the past three decades trying to
persuade Hollywood to pay atten-
tion to deaf artists. “I keep telling
everybody, ‘Bring them into our
industry. Invite them. They have
what it takes. They have what
you’re looking for.’ ”
Heder agrees, remembering
when she showed her “CODA”
producers Kotsur’s audition tape.
“Once that scene existed, I could
show it to the producers and say,
‘This person is so undeniably
amazing. Hearing, deaf — no one
will ever beat this. Look at this
guy.’ ”
They did, and now Kotsur is
having his star-is-born moment,
following in Matlin’s footsteps on
a trail she blazed that finally
seems to have room for more than
one person. “I’m loving all the
respect and the attention and the
little noise that we’re making,”
Matlin says, turning toward Du-
rant and Kotsur. “I’m so happy to
be sitting here with them, know-
ing that there are more roles that
are going to be created for them,
as well as others.” She allows a sly
smile. “And hopefully for me, too.”
that doesn’t always get due re-
spect in Hollywood: a whole-
some, un-edgy movie with laughs,
tears and zero cynicism.
“A lot of people, when they see
the name ‘CODA,’ it doesn’t mean
anything,” says Eugenio Derbez,
who plays Ruby’s martinet of a
choir teacher. “Or they think that
it’s not a movie for them because
it’s about a deaf family. And I love
that at the end, they’re saying, ‘I
need to tell my friends about this
movie.’ Because it’s not about a
deaf family. It is, but it’s not. It’s
about pursuing your dreams. It’s
a family like any other family.”
As a modest, unabashed family
film, “CODA” doesn’t have the
visual grandeur, technical ambi-
tion or self-conscious gravitas of
some of its competitors. (“Does
art have to make you feel bad in
order to be art?” Heder asks philo-
sophically.) B ut it has nonetheless
become a movie of its moment,
exuding the kind of sincerity and
unapologetic emotion that many
viewers have been craving after
two difficult years. “It was one of
those movies I wanted to share
with other people,” an Academy
voter says. “There was a univer-
sality to it. Especially this year,
where you just wanted to feel
something really good.”
Whereas a movie about deaf
characters might once have fea-
tured hearing actors in those
roles — or, more likely, wouldn’t
have been made at all — Kotsur
observes that films like “A Quiet
Place,” “The Sound of Metal” and
“The Eternals” have helped main-
stream deaf actors and charac-
ters. And he points out that the
coronavirus has played its own
unexpected part. “You had the
governors, the mayors, as they
were spreading information
about the pandemic you’d see an
ASL interpreter onstage next to
them,” Kotsur says. “You’d see
that all over the United States and
And it has benefited from what
has become something of a proxy
war of the tech giants: When
Apple outbid other studios for
“CODA” a year ago, Thompson
says, the company knew it had an
awards contender on its hands.
Now, the company is in the im-
probable position of David to Net-
flix’s G oliath, which is still resent-
ed in some quarters for its deep
pockets and disruptive effect on
the movie business. “Apple
doesn’t s eem to generate the same
kind of threat, even though they
should,” Thompson says. “They
have more money than God.”
And Apple is spending it, as
well as leveraging its brand: Walk
into your local Apple store and
you’ ll probably be greeted by
“CODA” cast members signing “I
love you” on the display devices. If
“CODA” b eats the odds to take the
Oscars’ biggest award, it would
claim bragging rights — long
sought after by Netflix — as the
first best picture to come from a
streaming service. It would also
be the first to feature a mostly
deaf cast, as well as the first to
come out of Sundance. And it
would plant the flag for a genre
coming-of-age film about a family
that happens to be mostly deaf —
issues of inclusion and cultural
sensitivity are an integral part of
the film and its rollout. Heder,
who insisted on having ASL mas-
ters and interpreters on set, has
been just as detail-oriented dur-
ing awards season events. “I re-
member the SAG Awards started,
and the interpreter had no light
on them,” Heder recalls. “So I had
sheer panic, not because, ‘Oh,
we’re in this room with all these
movie stars.’ It w as like, ‘Why i sn’t
the interpreter lit?’ You cannot
honor the deaf community in the
movie but not honor the deaf
community around the movie.”
A
lthough Anne Thompson,
who covers the awards race
for IndieWire, recognized
the awards potential of “CODA”
last summer (“I felt like I was
standing alone on a very cold
promontory”), she considers
“The Power of the Dog” the front-
runner for best picture, as do
most Oscar prognosticators. Still,
she says, “CODA” is definitely
gaining. “It’s moving forward,”
she says. “It has a lot of goodwill.”
Campion made a gaffe — compar-
ing herself to Venus and Serena
Williams to illustrate the chal-
lenges she has faced as a female
director — that gave hesitant
Academy members another ex-
cuse to vote against a film they
respect and admire, but don’t
love.
Amid the mini-scandals and
Twitter meltdowns, Heder and
her cast have remained unfazed,
no doubt a product of the many
false starts and anticlimaxes that
got them here. When “CODA”
premiered at Sundance in the
winter of 2021, the festival had
gone entirely online for the first
time in its history, in deference to
the coronavirus pandemic.
“CODA” made its debut as a
crowd-pleaser with no crowds.
Still, it played like gangbusters,
generating rapturous reviews
and social media mentions:
“CODA” won four awards, includ-
ing the grand jury prize and audi-
ence award. Apple TV Plus pur-
chased the film for a record $25
million. Then, in August, the in-
person premiere was canceled
due to concerns around the delta
variant.
Heder, who won a BAFTA for
best adapted screenplay along-
side Kotsur, notes that the awards
circuit has finally given her and
her cast a chance to experience
the excitement that had been de-
ferred for the past year.
“It does f eel giddy now, to be on
a red carpet together, and to see
Javier Bardem run up to Daniel
and give him a massive hug be-
cause he’s a h uge fan,” Heder says.
“To have these moments in these
rooms where you just feel like,
‘Oh, actually we’re not outsiders.
We get to be in the club.’ ”
Still, the fizz and adulation has
nearly always entailed an element
of activism. Even though “CODA”
isn’t strictly about deafness — it’s
most accurately described as a
shoot,” she says of the $10 million,
month-long production. “I don’t
think we ever imagined we would
be here.”
“Here,” on this March day, i s the
swank Beverly Wilshire Hotel,
where “CODA” is being honored
at the star-studded AFI Awards
luncheon along with 1 1 other
films. The event, where Matlin
could be seen clowning around
with Andrew Garfield on the red
carpet and Rita Moreno sought
out “CODA” c o-star Tr oy Kotsur to
mouth the word “fantastic” while
taking his hands in hers, is just
one of many stops on a journey
that has assumed the irresistible
contours of an Oscar Cinderella
story.
Kotsur, whom Heder discov-
ered at Los Angeles’s Deaf West
Theatre, has already won several
honors — including an Independ-
ent Spirit Award, a SAG Award
and, a few days after the AFI
lunch, a BAFTA — for his funny
and endearing performance as
Ruby’s raunchy, headstrong fa-
ther, Frank. Most oddsmakers
predict that he will win best sup-
porting actor at the Oscars, mak-
ing him the second deaf person to
win after Matlin, whom he has
credited as an inspiration and
mentor.
But Kotsur — who at 53 still
lives in his hometown of Phoenix
and prefers playing golf to posing
for the paparazzi — admits to
being more than a bit amused by
the sudden obsession with his
wardrobe (he has cut a natty
figure on the red carpet lately,
sporting menswear designed by
the likes of Dior, Gucci, Armani
and Theory). “They keep bringing
in more and more clothing racks,”
he mock-complains through his
ASL interpreter. “I ran down and
called my manager and said,
‘What the f--- are you doing?
What’s up with this?’ He said,
‘You’re a nominee, that’s why.’ My
room became a shopping center.”
I
t’s all a dizzying whirl — part
political campaign, part
charm offensive, part high-
dollar marketing blitz — that
Matlin says has only gotten bigger
since the 1980 s. “I told them to
enjoy every minute of it, embrace
every second,” she says of her
co-stars, to whom she has become
something of a den mother. Dan-
iel Durant, who plays Ruby’s
brother, Leo, notes through his
ASL interpreter that she’ll occa-
sionally give him notes “under the
table, real fast” during inter-
views; Kotsur has received simi-
lar feedback during a process in
which one slip-up could lose pre-
cious votes.
Just ask Jane Campion. Al-
though the writer-director’s Net-
flix movie “The Power of the Dog”
is still considered the front-
r unner to win best picture, the
surprise win by “CODA” of the
ensemble SAG Award suggested
that an upset might be in the
making — a narrative that as-
sumed even more momentum
with subsequent Producers Guild
and Writers Guild awards. At the
AFI lunch, more than one Oscar
voter suggested they might be
leaning toward the feel-good fam-
ily film over Campion’s finely
crafted but emotionally chilly
neo-western.
Then, at the Critics Choice
Awards the following Sunday,
CODA FROM E1
‘ CODA’ could beat odds — and get major bragging rights
PHOTOS BY APPLE TV PLUS
Emilia Jones plays the hearing daughter of deaf parents in “CODA.” Troy Kotsur is a favorite to win best supporting actor for his portrayal of her headstrong father.
The stars of “CODA” include Marlee Matlin, second from right,
who has advocated for Hollywood to pay attention to deaf actors.
