With a ceremony marred by the shocking events which culminated in Oscar-winner Will Smith (I am Legend, King Richard) attacking comedian Chris Rock on stage, this year’s Academy Awards turned out to be quite the controversial affair. Still, controversy aside, the night itself yielded very few surprises, even if some choices left some of us slightly underwhelmed.
Despite some of the biggest Jewish names in the film industry being nominated - including veteran filmmaker Steven Spielberg - Hans Zimmer appears to be the most high-profile Jewish nominee to win in his category. Zimmer who was nominated for his brilliant Dune score, was sadly absent from the ceremony which took place in Los Angeles. The acclaimed composer tweeted “It’s 2am in Amsterdam, and my daughter Zoë woke me up to go to the hotel bar. Wow!! #Oscars". He followed the tweet with another one in which he thanked the Academy “Thank you @TheAcademy, but most importantly, to all the @DuneMovie"
Other Jewish attendees comprised Haim band member Alana Haim who had earlier missed out on a Best Actress nomination for her role in Paul Thomas Anderson’s coming of age adventure Licorice Pizza and Timothée Chalamet (Call Me By Your Name, Little Women, Beautiful Boy) who was there to support Denis Villeneuve’s Dune in which he starred as Paul Atreides . While Dune might have triumphed in the technical awards, it didn't fare too well in the more high-profile categories. For her part, Jewish comedienne Amy Schumer hosted the ceremony alongside Wanda Sykes and actor Regina Hall.
Another Jewish nominee who narrowly missed out on taking home the big prize was British actor Andrew Garfield who was nominated in his role in tick tick…Boom, Lin Manuel Miranda’s musical about the late Broadway composer Jonathan Larson. Elsewhere, Legendary Jewish comedian and filmmaker Elaine May received an Honorary Academy Award at an earlier ceremony.
In the end, and while most people are likely to spend most of this week discussing Will Smith’s strange actions on the night, some of us will keep on wondering how a small film like Coda managed to beat out the competition from some of the biggest films of the year to take home the biggest prize of the night. Still, it’s the Oscars and no great awards ceremony comes without a surprise or two.
