CODA. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

So, did anything interesting happen at the Oscars the weekend before last?

In the endless chatter around what has been dubbed “the slap heard around the world”, a year’s worth of milestones, moments and art have been overshadowed. A few seconds of unbridled ego have detracted from what may be a career high for many artists. Let’s revisit some of those. 

The Academy Awards has lost a great deal of luster over the past few years; yet, for now, it remains the apex of filmmaking accolades. The highest of the year — best picture — went to director Sian Heder’s CODA, winning Apple TV+ some streaming cred in the process, as it accomplished in two and a half years what Netflix took more than two decades to do: premiere an Oscar-winning feature.

The feel-good family dramedy also snagged Heder the awards for best supporting actor — for the film’s standout, Troy Kotsur — and best adapted screenplay. CODA is the story of Ruby (Emilia Jones), the titular CODA — child of deaf adults — and only hearing member of her family, as she tries to plot her own life course, and balance her obligations to the parents and brother who rely on her.

King Richard. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Make no mistake: CODA is divisive. Criticisms range from charges of sugarcoated sentimentality to misrepresentation of the deaf community, while laurels extol fully rounded deaf characters and the tapping of deaf actors for major roles. Personal taste and one’s proximity to deafness will impact how CODA goes down, but there’s no denying Kotsur’s vibrant, sexual, funny, smart performance as patriarch Frank. He single-handedly makes CODA worth watching, as was his moment receiving his statuette from last year’s best supporting actress, Youn Yuh-jung.

As happened in 2006 with director Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain) and Crash, Jane Campion walked off with a best director win for The Power of the Dog (Netflix), arguably a better film than CODA, if not as “nice” a one. Campion’s sure, steady hand while exploring toxic masculinity and her eye for sweeping imagery don’t need rehashing, but she beat Ryusuke Hamaguchi, whose Drive My Car (Now E) was the year’s most epic meditation on choice, loss and healing. The film — about a grieving theater director mounting a multilingual production of Uncle Vanya — is not for everyone; it’s also three hours long. But it is a meticulous and engrossing slow burner with a stealthy emotional wallop.

West Side Story. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Actors generate the most attention, and best actor and actress awards often go to strong performances in search of better movies. This year Will Smith somehow managed to turn the story of trailblazing tennis champions Venus and Serena Williams into a rote, against-all-odds biopic about their (allegedly abusive and controlling) father in King Richard (Google Play). Reinaldo Marcus Green’s film is better (and more hagiographic) than it has a right to be, and much of the credit for that indeed can be laid at Smith’s feet.

Similarly, Jessica Chastain does her best to reform the image of the disgraced televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker in The Eyes of Tammy Faye (Disney+), which remains a slog despite Chastain’s commitment to the role. And the Academy loves to anoint young actresses, but it got it right this year with Ariana DeBose in Steven Spielberg’s criminally underseen, entirely modern remake of West Side Story (Disney+). It’s a star turn in every way.

Finally, music history buffs shouldn’t miss Summer of Soul, the year’s best documentary feature. Disney+ follows up its stellar, eight-hour Beatles doc Get Back with the Roots’ Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s chronicle of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, or Black Woodstock. Thompson elegantly weaves historical and contemporary contexts with some incredible, and until now, lost performances by some of the world’s most influential musicians for a powerful, joyous statement of pride. Will who?