The 94th Academic Awards, Winners and Dramas at the Oscars

The 94th Academic Award Ceremony, hosted by Regina Hall, Amy Schumer, and Wanda Sykes, brought with it many exciting and surprising moments.

The Oscars returned to the Dolby theatre in Hollywood with an absence of many nominees due to Covid restrictions. Lin-Manuel Miranda, who had two films in competition – Encanto and Tick, Tick … Boom! – could not attend because his wife had tested positive.

Jessica Chastain won the Oscar for Best Actress, awarded by presenter Anthony Hopkins. A first-time winner, Chastain plays former televangelist personality Tammy Faye Messner, who once had a cult following with husband Jim Bakker on their religious broadcasting network before he was jailed for fraud and enveloped in a sex scandal, in the Michael Showalter-directed film.

“So many people out there feel hopelessness and alone and suicide is a leading cause of death in the United States,” she noted.

“It’s touched many families. It’s touched mine and especially members of the LGBTQ community…we’re faced with discriminatory and bigoted legislation that is sweeping our country with the only goal of further dividing us. There’s violence and hate crimes…in times like this, I think of Tammy and I’m inspired by her radical acts of love.”

Chastain edged out fellow nominees Olivia Colman (“The Lost Daughter”), Penelope Cruz (“Parallel Mothers”), Nicole Kidman (“Being the Ricardos”) and Kristen Stewart (“Spencer”) for the win.

“CODA” is the first motion picture starring a predominantly Deaf cast in leading roles to win Best Picture; Troy Kotsur is the first Deaf male actor to win Best Supporting Actor; and writer-director Siân Heder earned her first-ever Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Seventeen-year-old Ruby (Emilia Jones) is the sole hearing member of a Deaf family — a CODA, or “child of Deaf adults.” Her life revolves around being an interpreter for her parents (Marlee Matlin, Troy Kotsur) and working on the family’s struggling fishing boat with her father and older brother (Daniel Durant), everyday before school. But when Ruby joins her high school’s choir club, she discovers a gift for singing and soon finds herself drawn to her duet partner, Miles (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo). When she is encouraged by her enthusiastic choirmaster (Eugenio Derbez) to apply to a prestigious music school, Ruby is torn between the obligations she feels to her family and the pursuit of her own dreams.

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