Oscars 2022: Dune's triumph, Will Smith's slap dominate an awards show that became unhinged

The 94th Academy Awards opened in dramatic fashion on Sunday, lauding Dune with six trophies out of 10 nominations, awarding CODA in the best-picture and two other categories for which it was nominated, making history for deaf, women and LGBTQ+ actors — and nearly breaking down following a chaotic, violent moment between Will Smith and Chris Rock. 

The night was a triumph for Canadian Denis Villeneuve's sci-fi epic Dune, and a return to form for a beleaguered show struggling to reignite the relevancy and spark it once had, until the shocking moment between Smith and Rock left the audience in stunned silence and viewers at home bewildered and wondering how much of what they were seeing was real. 

As Rock was presenting the award for best documentary feature, he tossed an offhand joke to Smith's wife, actor Jada Pinkett Smith, pointing to her and saying, "G.I. Jane 2, can't wait to see it."

The joke was a seeming comparison between Pinkett Smith, who shaved her head late last year after a long struggle with alopecia, and Demi Moore, who sported a buzzcut in the 1997 film G.I. Jane. 

Striding purposefully onto the stage, Smith slapped Rock before returning to his seat. The live broadcast cut the audio while Smith screamed to Rock that he should, "Keep my wife's name out of your f–king mouth."

Later, a tearful Smith took to the stage to accept his award for best actor for King Richard — a movie about the life of Richard Williams, the father and coach of tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams. Smith struggled through an emotional speech as he apologized to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and spoke about learning to protect his family and co-workers.

"Art imitates life. I look like the crazy father, just like they said about Richard Williams," Smith said to laughter and applause.  

It was an oddly uplifting response to him slapping Rock, which had occurred only a few minutes earlier, but the explosive moment — and the confused response to it — represented both the worst and best outcome organizers could have hoped for. 

Trying to cast aside seven years of bad luck — the show reported record-low ratings for each of those presentations — the shocking encounter broke up a ceremony that began clipping along at a fast pace, before dragging to a close after its nearly four-hour run time. 

Organizers had tried a bit of everything to capture viewership once again, alternately peppering the ceremony with live and pre-recorded skits, but it was the moment between Smith and Rock that captured attention on social media. And though it marred the seemingly cheery theme of "movie lovers unite," clips of the exchange pulled in millions of views within minutes, and made the entertainment world — once again — focus solely on the Oscars.   

The academy had attempted to achieve that through more traditional means. Venus and Serena began the show by introducing Beyoncé for her first-ever nominated appearance at the awards, as she performed her King Richard-nominated song Be Alive alongside a tennis-yellow phalanx of dancers.

That was followed soon after by the first live performance of Encanto's We Don't Talk About Bruno and Billie Eilish's Bond theme No Time To Die. And while Encanto did win for best animated feature, Eilish managed to beat out the chart-dominating musical for best song with that track. 

Balancing out the mayhem, a raft of positive stories developed through the night.

Veteran actor Troy Kotsur took home the Oscar for best supporting actor for his turn in CODA, becoming only the second deaf actor ever to win an Academy Award. He thanked both the academy and "deaf theatre stages" for giving him a space to hone his craft, before thanking his father — who was also deaf, but unable to use sign language after becoming paralyzed in a car crash — as his sign language interpreter appeared to struggle through tears of his own.