25 Astonishingly Dumb 21st Century Film Oscar Wins
10. 2022: CODA Wins Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay & Supporting Actor
Beat: Belfast, Don't Look Up, Drive My Car, Dune, King Richard, Licorice Pizza, Nightmare Alley, The Power of the Dog and West Side Story.
Beat (Screenplay): Drive My Car, Dune, The Lost Daughter and The Power of the Dog.
Beat (Supporting): Ciaran Hinds (Belfast), Jesse Plemmons (The Power of the Dog), JK Simmons (Being the Ricardos) and Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Power of the Dog.
Should've Won: Either Drive My Car or The Power of the Dog for the first two, and Kodi Smitt McPhee for Best Supporting Actor.
It was one hell of a Best Picture line-up this year, but what did the Oscar go to? Not the wonderful Belfast, nor the modern masterpiece that is Drive My Car, nor the stunning Dune, nor Paul Thomas Anderson's beautifully-crafted Licorice Pizza, nor Steven Spielberg's gorgeous West Side Story remake and not even the original front-runner, the terrific The Power of the Dog.
No, all those artistically accomplished, powerful works got beaten out by CODA. This is, in fairness, a very good film but also a pretty lightweight, predictable work that feels too slight to be a truly deserved Best Picture winner.
It also took Best Adapted Screenplay despite being only the fourth-best of the lot and although Troy Kotsor did a terrific job, Kodi Smitt-McPhee's masterfully ambiguous turn in The Power of the Dog should've won.
Unsurprisingly, the backlash has already begun. Still, this isn't the most unjust Best Picture win of the century - far from it...