Adam Kos On the night from Sunday to Monday, i.e. from March 27 to 28, the 94th year of the Oscars took place. The production of Apple TV+ and Apple Originals Films had 6 irons in the fire here and was definitely not among the clear favorites. The film In the Rhythm of the Heart (CODA) took home three trophies, including the most valuable one for the best film of the year, and proves that Apple TV+ simply has to be reckoned with.
The decidedly artistic Macbeth came up empty. He had three nominations, and for the best cinematography, the best set design, and above all the best actor in the main role, played by Denzel Washington. But he had strong competition, when Will Smith took home the statuette for his performance in the sports drama King Richard: The Birth of a Champion. After all, odds of 1,1:1 were also attributed to him. Benedict Cumberbatch had odds of 5:1 for his performance in The Power of Dog, Andy Garfield for his role in Tick, Tick… Boom! odds 17:1. Washington was thus a clear outsider.
Among the main favorites in the highest category was the drama Power of the Dog with odds of 1,7:1. In the rhythm of the heart, it had odds of 2,2:1, which was quite a surprise given its theme of a daughter of deaf parents deciding between family responsibilities and her interest in singing, and relatively strong competition not only from Hollywood blockbusters. Ten films applied for this prize, such as Belfast, Dune, K zemi hleď or West Side Story.
Although Dune is the overall winner, it received 6 statuettes, but only in secondary categories (camera, editing, set design, sound, music, visual effects). Since Síla psa received only one of the 12 nominations (best director), V rytmu srdce is the most important achievement of this year. With the exception of the best film, he received the award i Troy Kotsur for his supporting male role, marking the first time a deaf actor has won such an award. Siân Hederová then won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay (the film is a remake of the French film The Belier Family), and In the Rhythm of the Heart turned all three of its nominations into wins. You can find the complete results on the price pages.
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25 million damn well spent
We can argue that Apple TV+ is modest in its content, we can argue that the absence of Czech dubbing bothers us. But what we cannot deny the platform is the effort to make its production quality at the expense of quantity. Even such a small and independent film, as V Rytmu srdce je, was able to overshadow the entire production of the competition with its unknown actors, but with a serious theme. Such Netflix had exactly 36 nominations this year, but it will not be talked about. The talk will be about Apple and its small streaming service, which couldn't have asked for a better advertisement. Be sure to hear about this success at the company's next keynote.
For the year 2020, the Apple TV+ production was nominated in two categories for the film Greyhound and Werewolves, but it came up empty. But the fact that it is able to dominate the world's most prestigious film awards in its second year of existence is an impressive feat. At the same time, relatively little is enough. In the rhythm of the heart, it was presented as part of the independent festival Sundance, where Apple just bought it for 25 million dollars. And it was $25 million dollars well spent.
