Ariana DeBose and David Alvarez in West Side Story. Picture: Niko Tavernise 2021 20th Century Studios
The red carpet rolls out for Hollywood’s big night on Sunday when all will be revealed at the 94th Oscars and the good news for lovers of musicals is that the fat lady is ready to sing for West Side Story’s Ariana DeBose.
She’s the hottest of favourites in the Best Supporting Actress category for her exhilarating performance as Anita and is one of four near-certainties in the six main categories. Sixty years ago Rita Moreno won for the same role in the original version of the ten-Oscar-winning movie.
Also reckoned to be shoo-ins for Oscars are Jane Campion for Best Director (The Power of The Dog), Will Smith for Best Actor (King Richard) and Troy Kotsur for Best Supporting Actor (CODA).
Sadly, Steven Spielberg is likely to miss out as Best Director for his thrilling re-imagining of West Side Story and tick, tick…BOOM! star Andrew Garfield will probably come up just short for the Best Actor gong.
The big late mover in the Best Picture race is CODA, the acronym for Child Of Deaf Adults, which stars Emilia Jones, the daughter of Welsh singer/TV presenter Aled Jones, as the only hearing member of a deaf family in a Massachusetts fishing community.
From being a big outsider, CODA is challenging The Power of the Dog for favouritism, pushing aside the early claimants Belfast and West Side Story.
These sudden late swings usually mean Hollywood insiders know which way the wind is blowing and a similar situation is evolving in the Best Actress contest where Jessica Chastain has gone from 9/1 outsider to odds-on favourite in the past month.
Playing the title role in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, a biopic about the eccentric evangelist-singer-author-TV personality and LBGT supporter, Chastain has swept past the early favourites Kristen Stewart (Spencer), Nicole Kidman (Being the Ricardos) and Olivia Colman (The Lost Daughter).
There could be another Oscar for Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda in the Best Song category. His ‘Dos Oruguitas’ sung in Spanish in the Disney animated musical Encanto is right on the tail of Billie Eilish’s title song for the latest Bond epic ‘No Time to Die’.
This is what the main Academy Awards roll of honour is likely to look like:
Best Picture – CODA. Director – Jane Campion. Actor – Will Smith. Actress – Jessica Chastain. Supporting Actor – Troy Kotsur. Supporting Actress – Ariana DeBose.
Watch the ceremony live on Sky’s special Oscars channel (302) starting at 1am Monday 28 March 2022 (UK time).
Jeremy Chapman
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