From most-nominated to shut out: What happened to The Power of the Dog?

So what went wrong for The Power of the Dog at the Academy Awards?

Lost in the drama of Will Smith slapping Chris Rock was that Jane Campion won best director but her acclaimed Western won nothing else from its 12 nominations.

Jane Campion with the Oscar for best director for The Power of the Dog.Credit: AP

No acting awards, no technical awards, nothing.

It’s the first time a film has won nothing but best director since 1967’s The Graduate.

Earlier in Hollywood’s awards season, the Australian-New Zealand co-production seemed the hot tip to win best picture, best actor for Benedict Cumberbatch, supporting actor for Kodi Smit-McPhee, cinematography for Ari Wegner, adapted screenplay for Campion and original score for Jonny Greenwood at least.

There was also a chance it could win best editing, sound, production design and supporting actress.

Elsewhere, there has been a deluge of awards for The Power of the Dog. At the Venice Film Festival, Campion won best director. At the BAFTAs, the film won best film and director. At the American Directors Guild Awards, Campion won the top prize again.

So was it the controversies during Oscar season or the times? Had The Power of the Dog been over-praised?

Certainly actor Sam Elliott’s wild view that Campion should not have made “a piece of shit” and and asking “What the f--- does this woman from down there know about the American West?” did not help. But Campion seemed to deftly defuse the issue when she said Elliott was being a “B-I-T-C-H” adding: “Plus he’s not a cowboy, he’s an actor”.

Likely more damaging was Campion’s awkward reference to the Williams sisters not playing against “the guys while I have to” while accepting the Critics Choice Award for best director. While she quickly apologised, she was accused of white feminism and the sisters are so revered that it could have turned off some voters.

Another factor is that The Power of the Dog played brilliantly to audiences in cinemas but seemed less impressive on a smaller screen at home, where the vast majority of Oscar voters would have watched it. It was not just losing the epic landscapes but the slow-burn pacing and subtle visual plot twists were often missed.

A brilliant performance: Kodi Smit-McPhee arrives at the awards.Credit: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

CODA, the surprise best picture winner, was much more suited to both the small screen and the Oscars’ preferential voting system than a challenging Western. It is exactly the kind of heartwarming film that everyone has been craving after two years of the pandemic and war raging in Ukraine. It also had an issue worth supporting – respect for the deaf community – and charming performances all around.

And while Smit-McPhee was exceptional as a fey young medical student in The Power of the Dog, Troy Kotsur, who played a charismatic deaf fisherman in CODA, was warm and funny accepting other awards. Oscar voters wanted another charming signed speech.

The narrative that this was Will Smith’s year to finally be rewarded with best actor for King Richard – sidelining Cumberbatch – did not go as well as expected.

Jesse Plemons, left, and Kirsten Dunst in a scene from The Power of the Dog.Credit: AP

There is also a strong sense that when Oscar voters got around to watching The Power of the Dog, they expected a masterpiece so were disappointed.

That became apparent in an always-entertaining series that runs in The Hollywood Reporter just before the Oscars every year, where anonymous voters give their “brutally honest” opinion of the films in contention. While it often reveals them as self-interested philistines, there were some revealing takes this year.

A producer thought The Power of the Dog was “beautifully acted, photographed and, in a lot of ways, directed, but it’s just too long, with some really dull moments”.

A voter from the short films and feature animation branch thought The Power of the Dog was “too slow and boring” and was mystified why people thought it was so amazing. ”It’s also not a storyline that we haven’t seen a million times before – the repressed angry gay cowboy who is hurtful to everyone else because he can’t deal with his own feelings – and the ending was a little confusing,” the voter said.

Benedict Cumberbatch, who was up for best actor, and Sophie Hunter arrive at the Oscars.Credit: AP

A director understood The Power of the Dog’s artistic merits but also thought it was slow and did not think the topic of repressed homosexuality was original or daring.

“I’m not quite in the Sam Elliott camp ... but I do agree with him that it didn’t have the aura of an authentic western,” the director said. ”What Benedict Cumberbatch is to an authentic cowboy, New Zealand is to Montana – it just doesn’t add up. The topography is off, the extras are off and I’m just kind of surprised that it has been the frontrunner up until now.“

And an actor hated“the Dog movie”, except for the cinematography.

“It was so predictable and not subtle – you knew right away that Benedict Cumberbatch was a latent homosexual, the brother was a wimp and the son was a little demented – unlike Brokeback Mountain, where the characters were so finely developed and interesting,” the actor said. “In a way, I understood what Sam Elliott meant.”

Four takes, all negative based on the idea that The Power of the Dog felt slow watching at home. And two voters were reacting to Elliott’s savage comments.

Oscars host Wanda Sykes seemed to be on the same page with an early joke at the awards.

“I watched that movie three times and I’m halfway through it,” she said as Campion laughed.

It became an omen. Campion triumphed, a fitting reward for a brilliant career, but all the film’s other nominees went home empty-handed.

Email the writer at [e-mail] and follow him on Twitter at @gmaddox.

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