Oscars 2022 as it happened: Will Smith appears to slap Chris Rock on-stage before winning award for best actor in a leading role; CODA wins best picture

That’s a wrap on our live coverage of the 94th Academy Awards. This is sure to go down as one of the most shocking Oscar ceremonies in history.

To read more about the event, check out Garry Maddox’s overview of the big winners and losers and other major moments from the ceremony.

We’ve also broken down the entire exchange between Will Smith and Chris Rock to explain exactly what happened.

Michael Idato, who was at the Dolby Theatre for the awards, argues the slap was the “lowest moment” in the history of the Academy Awards, while Karl Quinn examines how it exposed the double standards of Hollywood.

And a final word from the Academy.

Jaden Smith has responded to his father’s controversial night at the Oscars with a cryptic message on Twitter that appears to show support for the decorated actor.

Shortly after Will Smith slapped comedian Chris Rock on stage following a heated exchange, the 23-year-old rapper and actor posted the message “and that’s how we do it” to the social media platform.

Jaden also posted an image of himself wearing a red suit and sunglasses inside a vehicle with the caption “my dad’s speech made the cry”, which was later deleted.

Earlier in the night, Smith won the Oscar for best actor for his role as Richard Williams, the father of tennis players Serena and Venus Williams, in King Richard.

In his acceptance speech, the actor acknowledged the incident with Rock and apologised to the Academy, but fell short of issuing an apology to the comedian.

“I want to apologise to the Academy, I want to apologise to all my fellow nominees. This is a beautiful moment. I’m not crying for winning an award ... it’s about being able to shine a light on all the people… the entire cast and crew of King Richard, and the entire Williams family. I look like the crazy father … but love will make you do crazy things,” he said.

It is unclear whether Jaden’s tweets referred to his father’s career recognition or the fact he had confronted Rock following a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith.

Will Smith’s slap of comedian Chris Rock live on stage has gone down as the most noteworthy moment of this year’s Oscars ceremony. As the party continues, here are some reactions from actors, directors and producers.

Sean Combs, actor and rapper

Following the outburst, Sean “Love” Combs appeared onstage to continue presenting the ceremony. In his address, he urged Smith and Rock to “solve that like family at [Jay-Z’s] Gold Party, but right now we’re moving on with love”.

Combs later told Vanity Fair he was “just as shocked as everybody else” by the slap.

“I just went on with how I was feeling, and I thought it was very important to bring love into the room,” he said. “I think we know both of those guys’ characters, and, you know, sometimes shit happens.”

Rob Reiner, actor and filmmaker

Reiner has taken to social media to condemn Smith’s behaviour, adding the actor is lucky Rock will not be pressing assault charges.

Leslie Odom Jr, actor

The One Night in Miami star, who was nominated for an Oscar last year, described the altercation as “two artists with their hearts open”.

“This business can sometimes feel like walking around with your skin ripped off,” Odom Jr, who made his acting debut on Broadway, told Vanity Fair.

“It’s a vulnerable moment, sometimes it’s messy, but it’s always beautiful when it’s the truth.”

Randi Mayem Singer, screenwriter

The writer behind 1993 blockbuster Mrs Doubtfire called on the ceremony to be presented by women.

The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age film critic Sandra Hall praised CODA - a remake of the 2014 French comedy hit The Belier Family (2014) - on its release last year.

In her four-star review, Hall said there was a “very good reason that it won four of the top prizes at this year’s Sundance Festival”.

“Its writer-director, Sian Heder, has succeeded in refining some of the original film’s broader comic strokes and adding a deeper vein of sentiment without letting it spill over into sentimentality. She’s also avoided the criticisms that the French filmmakers attracted for casting the roles of the deaf characters with actors who could hear,” Hall wrote.

“Heder, who spent time on the Massachusetts coast when growing up, knows exactly how a narrative can be enriched by the colours, moods and customs of its setting. You get to know the Rossis very well, and they’re great company.”

It was the slap heard around the world, but no more loudly than backstage at the Oscars. In the US, the TV network broadcasting the awards cut the sound, leaving Americans watching in horrified silence, unsure of what was happening. Elsewhere, including here in Australia, broadcasters were not so quick to hit the mute button.

Backstage, however, the effect was immediate.

Until that moment, the biggest story of the night had been the almost total shut out of The Power of the Dog. With 12 nominations, it was expected to win big but ultimately scored only one Oscar: best director for Jane Campion. The Power of the Dog losing out on one flank to Dune and on the other to CODA was this year’s narrative. Until the slap.

Watching from the rabbit warren of corridors connecting the Dolby Theatre, where the ceremony took place, the nearby media centre erupted.

Read our full report on the slap heard around the world here.

Chris Rock, left, reacts after being hit on stage by Will Smith while presenting the award for best documentary feature at the Oscars.Credit: AP

There were no shortage of upsets or surprises at the Oscars, but who were the big winners and losers? Well, let’s take a look at the numbers.

CODA was the clear success of the night, winning three from three. More to the point, those wins were all in big categories: best picture, best adapted screenplay and best supporting actor.

In terms of the sheer number of awards won, Dune was the clear winner, taking home six of the 10 for which it was nominated. A 60 per cent hit rate on that many nominations is nothing to be sneezed at, especially when an Aussie (cinematographer Greig Fraser) is among the glory.

The Eyes of Tammy Faye scored a perfect 100 per cent, but that was from just two nominations, best actress (Jessica Chastain) and best makeup and hairstyling.

At the other end of the spectrum, The Power of The Dog was cruelly overlooked, winning in just one of the 11 categories (and 12 nominations – two were in the best supporting actor field) for which it was in the running. It did at least win best director for Jane Campion, making her just the third woman to win that award (and making it two women in a row, after Chloe Zhao won last year for Nomadland).

If you really want to know where to direct your sympathy though look at those among the best picture nominees who missed out entirely: Licorice Pizza (none from three), Don’t Look Up (none from four), Nightmare Alley (none from four), Being the Ricardos (none from three) and The Tragedy of Macbeth (none from three).

If it was audience, attention, and a presence in the popular conversation that the Oscars wanted, they got it, big time, thanks to Will Smith slapping Chris Rock on Monday. But in the process, they also got an image problem they could well do without.

Suddenly, here’s this festival of liberal values – peace, love, harmony, diversity – looking like it’s been produced by boxing promoter Don King. What’s more, no one seems to have blinked an eye. Other than poor old Chris Rock, that is.

To boil the moment down to its essence, we saw a man make a joke about another man’s wife. We saw the husband assault the joker for that ostensible offence. And we saw the assaulting husband embraced by all and sundry as if he were the injured party. It was, frankly, quite incredible. And the response to it was even worse.

Chris Rock has reportedly decided he will not press charges against Smith, though he’d have no shortage of witnesses if he chose otherwise (a couple of hundred million, at a guess). That may prove he’s the bigger man. Or it may simply prove he knows how to read the room.

After the event, at least as far as the cameras captured it, people rushed to comfort and console, perhaps to counsel, Smith. Rock simply disappeared. When Smith took the stage to accept his Oscar as best actor he apologised to the Academy, but not to Rock. It was shameful.

The Oscars never misses an opportunity to plead for a kinder, gentler world, and that’s no bad thing. But here, it utterly failed to rise to the occasion.

But hey, at least people are talking about it, right?

See how some of the 2022 Oscar winners celebrated backstage before the cameras.

“We will not be getting Will Smith.”

In seven words the Academy addressed the topic it has studiously avoided all night: whether Smith would, as is the custom, follow up his win and on-stage acceptance speech with an appearance backstage in the press room.

The backstage machinery of the Oscars is pretty smooth. Winners, and occasionally presenters, leave the main auditorium, they are ushered into the rabbit warren of corridors connecting the Kodak Theatre with the nearby Loews Hotel and then materialise in the press area.

In truth, such an outcome would have been an outside chance at best. You don’t need to be a working Hollywood PR to know that Smith’s contretemps with comedian Chris Rock and the slap that shocked the Oscars was already a great big steaming pile of PR mess.

But the Academy has confirmed Smith will not be facing the press tonight.

Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith on arrival at the Oscars.Credit: AP

Speaking backstage, CODA producer Patrick Wachsberger said the Oscar win for best picture was an important victory for independent cinema.

“We are not folding the tent,” he said. “And no one internationally or domestically is folding the tent. And we are still going to keep doing those movies we care about for a global audience.”

“For us, when we got selected for Sundance, that was already an incredible victory,” Wachsberger said. “And then every step along the way [through award season] has turned this into such an amazing journey.”

The film’s screenwriter, Sian Heder, who also won the Oscar for best adapted screenplay, addressed the fact that the film’s producers were initially pressured to cast the film with hearing actors.

“It’s about how financing for film works,” Heder said. “It’s frustrating being an independent filmmaker, that you’re supposed to run out and get a movie star [to get your film financed].

“It was also a case of really knowing how a story should be told, deep in my heart and in my gut,” Heder added. “And knowing that I would rather see the movie die, than see the movie made the wrong way.”

Sian Heder holds aloft her Oscar for best adapted screenplay for CODA.Credit: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP