The Walt Disney Company Earns 6 Academy Awards including Best Animated Feature Film & Best Documentary.
The Walt Disney Company received 6 Academy Awards at the 94th annual ceremony. Walt Disney Animation Studios’ pop-culture hit “Encanto” was recognized as Best Animated Feature Film. This is the second Oscar win for director Byron Howard and producer Clark Spencer, and the first Oscar win for director Jared Bush and producer Yvett Merino. The win adds to a list of accolades for the film that includes recognition from the Annie Awards, Art Directors Guild Awards, BAFTA Awards, Critics Choice Awards, Golden Globe Awards, NAACP Image Awards and Producers Guild Awards. “Encanto” is also the first Disney movie to claim a No. 1 album and a No. 1 single.
“Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)” received the Oscar for Best Documentary. The Searchlight Pictures, Disney’s Onyx Collective and Hulu multi-award-winning directorial debut by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson as well as producers Joseph Patel, Robert Fyvolent and David Dinerstein earned them their first Oscar wins. This distinction is also Disney’s Onyx Collective as well as Hulu’s first Academy Award, and Searchlight Pictures’ first Best Documentary award. The film has won 55 awards across critics’ groups and guilds including the BAFTA Award, Spirit Award, DOC NYC Award, American Film Institute Award, Producers Guild Award, Cinema Eye Honors, International Documentary Association Award, American Cinema Editors Award, Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award, African-American Film Critics Association Award and National Board of Review Award.
“The Eyes of Tammy Faye” was honored with two awards including Best Actress in a Leading Role for Jessica Chastain’s portrayal of Tammy Faye Bakker. This commemorates Chastain’s first Oscar and marks Searchlight Pictures’ sixth Best Actress in a Leading Role Academy Award. “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” also won for Best Makeup and Hairstyling, which is Searchlight Pictures’ first Makeup and Hairstyling Oscar.
Ariana DeBose was awarded Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance as Anita in “West Side Story,” marking a historic moment as the first Afro-Latina and openly queer woman of color to receive the honor. The first-time Oscar winner and Rita Moreno have also made history as the first pair of women to win Academy Awards for playing the same character; their wins come 60 years apart.
Finally, legendary costume designer Jenny Beavan garnered the award for Best Costume Design for Disney’s “Cruella.” Beavan’s work on “Cruella” also earned a BAFTA Award, a Costume Designers Guild Award and a Critics Choice Award.
