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America’s inflation problem is weirdly hard to fix

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<a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2022/3/2/22956966/inflation-explained-by-eggs">Inflation</a>: Why? That’s the question many consumers have been finding themselves asking lately. Followed by inflation: Fix?
We’re in quite a conundrum when it comes to rising prices. <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/03/10/1085448058/inflation-40-year-high-gas-prices-energy-russia-ukraine">Inflation is at a 40-year high</a> in the United States and <a href="https://blogs.worldbank.org/voices/return-global-inflation">accelerating</a> around the globe. The situation may very well get worse before it gets better, as Russia’s war on Ukraine stands to <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/war-in-ukraine-fans-the-flames-of-global-inflation-11646922368">exacerbate price pressures</a>, as does a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/14/investing/premarket-stocks-trading/index.html">new round of lockdowns</a> in China due to Covid-19.
Among economists and experts, there’s no strict consensus about what exactly is to blame. There are certain factors widely agreed upon that we’ve been hearing about for months: supply chain woes, rising oil prices, shifting consumer demands. These concerns have hardly subsided. But there are other arenas where there’s more disagreement, such as the role government stimulus has played in increasing prices, and the possibility that <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/2/20/22943257/inflation-corporations-price-hikes-consumer-price-index">corporate greed</a> is an important factor.
There’s also no clear agreement on what the solution is. The Federal Reserve is starting to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/federal-reserve-interest-rate-hike-inflation-fight-tightening-monetary-policy-2022-3">make moves</a> to try to tamp down inflation, but it’s going to take time for that to have an impact. It’s still <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/powell-says-fed-will-consider-more-aggressive-interest-rate-increases-to-reduce-inflation-11647880218">uncertain</a> how aggressive the Fed will be or what risks those fixes could pose for the broader economy. The <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/01/24/1075264843/what-does-the-white-house-plan-to-do-to-combat-inflation">White House is trying</a> to combat price increases, but there’s not really a ton it can do.
“They’re actually doing the right thing, they just don’t have many tools,” said Jason Furman, a Harvard economist and former adviser to President Barack Obama. He said one thing they can do and are doing is to be “realistic in leveling with people” that of course they don’t like inflation, and this isn’t a problem that will solve itself overnight.
While a lot is unknown, one thing seems pretty clear to most: Much of this is the result of factors that have been brewing for quite some time; some back to the start of the pandemic, many even longer. As for when it will be over, we’re likely to be in this situation for a while.
“A lot of people early on in the pandemic were saying it’s just the pandemic, it’s temporary, it’s going to go away on its own,” said Lauren Melodia, deputy director of macroeconomic analysis at the Roosevelt Institute, a progressive think tank. “At this point, we’ve seen it show up in other things, like housing, where it can’t just be the pandemic.”
<h3>The answer to the question of exactly why inflation is happening is kind of hard</h3>
Whichever economist or expert or policymaker you ask to explain the current inflation story to you is going to tell you something slightly different. I asked a bunch of economists over the past couple of weeks what was causing inflation and how to fix it. Most kind of laughed for a second before launching into their cases, acknowledging the full answer is, to a certain extent, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
So let’s start with the things most experts generally agree on. For starters, the past couple of years in the economy have been … <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22435400/economy-unemployment-inflation">weird</a>, due in large part to the pandemic. On the supply end, a bunch of industries saw <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/business/autos/gm-cuts-production-two-plants-coronavirus-pandemic-squeezes-supply-chain-n1247742">slowdowns</a> and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/26/business/meat-processing-plants-coronavirus/index.html">shutdowns</a> when Covid-19 hit, which made it <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/22/business/shortages-supply-chain.html">hard to produce and maintain business as usual</a>. The supply chain is global, as are commodities, so even if things were a-okay in the US (which they are not), what happens everywhere else makes a difference.
At the same time, what consumers want has shifted, moving spending from services (remember when restaurants and hair salons weren’t an option?) to spending on goods instead, which haven’t been so readily available (remember the huge runs on <a href="https://www.vox.com/22410713/lumber-prices-shortage">lumber</a> and <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/21396116/dumbbell-set-shortage-nordictrack-bowflex">dumbbells</a>?).
“There are shortages of physical goods people want,” said Damon Silvers, director of policy and special counsel for the AFL-CIO. On top of shortages of the goods themselves, it’s also proven tricky to move said goods around. <a href="https://ktla.com/news/local-news/los-angeles-county-neighborhoods-clogged-by-backups-at-ports/">Ports have been clogged</a>; trucks are <a href="https://www.vox.com/22841783/truck-drivers-shortage-supply-chain-pandemic">expensive and in short supply</a>. “After decades of underinvestment in infrastructure, our system for moving goods to market turned out to be very vulnerable,” Silvers said.
Skanda Amarnath, executive director of the advocacy group Employ America, explained that the pandemic exposed a lot of underinvestment that’s been happening in the country for a long time. It turns out if companies and government don’t invest in infrastructure to make business run smoothly but instead constantly try to cut costs and corners at every turn, that matters. “It all stems back, to me, that a lot of underinvestment has been exposed at a time when the economy is recovering,” he said.
That recovery part is important. As much as many people say that they <a href="https://www.marketplace.org/2022/01/13/how-do-americans-feel-about-the-economy-not-very-hopeful-poll-finds/">feel bad about the economy right now</a>, the economy is actually pretty decent. <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/04/jobs-report-february-2022.html">Unemployment is relatively low</a>, many people still have quite a bit of money to spend, and the recovery, in a lot of ways, looks pretty solid. But again, therein lies part of the problem: People have money to spend, but not so many places to spend it. “There are multiple things that are happening all at once right now. The pandemic is still going on, we still have supply chain bottlenecks around the globe, parts of the economy are getting up to speed,” Amarnath said.
Climbing oil prices, which translate to climbing gas prices, are also contributing to inflation. Even before the pandemic, energy and gas prices were on the rise, but now, the <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22949683/russia-ukraine-gas-prices-oil-inflation-stock-market">situation with Russia</a> stands to make things worse. Russia doesn’t have all the world’s oil, but it has enough of it to make a difference, in the US somewhat and more so in Europe. Moreover, Russia’s war on Ukraine and the <a href="https://www.vox.com/22968949/russia-sanctions-swift-economy-mcdonalds">resulting sanctions</a> are pushing up prices elsewhere on commodities, such as <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/wheat-prices-soar-ukraine-fears-us-growers-cant-cash-2022-03-21/">wheat</a>.
“We already had pretty quickly increasing energy prices and commodity prices which now have, of course, exploded, so you get another round of intense cost pressures that affect a wide range of industries,” said Isabella Weber, an economist at UMass Amherst.
Covid-19 is also a continuing factor in inflation, which some people tend to forget. Even if you are living your life mask-free, it doesn’t mean other people are, not only in the US but, probably more importantly, abroad. China is very strict on Covid-19, and China is a very important part of the global supply chain. Covid is on the rise again there, so it’s going to <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/17/moodys-chinas-zero-covid-policy-prolongs-supply-chain-disruptions-.html">screw up supply chains</a> and, in turn, contribute to inflation. “I’m rather worried,” Weber said of the entire situation.
<h3>Everybody is arguing about what else is causing inflation</h3>
I would like to be able to tell you a coherent story about inflation where everyone absolutely agrees with all certainty what is going on. But I cannot. So instead, I’m going to pop through some theories that some economists say are contributing and others say are not.
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<aside><q>“It doesn’t seem obvious that all the people who received the stimmy checks spent the stimmy checks on things that proved to be inflationary”</q></aside>
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Some experts argue that what’s fostering inflation is that the government put too much money into circulation. Basically, the argument goes, the federal government did three giant stimulus packages pumping trillions of dollars into the economy, and that’s driven prices up. A lot of these people point to the $1,400 stimulus checks that went out in early 2021.
Furman, the Harvard economist, thinks the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan signed into law in early 2021 helped create some of the inflation we’re seeing now. “I think by the time we did the American Rescue Plan, the economy was healing rapidly, households had more money in their bank accounts than they’d ever had before, and jobs were being added rapidly. I just think there was no need for anything on that scale,” he said.
Not everybody, or even a ton of people, agrees with this view, but it’s a view out there. Amarnath said he thinks it would “be wrong to dismiss all sources of demand-side support.” But it’s not the basket he’s placing all his eggs in. “It doesn’t seem obvious that all the people who received the stimmy checks spent the stimmy checks on things that proved to be inflationary.”
It does feel a little iffy to say that giving less-well-off people benefits that included a little over $1,000 tanked the economy, given all the support the government gives to corporations and rich people all the time.
Many progressive economists and politicians are beginning to argue that it’s corporate consolidation that’s <a href="https://inequality.org/research/not-inflation-price-gouging/">making inflation worse</a>. They say that companies have a ton of power (they do) and can set prices at whatever they like because there’s not a lot of competition (<a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/26/18112651/monopoly-open-markets-institute-report-concentration">there often isn’t</a>). They then say that companies are boosting inflation higher by using the problem as an excuse to increase prices so they can make more profits. Matt Stoller, director of research at anti-monopoly think tank the American Economic Liberties Project, <a href="https://mattstoller.substack.com/p/corporate-profits-drive-60-of-inflation?s=r">argued</a> in December that the pandemic rise in corporate profits accounts for nearly two-thirds of US inflation increases.
“At the end of the day, yeah, corporations do have the power to change prices,” Melodia said.
The point of companies is to make money, so of course that’s what they’re doing right now, even with inflation. “Saying it’s corporate greed implies that we are surprised corporations are greedy, but that’s like complaining that tigers are hungry. The question is what to do about it in terms of antitrust and tax policy,” Silvers said.
At the same time, is consolidation the main thing behind inflation? There’s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2022/02/17/white-house-inflation-corporations/">reportedly</a> some disagreement even within the White House about whether this is a useful argument. Many of the people placing blame on corporate profiteering acknowledge it’s just a part of what’s going on, not the whole story. Some economists <a href="https://apricitas.substack.com/p/are-rising-corporate-profit-margins">dismiss it altogether</a>.
The whole debate is like this: Some economists say rising wages are contributing to inflation, and others present <a href="https://www.epi.org/blog/profits-wages-and-inflation-whats-really-going-on/">evidence</a> it’s absolutely not the case. Expectations play a role here — when everybody thinks inflation is happening, then businesses start charging more and workers start charging more money to compensate, which makes the whole thing worse.
“Once you have inflation, there’s some self-perpetuation of it,” Furman said. “There’s some passthrough of wages to prices, and some passthrough of prices to wages. Inflation expectations matter.”
<h3>If you know exactly how to fix inflation, call me (and by “me,” I mean “Jay Powell”)</h3>
There are no easy answers as to how to address rising inflation or quick fixes that will make this entire episode come to an end.
On a domestic level, the Fed, headed by Jay Powell, has started to raise interest rates. That should do something. The idea is that when the Fed raises rates it makes it more <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/15/why-the-fed-raises-interest-rates-to-combat-inflation.html">expensive to borrow money</a>, which means less spending and less demand. But there’s concern that doing so could push the US economy toward a recession, like what happened <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/09/1970s-great-inflation.asp">after inflation in the 1970s</a>, or that at the very least that it will cost some workers some jobs. Powell has <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/fed-must-move-expeditiously-if-needed-more-aggressively-powell-says-2022-03-21/">indicated</a> he’s willing to be aggressive about interest rate hikes to combat inflation if need be.
“I think that raising rates, at this point, is more about trying to get lucky,” Furman said. “Maybe it resets inflation expectations and so the self-fulfilling wage-price passthrough goes away. That’s the cheapest and easiest way to bring down inflation, to bring expectations down.”
Brad DeLong, an economist at UC Berkeley, has a modestly more relaxed view on inflation. “My answer is calm down, it’s by and large a desirable part of adjustments. We look out at what people are expecting in the future, and in five to 10 years from now, people are expecting inflation to quiet down. The Fed will do its job,” he said.
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<aside><q>“I think that raising rates, at this point, is more about trying to get lucky”</q></aside>
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Some inflation problems might be out of the Fed’s reach, even domestically. Rent prices, which go into the services bucket, are about to cause more inflation going forward. If you think that part of the problem in that arena is that there’s too little housing, and rising interest rates could make building housing more expensive (because it will be more expensive to borrow), that doesn’t solve the problem. Which is what makes this whole thing complicated.
The White House and President Joe Biden have also taken some measures to try to address inflation, but what they can do is pretty limited (despite some Republicans trying to insist that this is largely Biden’s fault). They’ve rolled out a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/06/08/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-announces-supply-chain-disruptions-task-force-to-address-short-term-supply-chain-discontinuities/">supply chain task force</a> and made efforts to address issues such as <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/10/13/fact-sheet-biden-administration-efforts-to-address-bottlenecks-at-ports-of-los-angeles-and-long-beach-moving-goods-from-ship-to-shelf/">bottlenecks at ports</a> and <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/01/21/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-bringing-semiconductor-manufacturing-back-to-america-2/">semiconductor shortages</a>. But it’s not like President Biden has a “stop inflation” button on his desk — which, if he did have one, he would definitely use.
“The White House has been very engaged with the problem of bottlenecks using the ordinary powers of government, but it takes time,” Silvers said. “The administration is addressing longstanding problems in our infrastructure and our manufacturing base that were allowed by prior administrations to go on for years and, in some cases, decades.”
“The advantage of the pandemic is it has thrown our economy into disarray to the extent that people are asking big questions about how do we come up with long-term solutions. The downside is that there’s no quick fix,” Melodia said.
If inflation really persists, the federal government could look into raising taxes or cutting spending, but some of that wouldn’t just entail the White House; you’d also need Congress.
Much of what’s causing inflation is also beyond the United States’s borders. Oil is a global commodity, and Russia’s war on Ukraine has pushed oil prices up even more than they were before. There’s very little the US can do about China’s zero-Covid policy, and even if <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/20/world/asia/china-zero-covid.html">China tweaks it</a>, the virus there and elsewhere will create supply chain disruptions again.
We’d already seen the effect of supply chain issues and the pressure of commodity and energy prices prior to the war, Weber explained, but it has become worse in recent weeks. She noted that international cooperation would likely be needed to try to stabilize some commodity markets.
“It seemed like an expectable type of outcome from the war and the sanctions that you would get very major turmoil in the commodity markets,” Weber said. “Given how sectoral this inflation is, I think we need more policy action that is targeted to specific sectors.”
Again, different ideas for fixing inflation depend on what you think is causing it. For those in the camp that government stimulus and an overly accommodative Fed are part of the problem, that means that in the future, they’ll push for less stimulus and a less lenient Fed. For those in the corporate power camp, solutions look like better antitrust enforcement, taxes on corporate profits, or maybe even price controls. There are plenty of ideas out there about strategies to address issues in <a href="https://www.employamerica.org/researchreports/spr-esf-dpa/">oil supply</a> and to combat some <a href="https://www.employamerica.org/researchreports/inflation-and-healthcare/">inflationary pressures through health care policies</a>, among others.
More broadly, some of the fixes for inflation are just going to take some time. Production capacity will get moving again, demand will cool off, maybe some necessary investments will be made.
It would be nice if there were one neat trick to solve inflation. There is not. The good news is, things will probably get better eventually. They just might get worse — and in turn cause a lot of pain — first.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22994731/inflation-rate-russia-gas-prices-jerome-powell">https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22994731/inflation-rate-russia-gas-prices-jerome-powell</a>

vox America’s inflation problem is weirdly hard to fix

Inflation : Why? That’s the question many consumers have been finding themselves asking lately. Followed by inflation: Fix? We’re in quite...

Two actors — and one major corporation — that broke boundaries at the 2022 Oscars

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Every Oscar ceremony carries with it its share of firsts. Sometimes, those firsts are in categories lots and lots of people pay attention to, as when Halle Berry became <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/7/3/15887198/halle-berry-oscars-win-meaningless">the first Black woman to win Best Actress</a> 20 years ago. More often, those firsts happen in categories where too much ground remains to be broken. (Did you know a woman still hasn’t won Best Cinematography, and only two women have ever been nominated for that award?)
Yet viewers are also increasingly aware of how many opportunities just aren’t available to the various performers and craftspeople who have the potential to make history. And even when we take the idea of breaking new ground for diversity out of the equation, we’re still left with lots of questions about who wins awards in an industry that is rapidly changing. As watching movies at home via streaming services becomes more and more central to how many of us consume film, the Oscars have been reluctant to embrace that change, even as more and more streaming films are nominated for major awards.
That in mind, here are three firsts marked by the 2022 Oscars, two of which are thanks to people who broke down long-standing barriers within the Academy, and one, thanks to shifting business models that the Oscars finally, begrudgingly acknowledged.
<h3>Ariana DeBose becomes the first openly queer woman of color to win an acting Oscar</h3>
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Ariana DeBose’s electrifying turn as Anita in West Side Story has won her a BAFTA, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and now an Oscar. Before West Side Story, she was a Tony nominee for Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, a member of the original Hamilton ensemble, and a contestant on So You Think You Can Dance. (She was quickly eliminated. Injustice!)
DeBose is also openly queer and has talked at length about making it as a queer woman in the entertainment industry, <a href="https://www.latimes.com/podcasts/story/2022-03-07/the-times-podcast-ariana-debose">especially in the build-up to her Oscar win</a>. She is also in a relationship with another woman. That makes her the first queer woman to win an acting Oscar while being open about her queer identity.
Figuring out the nature of DeBose’s historic first is hazy, simply because queerness is not something to be closely policed. But to my mind, the openness matters. Other queer women have won acting Oscars — Jodie Foster has won Best Actress twice, for instance — but they were not publicly out as queer at the time they won. What’s more, DeBose, who has Puerto Rican, African American, and Italian ancestry, was the first openly queer woman of color to ever be nominated for an acting Oscar, much less win.
And DeBose nodded to all of that in her acceptance speech, pointing out her existence as an openly queer, Afro-Latina woman holding an Oscar and hoping that doing so would give hope to others like her who might not see a path forward just yet. “To anybody who has ever questioned your identity or you find yourself living in the gray spaces, I promise you this — there is indeed a place for us,” she said.
<h3>Troy Kotsur is the first deaf man to win an acting Oscar</h3>
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Troy Kotsur’s work as Frank, a deaf father trying to keep his business afloat while also supporting his hearing teenage daughter’s dreams of being a musician, proved a highlight of <a href="https://www.vox.com/22617235/coda-review-deaf-captions">Best Picture winner CODA</a>. It was the culmination of a long stage career, including several productions with Los Angeles’s Deaf West Theatre, where I have seen him multiple times. (He’s a tremendous stage actor.) CODA didn’t just let him break through to a wider audience, however. It also won him an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
Kotsur is the first deaf man to win an acting Oscar and only the second deaf person to win, after his CODA co-star Marlee Matlin, who won Best Actress for her work in 1986’s Children of a Lesser God. Actors in the disabled community are too rarely allowed to play disabled characters, as those parts often go to able-bodied actors who are hoping to win an Oscar. And, indeed, the producers of CODA struggled to find funding for their film when they insisted on only casting deaf actors as deaf characters.
Seeing CODA now, it’s impossible to imagine anybody but Kotsur in the role of Frank, because he brings such warmth and beauty to the part. I am not the world’s biggest CODA fan, but when Kotsur started winning awards for his work, even I said, “Well, of course.” He’s tremendous in the film.
Kotsur’s speech was an emotional highlight of Oscar night, culminating in a tribute to his father. “My dad, he was the best signer in our family, but he was in a car accident and he became paralyzed from the neck down and he no longer was able to sign,” Kotsur said. “Dad, I learned so much from you. I’ll always love you. You are my hero.”
<h3>CODA is the first movie from a streaming service and the first movie to debut at Sundance to win Best Picture</h3>
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The Sundance favorite has been a staple of the Oscars for years and years now. From Little Miss Sunshine to Beasts of the Southern Wild and from Precious to Winter’s Bone, lots of movies that have been nominated for and even won major Oscars have debuted at the January film festival that celebrates independent film. But none of those films have won Best Picture, despite the fact that Sundance has been going since 1984.
Similarly, streaming movies have made a huge dent in the Oscar race in the last handful of years, with Netflix contenders Roma (2018) and The Irishman (2019) standing as major contenders at the Oscars. But a movie released by a streaming service hasn’t won an Oscar for Best Picture just yet. (I am sure some will quibble that Searchlight’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/22403141/nomadland-best-picture-oscars">2020 Best Picture winner Nomadland</a> technically also debuted on streaming alongside a theatrical release, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but Searchlight is not a streaming company.)
Yet here’s CODA, <a href="https://www.vox.com/22999406/coda-oscars-best-picture-sundance">this year’s big winner</a> that is somehow both the first movie to win Best Picture after a Sundance debut and the first movie backed by a streaming company (Apple TV+) to win Best Picture.
One could quibble with the fact that CODA is a festival acquisition, and it was not specifically made by Apple in the way that, say, Netflix directly provided a substantial degree of funding to get fellow nominee The Power of the Dog made. It’s also a little rich how CODA — which, granted, is an independently produced Sundance movie — has been turned into a scrappy underdog against Netflix’s behemoth when its Oscar campaign was underwritten by Apple, the biggest corporation in the world.
But none of that matters. Netflix and Prime Video have both taken shots at winning Best Picture and come up short. Apple beat them to the punch — and with a movie that had to hang around all year since the 2021 Sundance festival, no less. CODA is a rather unassuming movie to make this much history, but it did make that much history.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/3/28/22999362/oscars-2022-history-firsts-trivia-ariana-debose-troy-kotsur-coda-apple-tv-plus">https://www.vox.com/2022/3/28/22999362/oscars-2022-history-firsts-trivia-ariana-debose-troy-kotsur-coda-apple-tv-plus</a>

vox Two actors — and one major corporation — that broke boundaries at the 2022 Oscars

Every Oscar ceremony carries with it its share of firsts. Sometimes, those firsts are in categories lots and lots of people pay attention t...

A night of chaos: 4 winners and 2 losers from the 2022 Oscars

The dictum that you can’t spell “Oscars” without “chaos” may not have been an adage before tonight, but it won’t be far from anyone’s minds when the Academy next gathers, thanks to an uneven and wildly unpredictable 2022 ceremony.
First, there was the telecast, which opened with a surprise Beyoncé drop that felt weirdly out of place, and included a wince-inducing Oscar-special rewrite of “<a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/22894837/we-dont-talk-about-bruno-billboard-tik-tok-structure-music">We Don’t Talk About Bruno</a>” that made zero sense in any context. The production’s decision to move many awards to the pre-show turned baffling when the presenters still announced those winners during the ceremony, doing nothing to help save time or momentum. That didn’t mean there weren’t some genuinely moving speeches, and even an amusing host, but bizarre moments were the norm.
But of course, all of this was our regularly scheduled chaos. Our standard, built-in, “<a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/2/27/14748228/oscar-best-picture-moonlight-la-la-land-mixup-beatty-dunaway">will someone read the wrong name</a>?” Oscar-night chaos. None of that prepared anyone, at home or in the Dolby Theatre, for the evening’s stunner — a true Oscar-night first, when the evening’s Best Actor, <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/22999328/will-smith-hit-chris-rock-oscars-best-actor">Will Smith, smacked a presenter, Chris Rock</a>. And they say live TV is boring!
Here are four winners and two losers from tonight’s Oscars, including the biggest winner of all: mayhem.
<h3>Winner: Amy Schumer</h3>
Few Oscars hosts in recent memory have gone quite as hard as co-host Amy Schumer, who had a scandalized Jessica Chastain covering her mouth in shock during Schumer’s opening roast. Taking the stage alongside co-hosts Wanda Sykes and Regina Hall, self-described “unbearable white woman” Schumer managed to stick the landing.
Breezily announcing she hadn’t seen any of the year’s films, Schumer stopped briefly to toy with a few victims — Don’t Look Up (“I guess the Academy members ‘don’t look up’ reviews”), King Richard (“After years of Hollywood ignoring women’s stories, this year we finally got a movie about the incredible Williams sisters’ … dad”) — Schumer settled in with her true victim: Aaron Sorkin’s leaden, soulless Lucille Ball biopic, Being the Ricardos.
“The innovation to make a movie about Lucille Ball without even a moment that’s funny,” Schumer marveled. “It’s brilliant. It’s like making a biopic about Michael Jordan and just showing the bus trips between games. Amazing.”
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<figcaption>Schumer, Sykes, and Hall made for a truly delightful trio of hosts.</figcaption>
<cite>Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images</cite></figure>
Besides her come-out-fighting opening, Schumer also knew how to throw in a gentler joke to cut the tension when necessary. After the jaw-dropping scene of <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/22999328/will-smith-hit-chris-rock-oscars-best-actor">Will Smith slapping Chris Rock in the face live on camera</a>, Schumer wandered out front again post-commercial break in cheery good humor to ask what she’d missed. “The energy seems different in here,” she mused, and the audience laughed with palpable relief.
Schumer also threw in a couple of fat jokes (at herself and her friend Jennifer Lawrence), an unpleasant throwback to the worst traditions of the comedy roast. But for the rest of her bit: Mean jokes that have the benefit of being true? Nicer jokes when the audience could use a break? Absolutely the best possible scenario. On a night characterized by frequently bizarre production choices, Schumer started off the Oscars with just the jolt of acidic, vicious energy that the always self-congratulatory show needed — and softened the vibes when it needed that too. —Constance Grady
<h3>Winner: Beyoncé</h3>
It’s been a long time since Beyoncé last performed on live television (Coachella was in 2018, and her last performance at an awards show was the Grammys in 2017), and the queen returned, opening the Oscars in royal fashion.
Bey, draped in tennis-ball neon yellow and beaming in from the courts of Compton that Venus and Serena Williams once played on, sang “Be Alive,” her Oscar-nominated song from the Williams sisters’ King Richard. Beyoncé, her orchestra, and her dancers (some sporting beads reminiscent of Venus and Serena’s early playing days) delivered a performance that drew inspiration from and evoked the struggle — racism, sexism, classism — the Williams family faced, the ongoing work they continue to do, and an appreciation for everything their triumph symbolizes. The performance was equal parts power, politics, and thrill — a mix that only Beyoncé could deliver. —Alex Abad-Santos
<h3>Loser: Moving the technical awards to the pre-ceremony</h3>
For the first time this year, the Oscars moved eight of their technical awards to the pre-ceremony. The change — which affected the categories of Sound, Editing, Makeup and Hairstyling, Original Score, and Production Design, along with Documentary Short, Animated Short, and Live Action Short — was billed as a time-saving consideration.
Specifically, <a href="https://variety.com/2022/awards/awards/oscars-2022-telecast-categories-cut-1235187841/">Academy President David Rubin wrote in a letter to members this February</a>, it was supposed to save time for more of the Oscars’ favorite time-waster: all those montages. The change, Rubin explained, was to “provide more time and opportunity for audience entertainment and engagement through comedy, musical numbers, film clip packages and movie tributes.”
In theory, the change is a clear loser. Shoving the recognition of talented craftspeople offstage so the Oscars can do a montage about how movies exist? A misfire! In practice, it turned out to be even worse. The ceremony broadcasted the presentation of the nominees as well as portions of their acceptance speeches, in the process shaving off perhaps 30 seconds total from each announcement.
So to sum it up: The Oscars are still bloated and self-congratulatory, and they didn’t even finish up until 11:42 pm. And we all had to sit through a baffling montage about how when the Flash enters the Speed Force, that’s the Oscars. Worst of all possible worlds. —Constance Grady
<h3>Loser: “We Don’t Talk About Bruno”</h3>
“We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” the <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/22894837/we-dont-talk-about-bruno-billboard-tik-tok-structure-music">inescapable hit</a> from the Pixar film Encanto, isn’t even nominated for an Oscar, but its viral popularity is likely what fueled the creative choice to drop a performance of the song smack in the middle of the award show. Unfortunately, the whole thing was kind of a mess.
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<figcaption>The performance of “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” from Encanto.</figcaption>
<cite>Myung Chun/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images</cite></figure>
Perhaps it would have been better to open the show with the song, swapping places with Beyoncé’s tennis court performance of “Be Alive” from King Richard, but even in that scenario, I’m not sure “Bruno” would’ve landed. The original singers were present, alongside singers Luis Fonsi and Becky G, but the seams showed as the performers twirled around the screen, waiting for an unlikely guest to show up: Megan Thee Stallion? It’s unclear what the connection is between the film and the rapper, besides a very transparent bid for more goodwill from young people (as if making the song trend on TikTok wasn’t enough). Also, the lyrics were changed to be about the Oscars itself, which is beyond corny, but of course, the desperation of this institution continues to shine through. But they tried, as usual! We would’ve been better off not talking about “Bruno” at all this evening. —Melinda Fakuade
<h3>Winner: Speeches</h3>
This year’s Oscars was full of visual and sonic clutter — the aforementioned “Bruno” rewrite, a celebration of the 28th anniversary of Pulp Fiction, an alarmingly jaunty in memoriam segment complete with audience reaction shots. Amid all this noise, however, what really stood out were the speeches.
<a href="https://www.vox.com/22820439/west-side-story-review-elgort">From West Side Story’s</a> Ariana DeBose talking about how art shaped her queer identity and empowered her, to <a href="https://www.vox.com/22617235/coda-review-deaf-captions">Coda’s</a> Troy Kotsur dedicating his ASL speech to his father, to <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/22652320/eyes-tammy-faye-bakker-explained-jerry-falwell-jessica-chastain-review">The Eyes of Tammy Faye</a>’s Jessica Chastain speaking about how the woman she played on screen has emboldened her to speak for unity and against discrimination, the low-frills segments that the telecast seemed so determined to distract us from won out. Those human moments will endure longer than any of the show’s manufactured, thirsty bits. —Alex Abad-Santos
<h3>Winner: Chaos</h3>
First, there was the grab bag of awards themselves: Dune won most of the technical awards of its 10 nominations, but missed out on the major ones, while CODA took the award for Best Picture despite being nominated in just three categories. (The last time a film won the big prize with so few nominations was 1932’s Grand Hotel, which only had one.) The Apple TV-ness of it all — CODA is the first film from a streaming platform to win Best Picture, despite years of high-profile attempts by Netflix — just made its win that much odder.
Another much-ridiculed choice, the show’s introduction of fan-favorite awards categories, led to lots of random love for Zack Snyder and superhero films but felt like a baffling interstitial for the rest of the ceremony. Congrats to... Oscar-winner “The Flash Enters the Speed Force” from Zack Snyder’s Justice League? Sure, Academy, whatever.
But none of that prepared anyone, at home or in the Dolby Theatre, for Will Smith marching onstage and slapping Chris Rock across the face (during Rock’s Best Documentary presentation) after Chris Rock cracked a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith — something he’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql54DPd44TQ">apparently done before</a>. Rock’s joke razed Jada for her shaved head — something Jada, who has alopecia, clearly didn’t appreciate. Cue Will reacting, uh, badly:
Smith then proceeded to 1. be comforted by Denzel Washington and Tyler Perry, apparently plucked from the evening’s unexpected cameo dartboard; 2. win the Oscar for Best Actor for the titular role in King Richard. Smith spent his entire speech discussing his vulnerable headspace thanks to playing Richard Williams, a man known for “defending his family,” all while Venus Williams herself looked on sadly, and most of the audience just looked shook up.
No amount of jokes and references to making amends could really lift the evening after that. “Will Smith said it all,” Anthony Hopkins deadpanned half an hour or so later. Was he quipping? Was he serious? Does it matter? Does anything matter? —Aja Romano
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/3/28/22999435/2022-oscars-will-smith-amy-schumer-coda">https://www.vox.com/2022/3/28/22999435/2022-oscars-will-smith-amy-schumer-coda</a>

vox A night of chaos: 4 winners and 2 losers from the 2022 Oscars

The dictum that you can’t spell “Oscars” without “chaos” may not have been an adage before tonight, but it won’t be far from anyone’s minds ...

How CODA managed to pull out a Best Picture win

Until a couple weeks ago, nobody really seemed to think Sian Heder’s film CODA, the little family drama that could, would pull out any Oscar wins, let alone Best Picture. (I sure didn’t.)
And why would they? With a modest $10 million budget, it premiered at a fully virtual Sundance Film Festival, with all festivalgoers sitting at home on their couches. That happened 14 months before these Oscars, which is an extraordinarily long time for a movie to keep picking up steam. (There’s been an <a href="https://www.vox.com/22403117/oscars-2021-winners-losers-nomadland-anthony-hopkins-chadwick-boseman-netflix">entire other Oscars</a> since then.) No Sundance premiere has ever won Best Picture.
Though it starred some well-known performers — including Marlee Matlin, until now the only deaf person to ever win an Oscar for her performance (in 1987 for Children of a Lesser God), and multi-talented now-Best Actor winner Troy Kotsur — it didn’t have any grabby names or obvious Oscar-bait hook. CODA, named for the acronym Children of Deaf Adults, is a movie about a hearing teenager who works with her deaf parents and brother in their fishing business, but harbors aspirations of studying music. It’s based on a French film (the very similar 2014 La Famille Bélier). A large portion of it is in American Sign Language. It’s sweet, and funny, and a little corny, and very earnest.
But here we are: A movie distributed by a streaming service has won Best Picture, for the first time in 94 years of Oscar history. And against odds and most predictions until recently, that streaming service wasn’t Netflix, whose films The Power of the Dog and Don’t Look Up were considered among the strongest contenders for the night’s big prize. It was Apple TV+, which is lowkey <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2021/4/6/22360749/apple-tv-plus-programming-streaming-ted-lasso-for-all-mankind-dickinson">maybe the best streaming service out there</a> but hasn’t managed to get a lot of traction with subscribers in the streamer glut, especially for its movies.
The service picked up CODA at Sundance, but it was a big gamble for them. Streamers haven’t yet fared very well with the Academy when it comes to winning. And CODA was released on August 13, 2021, in pre-pandemic times considered a dead spot in the release calendar. It did open in theaters, but not many of them. It didn’t have much buzz. If it nabbed some guild awards, maybe an Indie Spirit, that would be incredible.
<figure class="e-image"><picture class="c-picture" data-cid="site/picture_element-1648456024_5021_1105587" data-cdata='{"asset_id":23349864,"ratio":"*"}'><source srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/LuIWAvac2jmU1DlgusWJzCMwG0A=/0x0:2500x1407/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:2500x1407):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23349864/coda3.jpeg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/v9W-mql8YAssqM5we6q0cx-hGzM=/0x0:2500x1407/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:2500x1407):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23349864/coda3.jpeg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/V0oIje1L3dBQSnXmG4LaDFNlqfU=/0x0:2500x1407/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:2500x1407):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23349864/coda3.jpeg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/WQqEITuWQUaqBtJCstFr1ZJPn68=/0x0:2500x1407/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:2500x1407):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23349864/coda3.jpeg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/FI6irY-ktffHaidIu8rTe9WJMns=/0x0:2500x1407/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:2500x1407):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23349864/coda3.jpeg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/V4-clQxbqj_rck4IoxJJmnBZFoQ=/0x0:2500x1407/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:2500x1407):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23349864/coda3.jpeg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/xCshCHQJiIqDmGkkshhFyXLUwOM=/0x0:2500x1407/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:2500x1407):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23349864/coda3.jpeg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/00xgiH-ay1WI6VCt6tE28MkWMzA=/0x0:2500x1407/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:2500x1407):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23349864/coda3.jpeg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/3rY1qafK6DwEJATYFJTJvZ8e6nU=/0x0:2500x1407/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:2500x1407):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23349864/coda3.jpeg 1920w" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" type="image/webp" /> <img alt="A family at dinner." data-upload-width="2500" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/DAyoM8upFmf6gASd3x8aWsz85GI=/0x0:2500x1407/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:2500x1407):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23349864/coda3.jpeg" srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/J1kPrIah0cEvWRVMDiS374uY2rY=/0x0:2500x1407/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:2500x1407):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23349864/coda3.jpeg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/d584UmST4XTr5sCz68RqaSFysSo=/0x0:2500x1407/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:2500x1407):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23349864/coda3.jpeg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/PfDm7HniLasit1jOs3Vz2t_s6WU=/0x0:2500x1407/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:2500x1407):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23349864/coda3.jpeg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Tbo-LyrziReP378NexCBQKFaT7Q=/0x0:2500x1407/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:2500x1407):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23349864/coda3.jpeg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/IWcB_iu6rKpxCw070fH6A35L408=/0x0:2500x1407/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:2500x1407):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23349864/coda3.jpeg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/8ZlDTcb_7zY7caXMPRjBgf6QvPw=/0x0:2500x1407/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:2500x1407):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23349864/coda3.jpeg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/w5n-RjXv_JCKNtzQ7UYE_fqjDBk=/0x0:2500x1407/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:2500x1407):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23349864/coda3.jpeg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/wqmn6UQwBhgpB3n0C_YN86SWBXM=/0x0:2500x1407/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:2500x1407):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23349864/coda3.jpeg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/tFHMJeGhA1BPHUOwldet_ZYhnFQ=/0x0:2500x1407/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:2500x1407):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23349864/coda3.jpeg 1920w" /></picture>
<figcaption>Emilia Jones, Troy Kotsur, Marlee Matlin, and Daniel Durant in CODA.</figcaption>
<cite>Apple</cite></figure>
Hard to say exactly what happened, but looking at the calendar, you can kind of guess. The movie’s fortunes seemed to turn when, in late February, the film won the award for its ensemble cast. Kotsur won for his performance that night, too, and started to pick up awards: a BAFTA, a Critics’ Choice, an Indie Spirit. And by the weekend before the Oscars, when the film won Best Adapted Screenplay from the Writers Guild and the top prize from <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/20/movies/coda-producers-guild-awards.html">the Producer’s Guild</a>, it started to look like the little movie that could was actually a snowball starting to barrel down the hill.
Plus, it’s just … really nice to watch. It’s got a loving and imperfect family, a teenager with big dreams, and some tearjerking moments. Never discount the power of a movie that makes people feel a little verklempt by the end and feel as if they’re contributing to an overlooked issue — in this case, the difficulties that deaf people can encounter in navigating a world overwhelmingly biased toward the hearing. If voters hadn’t seen the movie when it came out, the barrage of awards would attract their attention — and it could have seemed like a great option, especially to those who might have been tired out by the discourse around other films.
Whether it deserves the award is another question. There’s a lot to love about CODA, which feels, in many ways, like the kind of movie you can see any day at Sundance or, these days, on a streaming service. It’s modest. It’s about ordinary people living ordinary lives. It’s got some songs, and lessons, and a good heart.
On the other hand, it’s hard to see exactly how it fits the Best Picture category. The Academy tends to honor films that it sees as representative, in some way, of the past year in film. The Best Picture winner is the movie that the largest voting body in Hollywood, made up entirely of people who are working at the highest levels in the film industry, wish to put forward as the best of the bunch, the example of what we can do.
It’s also hard to totally square CODA with that designation. It’s got some prominent weak spots (notably Eugenio Derbez, whose performance as the music teacher feels entirely out of place) and quirks, and doesn’t feel as steady, confident, and assured as any of the other films nominated in that category.
The fact that it prevailed may have something to do with <a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/2/22/8084239/oscars-2015-ballot">the wackadoodle way that the Academy votes for Best Picture</a>, which tends to award the prize to bland movies. In recent years, with <a href="https://www.vox.com/22332389/oscars-academy-diversity-membership-2021">changes in the Academy’s demographic makeup</a> and films like Moonlight and Parasite (and even The Shape of Water), some of this has changed. But CODA does feel like the sort of movie most people can agree upon, and that helps it stand out.
<figure class="e-image"><picture class="c-picture" data-cid="site/picture_element-1648456024_9010_1105588" data-cdata='{"asset_id":23349869,"ratio":"*"}'><source srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/FnkeL-P7KXDWakdyqW586HwPJs4=/0x0:2400x1200/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:2400x1200):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23349869/coda4.jpeg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/7M-jyrF2LaOMaRsaq0BF-aK7OBo=/0x0:2400x1200/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:2400x1200):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23349869/coda4.jpeg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/kr2ItsQEiMnixCN5W1oAiM0rz9Q=/0x0:2400x1200/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:2400x1200):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23349869/coda4.jpeg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/AFnp-yoAjICfRmsvLF_mX3LH0PA=/0x0:2400x1200/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:2400x1200):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23349869/coda4.jpeg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/r3Ql0ZgdqktVe61BTA27B_8_2Co=/0x0:2400x1200/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:2400x1200):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23349869/coda4.jpeg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/GJEfpYYyvvrTmhrsEu7YFKNTwGc=/0x0:2400x1200/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:2400x1200):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23349869/coda4.jpeg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/aRxkUBogB3szkrpJILKSrs8WD7Q=/0x0:2400x1200/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:2400x1200):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23349869/coda4.jpeg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/4xjQkkbfPdHDXoSnuOy0NP4uGrw=/0x0:2400x1200/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:2400x1200):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23349869/coda4.jpeg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/0B3aSh8IWMbRaEbR7kHMtW7rvhI=/0x0:2400x1200/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:2400x1200):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23349869/coda4.jpeg 1920w" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" type="image/webp" /> <img alt="A teenaged girl and her father sit in the back of a truck. He has his arm around her shoulders." data-upload-width="2400" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/jNukqjkBIT9KW7KJVBACbID3Ikg=/0x0:2400x1200/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:2400x1200):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23349869/coda4.jpeg" srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/YyEtvf4ynvt8FRTMyKKPIgFYfRc=/0x0:2400x1200/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:2400x1200):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23349869/coda4.jpeg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/wPF225iEDeHnU3-Plk-idgvQxfw=/0x0:2400x1200/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:2400x1200):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23349869/coda4.jpeg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/jOeofUoVy2sPxq5ObisoGoNa0dQ=/0x0:2400x1200/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:2400x1200):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23349869/coda4.jpeg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/z5jATzXQ_OagxpDGGkA9pgS57fg=/0x0:2400x1200/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:2400x1200):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23349869/coda4.jpeg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/--3Du6iHxuyRnFN1v9niIVJtzdo=/0x0:2400x1200/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:2400x1200):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23349869/coda4.jpeg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/4-5pwQRyHLIqeEb2Dpxa-oE9NlQ=/0x0:2400x1200/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:2400x1200):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23349869/coda4.jpeg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/FXRro6du-TSSmB2jhwtDuJaUee0=/0x0:2400x1200/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:2400x1200):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23349869/coda4.jpeg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/3Zv2Kkr6pI3HjftZ_JNNEJeAPRk=/0x0:2400x1200/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:2400x1200):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23349869/coda4.jpeg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/7uvLp9F_U3nFP2jAT7TlQ3MKTmU=/0x0:2400x1200/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:2400x1200):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23349869/coda4.jpeg 1920w" /></picture>
<figcaption>Emilia Jones and Troy Kotsur in CODA.</figcaption>
<cite>Apple</cite></figure>
And in a way, the selection makes a lot of sense. Look, it’s been a tough year. It’s been a bewildering year in the movie industry. People were trying to make movies in the middle of a pandemic. Theaters were sort of open sometimes but nobody seemed to know whether they could go to them. Festivals and awards were canceled and moved and just plain weird to attend. Schedules were upended. There’s a lot of fear that huge-budget megablockbusters are the only movies that can matter anymore, the only ones that studios will choose to make, since they’re the only ones that make money back. Streaming, an inherently individualistic mode of watching, is eating into an industry that built itself on the communal experience of a theater. Nobody seems to have any idea what’s going to happen next.
CODA straddles that line between uncertainty and safety and maybe a little bit of a message to the industry decision-makers. Yes, it’s a movie that most people will see on their TVs, not a theater. But Apple TV+ did pay a lot of money to get it there, long after the independent production was completed.
It’s also a movie that placed enough value on the deaf community to surface some of the problems deaf viewers encounter when they watch a film, especially in a theater, and <a href="https://www.vox.com/22617235/coda-review-deaf-captions">purposely find ways to counteract that</a>. It’s not an original story (it won Best Adapted Screenplay, after all), but it’s not based on IP that would be familiar to its audience. You can read the honor the Academy paid to it as a message to the studios: you may not make as much money off these movies, but we still want them.
Is that enough to make studios listen? Sadly, probably not. But as a representative of the topsy-turvy movie year, in a topsy-turvy world, handed out at a remarkably topsy-turvy Oscars, it might not be half bad. It may not really be 2021’s best film, but CODA’s Best Picture win might just make the best sense.
CODA is streaming on Apple TV+.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/22999406/coda-oscars-best-picture-sundance">https://www.vox.com/22999406/coda-oscars-best-picture-sundance</a>

vox How CODA managed to pull out a Best Picture win

Until a couple weeks ago, nobody really seemed to think Sian Heder’s film CODA , the little family drama that could, would pull out any Osca...

Will Smith hit Chris Rock live on TV at the Oscars, then won Best Actor

<div><img class="ff-og-image-inserted" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/bL20Et-Z3p9LVLsKlNs-FpYSQJA=/0x0:3833x2007/fit-in/1200x630/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23349751/1239559303.jpg" /></div>
In the final hour of an otherwise sleepy Oscars telecast came a moment of shock and chaos. You’d be forgiven for missing it between the shaky camera angles and the cut audio, but Will Smith slapped Chris Rock on live TV. Minutes later, Smith won his first ever Oscar.
“I did not know this was gonna be the most exciting Oscars ever,” marveled Diddy shortly after.
Here’s what happened.
Chris Rock was appearing at the Oscars to announce the winner for Best Documentary. In the leadup to announcing the nominees, he went through a little comedic patter about some of the nominees, and his attention appeared to snag on Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, sitting in front in a green gown with a shaved head.
“Jada, I love you,” Rock said. “G.I. Jane 2, can’t wait to see it, all right?”
Pinkett’s face went stony, and Smith got to his feet, marched onto the stage, and slapped Rock in the face. The audio of the US broadcast went out at that point, but it continued uncensored in other countries, including Japan and Australia.
“Wow! Wow!” said Rock, swaying slightly as Smith strode back to his seat. “Will Smith just smacked the shit out of me, everybody.”
“Keep my wife’s name out your fucking mouth,” Smith shouted from the audience.
“Wow, dude,” said Rock. “It was a G.I. Jane joke.”
“Keep my wife’s name out your fucking mouth,” Smith repeated.
“I’m going to. Okay?” said Rock. He paused for a second, double-taking, and the audio in the US came back again just in time to catch him saying, “That was the greatest night in the history of television. Okay. Okay.” Then he went on with presenting the Oscar (which went to Summer of Soul, directed by Questlove).
Just minutes later, Smith won the Oscar for Best Actor for his performance in King Richard, in which he played Richard Williams, father of Venus and Serena Williams.
“Richard Williams was a fierce defender of his family,” Smith began as he took the stage. “In this time in my life, I am overwhelmed by what God is calling on me to do and be in this world.”
Smith wept throughout his speech, which ranged from a defense of his actions to apologies to the Academy to an exaltation of Richard Williams.
“I want to apologize to the Academy,” he said. “I want to apologize to all my fellow nominees. This is a beautiful moment. And I’m not crying for winning an award. It’s not about winning an award for me. It’s about being able to shine a light on all the people.”
Smith went on to say that he wanted to “lift up” the stories of people like Richard Williams, who protected those he loved.
Pinkett Smith has been diagnosed with alopecia, an autoimmune disease that results in hair loss. She first went public with her diagnosis <a href="https://www.etonline.com/jada-pinkett-smith-shares-update-on-alopecia-hair-loss-177072">in 2018 on her Facebook Live show Red Table Talk</a>.
“It was terrifying when it first started,” she said at the time. “I was in the shower one day and had just handfuls of hair in my hands and I was just like, ‘Oh my god, am I going bald?’”
In July 2021, Pinkett Smith shaved her head, saying her daughter Willow convinced her “it was time to let go.”
Rock is familiar with the vexed politics surrounding Black women’s hair. In 2009, he produced and starred in the documentary Good Hair, about how Black women have historically thought about and styled their hair.
Rock has also targeted Pinkett Smith in his Oscars humor before. When Rock hosted the Oscars in 2016, it was in the midst of the #OscarsSoWhite protests, and Pinkett Smith was one of many major Black celebrities who had committed to boycotting the Oscars to protest their lack of diversity.
“Jada got mad, said she’s not coming. Jada boycotting the Oscars is like me boycotting Rihanna’s panties. I wasn’t invited,” <a href="https://variety.com/2016/film/news/oscars-chris-rock-jada-pinkett-smith-1201717698/">Rock said</a>.
In <a href="https://www.thewrap.com/chris-rock-declines-police-report-will-smith-oscars-lapd/">a statement to The Wrap tonight</a>, the LAPD said Rock declined to file a police report on Smith.
“Art imitates life,” Smith said during his acceptance speech. “I look like the crazy father, just like they said. But love will make you do crazy things.”
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source <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/22999328/will-smith-hit-chris-rock-oscars-best-actor">https://www.vox.com/culture/22999328/will-smith-hit-chris-rock-oscars-best-actor</a>

vox Will Smith hit Chris Rock live on TV at the Oscars, then won Best Actor

In the final hour of an otherwise sleepy Oscars telecast came a moment of shock and chaos. You’d be forgiven for missing it between the sha...

Could Putin face punishment as a war criminal?

After more than a month of fighting in Ukraine, the United States this week <a href="https://www.state.gov/war-crimes-by-russias-forces-in-ukraine/">formally determined</a> that Russian forces have committed war crimes there, raising the prospect of potential prosecutions by the International Criminal Court, or ICC.
Reports and footage of the invasion have documented numerous atrocities, including indiscriminate shelling of population centers and the killing of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/06/world/europe/ukrainian-family-killed-war.html">refugees</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/03/24/journalists-killed-ukraine-russia-war/">journalists</a>.
In the besieged city of Mariupol alone, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/15/world/europe/mariupol-death-toll-ukraine.html">thousands of Ukrainians have been killed</a>, and civilian buildings, including a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-zelenskyy-kyiv-europe-moscow-b56759e5d40db18e94bef8e42db23e47">theater</a>, an <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/20/europe/russia-invasion-ukraine-03-20-intl/index.html">art school</a>, and a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2022/03/europe/mariupol-maternity-hospital-attack/index.html">maternity hospital</a>, have been targeted by Russian bombs. The real death toll is believed to be far greater — potentially as high as 20,000, a Mariupol official said earlier this month — but a sustained shelling campaign has made casualties hard to confirm.
In Mariupol and across Ukraine, countless reports from Ukrainians showing mountains of rubble left from homes and buildings destroyed by Russian troops, as well as injured residents, have also circulated on social media.
Certain acts of war are considered direct violations of international humanitarian law, such as deliberately targeting health care facilities. The World Health Organization has <a href="https://www.who.int/director-general/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-remarks-at-united-nations-security-council-meeting-on-ukraine-17-march-2022">verified</a> 43 attacks on health care facilities that took place amid the conflict, with 12 people killed and 34 injured, many of whom were health workers.
Russia has <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-crimes-tracker-b39137c3a96eef06f4ba1793fd694542">consistently denied deliberately striking civilian targets</a>, despite an increasingly vast body of evidence to the contrary.
Wednesday’s announcement by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, however, is a step further than previous, less formal accusations against Russia.
“Today, I can announce that, based on information currently available, the US government assesses that members of Russia’s forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine,” Blinken said in a <a href="https://www.state.gov/war-crimes-by-russias-forces-in-ukraine/">statement</a>. “Our assessment is based on a careful review of available information from public and intelligence sources.”
“We are committed to pursuing accountability using every tool available, including criminal prosecutions,” Blinken added.
Blinken’s designation raises a number of questions, including its implications for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who the State Department described as unleashing “unrelenting violence that has caused death and destruction across Ukraine.” It’s also very likely only the start of the process of reckoning with increasing reports of atrocities in Ukraine.
<h3>The US says Russia is committing war crimes. What does that actually mean?</h3>
Wednesday’s statement isn’t the first time a US official has suggested war crimes are occurring in Ukraine, but it’s the first with the full weight of the US government behind it.
<a href="https://twitter.com/StateDept/status/1506718675495096322?s=20&t=ZoaRUItxiCOzVp3u0QtqwA">According to Beth Van Schaack</a>, the US ambassador at large for global criminal justice, the designation is the product of a thorough assessment of credible media reports of critical civilian infrastructure being destroyed by Russian forces in Ukraine, as well as intelligence reports on the conflict.
“The UN and other credible observers have confirmed hundreds of civilian deaths and we believe that the exact civilian death toll will be in the thousands,” Van Schaack said at a press briefing on March 23.
<div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Ambassador at Large for Global Criminal Justice Beth Van Schaack provides background on the assessment that Russia forces are committing war crimes in Ukraine. “We are committed to pursuing full accountability for war crimes in Ukraine using all of the tools available to us.” <a href="https://t.co/KA0mcv2lBx">pic.twitter.com/KA0mcv2lBx</a>
— Department of State (@StateDept) <a href="https://twitter.com/StateDept/status/1506718675495096322?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 23, 2022</a></blockquote>
</div>
The designation also signals US intent to pursue accountability. As Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/21/politics/putin-war-criminal-ukraine-russia-what-matters/index.html">explained on CNN</a>, even if the public “all feel it personally,” a strong body of evidence that proves war crimes were indeed committed by the Russian military must be submitted to the international court to have any real effect.
“In terms of international law, you have to have evidence, you have to have a body of proof that in fact there was intentionality,” Sherman said.
The formal State Department designation comes about a week after President Joe Biden made a more off-the-cuff remark about Putin himself. Biden <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/16/politics/biden-calls-putin-a-war-criminal/index.html">described Putin as “war criminal”</a> in public remarks on March 16, a label with which <a href="https://www.axios.com/blinken-putin-war-criminal-7eb4e314-a7f9-4428-bc35-6abfcea6c76a.html">Blinken said</a> he “personally” agreed.
The White House has so far avoided applying that label to Putin formally, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-putin-biden-united-nations-jen-psaki-40e21508055f7ff65424afe2d8e406d8">citing ongoing investigations</a> by international parties into the alleged war crimes committed by Russian forces, and White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki explained that Biden was simply <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/16/politics/biden-calls-putin-a-war-criminal/index.html">“speaking from the heart”</a> after seeing the images of war coming out of Ukraine.
Of course, there is a distinction between calling a sovereign state leader a “war criminal” in the moral sense and using that designation in actual legal terms — but Wednesday’s statement, which mentions Putin by name while accusing his forces of war crimes, is a step closer formalizing the label.
<div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
"The president's remarks speak for themselves. He was speaking from his heart," White House Pres. Secretary Jen Psaki says of <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a>'s comments to reporters Wednesday calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a "war criminal." <a href="https://t.co/jP1W2EaoDB">pic.twitter.com/jP1W2EaoDB</a>
— CBS News (@CBSNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/CBSNews/status/1504175280872693760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 16, 2022</a></blockquote>
</div>
Legally, the term “war criminal” refers to a specific set of offenses and carries the potential for actual consequences. Many longstanding “rules of war” are defined and agreed upon within the parameters set in the 1949 Geneva Conventions — treaties and protocols setting humanitarian standards within the context of war that was established in the aftermath of World War II.
According to <a href="https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/applic/ihl/ihl.nsf/Article.xsp?action=openDocument&documentId=F8D322BF3C0216B2C12563CD0051C654">Article 147</a> of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which relates to the protection of civilians, war crimes are violations against persons or property protected by the Conventions including “wilful killing, torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments, wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement of a protected person...taking of hostages and extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly.”
Additionally, the <a href="https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/war-crimes.shtml">Rome Statute</a> of the ICC has its own list expanding on what violations are considered war crimes.
These rules of war set <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/10/23/explainer-what-is-a-war-crime#:~:text=Geneva%20Conventions&text=Article%20147%20of%20the%20Fourth,confinement%20of%20a%20protected%20person%20%E2%80%A6">precise definitions</a> on what exactly constitutes a war crime, which do not always align with what the public may morally consider war crimes. The bombing of a school building, for example, while heinous, may not constitute a war crime if it can somehow be justified as a military necessity by the perpetrating forces.
Striking purely civilian targets, however, is <a href="https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/war-crimes.shtml">considered a war crime</a>.
If there is sufficient evidence to meet the war crime criteria based on international law, an individual accused of committing war crimes, particularly in the context of conflict, may be reported to and, potentially, prosecuted by the ICC, an international tribunal based out of the Hague in the Netherlands.
<h3>Could Putin be prosecuted for war crimes?</h3>
Given the legal parameters that need to be met to potentially prosecute Putin as a war criminal in front of an international tribune, the first step is collecting as much evidence as possible of war crimes committed by the Russian military, and <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/03/russia-war-crimes-putin-prosecute.html">establishing</a> Putin’s culpability in those offenses.
According to State Department Counselor Derek Chollet, soon after the Russian invasion into Ukraine, a team was <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/5JGorGvdwljJHTl6wpMXN3">assembled</a> under the US government to compile evidence of any humanitarian violations in the conflict. The US, like Russia, is not a member of the ICC, but it may still provide evidence to support other countries in the case against Putin.
Other international efforts are underway; missions to collect evidence of war crimes in Ukraine are being <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/03/24/putin-war-crimes-prosecute-trial-ukraine/">carried out</a> by the UN Human Rights Council and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the US is conducting <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-putin-biden-united-nations-jen-psaki-40e21508055f7ff65424afe2d8e406d8">joint operations</a> with 44 other countries to investigative possible conflict abuses, and the ICC has opened a probe into Russia’s alleged humanitarian violations in the war.
<figure class="e-image"><picture class="c-picture" data-cid="site/picture_element-1648454846_432_264981" data-cdata='{"asset_id":23348744,"ratio":"*"}'><source srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/FKkdMAW_y_gEhCNnLKhCsi0QqAo=/0x0:4838x3390/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:4838x3390):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23348744/1239530517.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ijIQ0lW1ZLbCxayx59T9JFdkueY=/0x0:4838x3390/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:4838x3390):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23348744/1239530517.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/4r9OmWRwkNHmC9c1sSm27p_fKEo=/0x0:4838x3390/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:4838x3390):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23348744/1239530517.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/wWdgRosAQKbZx0laXwyUMsO486A=/0x0:4838x3390/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:4838x3390):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23348744/1239530517.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/xPROg-7hK8cfq9HGL8umFkJbzW4=/0x0:4838x3390/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:4838x3390):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23348744/1239530517.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/6_UR5e4ZpljXOqxpgyTAWB8zHgU=/0x0:4838x3390/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:4838x3390):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23348744/1239530517.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/qkrg4W5_tE0NxkAPHF9DkuNKe58=/0x0:4838x3390/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:4838x3390):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23348744/1239530517.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/3cbvcp0Sbh0i55nM8P0IjG_icMw=/0x0:4838x3390/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:4838x3390):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23348744/1239530517.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/DmDqRwMTp5V5rSbVHITr7Zdp0gk=/0x0:4838x3390/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:4838x3390):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23348744/1239530517.jpg 1920w" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" type="image/webp" /> <img alt="Damaged buildings are seen as civilians are evacuated from Mariupol, Ukraine." data-upload-width="4838" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/8q6phu6HG2RIx8zm8rZ4_3oLBIo=/0x0:4838x3390/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:4838x3390):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23348744/1239530517.jpg" srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/rNLOh_BB6WVv4TR0nt2SuRIlOPw=/0x0:4838x3390/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:4838x3390):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23348744/1239530517.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/vjuwZp2mL5x97Az5IPvfVd2sbNI=/0x0:4838x3390/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:4838x3390):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23348744/1239530517.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/9gTyEnht63jqe33abzxJjvHprbQ=/0x0:4838x3390/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:4838x3390):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23348744/1239530517.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/UXNWUTeUokR6KbN-ckVtxQnr5qs=/0x0:4838x3390/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:4838x3390):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23348744/1239530517.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/UFzFZ4EMlWwNfBDhE3-pAxO9Ilk=/0x0:4838x3390/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:4838x3390):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23348744/1239530517.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/2DrJGZxUhuojkTioRPtULwgbZsI=/0x0:4838x3390/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:4838x3390):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23348744/1239530517.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/m8yTouhUW-CQu53aIzujhHnikGw=/0x0:4838x3390/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:4838x3390):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23348744/1239530517.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Kk61yIS4MoZ1np559Y82Zg43uXA=/0x0:4838x3390/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:4838x3390):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23348744/1239530517.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/mtyAh3aZugEGdA-z8V-bDpn8Poo=/0x0:4838x3390/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:4838x3390):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23348744/1239530517.jpg 1920w" /></picture>
<figcaption>Damaged buildings are seen as Ukrainian civilians are evacuated along humanitarian corridors from the city of Mariupol on March 26, 2022.</figcaption>
<cite>Stringer/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</cite></figure>
Ukrainian officials have also launched their own operations to document war crimes on the ground, providing evidential support to international prosecutors, including ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan.
“We can help him with our information, with our witnesses, with our victims,” Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/03/24/putin-war-crimes-prosecute-trial-ukraine/">said</a> of her country’s efforts to support ICC’s investigation. “I will do everything to help him be successful because if he will be successful, Ukraine will be successful.”
There are notable limitations in pursuing this route.
Since Russia is not a member of the ICC, the court’s universal jurisdiction essentially does not apply to Russia or any other non-member state, which presents challenges in pursuing a case against Putin, even if an indictment is brought against him or other Russian officials
Additionally, the ICC <a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/about/how-the-court-works">does not have its own enforcement body</a>, so it relies heavily on the cooperation of other countries to enforce its procedures — including making physical arrests and transporting individuals to the Hague to be tried. As such, there’s little prospect for a war crimes prosecution against Putin while he remains in office.
Previous war crimes indictments by the ICC only serve to highlight the difficulty of prosecuting such cases: Most notably, despite a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/mar/04/omar-bashir-sudan-president-arrest">2009 indictment</a>, former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir — the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/mar/04/omar-bashir-sudan-president-arrest">first sitting head of state</a> to face an arrest warrant on war crimes charges from the ICC — has yet to face prosecution.
Despite these limitations, branding Putin a “war criminal” in the legal sense could still have consequences, particularly in the (unlikely) scenario where Putin loses power and wants to flee the country. As political scientists Alexander Downes and Daniel Krcmaric <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/03/24/putin-icc-biden-war-crimes/">noted in the Washington Post</a> last week, “there is little chance that the sitting leader of a major nuclear power will be hauled in front of the ICC. But the ICC investigation and Biden’s ‘war criminal’ label mean that a foreign retirement — or even foreign travel — is probably off the table.”
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/3/27/22998458/russia-putin-war-crimes-designation-ukraine-invasion">https://www.vox.com/2022/3/27/22998458/russia-putin-war-crimes-designation-ukraine-invasion</a>

vox Could Putin face punishment as a war criminal?

After more than a month of fighting in Ukraine, the United States this week formally determined that Russian forces have committed war crim...