The 94th Academy Awards featured comedians Wanda Sykes, Regina Hall, and Amy Schumer as the first official hosts since 2018, when Jimmy Kimmel was the last single host. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2019, 2020, and 2021 Oscars did not have hosts. 

The year's ceremony began with the first eight awards being presented before the broadcasting started, and introduced a new fan-voted award, where audiences were asked to vote on X (formerly Twitter) for their favorite movie, with "Army of the Dead" announced live as the winner during the event. The movie "CODA," which featured a largely deaf cast, won for "Best Picture," with Kotsur taking home the award for "Best Supporting Actor" for his role, becoming the first male deaf actor to win an Oscar.

Ariana DeBose made history by being the first Afro-Latina and openly LGBTQ actor to win "Best Supporting Actress." Jane Campion won the "Best Director" Oscar for "The Power of the Dog," making her only the third woman to win in the category. It was also the first time in history that the directing award went to women in back-to-back years, following Chloé Zhao's 2021 win for "Nomadland."

During the ceremony, presenter comedian Chris Rock mocked Will's wife Jada's appearance. Smith marched to the stage and slapped Rock, and was banned from the awards ceremony for 10 years.