Last night the Academy Awards convened once again to bestow film’s greatest honor to a wide field of recipients. This year’s ceremony was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, who helped keep the ceremonies to about 3 hours and 40 minutes length.
Over the nearly four hour ceremony a lot of history was made, including many first time nominees winning big, including Brendan Fraser and Ke Huy Quan.
Brendan Fraser won for Best Actor in a Leading Role for Darren Aronofsky’s ‘The Whale’, and in his speech gave a tearful, often metaphorical, tale of his journey to this award. Brendan Fraser’s return to the spotlight had been much celebrated by the public over this past year.
‘The Whale’ also won for Makeup and Hairstyling for Adrien Morot, Judy Chin and Annemarie Bradley.
Ke Huy Quan won for Best Supporting Actor in a Leading Role. This was the first in many wins for ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once‘, a film that’s swept nearly every awards show it’s been a part of. Quan was best known as a child actor for his role as Data in ‘The Goonies’ and Shortround in ‘Indiana Jones: Temple of Doom’. He spoke about his time as a refugee, and his incredible journey to this moment when he received his Oscar. He reminded people in his speech to never give up on your dream.
Jamie Lee Curtis shortly followed with her win for Best Supporting Actress in a Feature Film for ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’. She gave a shoutout to the genre films that her many fans have loved over the years, and are so often underrepresented at the Oscars. She also gave a teary nod to her belated parents, both famous and well-regarded actors in their time, Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh.
‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ also began to receive a number of awards, including Best Cinematography and Best International Feature Film.
Guillermo Del Toro won the first award of the night for Best Animated Feature with his win for ‘Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio’. In his speech, he celebrated the art form of animation as a storytelling device equal to live-action.
Sarah Polley’s film ‘Women Talking’ won Best Adapted Screenplay, and in her remarks she said she was glad that the two words ‘Women’ and ‘Talking’ together didn’t scare away the Academy, a remark that was met with much applause.
‘RRR’ won Best Original Song for ‘Naatu Naatu’. This was the first Indian language song winner at the Oscars, with recipients M.M. Keeravaani and Chandrabose receiving the award.
‘Naatu Naatu’ was performed alongside the many other Original Songs for the evening.
Blockbuster films were largely shut out this year, with ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ winning only Best Sound for Mark Weingarten, James H. Mather, Al Nelson, Chris Burdon and Mark Taylor, and ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ winning only Best Visual Effects for Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon and Daniel Barrett. Neither Tom Cruise nor James Cameron were in attendance.
Documentaries received a well-earned spotlight with their two award categories for Documentary Feature Film and Documentary Short Film. ‘Navalny’ won for Documentary Feature Film, and in addition to those behind the film Daniel Roher, Odessa Rae, Diane Becker, Melanie Miller and Shane Boris who received the award, there was an passionate speech from Navalny’s wife who as present. Navalny himself is currently in prison in Russia.
Kartiki Gonsalves and Guneet Monga won for their Documentary Short Film ‘The Elephant Whisperers’, which explores the relationship between an orphaned baby elephant, Raghu, and the couple who cares for the elephant.
Ruth Carter received her second Academy Award for Best Costuming with ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’, which follows her win in this category for ‘Black Panther’ 2018, which made her already the first African-American to win in this category and now she’s the first to win multiple times in this category.
In the Short Films category, Best Short Film (Animated) went to Charlie Mackesy and Matthew Freud for ‘The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse’.
For Best Short Film (Live Action), Tom Berkeley and Ross White won for ‘An Irish Goodbye’. Tom Berkeley and Ross White led a rousing happy birthday sing-along for actor and star of ‘An Irish Goodbye’ James Martin.
Rounding off the awards ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ won two more major wins with Best Actress in a Leading Role going to the venerable Michelle Yeoh, who like her castmate Quan before her, implored for those out there to continue their dreams. She is the first Asian actress to win in this category.
Capping off the night, and certainly Everything Everywhere All At Once’s many wins, the film was recognized for Best Picture. This was a major night with many first time nominees and winners, including many of the cast, and it shined a light on greater representation for Asian Actors, who for the first time won a Best Picture award for a majority Asian cast.
