Although the 2023 Oscars award has come and gone, it will be the talk of the town for a while. The star-studded red carpet and the prestigious award recipients added to the night’s glitz and glamour.
The 95th Academy Awards was held Sunday night at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Here are some major highlights that took place during the ceremony.
‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ Wins Seven Awards
A24’s Everything Everywhere All at Once won best picture at the 2023 Oscars on Sunday night, one of seven Academy Awards it received—including prizes for its direction, original screenplay, editing and performances from actors Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis.
Michelle Yeoh the ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ star is the first woman of full Asian descent—and the second woman of colour — in 95 years to win in the lead actress category.
In a four-decade career already marked by trailblazing and unprecedented achievement for female performers, Michelle Yeoh just notched a big one: becoming the first Asian woman to win the Academy Award for best actress.
Yeoh’s Oscar-winning performance in A24’s Everything Everywhere All at Once was the first time the Malaysia-born actress had been No. 1 on a Hollywood call sheet, playing a struggling laundromat owner and lifelong loser who finds herself the saviour of the multiverse (and learns to reconcile with her long-suffering husband and estranged daughter in the process).
Brendan Fraser won Best Actor award for another A24 film, The Whale. His performance in the film has been considered a comeback for the actor. During his speech, the actor thanked The Whale director Darren Aronofsky for giving him “a creative lifeline.”
He said, “I’m grateful to Darren Aronofsky for throwing me a creative lifeline and hauling me aboard the good ship The Whale. … It couldn’t be done without my cast. It’s been like a diving expedition on the bottom of the ocean and the air on the line to the surface is on a launch being watched over by some people in my life.”
Ke Huy Quan won the Oscar for best-supporting actor for his role in Everything Everywhere All at Once, delivering an emotional speech to a standing ovation from the audience. “Mom, I just won an Oscar!” he said, noting that his road to the Oscars was long and unexpected. “My journey started on a boat,” said Quan, who fled Vietnam with his parents in 1978. “I spent a year in a refugee camp, and somehow, I ended up here on Hollywood’s biggest stage. Stories like this only happen in the movies.”
Carter, who previously won in 2019 for ‘Black Panther,’ became the first Black woman to win two Oscars and the first designer to win an original film and its sequel.
Carter dedicated her historic win, as the first Black woman to win two awards in any category, to her late mother, who passed away last week: “This [movie] prepared me for this moment,” Carter said, honouring Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman. “Chadwick, please take care of Mom.”
See the full winners’ list below:
Best Picture
“Everything Everywhere All at Once” (Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert and Jonathan Wang, producers)
Best Director
Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
Best Actress
Michelle Yeoh, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
Best Actor
Brendan Fraser, “The Whale”
Best Supporting Actress
Jamie Lee Curtis, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
Best Supporting Actor
Ke Huy Quan, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
Original Screenplay
“Everything Everywhere All at Once” (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert)
Adapted Screenplay
“Women Talking” (Sarah Polley)
Editing
“Everything Everywhere All at Once” (Paul Rogers)
Original Song
“Naatu Naatu,” by M.M. Keeravaani and Chandrabose (“RRR”)
Original Score
“All Quiet on the Western Front” (Volker Bertelmann)
Animated Short
“The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse” (Charlie Mackesy and Matthew Freud)
Costume Design
“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” (Ruth E. Carter)
Makeup and Hairstyling
“The Whale” (Adrien Morot, Judy Chin and Annemarie Bradley)
Cinematography
“All Quiet on the Western Front” (James Friend)
Live-Action Short
“An Irish Goodbye” (Tom Berkeley and Ross White)
Visual Effects
“Avatar: The Way of Water” (Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon and Daniel Barrett)
International Feature
“All Quiet on the Western Front,” Germany (Edward Berger)
Sound
“Top Gun: Maverick” (Mark Weingarten, James Mather, Al Nelson, Chris Burdon and Mark Taylor)
Production Design
“All Quiet on the Western Front” (Christian M. Goldbeck and Ernestine Hipper)
Documentary Feature
“Navalny” (Daniel Roher, Odessa Rae, Diane Becker, Melanie Miller and Shane Boris)
Documentary Short
“The Elephant Whisperers” (Kartiki Gonsalves and Guneet Monga)
Animated Feature
“Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio”
