Everything Everywhere All at Once wins big
Michelle Yeoh holds her trophy up high
Best Actress Michelle Yeoh made history as the first Asian person to win best actress at the Oscars .Blake/Reuters]
It was a night of historic wins at the 95th annual Academy Awards that took place on Sunday at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, California.
Two films emerged as dominant forces in the race to pick up the most Oscar trophies: the German-language war epic All Quiet on the Western Front and the topsy-turvy multiverse action-comedy Everything Everywhere All at Once.
This year’s Oscars included a record number of Asian artists nominated for the acting categories. Sunday’s ceremony made good on that promise, crowning 60-year-old screen icon Michelle Yeoh its first Asian best actress.
India also celebrated a historic night after a breakout hit song from the action movie RRR and a short documentary, The Elephant Whisperers, won Oscars.
Here is our complete list of winners.
A decent night for the year’s biggest blockbusters
Each of the big blockbusters up for Oscar awards tonight came away with one big win apiece.
Top Gun: Maverick took home best sound design for its high-flying action sequences, while the sci-fi fantasy Avatar: The Way of Water grabbed best visual effects.
And the Marvel sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever scooped up a win for best costume design.
Its recipient, designer Ruth Carter, previously became the first African American woman to top the category in 2019. That Oscar came for her work in the original film, Black Panther.
Tom Cruise stands adjacent to a military jet, as the setting sun pours over his shoulder in this shot from the film Top Gun: Maverick.
Tom Cruise reprises his role as Captain Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell in Top Gun: Maverick [Scott Garfield/Paramount Pictures Corporation, Skydance and Jerry Bruckheimer Films]
But wait — what about the Oscar snubs?
Despite high hopes and nine Oscar nods, the Irish black comedy The Banshees of Inisherin was shut out at the 2023 Oscars, with no prizes awarded to it.
That comes in stark contrast to writer-director Martin McDonagh’s previous effort, 2017’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. That film took home two Oscars for acting.
Also coming up empty was Baz Luhrmann’s biopic Elvis, considered a top contender in the best actor category.
Directors Steven Spielberg and Todd Field had both been nominated multiple times in the past, but they too went home empty-handed tonight for their efforts in The Fabelmans and Tar, respectively.
Women Talking, a tightly woven drama about sexual assault, was almost shut out as well, but writer-director Sarah Polley emerged with a best adapted screenplay Oscar before the night was done.
Colin Farrell walks down a stone-lined country road, as his co-star Brendan Gleeson walks in the opposite direction.
Colin Farrell stars in The Banshees of Inisherin, one of the frontrunners for best picture.
The final tally for the night? Everything Everywhere wins big
It was a triumphant evening for the indie darling Everything Everywhere All at Once, with its multiverse-spanning tale of an immigrant mother exploring her infinite potential.
The martial arts-themed action-comedy was the dominant force at the Oscars tonight, taking home seven trophies including one of the night’s biggest honours, best picture.
It squeaked past the initial frontrunner All Quiet on the Western Front, which grabbed four Oscars early in the broadcast, including for best cinematography and best international feature.
Another big winner was the play adaptation The Whale, with two wins honouring the transformation actor Brendan Fraser underwent for his role: one for best actor and another for best hairstyling and makeup.
Everything Everywhere All at Once wins coveted best picture award
Everything Everywhere All at Once claimed the night’s final honour, taking home its seventh Oscar for the prestigious best picture category.
“There is no movie without our brilliant and bighearted cast and crew,” said producer Jonathan Wang.
The two-person team of Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert returned to the stage again after winning awards for best director and original screenplay, as did Michelle Yeoh, who became the first Asian woman to win the award for best actress.
Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis won awards for best supporting actor and actress, respectively, and the film also won the award for best editing.
The hotly contested best picture category included films such as Tar, All Quiet on the Western Front, Avatar: The Way of Water, The Banshees of Inisherin, Elvis, The Fabelmans, Top Gun: Maverick, Triangle of Sadness, and Women Talking.
Michelle Yeoh with a googly eye on her forehead in Everything Everywhere All at Once.
Michelle Yeoh stars in Everything Everywhere All at Once [Allyson Riggs/Courtesy of A24]
Michelle Yeoh continues Everything Everywhere’s streak of acting wins
Everything Everywhere All at Once continued its domination of the acting categories with a best actress win for Michelle Yeoh, who plays the film’s multiverse-hopping heroine Evelyn.
“For all the little boys and girls who look like me watching tonight, this is the beacon of hope and possibilities. This is proof [to] dream big and dreams do come true. And ladies, don’t let anybody tell you you are ever past your prime. Never give up,” the 60-year-old told the crowd.
“I have to dedicate this to my mom, to all the moms in the world, because they are really the superheroes. And without them, none of us would be here tonight.”
Yeoh, who hails from Malaysia, is the first Asian best actress winner in Oscar history.
Michelle Yeoh holds her Oscar
Michelle Yeoh accepts the award for best performance by an actress in a leading role for Everything Everywhere All at Once.
The Whale’s Brendan Fraser wins best actor
American-Canadian actor Brendan Fraser completed his triumphant return to the big screen with a win for best actor in the drama The Whale.
“I just want to say thank you for this acknowledgement,” Fraser said in a tearful acceptance speech. Acknowledging his fellow cast members, he added: “Thank you again, to each one and all. I’m so grateful to you.”
Also nominated were Austin Butler in Elvis, Colin Farrell in The Banshees of Inisherin, Paul Mescal in Aftersun and Bill Nighy in Living.
The Daniels score an upset with best director win
The two-person team The Daniels topped more established names like Steven Spielberg to win their first Oscar for best director.
“Our fellow nominees, you guys are our heroes. This is weird. We want to dedicate this to all the mommies,” Daniel Scheinert told the audience.
He dedicated the award to his parents. “Thank you for not squashing my creativity when I was making really disturbing horror films or really perverted comedy films or dressing in drag as a kid, which is a threat to nobody,” Scheinert said to a roar of approval, a seeming reference to anti-drag legislation around the United States.
“The world is opening up to the fact that genius does not stem from individuals like us on stage, but rather genius emerges from the collective,” Daniel Kwan said in his speech.
“We are all descendants of something and someone, and I want to acknowledge my context, my immigrant parents.”
Everything Everywhere earns the top editing honour
Paul Rogers won best editing for the multiverse adventure Everything Everywhere All at Once, bringing the film’s tally up to four Oscars for the night.
“This is my second film, y’all. This is crazy,” Rogers told the Dolby Theatre. “To the cast, it’s been the honour of my career to work with you. I hope I did right by you. I care deeply about every one of you.”
In Memoriam montage pays tribute to lives lost in the film industry
The ceremony paused for a sombre tribute to people in the world of cinema and entertainment who passed away in the last year.
Those honoured included actress Angela Lansbury, whose decades-long career spanned Hollywood and Broadway.
Also featured was actress Raquel Welch, whose bombshell appearance in a fur bikini in 1966’s One Million Years BC propelled her to a career that included a Golden Globe Award.
The tribute also paid homage to actors Ray Liotta and James Caan, both known for their legendary performances in gangster films Goodfellas and The Godfather, respectively.
Many behind-the-scenes workers who make movies possible were also honoured.
Raquel Welch at a film premiere in 2017.
Welch, seen here at a premiere in April 2017, died in February at the age of 82 .
Top Gun: Maverick wins for best sound
Top Gun: Maverick took home best award for achievement in sound for its exciting portrayal of the world of air warfare.
Mark Weingarten, James H Mather, Al Nelson, Chris Burdon and Mark Taylor accepted the award, with Weingarten thanking supporters for going out and seeing the film in theatres.
The sequel to the original Top Gun was a hit, bringing in nearly $1.5bn at the box office with Tom Cruise reprising his role as white-knuckle fighter pilot Pete “Maverick” Mitchell.
Also nominated were All Quiet on the Western Front, Avatar: The Way of Water, The Batman and Elvis.
A scene from Top Gun: Maverick, showing Tom Cruise in the cockpit of a jet, upside down over a snowy mountain range.
Tom Cruise returns to the skies as pilot Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell in Top Gun: Maverick [Scott Garfield/Paramount Pictures Corporation, Skydance and Jerry Bruckheimer Films]
India makes history with a win for best original song
Now that’s worth kicking up your heels for! The Indian film RRR took home the Oscar for best song with “Naatu Naatu”, earning a roar from the crowd.
It is India’s first nomination and first win for best song.
“I grew up listening to The Carpenters, and now here I am with the Oscars,” composer MM Keeravaani told the crowd as he accepted the award with lyricist Chandrabose.
“There was only one wish on my mind,” Keeravaani sang as part of his speech, to the tune of one of The Carpenters’ hits: “RRR has to win, pride of every Indian, and must put me on the top of the world.”
The stars of RRR perform ‘Naatu Naatu’ on stage at the Oscars.
The stars of RRR perform ‘Naatu Naatu’ on stage at the Oscars [Chris Pizzello/AP Photo]
Best adapted screenplay Oscar goes to Women Talking
Canadian actor-turned-director Sarah Polley earns her first Oscar of the night for Women Talking, a drama based on real events.
The film tells the story of a group of Mennonite women who discover they have all experienced acts of sexual violence by men in their isolated religious community. It is based on the 2018 novel of the same name by Miriam Toews.
“I want to thank the Academy for not being mortally offended by the words ‘women’ and ‘talking’ so close together like that,” Polley said in her acceptance speech.
She called Toews’s book “an essential novel about a radical act of democracy”, where listening was more important than violence.
She wrapped up her remarks by reciting the last line of her film, dedicated to her three kids: “Your story will be different from ours.” She called it a promise to the next generation.
Sarah Polley at the Oscars.
Sarah Polley at the 95th Oscars [Ashley Landis/AP Photo]
Everything Everywhere All at Once wins best original screenplay
Everything Everywhere All at Once took home a third win, clinching the prize for best original screenplay.
Writer-directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert — collectively known as The Daniels — gave moving acceptance speeches, thanking sources of support and inspiration such as parents, spouses, previous school teachers and fellow nominees.
The other nominees were The Fabelmans, Tar, Triangle of Sadness, and The Banshees of Inisherin.
A fight sequence between Harry Shum Jr, playing an IRS agent, and Michelle Yeoh.
Playing an IRS agent, Harry Shum Jr gets beaten up by Michelle Yeoh in Everything Everywhere All at Once [Allyson Riggs/Courtesy of A24]
Rihanna continues her comeback on the Oscar stage
Rihanna’s song “Lift Me Up” from the soundtrack of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever marks her first solo recording in nearly six years — which was when her last album, 2016’s Anti, was released.
But Rihanna’s been busy since then. During her hiatus, she gave birth to her first child and expanded her lingerie and beauty brand Fenty.
2023 may be her comeback year, though: She received critical acclaim as the headliner for the Super Bowl XLIX halftime show, her first public concert in years. This Oscar performance is her hotly anticipated follow-up.
She received a standing ovation from the audience.
Rihanna performs at the Oscars.
Rihanna performs “Lift me up” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever at the Oscars [Chris Pizzello/AP Photo
An Oscar-nominated tribute to Chadwick Boseman
“Lift me up. Hold me down. Keep me close, safe and sound.”
Rihanna performs the wistful R&B ballad “Lift Me Up” tonight at the Oscars — and if the song seems mournful compared with more upbeat best-song nominees, that’s because it is.
The Barbadian pop star cowrote the song with Swedish composer Ludwig Göransson, Nigerian singer Tems and director Ryan Coogler as a tribute to the late actor Chadwick Boseman, the star of Marvel’s 2018 blockbuster Black Panther.
Boseman was meant to return in the film’s sequel, but he died from colon cancer in 2020. “Lift Me Up” came to be part of the reimagined sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which grapples with the central character’s death.
Avatar: The Way of Water wins award for best visual effects
Filmmaker James Cameron’s massive blockbuster Avatar: The Way of Water picked up its first win of the night for best visual effects.
The film immersed viewers in the aquatic world of Pandora, in a follow-up to the first Avatar movie, which was also praised for its stunning visuals when it was released in 2009.
The competition was steep, with other nominees including All Quiet on the Western Front, The Batman, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Top Gun: Maverick.
Host Jimmy Kimmel joked that the after-party would take place at “CGI Fridays”.
Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) riding an flying animal in 20th Century Studios’ AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER
Actor Sam Worthington returns for the second instalment of the Avatar series [Avatar: The Way of Water/Courtesy of 20th Century Studios]
German composer Volker Bertelmann nabs the Oscar for best original score for All Quiet on the Western Front, which has swept up four trophies tonight so far.
Bertelmann explained that his work on the antiwar film made him think of a moral his mother taught him as a child: “When you want to change humanity and empathy in the world, you have to start with yourself and your own surroundings.”
Composer Volker Bertelmann accepts the Oscar for best original score for All Quiet on the Western Front.
Volker Bertelmann accepts the award for best original score for All Quiet on the Western Front [Chris Pizzello/AP Photo]
13 Mar 2023 – 02:14 (02:14 GMT)
All Quiet on the Western Front wins for production design
All Quiet on the Western Front continues its streak with an award for best production design, clinching the win over fellow nominees Avatar: The Way of Water, Babylon, Elvis and The Fabelmans.
Christian M Goldbeck accepted the honour for the film’s production design, with Ernestine Hipper joining on stage for set decoration.
The German film has already won awards for cinematography and best international feature film earlier in the night.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA