On March 13th, they rolled out the red – I mean champagne – carpet and got the 95th Oscars rolling. Like every year, I watch the Oscars- sometimes hits, other misses- but this time, I must say, it was the best Oscars I’d seen yet.

The night started with the host, Jimmy Kimmel’s, monologue (this was his third time hosting the Oscars) with jokes about the infamous Will Smith slap from last year’s Oscars (the worst one I’ve seen). 

And for the main event: the awards. I would fully commentate on every win, but to save you time, I’ll address the Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Supporting Actress.

Best Supporting Actress: The first award to start off the night was the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. The suspected winners of this award were Angela Bassett for her role in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever as well as Stephanie Hsu for Everything Everywhere All at Once. However, neither of them won, and instead the award went to Jamie Lee Curtis for her role in Everything Everywhere All at Once. I will mention that her win did stir up a bit of commentary.

Best Supporting Actor: Following this award, was the best supporting actor award. The top contender and popular pick for this award was Ke Huy Quan for his role in Everything Everywhere All at Once. You may know him as Short Round in his first role in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom alongside Harrison Ford, as well as his role in the Goonies as Data. This movie was his first role after thirty years in Hollywood as he was unable to find work because of the underrepresentation of Asian characters in Hollywood films. However, the release and success of Crazy Rich Asians gave him hope that Hollywood had changed and that there was a possibility he could return in front of the camera. He was right. And now the winner of Best Supporting Actor: Ke Huy Quan!! And yes, I teared up a little watching his speech.  

Best Actress: Michelle Yeoh was the top contender for this year’s Best Actress award for, once again, Everything Everywhere All At Once (Man, those guys are everywhere). Like the presenters, Halle Berry and Jessica Chastain said: “And the Oscar goes to… Michelle Yeoh!”  This is a significant win because she is the first “Asian-identifying” woman to win the Oscar for Best Actress. I know you’re probably thinking what do you mean by ‘Asian Identifying?’ I too was confused at first, but then I thought about it and realized; In the past, Hollywood was a very white-dominated field, only hiring white actors. During this period, however, many Asian actors were hired, but they identified themselves as white to get roles. Michelle Yeoh proudly stating she is Asian is why she is considered the first ‘Asian Identifying’ woman to win the Oscar for Best Actress. Halle Berry presenting this award to Yeoh is also significant as Berry is the first African-American woman to take home the Oscar for Best Actress, which she won in 2002. 

Best Actor: This year, five never-nominated actors were nominated for this category: Brenden Fraser for The Whale, Austin Butler for Elvis, Colin Farrell for The Banshees of Inisheer, Bill Nighy for Living, and Paul Mescal for Aftersun.  I, for one, was placing bets on either Austin Butler or Brenden Fraser for winning as not only were their performances top-tier (like the others nominated), but they were also sweeping the awards for Best Actor this award season. In this tossup, Fraser ended up taking home the Golden man. This was a very special moment as Fraser had to leave Hollywood for years due to being blacklisted. His return to Hollywood was significant, but his winning the Oscar was just totally another level of “wow!” 

Best Director: This year’s award for Best Director went to Daniels- the nickname for the two directors of Everything Everywhere All At Once, Daniel Kwan, and Daniel Scheinert. The two studied film together at Emerson College and were the youngest to be nominated for this category, each 35 years old. And now…

Best Picture: Not going to lie, if a film sweeps at the Oscars, there is a very likely chance it will win Best Picture… The final award of the night was announced by Harrison Ford, hinting to me that there could be a reunion with Indiana and Short Round. As Harrison announced the winner for Best Picture, Ke Huy Quan raced up the stage to bear-hug Ford, even giving him a little kiss on the cheek: Everything Everywhere All At Once had won. As always, there was a speech, but I don’t remember it because I was just silently crying until the end of the night: A true Hollywood ending. 

As you probably have observed, ⅚ Oscars I mentioned were won for Everything Everywhere All At Once. In all, the film swept the floor and took home 7 Oscars. 

Other category wins:

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM:

GUILLERMO DEL TORO’S PINOCCHIO

Guillermo del Toro, Mark Gustafson, Gary Ungar and Alex Bulkley

CINEMATOGRAPHY:

ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT

James Friend

COSTUME DESIGN:

BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER

Ruth Carter

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE FILM:

NAVALNY

Daniel Roher, Odessa Rae, Diane Becker, Melanie Miller, and Shane Boris

DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILM:

THE ELEPHANT WHISPERERS

Kartiki Gonsalves and Guneet Monga

FILM EDITING:

EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE

Paul Rogers

INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM:

ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT

Germany

MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING:

THE WHALE

Adrien Morot, Judy Chin, and Annemarie Bradley

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE):

ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT

Volker Bertelmann

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG):

NAATU NAATU

from RRR; Music by M.M. Keeravaani; Lyric by Chandrabose

PRODUCTION DESIGN:

ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT

Production Design: Christian M. Goldbeck; Set Decoration: Ernestine Hipper

SHORT FILM (ANIMATED):

THE BOY, THE MOLE, THE FOX AND THE HORSE

Charlie Mackesy and Matthew Freud

SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION):

AN IRISH GOODBYE

Tom Berkeley and Ross White

SOUND:

TOP GUN: MAVERICK:

Mark Weingarten, James H. Mather, Al Nelson, Chris Burdon and Mark Taylor

VISUAL EFFECTS:

AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER

Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon, and Daniel Barrett

WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY):

WOMEN TALKING

Screenplay by Sarah Polley

WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY):

EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE

Written by Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert

This year’s Oscars truly felt heartwarming and was a celebration of good films, like how the Oscars are supposed to be. Now we wait to watch for this year’s new stories to be told… 

By Abbie Lindblad ‘24, Co-Arts and Entertainment Editor and Managing Copy Editor

24alindblad@montroseschool.org