German picture bags best international film

Deutsche Welle

13 Mar 2023, 09:42

The 95th Academy Awards has begun at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles. One early award shone light on Russia's invasion of Ukraine, while a worldwide hit from India won best original song.

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Smash hit 'Everything Everywhere All at Once' won the Oscar for best feature film on Sunday, capping off a night of several major wins for the film which was a favorite ahead of the 95th Academy Awards.

The best picture category was hotly contested, with the unorthodox sci-fi flick trumping including biopic Elvis, psychological drama Tar, action remake Top Gun: Maverick, and Germany's All Quiet on the Western Front, which already picked up four awards earlier in the night.

The ceremony was held in the shadow of last year's event, where Will Smith got on stage and slapped host Chris Rock in the face in a incident which made global headlines.

Michelle Yeoh wins best actress with Everything Everywhere All at Once

Michelle Yeoh, who starred on Oscar-favorite Everything Everywhere All at Once, won the Oscar for best actress in a lead role.

"For all the little boys and girls who look like me watching tonight, this is a beacon of hope and possibilities," Yeoh said in an emotional acceptance speech.

"This is proof that dreams do come true"

Brendan Fraser wins best actor with The Whale

Brendan Fraser, who rose to fame in the 1990s before a decade in the Hollywood wilderness, marked a major career comeback by winning the Oscar for best actor.

Fraser starred in The Whale, in which he portrayed a morbidly obese man who tries to reconnect with his daughter.

"I started in this business 30 years ago and things didn't come easily to me," said Fraser, breathing heavily.

"I just want to say thank you for this acknowledgement."

Duo behind Everything Everywhere All at Once win directing Oscar

Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, colloquially known as 'The Daniels' for their work together on Everything Everywhere All at Once, won the Academy Award for best direction.

"There is greatness in every single person," said Kwan as he accepted the award.

"It doesn't matter who we are, there is genius in every single person, you just have to find it. Thank you to the people who unlocked my genius."

Scheinert also made a comment in defense of drag, which has been targeted by new laws in several US states.

Everything Everywhere All at Once was nominated for 11 Oscars — the most nominations of the evening — and already nabbed wins for best supporting actor and actress.

Indian epic RRR wins best original song

The smash hit song "Naatu Naatu" from the Telugu-language epic RRR won the Oscar for best original song.

It was the first song form an Indian movie to be nominated for the award.

"RRR has to win, pride of every Indian ... and has put me at the top of the world," the song's composer M.M. Keeravani sang to the tune of The Carpenters' "Top of the World" while accepting the award alongside lyricist Chandrabose.

Earlier in the evening, Indian singers Rahul Sipligunj and Kaala Bhairava performed the song live.

The performance featured a mix of old and new choreography but still slightly more tame than some of the performances at screenings in India, which featured dancing in the aisles.

Rihanna, Lady Gaga and more perform nominated songs

Several of the other artists who were nominated for best original song also gave live performances at the Academy Awards.

Hot off the back of her Super Bowl halftime performance, Rihanna performed "Lift Me Up" from the film Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

Meanwhile, Lady Gaga performed "Hold My Hand" from Top Gun: Maverick.

Everything Everywhere All at Once supporting actress Stephanie Hsu also performed "This Is A Life" alongside David Byrne and experimental band Son Lux.

All Quiet on the Western Front wins best international film

Midway through the evening, German production All Quiet on the Western Front won the Academy Award for best international film.

The Netflix original film brought audiences a gruesome anti-war message almost a hundred years after the original book by Erich Maria Remarque was published.

Swiss director Edward Berger thanked star Felix Kammerer, an Austrian stage actor who made his cinematic debut in the film.

"This was your first movie and you carried us on your shoulders as it was nothing," he told the 27-year-old Austrian actor. "Without you, none of us would be here."

All Quiet on the Western Front beat out international film nominees EO from Poland, The Quiet Girl from Ireland, Close from Belgium, and Argentina, 1985 from Argentina.

The film also won Oscars for best cinematography, best production design and best original score.

Navalny wins best documentary amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine

A documentary about jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has won the Oscar for best documentary feature.

Navalny explores the poisoning that nearly killed the Kremlin critic in 2020 and his subsequent detention upon his return to Moscow in 2021.

"My husband is in prison just for telling the truth. My husband is in prison just for defending democracy," his wife, Yulia Navalnaya, said at the ceremony.

"Alexei, I am dreaming of the day when you will be free and our country will be free. Stay strong, my love."

First gongs roll in early for Everything Everywhere All at Once

Two supporting actors in Everything Everywhere All at Once, Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis, have won the Oscars for best supporting actor and best supporting actress, respectively.

It is the first Academy Award win for either actor.

"My journey started on a boat. I spent a year in a refugee camp and somehow I ended up here on Hollywood's biggest stage," Quan said.

"They say stories like this only happen in the movies. I can't believe this is happening to me. This is the American dream."

Meanwhile, Curtis became the eight-oldest person to with best supporting actress.

"My mother (Janet Leigh) and my father (Tony Curtis) were both nominated for Oscars in different categories," Curtis said through tears. "I just won an Oscar!"

Oscars open with thunderous flyover

Hollywood's biggest night began with a figher jet flyover in a nod to Top Gun: Maverick.

The TV broadcast showed a scene where awards host Jimmy Kimmel is in the cockpit of a fighter jet with Tom Cruise, before he is ejected out and parachutes into the Dolby Theater.

"Thank you for inviting me to be a part of it, especially this year, when the world finally got out of the house to see the films you worked so hard to make, the way you intended them to be seen — in a theater," host Jimmy Kimmel said during his opening monologue.

He made several jibes at the controversy surrounding last year's awards: "If anyone in this theater commits an act of violence at any point in the show, you will be awarded the Oscar for best actor and permitted to give a 19-minute-long speech."

All Quiet on the Western Front shows war's 'guesome relevance'

German World War I epic All Quiet on the Western Front is up for nine awards including best picture, making it Netflix's strongest nominee this year.

Claudia Roth, Germany’s Minister of Culture, told that such a large number of nominations for the film was the result of its "gruesome relevance" at a time of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine in Europe.

"It is a film which really brought me close to the limits of what I could bear," she said.

"But that is exactly what war is about — it is dirty, gruesome, brutal, the end of humanity and totally futile."

All eyes on Everything Everywhere All at Once

Another frontrunner for best picture is Everything Everywhere All at Once, a wacky sci-fi film that follows a Chinese immigrant laundromat owner across multiple universes to defeat an inter-dimensional supervillain who happens to be her own daughter.

Star Michelle Yeoh and her castmates Ke Huy Quan, Jamie Lee Curtis and Stephanie Hsu were also nominated for their roles in the film.

"It's a group of very likable people behind the movie who it's impossible to not be happy for," Hollywood Reporter awards columnist Scott Feinberg told.

James Hong, a co-star in the film, arrived at the Academy Awards with googly eyes on his tie, a reference to one of the film's many absurdist props.

"It shows if you wait long enough, you'll make it," the 94-year-old Hong told.

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