On Sunday at 6 p.m. in the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, Jimmy Kimmel hosted the 95th Annual Academy Awards. Various actors and actresses like Andrew Garfield, Pedro Pascal and Elizabeth Banks presented the 24 different award categories and each winner was given 45 seconds to give an acceptance speech.
Best Animated Feature Film
Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson kicked off the night by presenting the award for Best Animated Feature Film. Some of the nominees included Turning Red and Marcel the Shell With Shoes On, but among the seven nominees, Guillermo del Toro’s Netflix film, Pinocchio, won. Throughout his career, he has been nominated seven times and this was his third win.
“Animation is ready to be taken to the next step,” del Toro said when accepting the award. “Animation is ready to be taken seriously. Keep animation in the conversation.”
Best Supporting Actor and Actress
Following del Toro’s remarks, Ariana DeBose and Troy Kotsur, a deaf actor, presented the awards for best actor and actress in supporting roles. The awards went to Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis who worked together in the Daniels’ Everything Everywhere All At Once. As DeBose read aloud Quan’s name, Quan received a standing ovation and was brought to tears as he accepted the Oscar.
“My mom is 84 years old and she’s at home watching,” Quan said. “Mom, I just won an Oscar. 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. They say stories like this only happen in the movies and I can’t believe it’s happening to me. This is the American dream. Dreams are something you have to believe in and I almost gave up on mine. To everyone out there, keep your dreams alive.”
Best Documentary and Live Action Short Film
After the cast of Tell It Like a Woman performed their song “Applause,” which was featured in the movie, Riz Ahmed and Ahmir Khalib Thompson approached the stage as they announced the winner for the best documentary. The Oscar went to Navalny, directed by Daniel Roher.
The film follows the story of Alexei Navalny, a Russian opposition leader in the midst of an authoritarian regime. Although Navalny wasn’t there to accept the award due to his current imprisonment, his wife, Yulia Navalnaya, and the director did so on his behalf. In accepting the award, she spoke of how she prays for the day when both her husband and country may be free.
“There’s one person who couldn’t be with us tonight — Alexei Navalny, leader of the Russian opposition, who remains in solitary confinement for, and I want to get his words perfect here, ‘Vlad Putin’s unjust war of aggression in Ukraine,'” Roher said, quoting Navalny. “‘We cannot — we must not — be afraid to oppose dictators and authoritarianism wherever it’s at.'”
Ahmed and Thompson then presented the nominees and award for Best Live Action Short Film, which went to An Irish Goodbye, directed by Tom Berkeley and Ross White. Rather than give a speech, though, they brought one of the cast members, James Martin, to the stage and sang to him, celebrating his birthday.
Cinematography
Following the birthday song, Michael B. Jordan and Jonathan Majors, who recently co-starred in Creed III, presented the nominees for the best cinematography. The Oscar went to James Friend, a British cinematographer, who worked on All Quiet On the Western Front.
Makeup and Hairstyling
Jennifer Connelly and Samuel L. Jackson followed suit as they announced the nominees for the best makeup and hairstyling in film. Some of the movies nominated included Elvis and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, but Annemarie Bradley, Adrien Morot and Judy Chin took home the award for their work on The Whale, starring Brendan Fraser.
Costume Design
The next award went to the movie that had the best dress and apparel, which Paul Dano and Julia Louis-Dreyfus presented. Ruth Carter won the award for her work in Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and highlighted the movie for having a female black protagonist.
“Thank you to the Academy for recognizing the superhero that is a black woman,” Carter said. “She endures, she loves, she overcomes, she is every woman in this film.”
Best International Feature Film
After a musical number from the cast of RRR and some words from Janet Yang, president of the Academy, Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek, presented the winner for the best international film. All Quiet On the Western Front, a German-made film, took home the Oscar.
Best Documentary and Animated Short Films
Pedro Pascal and Elizabeth Olsen continued the ceremony by presenting both the best short films in the form of a documentary, as well as an animated short film. Kartiki Gonsalves and Guneet Monga accepted the award for their documentary, The Elephant Whisperers as Charlie Mackesy and Matthew Freud won for their animated short film, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse.
Lady Gaga then performed her original song, “Hold My Hand,” which she wrote for Top Gun: Maverick.
Production Design
Following the original song, Andie MacDowell presented the award for the best production design, and Hugh Grant accompanied her. Yet again, All Quiet On the Western Front took home the Oscar and Christian M. Goldbeck, who was in charge of production design, accepted the award alongside Ernestine Hipper, who managed set decoration.
“When I started this I told Ernestine, ‘you’re only as good as your team,'” Goldbeck said. “This is to all the teams who help me get on stage.”
Best Original Song
After their words, All Quiet On the Western Front continued to shine. Mindy Kaling and John Cho presented the award for the best original score to Volker Bertelmann, who composed the score for the German film.
“When I was working on the film, I was thinking a couple times of my mom,” Bertelmann said. “She was telling me, ‘every now and then when you want to change humanity and anything in the world, you have to start with yourself and your own surroundings.'”
Visual Effects
Elizabeth Banks presented the award for the movie with the most captivating visual effects, with the help of someone in a bear costume, referring to her new movie, Cocaine Bear. Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon and Daniel Barrett accepted the award for their dedication to James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water.
After their words of gratitude, Rihanna performed her original song, “Lift Me Up,” which is featured in the Marvel movie, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
Best Original and Adapted Screenplay
Following Rihanna’s song, Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh announced the winners for two Oscars: The best original screenplay and the best-adapted screenplay from a previously existing story. Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan, known more collectively as the Daniels, won for their original screenplay in Everything Everywhere All At Once while Sarah Polley took home the Oscar for her adapted screenplay in Women Talking.
“I want to thank the Academy for not being offended by the words ‘women’ and ‘talking’ so close together like that,” Polley said. “The last line of our film is delivered by a young woman to a new baby. She says, ‘your story will be different from ours.’ It’s a promise, a commitment and an anchor.”
Sound and Original Song
Kate Hudson and Janelle Monáe, co-stars of last year’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery presented the awards for the movie with the best sound and the movie featuring the best original song. Those who worked on the sound for Top Gun: Maverick accepted the award and gave a quick speech and was followed by M.M. Keeravani and Chandrabose who wrote the music and words for the original song “Naatu Naatu” featured in RRR.
Before continuing to the last few awards of the night, John Travolta spoke briefly of the many actors, writers and filmmakers who passed away last year such as James Caan, Angela Lansbury and many others.
Lenny Kravitz performed his 2004 hit, “Calling All Angels,” in tribute.
Film Editing
Following the Academy tribute, Sigourney Weaver and Zoe Saldaña awarded Paul Rogers the Oscar for best film editing for his work in Everything Everywhere All At Once.
Director
Everything Everywhere All At Once continued strong throughout the night as the movie’s directors, the Daniels, won for the second time that night.
“There is greatness in every single person,” Kwan said. “There is genius waiting to erupt — you just need to find the right time to unlock that.”
Lead Actor and Actress
Jessica Chastain and Halle Berry announced the winners of best lead actor and actress, which were the awards that many have been anticipating. Brendan Fraser won Best Actor for his role in The Whale and Michelle Yeoh won Best Actress in Everything Everywhere All At Once. She was the first Asian actress to win Best Actress in Oscar history.
“To all the little boys and girls watching tonight who look like me, this is a beacon of possibility,” Yeoh said. “Ladies, don’t let anyone ever tell you that you’re past your prime.”
Best Picture
To cap off the night, Harrison Ford presented the award for the best movie of 2022, which combines all of the award categories into one movie. The Banshees of Inisherin, Elvis and seven other movies were nominated, but Everything Everywhere All At Once won the coveted award for best picture, winning seven Oscars of the 11 nominations.
“It’s inspiring to see so many people of color breakthrough in one night, especially for a movie that’s just as bizarre as it is beautiful,” said Isaac Radford, a junior studying computer science. “Especially for Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan. He lived in a refugee camp and has been pushing this exact dream since he was 12. You have to be inspired by that.”
For a full list of every nominee in each category, as well as the winners and nominees in previous years, visit the Oscars website.