After sweeping the Directors, Producers, and Screen Actors Guild Awards, as well as the Golden Globes and Spirit Awards, Everything Everywhere All at Once was a shoo-in for Best Picture. Nominated in eleven categories, it won seven, including Director, Actress, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Original Screenplay, and Editing. All Quiet on the Western Front had a very good evening taking home the Oscar for Production Design, Score, Cinematography, and Best International Film. The Whale celebrated Brendan Fraser as Best Actor and the transformational work of his makeup team. The two mega blockbusters won for Visual Effects (Avatar: The Way of Water) and Sound (Top Gun: Maverick). Pinocchio and Navalny were Best Animated Feature and Documentary, respectively. Sarah Polley was awarded Best Adapted Screenplay for Women Talking. The Banshees of Inisherin with its nine nominations was shut out.
As for the show…well, there was no slap, or anything approaching that level of drama. Jimmy Kimmel announced that his “crisis team,” led by Creed (Michael B. Jordan) was in place to deter any stage-storming member of the audience. Of course, he took a couple shots at Will Smith and the feted celebrities, but nothing too cutting. Likewise, the political speeches were fewer and shorter than in years past. Rihanna, Lady Gaga, and David Byrne boosted the Best Song performances with star power. But what the Academy Awards had this year in abundance was emotion. Numerous moments of not a dry eye in the place. Most of the Award recipients were first-time winners, including all of the Everything…team. John Travolta presided over the In Memoriam, accompanied by Lenny Kravitz playing his song “Calling All Angels.” Always a poignant tribute, Travolta was choked up throughout paying respect to his dear Grease costar, Olivia Newton John, who passed away in August.
Top Gun: Maverick was cited several times for saving the movies this summer. The Oscars tried to take advantage of this in the opening segment by visually inserting Jimmy Kimmel into the cockpit of a F-18 with Tom Cruise which morphed into Kimmel descending by parachute onto the Dolby Theater stage. Did it draw people into sticking around? Well, initial ratings were similar to last year with over 16 million viewers. Stability is a good thing when the audience has plunged for all Awards shows in recent years. It was a no-drama, back-to basics program with the single host, presenting all 23 categories (and not removing eight behind-the-scenes awards from prime time as they did last year), and letting most of the acceptance speeches play out without the dreaded “wrap it up” music. Maybe they’ve finally given up on trying to shorten the program. The show ran 3:37, within seconds of last year’s running time. This won’t entice the TikTok generation to pay attention, but it’s the traditional way to honor our films. A rich heritage of almost 100 years.
(Previous Post Correction: I said that I had seen nine of the ten Best Picture nominees, still waiting to see Triangle of Sadness. Wait, my wife and I did see that! Wow, forgetting that I’ve seen a Best Picture nominee is a combination of the following three things: I’m getting old and forgetful, some movies just get lost in the shuffle, and we didn’t like it much, lots of projectile vomiting.)
Here are the winners (I picked 15/20 v. 18/20 last year)
- Best Picture: Everything Everywhere All at Once
- Director: Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (Everything…)
- Lead Actor: Brendan Fraser (The Whale)
- Lead Actress: Michelle Yeoh (Everything…)
- Supporting Actor: Ke Huy Yuan (Everything…)
- Supporting Actress: Jamie Lee Curtis (Everything…)
- Original Screenplay: Everything…
- Adapted Screenplay: Women Talking
- Documentary Feature: Navalny
- Animated Feature: Pinocchio
- Cinematography: All Quiet on the Western Front
- Visual Effects: Avatar: The Way of Water
- Film Editing: Everything…
- International Film: All Quiet…
- Costume Design: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
- Makeup and Hairstyling: The Whale
- Production Design: All Quiet…
- Sound: Top Gun: Maverick
- Score: All Quiet…
- Original Song: “Naatu Naatu” (RRR)
Trivia: Following up on the Oscar predictions post trivia question, what film became the first Best Picture winner at those 1929 Academy Awards?
Answer: Wings, starring Clara Bow, directed by William Wellman, and the only silent film to win Best Picture.