Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images
THE ANGELS – “Everything, Everywhere, All at Once” won everything, everywhere, at the same time.
Well, almost everything.
It was the favorite and the prognosis was fulfilled. He started the night with 11 nominations and took home 7 golden statuettes, including the main Oscars: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Original Screenplay and Best Editing.
“Ladies, never let them tell you that your prime is over,” said Michelle Yeoh, the first Asian woman to win Best Actress at an Oscar, in her acceptance speech.
Jimmy Kimmel hosted the ceremony for the third time and drew laughter and applause from minute one, when he appeared with a parachute as if he had jumped from a fighter jet flown by Tom Cruise like in “Top Gun: Maverick.” Inevitably, his introductory monologue mentioned the “safety” of the presenter, in reference to the attack Chris Rock received last year at the hands of Will Smith.
The first prize that was awarded was for Guillermo del Toro for “Pinocchio” in the category for Best Animated Film. But immediately afterwards the statuettes began to fall on the “Everything, Everywhere” side.
Ke Huy Quan, Best Supporting Actor, said, crying, that his story was the “true American dream.” The 51-year-old actor appeared as a child in movies like “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and “The Goonies,” but then he virtually disappeared and even considered leaving the theater, which he recalled tonight before shouting: ” Mom, I just won an Oscar.”
Jamie Lee Curtis, winner of the Best Supporting Actress for the same film, also remembered her parents, Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, actors from the golden age of Hollywood who never won an Oscar although they were nominated. Curtis, who during her career has acted in “genre films” –especially horror films– also dedicated her award to the hundreds of millions of viewers of her films: “We have won an Oscar!”
The only acting award not to go to the cast of “Everything, Everywhere” was Best Actor, which went to an emotional Brendan Fraser for his portrayal of a morbidly obese father trying to reconnect with his daughter in “The Whale”. In his speech, Fraser thanked director Darren Aronofsky for giving her the chance to revive his career.
Historic night for Germany and India
The excellent production of “All Quiet on the Western Front”, a pacifist German film that places us in the trenches of World War I, based on the novel of the same name by Erich Maria Remarque in 1929, earned it four awards: Best International Film, Best Cinematography, Best Production Design and Best Original Soundtrack.
For its part, the song Naatu Naatu from “RRR” gave Bollywood, the film industry in India, its first Oscar.
Another significant moment of the night was the speech by Daniel Roher, director of “Navalny”, which won the Best Documentary award. The film focuses on the figure of Alexei Navalny, leader of the opposition in Russia who is imprisoned in Moscow. His wife and his daughter took the stage and the first dedicated an emotional message to her husband.
The public and the Academy, two different worlds
As usual in recent years, the highest grossing films do not triumph at the Film Academy Awards.
“Avatar: The Way of Water,” the highest-grossing film of the past year, only managed one award for Best Visual Effects. Its director, James Cameron, who has three of the four highest grossing titles in history, did not even attend the gala.
And “Top Gun: Maverick”, another public success that was nominated for six awards, only took the Oscar for Best Sound. Its protagonist and one of its producers, Tom Cruise, was the great absentee of the night.
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