Oscar Highlights: Big Wins, Bitter Losses, and the Best Birthday Surprise Ever

by Ri Wescott | March 2023

Left to Right: Best Supporting Actor Winner Ke Huy Quan, Best Actress Winner Michelle Yeoh, Best Actor Winner Brendan Fraser, and Best Supporting Actress Winner Jamie Lee Curtis

The 95th Academy Awards took place on Sunday, March 12th and was definitely an exhilarating night for anyone who was a fan of the Daniels’ masterpiece Everything, Everywhere, All At Once or the German war epic All Quiet on the Western Front as they led this year’s awards show. Though there wasn’t any shocking mishap or drama as there has been in past years with Will Smith’s on stage violence and the La La Land vs. Moonlight best picture announcement, the night was still full of highlights that are worth talking about.

Going into the Oscars this year, there were a ton of record-breaking monumental nominees that were getting recognition during the ceremony. John Williams became the oldest ever nominee for an Academy Award at ninety-one years old and also became the most Oscar-nominated living person. There were a record-breaking sixteen first time nominees, including all five of the Best Actor nominees. A record four Asian actors were nominated in acting categories including Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, Michelle Yeoh, and Hong Chau. Michelle Yeoh also became the first Asian woman to be nominated for Best Actress. Angela Bassett, for her role in Wakanda Forever, became the first person to be nominated in an acting category for a Marvel movie. For the first time ever, two movie sequels and two movies grossing over one billion dollars at the box office–Avatar: The Way of Water and Top Gun: Maverick–were nominated for best picture. “Naatu Naatu” from the beloved action-adventure Tollywood film RRR became the first song from an Indian produced movie to win the Oscar for Best Song. With all of these incredible nominees, we were definitely in for an exciting night.

The night began with Jimmy Kimmel entering the theater from the ceiling, pretending to be ejected from Maverick’s plane in a skit based on Best Picture Nominee Top Gun: Maverick. We started the night off with a lot of jokes about the incident with Will Smith and Chris Rock at last year's Oscars in which Smith slapped Rock on stage after making a comment about Smith’s wife having a shaved head as a result of her alopecia. Kimmel made many comments on the incident throughout the night including, “If anything unpredictable or violent happens, we will give you the Oscar for best actor,” since Smith ended up winning Best Actor later that night, "Put your hands together, and keep them to yourself,” and "Without a hitch, and without Hitch" which is in reference to Smith playing a character known as Hitch in the 2005 film Hitch.

Following the opening remarks, we jumped into the ceremony with the first category of Best Animated Feature adding a win to the Oscar veteran Guillermo Del Toro’s collection for his stop motion animated adaptation of Pinocchio.

Key Huy Quan crying during the beginning of his acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actor.

The second category of the night was arguably the best of the night, with the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor going to Ke Huy Quan for his role as Waymond Wong in Everything, Everywhere, All At Once. Presenter Ariana DeBose announced Quan’s name through emotional tears as he ran up on stage in shock yelling “Oh my God!” into the microphone. Through lots of tears, he began his acceptance speech by saying, “My mother is 84 years old and is at home watching. Mom, I just won an Oscar!” He explained that he spent a year of his life in a refugee camp and somehow ended up on Hollywood’s biggest stage. He exclaimed that “This! This is the American Dream!” Ke Huy Quan’s comeback to the Hollywood scene and everlasting positivity has been inspiring for everyone who has ever had the privilege of watching him speak. He started his career as a child actor in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom playing Short Round opposite Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones and later went on to play Data in The Goonies. He also had smaller roles in the film Encino Man and television show Head of the Class, but struggled to find any roles following the early 90s. Everything, Everywhere, All At Once was his official return to Hollywood and he came back with a bang and won an Academy Award.

Following the Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress is announced with Jamie Lee Curtis taking a second win for Everything, Everywhere, All At Once. In classic Jamie Lee Curtis fashion, she mouthed the words “Oh shut up!” as her name was called, before making her way to the stage. She claimed in her acceptance speech that she is “hundreds of people” and dedicated her award to all of the most important people in her life, exclaiming, “We just won an Oscar together!” She then pays tribute to her late parents Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh who were both nominated for Academy Awards during their time in Hollywood before crying out, “I just won an Oscar!”

One of the most emotional moments of the night came during the announcement of the Best Documentary Feature Film category, in which the film Navalny won. Navalny is a documentary about Alexei Navalny, a popular Russian activist against corruption and authoritarianism, who was the victim of an assassination attempt. Investigative journalists along with help from Navalny himself worked to solve where and how the assassination attempt came to be, before he was wrongfully imprisoned by the Russian government. During the acceptance speech, his wife Yulia Navalnaya had the opportunity to speak in Alexei’s place as he is still being held as a political prisoner in Russia. She emotionally explained, “My husband is in prison just for telling the truth. My husband is in prison just for defending democracy.” She ended her speech speaking to her husband directly, “Alexei, I’m dreaming of the day when you will be free and our country will be free. Stay strong, my love.” The powerful speech encapsulated just how important movies truly are and how they can make a difference.

James Martin with his cast and crew mates from An Irish Goodbye after their Oscar win.

Following the most emotional part of the night, the announcement for Best Live Action Short Film brought us the most beautiful part of the night. The short film that won was called An Irish Goodbye and one of the lead actors, James Martin, was celebrating his thirty-first birthday on the same day as the ceremony! Tom Berkeley, one of the filmmakers of An Irish Goodbye, stated during his acceptance speech that “[Winning an Oscar] is the second most important thing going on today.” He announced that it is Martin’s birthday and that they want to spend their acceptance speech time singing “Happy Birthday” to their friend. The whole theater full of thousands of Hollywood royalty erupted into song as they joined in on singing for the newly thirty-one year old. Berkeley also announced that Martin, a proud actor with Down syndrome, wore a cheetah print suit jacket to celebrate the special occasions.

One of the most bizarre but special moments came to be when David Byrne joined Best Supporting Actress nominee Stephanie Hsu on stage to sing “This is a Life” from Everything, Everywhere, All At Once as it was one of the five songs nominated in the Best Original Song category. To people who have seen EEAAO, the performance paid homage to the very absurd but lovable different universes that come up throughout the movie; everything from the dancers performing kung-fu moves while having googly eyes on their head, to David Byrne sporting hot dog fingers, to a laser shooting raccoon taking up the screen behind them. EEAAO is such a wonderfully insane movie that incorporates all these weird aspects together in one, making for a truly confusing performance for anyone watching the Oscars who hasn’t seen the film yet.

David Byrne showing of his hot dog fingers during his performance of “This is a Life.”

Another silly and odd moment followed as Jimmy Kimmel came on stage with a donkey wearing an emotional support vest, claiming it is Jenny the donkey, Colin Ferrell’s scene partner in the Best Picture nominated Banshees of Inisherin. They then announced that All Quiet on the Western Front won for Best Original Score, officially losing John Williams the privilege of being the oldest Oscar winner of all time. EEAAO won in another big category for Best Original Screenplay. Women Talking won for Best Adapted Screenplay soon after, where Sarah Polley thanked the academy for not being offended that she put the words “women” and “talking” so close together. A controversial joke followed as Kimmel joked asking if Robert Blake should be included in the “In Memoriam” section after he was arrested for the murder of his wife. Fan favorite film Top Gun: Maverick took home their only Oscar of the night for Best Sound Design.

M. M. Keeravani serenading the audience with his parody of the Carpenter’s “Top of the World.”

Another wonderful part of the night came with the announcement of Best Original Song when “Naatu Naatu” from RRR won. It became the first winner of Best Original Song to come from an Indian produced movie. The beloved Tollywood film only received one Oscar nomination despite its large fanbase that transcends language barriers, being that the film is fully in Telugu. The award was accepted by the writer M. M. Keeravani, who had a very memorable acceptance speech. He explained that he grew up listening to the band The Carpenters as he began singing their hit song “Top of The World” with some of his own lyrics. He took the tune of their classic and added, “There was only one wish on my mind, so was Rajamouli’s and my family’s. RRR has to win, pride of every Indian, and must put me at the top of the world!” It was such a genuine moment of pride as Keeravani preached that he felt that he was on top of the world.

John Travolta was asked to announce the “In Memoriam” segment of the program as he fought tears paying tribute to his late friend and Grease co-star Olivia Newton-John. Lenny Kravitz gave a beautiful rendition of his song “Calling All Angels” during the segment, which controversially left out many big name stars such as Leslie Jordan, Paul Sorvino, Anne Heche, and even Charlbi Dean, a South African actress featured in this year’s Best Picture nominated Triangle of Sadness.

Jimmy Kimmel took a jab at conservative Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson when introducing the editing category by commenting, “Editors can turn 44,000 hours of violent insurrection footage into a respectful sightseeing tour of The Capitol. Their work is underappreciated.” Everything, Everywhere, All At Once continued their streak with their editor accepting the award while thanking his cast and crew, describing them as, “Kind, generous, incredible, insane, sexy people.”

Staying on the EEAAO train, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert won for Best Director, making them the third ever directing duo to win an Oscar in that category. Daniel Scheinert took the time during his speech to make a political statement on the anti-drag legislation being passed across America. He was thanking his parents for being supportive of his creative processes as he grew up, and made it a point to end with, “dressing in drag as a kid, which is a threat to nobody!” He was highlighting that drag is a form of artistic expression that in no way is harmful to anyone, children and adults alike.

The second most exciting part of the night came towards the end when the announcement for Best Actor came up. Brendan Fraser was announced winner for his work in The Whale as he emotionally made his way to the stage. He gave his speech through tears while thanking his family, friends, cast, and crew members, paying special tribute to his co-star by saying, “Only whales can swim at the depth of Hong Chau.” His win for Best Actor was similarly as exciting as Ke Huy Quan’s win since this was also his return to acting after many decades of hiatus. He stepped away from Hollywood after acting in films such as Encino Man with Ke Huy Quan, The Mummy, and George of the Jungle for many reasons. In the early 2000s during the height of his career, Fraser was plagued with many personal problems such as a divorce from his wife, the death of his mother, health problems, and even being sexually assaulted by the president of the Hollywood Foreign Press. His return to acting was met with a large amount of attention for his incredibly emotional performance in The Whale and he was met with a ton of support for his very humble and genuine personality.

Directing duo Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert with their Oscars following their win for Best Director.

Brendan Fraser accepting his Oscar for Best Lead Actor for his work in A24’s The Whale

Ke Huy Quan and Harrison Ford reuniting at the 95th Oscars after Quan’s film Everything, Everywhere, All At Once won Best Picture.

Following the Best Actor category, Michelle Yeoh became the first Asian woman to win the Oscar for Best Actress. She gave a very powerful speech by addressing young Asian people to spark some inspiration by saying, "for all the little boys and girls who look like me, this is proof that dreams do come true.” Yeoh also addressed older women in her speech after receiving lots of criticism for returning to acting at her age of sixty; she remarked, "Ladies, don't ever let anyone tell you that you're past your prime." She ended her speech with the powerful statement of, "this is a beacon of hope and possibilities.”

The night ended how it always ends: with Best Picture. Harrison Ford presented the category, very excitingly ending the night with the announcement of Everything, Everywhere, All At Once winning its seventh, and final Oscar. The best part of this announcement, however, was that it was a reunion for Harrison Ford and Ke Huy Quan thirty-nine years after the release of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Quan ran on stage and gave Ford a giant hug, leaving a beautiful end to a wonderful night.

So the night ended with Everything, Everywhere, All At Once winning seven awards with the second highest winner being All Quiet on the Western Front with four awards. The biggest wins of the night definitely went to Brendan Fraser and Ke Huy Quan, while the biggest losses seemed to be the widely loved Banshees of Inisherin, John Williams losing as the oldest ever nominee for The Fabelmans, and Angela Bassett in the Best Supporting Actress category for her work in Wakanda Forever, which is causing lots of uproar on social media. Other large movies going home empty handed included Tár, The Fabelmans, and Elvis. This year at the Academy Awards was a shocking surprise, with no large drama making headlines but rather large milestones and positive moments. Until next year, this awards scene has come to a close with the Daniels leading Hollywood in a new, absurd direction.

Page updated

Report abuse