‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ triumphs at the Oscars with seven awards, including best film and directing | This is how we covered the ceremony
Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s multiverse film receives awards for Michelle Yeoh and her supporting performers, Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis. Brendan Fraser, best leading actor for ‘The Whale’. Pinocchio’ by Mexico’s Guillermo del Toro, best animated film
The very peculiar film about the multiverse Everything Everywhere All at Once has triumphed at the 95th Oscars with seven awards: best film, leading actress for Michelle Yeoh, direction for Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, editing, original screenplay and Jamie Lee Curtis and Ke Huy Quan as supporting actors. Brendan Fraser was named Best Actor in a Leading Role for The Whale. Adapted screenplay went to Sarah Polley for Women Talking. Edward Berger’s German film, All Quiet on the Western Front, won the Oscar for Best International Film, a category in which Santiago Mitre’s Argentina, 1985 was also competing, and won four statuettes. Pinocchio, by Mexico’s Guillermo del Toro, won for best animated film.
Thank you and goodnight
That's it for the Oscars 2023. Everything Everywhere All at Once, the clear favorite at the start is the clear winner at the end, taking home seven statuettes.
Until next time!
Michelle Yeoh after winning the Oscar for Best Actress for 'Everything Everywhere All at Once'. / ETIENNE LAURENT / EFE
Michelle Yeoh, Hollywood's franchise woman
Two actors from The Mummy have won Oscars for Best Lead Actor. This has been a year that has brought back stars who have been in Hollywood for a long time, albeit on the sidelines, both inside and outside of franchises. The most notable is Michelle Yeoh, who has two characters in the Marvel universe, premiered The Witcher series last year, had a starring role in Star Trek: Discovery (and a possible spin-off in its future), stars in The Minions, was a Bond girl (who also wanted to give her own saga) and will appear in the upcoming Avatar, Transformers and Kenneth Branagh's Poirot. A career that has given so much that even had a role in the Netflix sequel to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Also coming soon: American Born Chinese, on Disney+, and with much of the cast of Everything Everywhere at Once: Key Hu Quan, Stephanie Hsu and James Hong.
A lacklustre ceremony ends with the triumph of 'Everything Everywhere All at Once'
In a long and unfunny ceremony of three hours and 35 minutes, Everything Everywhere All At Once, which would be the opposite of this gala, takes the main awards: film, direction, three acting, original screenplay and editing. All Quiet on the Western Front won four (including international film), and The Whale won two statuettes (best actor and hair and make-up). Some interesting facts: Michelle Yeoh is the second non-white actress to win the award for leading female performance, and has received the award from the first, Halle Berry. Both were also bond girls with Pierce Brosnan. And Yeoh herself and Brendan Fraser were actors in The Mummy saga.
An actress in her prime
The most celebrated Oscar of the gala? Best actress for Michelle Yeoh, the sixth for Everything Everywhere All at Once. She thanked with a slap on the wrist for CNN anchor Don Lemmon, who a couple of weeks ago got into a controversy that almost cost him his job when he said that Nikki Halley, Republican presidential candidate, "is no longer in her prime." Haley is 51. Yeoh, 60. Her glory was celebrated by a standing ovation at the Dolby Theater.
Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert and Jonathan Wang win the Oscar for Best Picture for 'Everything Everywhere All at Once" / CARLOS BARRIA / REUTERS
'Everything Everywhere All at Once' makes it seven out of eleven on the night with Best Picture
Everything Everywhere All at Once is confirmed as the big winner of the 2023 Academy Awards. It won the final award of the evening, Best Picture, which was presented by Harrison Ford, who couldn't be accompanied by Glen Close on this occasion.
Michelle Yeoh accepts the Best Actress award for 'Everything Everywhere All at Once' / Kevin Winter / Getty Images
Michelle Yeoh wins the Oscar for best actress
Michelle Yeoh wins the Oscar for Best Actress for her role in Everything Everywhere All at Once, becoming the first Asian and second non-white woman to win this category. The statuette was given to her by Halle Berry with whom she shares this honor. After 40 years of career, the actress embarks on this film playing Evelyn, a middle-aged woman who turns out to be the salvation of the multiverse.
Brendan Fraser accepts the Best Actor award for "The Whale" onstage. / Kevin Winter / Getty Images
Brendan Fraser, best leading actor for 'The Whale'
Brendan Fraser has won the Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role for The Whale. The entire quintet of nominees were making it to the Oscars for the first time. "I wasn't that far away, I'm still here. It's not so easy to get rid of me," he said in Venice, where he won the Volpi Cup for best performance. Decades ago, he was the actor of The mummy, and was not nominated for supporting actor (at the time he deserved it) for Gods and Monsters.
Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan (R) after winning their first Oscar of the night. / ETIENNE LAURENT / EFE
The Daniels, Oscar for best direction with 'Everything Everywhere All at Once'
Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, for their work for 'Everything Everywhere All at Once', won the award for best direction. As much as someone remembers that Spielberg has not won it for 24 years, this was not his edition either. Not since 2017 had an American filmmaker won this award.
'Everything Everywhere All at Once', Best Editing
Paul Rogers, for Everything Everywhere All at Once, wins the Oscar for Best Editing. He had taken all the previous awards: from the editors' Eddie, to the Bafta, the Critics Choice and the Independent Spirit. His work is fundamental in the development of the plot of the Daniels' film, which has now won its fourth statuette.
One of the most commented things in social media is the reaction of Angela Bassett
One of the most talked about jokes on Twitter is the stoic-faced reaction of Angela Bassett, nominated for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, to Jamie Lee Curtis' win. Until a few days ago the actress, nominated for the second time after losing in What's Love Got To Do With It in 1994, was the favorite in this category. Bassett was already a joke at the BAFTAs for a confusing phrase in a rap sung by Ariana Debose.
Cargando...
Naatu Naatu', Best Original Song
Naatu Naatu, by M. M. Keeravaani and Chandrabose, for the Indian film RRR, won Best Song, beating Rihanna and Lady Gaga. RRR (the acronym in several Indian languages for rage, war and blood, and in English and Hindi for uprising, roar and revolt) serves, incidentally, to introduce the rest of the world to Tollywood cinema, made in Calcutta, in eastern India, which multiplies the spectacular nature of Bollywood cinema, created in Bombay, in the west of the country.
'Top Gun: Maverick', Best Sound
Mark Weingarten, James Mather, Al Nelson, Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor, from Top Gun: Maverick have won the Oscar for best sound. It is the first statuette for Tom Cruise's blockbuster at this gala and the second for the saga, which won best original song in 1987.
'Women Talking', Best Adapted Screenplay
Sarah Polley's Women Talking wins the Best Adapted Screenplay award on the night. The award-winner is the third film she has directed, adapting the novel by Miriam Toews. After winning this statuette, the director will also compete in the best film category. She is the only female filmmaker against the nine men who accompany her in the top category of this edition.
'Everything Everywhere All at Once', Best Original Screenplay
Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, take home the Oscar for Everything Everywhere All at Once. The movie's fourth award of the night. On stage, the Daniels have remembered, in Scheinert's case, the teachers who did not support him, and Kwan, those who called him a "fool."
John Williams fails to become oldest Oscar winner
With the victory of All Quiet on the Western Front for Best Original Score, composer John Williams fails to become the oldest Oscar winner at the age of 91. The oldest person to have won the statuette is still James Ivory for Call me by your name, when he was 89. Williams has only won 5 awards out of the 53 nominations he has received, a record that Jimmy Kimmel described in his monologue as "honestly, not very good".
Cate Blanchett arrives at the Oscars. / Jordan Strauss / Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP
What does the blue ribbon worn by Cate Blanchett and Guillermo del Toro mean?
The suits and dresses have become political for one more year. In the same way that happened in 2022, some of the protagonists like Cate Blanchett and Guillermo del Toro wore a blue ribbon to show their support for Ukrainian refugees. In the previous edition, where this detail was much more visible, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) was in charge of distributing these ribbons with the aim of making visible the consequences of the conflict on the civilian population, a tragedy that was a year old a few weeks ago.
Daniel Bruhl arrives at the Oscars. / Ashley Landis / Ashley Landis/Invision/AP
All quiet in Daniel Bruhl's triumph
Actor Daniel Brühl was ecstatic in the lobby reserved for the award winners at the Dolby Theater, beer in hand, shortly after the German film in which he acts and of which he is producer, All Quiet on the Western Front, won the statuette for best international film (it would not be the only one, they have four so far). "We are very excited, we are just guys from Berlin," Brühl told EL PAÍS in perfect Spanish (he was born in Barcelona in 1978). The actor has been working for years on the project of adapting Erich Maria Remarque's classic, an anti-war classic of the 20th century and a widely read novel in Germany. Brühl has done it twice: "When I was 15 and in my early twenties," he explained. "My father was into documentaries and made one about Remarque, an important presence at home. It's a book that is a century old but its language is very current. Not to mention the subject matter. When we started the project, we were concerned about the rise of nationalism and populism in Europe. We never knew that a war [in Ukraine] was about to come, which made this adventure even more relevant."
'Avatar: The Way of Water', Best Special Effects
Avatar: The Way of Water, and the team led by Joe Letteri, with four Oscars on his resume, from Weta Digital, along with Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon and Daniel Barrett, won the statuette. Between the four of them, they totaled five statuettes.
Halfway through the ceremony
After two hours, the gala passes its halfway point. As is tradition, the most important awards such as Best Picture, Best Actress and Actor and Best Director are still to come. There are six categories left (Best Visual Effects, Best Original Screenplay, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Sound, Best Original Song and Best Editing) before those last four awards are handed out.
'All Quiet on the Western Front' wins Best Production Design
All Quiet on the Western Front, the work of Christian M. Goldbeck and Ernestine Hipper, takes home the prize for production design. This is the third statuette of the night for the German film.
Lady Gaga performs 'Hold My Hand' from 'Top Gun: Maverick,' onstage. / PATRICK T. FALLON / AFP
Lady Gaga, no makeup and a trimmed back version of 'Hold my hand'
Lady Gaga, who contributed to the soundtrack of Top Gun: Maverick, decided to sing an almost melodic version of Hold my hand without big dresses, wearing only a t-shirt, torn pants and a clean face. Until yesterday we thought she was not going to perform at the gala, because she said she was too busy shooting the Joker sequel, a musical where she will play Harley Quinn. If she has joined the school of Joaquin Phoenix and the direction of Todd Phillips, she will surely be in a complicated psychological state. Although not as much as when she played Patrizia in The House of Gucci.
Swedish director Edward Berger (C) accepts the Oscar for Best International Feature Film for 'All Quiet on the Western Front'. / PATRICK T. FALLON / AFP
Netflix, still in the game... but less than previous years
Netflix has taken home three awards tonight so far, one for Pinocchio and two for All Quiet on the Western Front, although this year it started with much less success at the Oscars than in previous years. In 2021 it had 36 nominations; in 2022, 28 and this year, 16. They had no great film in which to win all the awards, because Iñarritu's Bardo, Blonde and the smash hit Glass Onion didn't make the cut. Apple has already taken away the possibility of being the first platform to win the Best Picture award. Will it invest so much in the Oscars again or will it focus on huge blockbusters from the Russo brothers?
A performance of the song "Naatu Naatu" from "RRR" at the Oscars. / Chris Pizzello / Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP
Indian patriotism in Hollywood
The biggest ovation of the theater in a half-hearted gala so far went to the performance of the song Naatu Naatu from the Indian nationalist film RRR, performed by Kala Bhairava, M. M. Keeravani and Rahul Sipligunj. It is the favorite in its category, despite competing with Rihanna and Lady Gaga. It is the first Indian song nominated in the history of the Hollywood awards. Despite the confusion, it is not a Bollywood film, but a Tollywood film, made in Calcutta.
Edin Hasanović in a scene from 'All Quiet on the Western Front' / Reiner Bajo / AP
'All Quiet on the Western Front': Best International Feature
Edward Berger's All Quiet on the Western Front wins Best International Film. An award for Netflix. It is the second statuette of the German film, the first one for cinematography. It is the fourth time that Germany wins the category (the last time was with The Lives of Others).
'Black Panther: Wakanda Forever", wins Best Costume Design
Ruth E. Carter wins the Oscar for best costume design for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. It is the most imaginative work of the nominees, given that it was to put clothes on a society that does not exist. It is Carter's fourth nomination and the second statuette she has won, the first being Black Panther.
Angela Bassett arrives at the Oscars. / Ashley Landis / Ashley Landis/Invision/AP
Marvel leaves without its prize
The Marvel Universe had hopes of making its Oscar debut today, beyond special effects and other technical aspects, with an award for Angela Bassett for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, but the actors of Hollywood's most successful studio (which is half the industry) still can't win an Oscar. To earn it, they will have to go to the competition and become the Joker, always good for an award, as Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix did, and perhaps soon Barry Keoghan (now nominated for The Banshees of Inisherin).
Brendan Fraser in a scene from 'The Whale' / AP
'The Whale', Best Makeup and Hairstyling
The Oscar for Best Makeup and Hairstyling went to Adrien Morot, Judy Chin and Annemarie Bradley-Sherron, who built Charlie over Brendan Fraser during five hours a day for The Whale.
Film or politics?
Every year at the Oscars the debate is renewed on whether it makes sense at a film awards gala to launch some vindictive message, whether in favor of the protests in Iran or public health. "This is about movies, not politics" versus "if there's a microphone and millions of ears listening, why not take advantage of the loudspeaker?". Years ago The Hollywood Reporter cited a study that made the case for both sides: bottom line, most Democratic voters (Hillary Clinton's, then) appreciated the social nods and were fired up at home. Trump voters, on the other hand, lamented it, saw it as out of place and even changed the channel.
Judd Hirsch and a guest arrive on the champagne-colored red carpet. / MARIO ANZUONI / REUTERS
16 first-time actors and 4 Oscar veterans
This year's gala was full of newcomers to the Oscars. There were only four actors with previous nominations: Cate Blanchett, Judd Hirsch (who has already lost after decades of waiting for his second nomination), Michelle Williams (with already five nominations, on her way to being one of the big losers) and Angela Bassett, and only the first one had already won. The rest were newcomers, including Colin Farrell and Jamie Lee Curtis. New faces in the old race.
'All Quiet on the Western Front' takes home the award for Cinematography
James Friend, from All Quiet on the Western Front, won the statuette for Best Cinematography. With the defeat of Elvis in this category, a woman is yet to win this award in the history of the Oscars.
Shohreh Aghdashloo arrives for the 95th annual Academy Awards ceremony. / CAROLINE BREHMAN / EFE
A reminder of the suffering of Iranian women
Iranian actress Shohreh Aghdashloo took advantage of her presence at the gala to make a claim: on her dress, designed by Christian Siriano, one could read "Women, Life, Freedom" next to the names of Mahsa Amini, Hajar Abbasi and Nika Shakarami, all victims of the Iranian regime's repression.
An Irish Goodbye', Best Fiction Short Film
An Irish Goodbye by Ross White and Tom Berkeley won the Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film. The producers sang Happy birthday for the lead actor, James Martin, in a very light-hearted acceptance.
Oscar for Best Documentary Feature goes to Navalny
The Oscar for best feature documentary goes to Daniel Roher's Navalny, which can be seen on HBO. Last year it was just at this award that the "slapgate" happened. This time around, the acceptance of this award serves to highlight political repression in Russia. Imprisoned Russian political dissident Alexey Navalny's wife went onstage with Roher to accept the award. "I pray for the day you [Navalny] are free. I pray for the day Russia is free", she said.
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