The 95th Oscars Tugged at the Heartstrings, Celebrated Diversity and Raised Its Fist in Support of Ukraine

The 95th Academy Awards ceremony, held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Monday morning (India time), passed without any incident of violence, but with lots of tears, emotions and moments as the film fraternity came together to celebrate diversity and raise its fist in support of Ukraine.

The top awards, as expected, went to Everything Everywhere All at Once. It won best picture, best direction and three acting trophies, including best leading actress for Michelle Yeoh. And Brendan Fraser won the Oscar for best actor for his career-comeback role of Charlie, an obese man, in The Whale. 

But at least four much-loved films which were predicted to win at least one Oscar each drew a complete blank. Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical film The Fabelmans, Todd Field’s Tár for which Cate Blanchett was nominated in the best performance category, Elvis which was expected to win the cinematography trophy and best actor male for Austin Butler, and The Banshees of Inisherin were left empty-handed

Asians, on the other hand, dominated the Oscar stage with Everything Everywhere All At Once (EEAAO) bagging seven awards of its 11 nominations, and India bagging two – for Best Original Song and Best Documentary Short – out of its three nominations. 

Though Indians – song composer M.M. Keeravaani and lyricist Chandrabose who received the award for Best Original Score (“Nattu Nattu”), and director Kartiki Gonsalves who, along with producer Guneet Monga, received the award for their short documentary, The Elephant Whisperers – delivered impassioned speeches without shedding tears, almost everyone from the EEAAO team couldn’t help but cry, beginning with Ke Huy Quan, 52, who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

In his speech that he delivered while wiping tears that wouldn’t stop, the Vietnamese-American actor spoke of his life that began on a boat, followed by living in a refugee camp, and signed off saying, “Dreams are something you have to believe in. I almost gave up on mine. To all of you out there: please keep your dreams alive.”

Jamie Lee Curtis, 64, won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role of tax inspector Deirdre Beaubeirdre in EEAAO. In her acceptance speech for her first-ever Oscar (nomination and award), Curtis thanked “all of the people who have supported the genre movies I have made all these years.” 

An emotional Curtis then looked up as she spoke of her late parents, their Oscar nominations, and raising her hands, said, “I just won an Oscar!”

Curtis’ mother Janet Leigh played Marion Crane in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1959 classic thriller, Psycho. For her performance as Crane, who is murdered in a shower in what is perhaps the most famous film scene ever, she received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Curtis’ father, Tony Curtis, received a Best Actor nomination for his role in the 1958 film, The Defiant One.

EEAAO, directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert who began their career making music videos, is an “absurdist, science-fiction comedy drama” about a Chinese-American family that runs a laundromat. The film flits between the real world and a parallel universe and has been a favorite all through the award season.  

The director duo, who are known as “Daniels,” came on stage to accept the Best Director awards from Nicole Kidman and Idris Elba. In his acceptance speech, Scheinert said, “This one is dedicated to the mommies of the world, to our moms, specifically my mom and dad, thank you for not squashing my creativity when I was making really disturbing horror films or really perverted comedy films or dressing in drag as a kid, which is a threat to nobody!”  

After last year’s shocking display of machismo by Will Smith and the Academy’s delayed reaction to it, Chris Rock reportedly refused the offer to host the Oscar awards ceremony this year, and the task fell to TV host Jimmy Kimmel.

But on Monday morning Kimmel, who last hosted the Oscars in 2017 (when the show ended with the La La Land-Moonlight envelope fiasco) and 2018, was rather dull.

He began the show by addressing the elephant in the room with jokes about last year’s “slap” in his opening monologue, but then made the faux pas of calling RRR a “Bollywood film.” Despite his low-energy anchoring, the Oscar ceremony was lifted by fabulous live performances, acceptance speeches that tugged at the heart, and star power on and off stage.

To present awards, Salma Hayek arrived in a glamorous red sequin gown accompanied by Antonio Banderas, and a silver-haired Andie MacDowell was paired with Hugh Grant, the two briefly rekindling the magic of the 1994 romantic drama, Four Weddings and a Funeral.  

Both Rihanna, who sang “Lift Me Up” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and Lady Gaga, who appeared without makeup in ripped jeans and a black T-shirt to sing “Hold My Hand” from Top Gun: Maverick, were sublime. The two songs were amongst the five nominated for Best Original Song, but the award was bagged by “Naatu Naatu” from RRR.

With the war in Europe completing a year last month, the Oscars honored Ukraine’s determined resistance and fight against Russia’s unconscionable assault with five Oscars. 

The German anti-war film, All Quiet on the Western Front, bagged four awards, and Navalny, a film on imprisoned Russian Opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s life, won the Oscar for Best Documentary (Feature), beating Shaunak Sen’s critically acclaimed film, All That Breathes. 

Navalny’s wife, Yulia, accompanied by her children, the film’s director Daniel Roher and crew, took to the stage to say, “My husband is in prison just for telling the truth. My husband is in prison just for defending democracy… Alexei, I am dreaming of the day when you will be free and our country will be free.”

“Stay strong my love,” she added.

Director Edward Berger’s World War I epic, All Quiet on the Western Front, which had nine Oscar nominations this year, beat Poland’s EO, Ireland’s The Quiet Girl, Belgian film Close, and Argentina, 1985 (from Argentina) to win the Best International Feature Film award. An adaptation of a 1928 novel by Erich Maria Remarque, it also won the Oscar for best cinematography, production design and original score. 

Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick – the “movie that saved the movies” with the $1.5 billion it made at the box office – won the Oscar for Best Sound, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever won the Oscar for costume design.

Apart from Brendan Fraser’s best actor trophy, The Whale also won the Oscar for makeup and hairstyling, while Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. Avatar: The Way of Water won for visual effects.

But for The Banshees of Inisherin, which also had nine nominations, the award season ended on a low note.

Only the film’s non-human star, Jenny the donkey, made an appearance on stage on Monday. Kimmel arrived holding Jenny’s leash and explained the wide sash on its back that announced its certified qualification as a provider of “emotional support.” 

But, in tune with the magic and guile of cinema, some reports later said that wasn’t Jenny, it was Jenny’s double. Oh, well, it was adorable nonetheless.