The 95th Academy Award Oscars took place on Thursday, March 2 where we saw some of the most impactful actors and actresses of 2022 gather.
This year’s award show was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel as stars from every corner of Hollywood arrived and walked the red carpet— better known now as the new and improved “champagne” carpet.
Nominees included Austin Butler for Elvis; Angela Bassett for Wakanda Forever; Stephanie Hsu for Everything Everywhere All At Once; John Williams, the oldest nominee in Oscars history at 91, for his original score for The Fabelmans; and the director and creator of The Fabelmans himself, Steven Speilberg.
The sci-fi film company A24 took first place for most awards won. Everything Everywhere All At Once, an ode to family and life, came in with seven awards. After that, the international German film adaptation of the book All Quiet On the Western Front won four awards.
Troy Kotsur and Ariana DeBose, last year’s winners from Coda and West Side Story respectively, presented the awards for the Supporting Actress and Actor categories. They were given to Jamie Lee Curtis and Ke Huy Quan, both from the movie Everything Everywhere All At Once. Curtis dedicated her award to everyone she has ever worked with including her team, cast, and family, and finished her speech by saying, “We just won an Oscar together.” Quan himself was ecstatic about his award and recited a moving speech about how he came to America and never gave up on his dreams. This is an acting comeback for Quan as he has not been in a movie for 20 years due to the lack of roles for Asian actors.
This Oscars season wasn’t only a comeback for Quan, but also for Brendan Fraser. In 1992 the two starred in Encino Man followed by their own Hollywood hiatuses. Brendan Fraser is now back after his role in A24’s The Whale, taking home the award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Charlie in this very movie.
Alongside him, in the Best Actress Category was Michelle Yeoh for her character Evelyn in Everything Everywhere All At Once. According to ABC, Yeoh was the first Asian woman to win Best Actress and the second woman of color in history to win the category. All four of these winners were first-time Oscar winners and were all from the A24 movie franchise; consequently, A24 is the first studio to win in every major Oscar category in one year.
The award for Best Original Screenplay went to the Daniels, the filmmaking duo behind the film Everything Everywhere All At Once. The movie does hold some of the most heartwarming and best lines of the year such as, “I will always, always, want to be here with you,” and, “In another life, I would have really liked just doing laundry and taxes with you.”
The award for Best Adapted Screenplay went to Sarah Polley for her adaptation of Woman Talking based on the Miriam Toews novel of the same name, which ends with the powerful quote, “Your story will be different than ours,” demonstrating the movie’s important story about female power.
The awards for best director and editing went to Everything Everywhere All At Once. The Daniels accepted the award for best director and shared their story about how they met at Emerson college over 10 years ago. The two were the third directing duo to win an Oscar after Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise won for West Side Story in 1962 and Joel and Ethan Coen for No Country for Old Men in 2008. The editing award was accepted by editor Paul Rogers as he admitted this was the second movie he had ever worked on for editing.
The award for Best Costume Design went to Ruth Carter for her wardrobe in the movie Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Carter also won this award back in 2019 for her costume design in the first movie of the series Black Panther, making her the first black woman to win two Oscars. Carter dedicated the award to her late mother and Marvel family.
The Best Picture category consisted of 10 of the year’s biggest films, but the award went to the big winner of the night Everything Everywhere All At Once. Producer Jonathan Wang accepted the award with his whole cast and crew behind him. This movie is now the most awarded best picture winner in history.
This year’s Oscars broke many milestones. If you want to check out the rest of the winners and nominees, visit the official Oscars website for more details.
