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95TH ACADEMY AWARDS A special night for Asian filmmaking
SHANIZ CHOWDHURY
Over 20 years had passed since a woman of colour won the Oscar for ‘Best Actress’, and Michelle Yeoh changed that, stamping her name in history by becoming the first Asian to win the ‘Best Actress’ award for her role in Everything Everywhere All at Once .
Yeoh beat heavyweights like Cate Blanchett ( Tár ), Ana de Armas ( Blonde ) and Michelle Williams ( The Fabelmans ).
Overall, Everything Everywhere All at Once finished the night with seven awards to their name, including: ‘Best Director’, ‘Best Actress’, ‘Best Original Screenplay’, ‘Best Picture’, and many more. The A24 almost performed a clean sweep of this year’s Academy Awards.
The beloved Brendan Fraser, who has been in the industry for 30 years—starring in popcorn flicks like The Mummy and Journey to the Centre of the Earth —took home the Oscar for ‘Best Actor’. The actor returned to screen after a long hiatus with a prominent and compassionate portrayal of a melancholic, lonely and obese father, trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter in The Whale .
Jamie Lee Curtis took the ‘Best Supporting Actress’ honour for her performance as a pertinacious and uptight IRS inspector in the eccentric inter-dimensional adventure Everything Everywhere All at Once . Her co-star, Ke Huy Quan won ‘Best Supporting Actor’, beating Judd Hirsch ( The Fabelmans ), and Brendan Gleeson and Barry Keoghan ( Banshees of Inisherin ).
After originally starring in the 1980s blockbusters Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and The Goonies , Quan had to leave acting in the 1990s due to a lack of opportunities, instead working as a stunt choreographer and assistant director, before his resurgence in the 2020s. His Oscar win solidified his status as one of Hollywood’s greatest comeback stories.
With director Daniel Kwan ( Everything Everywhere All at Once ) winning ‘Best Original Screenplay’ and ‘Best Director’; and Hong Chau ( The Whale ) being nominated as well, the 2023 Oscars was especially significant for Asian and Asian American creatives.
The Oscars are a momentous event for musicians as well, with Naatu Naatu from the Indian movie, RRR , winning the ‘Best Original Song’ award. The song, with its groovy tempo and dance steps, triumphed over both Lady Gaga and Rihanna.
The late Chadwick Boseman was honoured by Rihanna in her performance of the heartfelt ballad Lift Me Up , from Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever . Lady Gaga also gave a powerful and deeply moving performance of her song Hold My Hand , which she wrote for Top Gun: Maverick .
On a sombre note, however, the 573 members of the Academy’s directors’ branch did not nominate any female directors, despite the fact that Sarah Polley, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Charlotte Wells, and Maria Schrader all released rather significant movies last year, including Women Talking , The Woman King , Aftersun , and She Said , respectively.
However, Sarah Polley did receive the Oscar for ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’ for the radical parable, Women Talking .
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio bagged the win for ‘Best Animated Feature film’, which gave Toro a chance to emphasise on animation being a vital part of cinema in his speech. With this win, Guillermo del Toro became the first person in history to win an Oscar for ‘Best Picture’, ‘Best Director’ and ‘Best Animated Feature’.
The Oscars are not just about the glitz and glamour. The golden statue helps accelerate an artistes’ career path and allows them to experiment with various concepts. That is why, every year without fail, more and more filmmakers campaign for a chance at cinema’s biggest prize.