The Michigan Daily Arts writers virtually covered The 95th Academy Awards. Like in 2021, we had access to the Virtual Press Room where award winners answered questions, commented on their excitement and spoke directly to the press. Here are some of our favorite moments from the night. Find the full list of 2023 Oscar winners here, and see the Film Beat’s Oscar predictions here.
“Everything Everywhere All at Once” was, in fact, everywhere
Exactly a year after premiering at the South by Southwest film festival, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s (“Swiss Army Man”) multiverse action-comedy “Everything Everywhere All at Once” (“EEAAO”) swept the Oscars. This was expected — the film has seen success throughout this year’s awards circuit. On Sunday night, the film took home seven of the 11 awards for which it was nominated. The directing duo, known as “Daniels,” took the stage for Best Directing, Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture. They, along with “EEAAO” producer Jonathan Wang (“Swiss Army Man”), talked with the press backstage about everything from their parents to special effects to mental health. Kwan called the film “a shotgun blast of joy and absurdity and creativity” and spoke about how powerful creativity can be in dark times, saying, “I really hope that the next generation can watch a movie like ours and (see) there’s another way to look at the bleakness … and face it head on.”
“EEAAO” also won three of the four big acting awards: Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Actress. Michelle Yeoh (“Crazy Rich Asians”) was the epitome of grace after winning Best Actress for her role as Evelyn Wang. In her acceptance speech, she dedicated her award to her mom and all mothers of the world, and told all the women watching to “never let anyone tell you you’re past your prime!” She smiled and laughed while answering reporters’ questions. She joked that her mom asked her not to wear pants to the ceremony, but said, “I think what mothers do is they’re constantly reminding you to be better, and they do it with love … (because they) want you to be better so you have more opportunities and you will have a better life.”
When asked to say something in Chinese to the Asian community, Yeoh gave a simple response, translated to: “To all the Asian communities, we are seen; we are heard; we have a seat at the table.” Yeoh then poked fun at the press with a grin, saying, “My Mandarin isn’t very good … but you all wouldn’t know that, would you?”
Comeback Stories
It was hard not to tear up during Ke Huy Quan’s emotional Best Supporting Actor acceptance speech for his role in “EEAAO.” He spoke about his return to acting, saying that “dreams are something you have to believe in. I almost gave up on mine. … Thank you for welcoming me back.”
That emotion turned into full-blown excitement by the end of the night — Quan was literally bouncing off the walls in the Virtual Press Room, a moment even more adorable than when he hugged Harrison Ford while onstage to accept the award for Best Picture. He told the press about a moment during a commercial break that he shared with Steven Spielberg, with whom he had worked as a child on “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and “The Goonies”: “He gave me a big hug and said, ‘Ke, you are now an Oscar-winning actor.’ Hearing him say that meant the world to me, and I still cannot believe it.”
Brendan Fraser has also had a strong comeback this year. His performance as Charlie in “The Whale” was his first leading film role in almost a decade, and he was just as shocked as Quan when he won the award for Best Actor, telling the press that “I heard my name, but I thought ‘that can’t be right.’ ” The Oscar trophy was heavier than he expected, and he joked that it would make one of his arms longer than the other. Fraser’s performance had been favored to win, and is especially notable given that “The Whale” was not nominated for Best Picture. Backstage, Fraser said his comeback story has given him “a lesson in humility and gratitude.” He ended his time backstage by thanking fans on the internet for rooting for him in his return to the silver screen, saying “I hope that I live up to this.”
Ruth E. Carter makes history with “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”
Ruth E. Carter, the costume designer for “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” made history on Oscar night when she became the first Black woman to win multiple Oscars. She won the Costume Design award for the original “Black Panther” film and, now, for its sequel. This win is indicative of the power “Black Panther” has. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a successful franchise in its own right, but “Black Panther” stands out for its focus on representing the Black community. In her acceptance speech, Carter pointed out the power of the Black community, and Black women especially.
“Thank you to the Academy for recognizing the superhero that is a Black woman,” she said. We all see the superheroes on the screen but often forget the real people, from film editors to sound technicians to costume designers, who make it all happen.
The main job of a costume designer, according to Carter, is supporting the movie. She explained in the Virtual Press Room that “(when creating costumes), it’s about storytelling. You don’t want to distract (from the movie itself) … you want to support.” She discussed Queen Ramonda’s (Angela Bassett, “Strange Days”) costume in particular. Carter and her team thought about everything — they added more vibranium to Ramonda’s costume to emphasize her status as a Wakandan ruler, they decked her out in purple and gold to symbolize her royal status as she entered the U.N., and they showed off her arms in a one-shouldered dress.
“The exposed shoulder shows her strength because, you know, Angela, she got those guns, right?” Carter said. “So we exposed her arms … to show, you know, how beautiful women can be, how (she can be) strong and vulnerable at the same time, but also can lead a nation.”
Carter herself represents the film’s message — how enduring and strong the Black community is.
“I pulled myself up from my bootstraps,” Carter said. “I studied, I scraped … I dealt with adversity in the industry that sometimes didn’t look like me. And I endured.” Like Queen Ramonda endured after losing T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman, “Avengers: Infinity War”), like the filmmakers endured after losing Chadwick Boseman, she endured. She succeeded by showing Hollywood, the Academy and the world what she was capable of.
“I feel that this win opens the door for other young costume designers that … may not think that this industry is for them,” she said. “Hopefully they will see me, and they will see my story, and they will think that they can win an Oscar too.”
Five out of nine Best Picture nominees went home empty-handed
The nominees for Best Picture included “All Quiet on the Western Front,” “Avatar: The Way of Water,” “The Banshees of Inisherin,” “Elvis,” “The Fabelmans,” “Tár,” “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Triangle of Sadness,” “Women Talking” and “EEAAO,” which took home the big prize. Five out of the nine nominees were awarded nothing.
Daniel Kwan, one of the directors of “EEAAO,” tweeted “No movie deserves to sweep” the day before the Oscars. Although “EEAAO” did deserve every award it won, “The Banshees of Inisherin,” “Tár,” “The Fabelmans” and “Babylon” look most curious empty-handed. “Babylon,” ignored and neglected in nearly every other category, seemed to be the sure winner for Best Original Score. When “All Quiet on the Western Front” was announced for this award on Sunday night, I could feel Film Twitter start to shake. If Justin Hurwitz (“La La Land”) had taken a hiatus this year, Volker Bertelmann’s (“Ammonite”) win would not have raised eyebrows, but Hurwitz’s epic “Babylon” masterpiece outshines the inventive but familiar sound of the war story.
As for “Tár,” Cate Blanchett — a two-time Academy Award winner — lost Best Actress to Yeoh. Blanchett delivered the performance of a lifetime, but so did Yeoh. “Tár” more notably lost Best Cinematography to the deceptively unthreatening “All Quiet.” Despite high praise from critics and cinema legend Martin Scorsese (“The Irishman”), “Tár” could not tempt the Academy.
Martin McDonagh’s “The Banshees of Inisherin” and Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans” faded into the background with “Tár,” “Babylon,” “Elvis” and “Triangle of Sadness” while “EEAAO” and “All Quiet” dominated the awards. The lesson to take from this year’s Oscars is that there will always be incredible films and filmmakers that don’t get the recognition they deserve. If some of Hollywood’s most prominent had not brought attention to Andrea Riseborough’s outstanding performance in the limitedly released “To Leslie,” the Academy would not have nominated her. If “EEAAO” had not found a place in the hearts of so many, it likely would not have dominated the awards season as it rightfully did.
“All Quiet on the Western Front” was anything but quiet
“All Quiet on the Western Front” was nominated for nine Academy Awards and won Best Cinematography, Best Production Design, Best Original Score and Best International Feature Film. It now sits tied with films such as “Parasite” and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” as the foreign language film with the most Oscar wins after Sunday night. The German World War I film, which also won seven BAFTAs, has been making the rounds on the awards circuit for its distinct anti-war sentiments and focus “on the futility of war” rather than glamorizing it. Director Edward Berger noted in his backstage interview after winning Best International Feature Film that they “tried to make a film about our past” but finished with a film “about our present,” subsequently remarking that “new terrors … had broken out that we never thought would again in Europe,” in reference to the Ukraine crisis.
“All Quiet” premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival before going straight to Netflix. It has now achieved notoriety despite being foreign and coming from somewhat humble beginnings. When asked about the importance of the achievements of “All Quiet” for the German film community, Berger told the press that “if a German film goes to Cannes, it’s going to be a push. And if a German film is at the Oscars, it’s going to be a push for the other films.” He spoke about feeling inferior as a German filmmaker and the responsibility that the film now carries after its awards sweep, imploring other filmmakers to use “All Quiet” as inspiration to “just do it … just do our movies.”
Some of our favorite quotes from this year’s Academy Awards
When accepting his Best Supporting Actor award, Quan joyfully exclaimed, “Mom, I just won an Oscar!”
Later, in the press room, Quan reiterated his excitement: “Can you believe I’m holding one of these?”
In the Virtual Press Room, Jamie Lee Curtis called for more female representation in Hollywood by referencing her film’s title, saying that Hollywood should include “Basically, just fucking more women anywhere, anytime, all at once.”
“At this point in the show you miss the slapping a little,” Jimmy Kimmel joked during the award show, referencing last year’s highly controversial but extremely memorable slap.
“I recently directed the film Cocaine Bear,” Elizabeth Banks said, when announcing the Best Visual Effects award … with a bear.
John Travolta honored his late “Grease” co-star Olivia Newton-John — and all other Hollywood figures who have passed away — when introducing the “In Memoriam” tribute: “They’ve touched our hearts, they’ve made us smile and became dear friends who we will always remain hopelessly devoted to.”
“Tonight we freaking broke that glass ceiling,” Yeoh remarked in the Virtual Press Room when thanking the Academy “for acknowledging, embracing diversity and true representation.”
When onstage with the rest of the “EEAAO” cast accepting the Best Picture award, producer Wang shouted out his wife by referencing one of the film’s now-iconic lines: “If all the shiny stuff and tuxedos go away, I would love to do laundry and taxes with you for the rest of my life.”
Hugh Grant and Andie MacDowell had a mini “Four Weddings and a Funeral” reunion — that was in part to “raise awareness about the vital importance of using a good moisturizer” — when presenting the award for Best Production Design. “Still stunning,” Grant said, gesturing to MacDowell. Then he called himself “basically a scrotum.”
When talking backstage to Fraser about his experience playing Queer characters, a reporter told him that “the gays love you,” to which Fraser responded, “I love you right back.”
“Chadwick, please take care of Mom,” Best Costume Design winner Carter said in her acceptance speech, paying tribute to “Black Panther” star and her mother, Mabel Carter, who died the week before the Oscars.
“Can I answer in German? Or in English? Both. Good.” Berger answered a question in the Virtual Press Room in both languages in honor of his film.
“I feel very blessed to have this kind of greatest recognition of the world for my country, for my culture, for my motherland and for my movie industry, from Telugu language,” M. M. Keeravaani said, on representing his culture with “Naatu Naatu.”
And finally, as the telecast was coming to a close, host Kimmel left the stage, walked up to a sign that read, “Number of Oscars Telecasts Without Incident,” and changed the zero to a one.
Daily Arts Writers Hannah Carapellotti, Maddie Agne, Maya Ruder and Sabriya Imami can be reached at hmcarp@umich.edu, maagne@umich.edu, mayarud@umich.edu and simami@umich.edu.