Entertainment
Deepika Padukone introduces ‘Naatu Naatu’ at Oscars
Bollywood star Deepika Padukone was on hand at the Oscars on Sunday to introduce the performance of best original song nominee (and later winner) “Naatu Naatu,” from “RRR.”
In presenting the song, she noted its anti-colonialist themes — but it’s also “a total banger,” she said.
The “Naatu Naatu” performance featured playback singers Kaala Bhairava and Rahul Sipligunj flanking a squadron of high-energy dancers. The film’s lead actors, N.T. Rama Rao Jr. and Ram Charan, did not perform.
While Padukone is best known for her Hindi-language films, she got her start in South Indian cinema — her first movie was the Kannada-language “Aishwarya.” Already a global celebrity, the 37-year-old has had a major year outside of India. She also served on the jury at the 75th Cannes Film Festival last May and walked out the World Cup trophy alongside former Spain keeper Iker Casillas at the final in Qatar.
She most recently starred opposite Indian superstar Shah Rukh Khan in the hit “Pathaan,” which brought in $5.9 million at the North American box office alone in its first weekend.
Ruth E. Carter becomes 1st Black woman to win two Oscars
Ruth E. Carter made history: The costume designer behind the “Black Panther” films became the first Black woman to win two Oscars.
Carter took home best costume design Sunday night at the 95th Academy Awards for the Marvel sequel “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” Carter also won in 2018 for “Black Panther,” which made her the first African American to win in the category.
In her acceptance speech, Carter thanked the film's director Ryan Coogler and asked if “Black Panther” star Chadwick Boseman could look after her mother, Mabel Carter, who she said died “this past week.” Boseman died in 2020 of cancer at 43.
“This is for my mother. She was 101,” Carter said. "This film prepared me for this moment. Chadwick, please take care of mom.”
Carter then paid tribute to her mother backstage.
Also Read: Michelle Yeoh makes history with best actress Oscar win
“I had a great relationship with her in her final years. The same relationship I always had with her. I was her ride-or-die. I was her road dog. I was her sidekick," she said. "I know she’s proud of me. I know that she wanted this for me as much as I wanted it for myself.”
“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” grappled with the grief of losing Boseman, its superhero.
In her career, Carter has been behind-the-scenes in some of Hollywood’s biggest films. She’s garnered Oscar nominations for her work in Spike Lee’s “Malcolm X” and Steven Spielberg’s “Amistad” and received praise for her period ensembles in other projects such as Lee Daniels’ “The Butler,” Ava DuVernay’s “Selma” and the reboot of “ROOTS.” She’s created costumes for Oprah Winfrey, Denzel Washington, Eddie Murphy and even Jerry Seinfeld for the “Seinfeld” pilot.
Carter played an influential role as lead costume designer in making “Black Panther” a cultural phenomenon as she infused the pride of African diaspora into the character’s stylish and colorful garments to help bring Wakanda to life. She wanted to transform the presence of Queen Ramonda - played by Oscar nominee Angela Bassett - as a queen in the first film to being a ruler in the sequel.
"Angela always wanted to play a queen, so to amplify her, we added vibranium … we gave her the royal color of purple, and adorned her in gold as she wore the crown at the UN,” Carter said. “When she sits on the throne, she’s in a gray one shouldered dress. The exposed shoulder shows her strength – Angela, she got those guns, right?”
Carter said she was able to pull off the win against a “tough lineup.” She was up against designers from “Elvis,” “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris,” “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” and “Babylon.”
She got her start in 1988 on Lee’s “School Daze,” the director’s second film. They’ve since collaborated on more than 10 films, including “Do the Right Thing” and “Jungle Fever.” She’s also worked with Robert Townsend on “The Five Heartbeats” and Keenen Ivory Wayans on “I’m Gonna Git You Sucka.”
“I pulled myself up from my bootstraps," Carter said. "I started in a single parent household. I wanted to be a costume designer. I studied. I scraped. I struggled with adversity in an industry that sometimes didn’t look like me. And I endured.”
Through the Oscar-nominated “Malcolm X," she reached new heights new heights. That film, starring Denzel Washington, propelled her into the “Hollywood makeup,” offering her more opportunities to work with directors who had different points-of-views and scripts.
Carter's wish is that her historic win Sunday will offer more opportunities to women of color.
“I hope this opens the door for others … that they can win an Oscar, too,” Carter said.
List of 2023 Oscar winners
Oscar winners announced Sunday:
Best picture: “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
Best actress: Michelle Yeoh, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
Best actor: Brendan Fraser, “The Whale”
Best supporting actor: Ke Huy Quan, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
Best supporting actress: Jamie Lee Curtis, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
Original song: “Naatu Naatu” from “RRR”
Film editing: “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
Best director: Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
Best animated feature: “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio”
International feature film: “All Quiet on the Western Front” (Germany)
Documentary feature: “Navalny”
Live action short: “An Irish Goodbye”
Cinematography: James Friend, “All Quiet on the Western Front”
Makeup and hairstyling: “The Whale”
Costume design: “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”
Documentary short: “The Elephant Whisperers”
Animated short: “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse”
Production design: “All Quiet on the Western Front”
Music (original score): Volker Bertelmann, “All Quiet on the Western Front”
Visual Effects: “Avatar: The Way of Water”
Original screenplay: “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
Adapted screenplay: “Women Talking”
Sound: “Top Gun: Maverick”
Brendan Fraser wins best-actor Oscar in career comeback
Brendan Fraser has won the best-actor Oscar for “The Whale,” a transformative role in which he revived a career that was once so bright.
“I started in this business 30 years ago and things didn’t come easily to me,” said Fraser, breathing heavily. “I just want to say thank you for this acknowledgement.”
Fraser was one of five first-time nominees in the category, the first time that had happened since 1935. Fraser beat out Austin Butler of “Elvis,” Colin Farrell of “The Banshees of Inisherin,” Paul Mescal of “Aftersun,” and Bill Nighy of “Living.”
Fraser figures the role of Charlie, a 600-pound reclusive gay English teacher who tries to restore his relationship with his teenage daughter, found him at the perfect time.
Also Read: Michelle Yeoh makes history with best actress Oscar win
Any earlier in his career and Fraser has said he wouldn't have had the life experience or heartache to authentically play a character who lives with sadness, pain and life-threatening obesity.
Fraser's portrayal earned him standing ovations at film festivals in Venice and Toronto, and the early praise continued building through the fall and winter. In addition to receiving the best reviews of his career, he earned a SAG Award for his performance. Along the way, he's given emotional acceptance speeches, unafraid to cry at times.
It's a career comeback, which Hollywood has always loved.
The 54-year-old American Canadian actor broke out in the early 1990s with the comedy “Encino Man” and the drama “School Ties.” He was the face on movie posters for "George of the Jungle” and “The Mummy” trilogy, where he worked with fellow Oscar nominee Michelle Yeoh. He did dramatic turns in “Gods and Monsters,” “The Quiet American” and 2006 best-picture winner “Crash.”
He had his share of projects that bombed, too.
Then Fraser all but disappeared.
He was off the big screen for several years dealing with a series of personal issues involving divorce, his mother's death, health problems and an alleged assault by the then-president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. He boycotted this year's Golden Globes as a result.
He regained career momentum with a series of cable TV shows before appearing in director Steven Soderbergh's movie “No Sudden Move” two years ago.
'Everything' wins best picture, is everywhere at Oscars
The metaphysical multiverse comedy “Everything Everywhere All at Once” wrapped its hot dog fingers around Hollywood’s top prize Sunday, winning best picture at the 95th Academy Awards, along with awards for Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis.
Though worlds away from Oscar bait, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s anarchic ballet of everything bagels, googly-eyed rocks and one messy tax audit emerged as an improbable Academy Awards heavyweight. The indie hit, A24’s second best-picture winner following “Moonlight,” won seven Oscars in all.
Fifty years after “The Godfather” won at the Oscars, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” triumphed with a much different immigrant experience. Its eccentric tale about a Chinese immigrant family – just the second feature by the Daniels, as the filmmaking duo is known – blended science fiction and alternate realities in the story of an ordinary woman and laundromat owner.
“Everything Everywhere,” released all the way back in March 2022, helped revive arthouse cinemas after two years of pandemic, racking up more than $100 million in ticket sales. And despite initially scant expectations of Oscar glory, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” toppled both blockbusters (“Top Gun: Maverick,” “Avatar: The Way of Water”) and critical darlings (“Tar,” “The Banshees of Inisherin”).
Yeoh became the first Asian woman to best actress, taking the award for her lauded performance in “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” The 60-year-old Malaysian-born Yeoh won her first Oscar for a performance that relied as much on her comic and dramatic chops as it did her kung fu skills. She’s the first best actress win for a non-white actress in 20 years.
“Ladies, don't let anyone ever tell you you're past your prime,” said Yeoh, who received a raucous standing ovation.
Also Read: Michelle Yeoh wins best actress award, making Oscar history
In winning best director, the Daniels — both 35 years old — won for just their second and decidedly un-Oscar bait feature. They're just the third directing pair to win the award, following Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins (“West Side Story”) and Joel and Ethan Coen (“No Country for Old Men”). Scheinert dedicated the award “to the moms of the world.”
Best actor went to Brendan Fraser, culminating the former action star’s return to center stage for his physical transformation as a 600-lb. reclusive professor in “The Whale.” The best-actor race had been one of the closest contests of the night, but Fraser in the end edged Austin Butler.
“So this is what the multiverse looks like,” said a clearly moved Fraser, pointing to the “Everything Everywhere All at Once” crew.
The former child star Quan capped his own extraordinary comeback with the Oscar for best supporting actor for his performance in the indie hit “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” Quan, beloved for his roles as Short Round in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and Data in “Goonies,” had all but given up acting before being cast in “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
His win, among the most expected of the night, was nevertheless one of the ceremony's most moving moments. The audience — including his “Temple of Doom” director, Steven Spielberg — gave Quan a standing ovation as he fought back tears.
“Mom, I just won an Oscar!” said Quan, 51, whose family fled Vietnam in the war when he was a child.
“They say stories like this only happen in the movies. I can't believe it's happening,” said Quan. "This is the American dream."
Minutes later, Quan's castmate Jamie Lee Curtis won for best supporting actress. Her win, in one of the most competitive categories this year, denied a victory for comic-book fans. Angela Bassett (“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”) would have been the first performer to win an Oscar for a Marvel movie.
It also made history for Curtis, a first-time winner who alluded to herself as “a Nepo baby” during her win at the Screen Actors Guild Awards. She's the rare Oscar winner whose parents were both Oscar nominees, something she emotionally referenced in her speech. Tony Curtis was nominated for “The Defiant Ones” in 1959 and Janet Leigh was nominated in 1961 for “Psycho.” Curtis thanked “hundreds” of people who put her in that position.
The German-language WWI epic “All Quiet on the Western Front” — Netflix’s top contender this year — took four awards as the academy heaped honors on the craft of the harrowing anti-war film. It won for cinematography, production design, score and best international film.
Though Bassett missed on supporting actress, Ruth E. Carter won for the costume design of “Wakanda Forever,” four years after becoming the first Black designer to win an Oscar, for “Black Panther.” This one makes Carter the first Black woman to win two Oscars.
“Thank you to the Academy for recognizing the superhero that is a Black woman,” said Carter. “She endures, she loves, she overcomes, she is every woman in this film.”
Carter dedicated the award to her mother, who she said died last week at 101.
The telecast, airing live on ABC, opened traditionally: with a montage of the year's films (with Kimmel edited into a cockpit in “Top Gun: Maverick") and a lengthy monologue. Kimmel, hosting for the third time, didn't dive right into revisiting Will Smith's slap of Chris Rock at last year's ceremony.
The late-night comedian struggled to find lessons from last year's incident, which was followed by Smith winning best actor. If anyone tried any violence this year, Kimmel said, “you will be awarded the Oscar for best actor and permitted to give a 19-minute-long speech.”
But Kimmel, hosting for the third time, said anyone who wanted to “get jiggy with it” this year will have to come through a fearsome battalion of bodyguards, including Michael B. Jordan, Michelle Yeoh, Steven Spielberg and his show's “security guard” Guillermo Rodriguez.
After landmark wins for Chloé Zhao ("Nomadland") and Jane Campion ("The Power of the Dog"), no women were nominated for best director. Sarah Polley, though, won best adapted screenplay for the metaphor-rich Mennonite drama “Women Talking.”
"Thank you to the academy for not being mortally offended by the words ‘women' and ‘talking,’" said Polley.
Daniel Roher's “Navalny,” about the imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, took best documentary. The film’s win came with clear overtones to Navalny’s ongoing imprisonment and Vladimir Putin’s continued war in Ukraine. Yulia Navalnaya joined the filmmakers on the stage.
“My husband is in prison just for telling the truth,” said Navalnaya. “Stay strong my love.”
Some big names weren’t in attendance for other reasons. Neither Tom Cruise, whose “Top Gun: Maverick” is up for best picture, nor James Cameron, director of best-picture nominee “Avatar: The Way of Water,” were at the ceremony. Both have been forefront in Hollywood’s efforts to get moviegoers back after years of pandemic.
“The two guys who asked us to go back to theater aren’t in the theater,” said Kimmel, who added that Cruise without his shirt on in “Top Gun: Maverick” was “L. Ron Hubba Hubba.”
After last year's Oscars, which had stripped some categories from being handed out in the live telecast, the academy restored all awards to the show and leaned on traditional song and and dance numbers. That meant some show-stopping numbers, including the elastic suspenders dance of “Naatu Naatu” from the Telugu action-film sensation “RRR," an intimate, impassioned performance by Lady Gaga of “Hold My Hand” from “Top Gun: Maverick," and an Super Bowl follow-up by Rihanna. Best song went to “Naatu Naatu.”
It also meant a long show. “This kind of makes you miss the slapping a little bit, right?” Kimmel said mid-show.
The night’s first award went to “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” for best animated film. That handed Netflix its first Oscar in the category.
After last year's slap, the academy created a crisis management team to better respond to surprises. Neither Rock, who recently made his most forceful statement about the incident in a live special, nor Smith, who was banned by the academy for 10 years, attended.
The Academy Awards is attempting to recapture some of its old luster. One thing working in its favor: This year’s best picture field was stacked with blockbusters. Ratings usually go up when the nominees are more popular, which certainly goes for “Top Gun: Maverick" and “Avatar: The Way of Water."
Neither won much, though. “The Way of Water,” with more than $2.28 billion in box office, won for best visual effects. The “Top Gun” sequel ($1.49 billion), took best sound.
Last year, Apple TV’s “CODA” became the first streaming movie to win best picture. But this year, nine of the 10 best picture nominees were theatrical releases. After the movie business cratered during the pandemic, moviegoing recovered to about 67% of pre-pandemic levels. But it was an up and down year, full of smash hits and anxiety-inducing lulls in theaters.
This year, ticket sales have been strong thanks to releases like “Creed III” and “Cocaine Bear" — which made not one but two cameos at Sunday's show. But there remain storm clouds on the horizon. The Writers Guild and the major studios are set to begin contract negotiations March 20, a looming battle that has much of the industry girding for the possibility of a work stoppage throughout film and television.
The Oscars, too, are seeking steadiness. Last year's telecast drew 16.6 million viewers, a 58% increase from the scaled-down 2021 edition, watched by a record low 10.5 million.
Michelle Yeoh makes history with best actress Oscar win
Michelle Yeoh has won the Academy Award for best actress and made history all at once.
The Malaysian-born actor became the first Asian woman to win the Academy Award for best actress on Sunday for her multifaceted performance in the multiversal “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
“I have to dedicate this to my mom and all the moms in the world because they are really the superheroes and without them none of us would be here tonight,” she said. “For all the little boys and girls who look like me watching tonight, this is a beacon of hope and possibility. This is proof that dreams dream big and dreams do come true. And ladies, don't let anyone ever tell you you're past your prime.”
Yeoh's victory comes almost 90 years after Luise Rainer, a white actor, won the same category for donning “yellowface” to play a Chinese villager in “The Good Earth.”
As a nominee, Yeoh was the first in the category who identified as Asian. Merle Oberon, who was nominated in 1935 for “The Dark Angel” but didn't win, hid her South Asian heritage, according to birth records.
Also Read: Ke Huy Quan wins Oscar in an inspiring Hollywood comeback
Yeoh beat out past Oscar winner Cate Blanchett ("Tár"), as well as Michelle Williams (“The Fabelmans”), Ana de Armas ("Blonde") and Andrea Riseborough ("To Leslie").
The category also received notice for who wasn't nominated: In a year of strong performances from Black women like Viola Davis ("The Woman King") and Danielle Deadwyler ("Till"), they were shut out. Meanwhile some criticized the grassroots campaigning by A-listers on social media for Riseborough.
Yeoh appeared a lock after winning seemingly every award everywhere, including the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild award, for her nuanced portrayal of Evelyn, an immigrant Chinese wife, mother and laundromat operator bracing for a tax audit.
Jamie Lee Curtis and Ke Huy Quan from the film also won best supporting actor Oscars. Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert won for best directors and original screenplay for “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and it took home best picture as well.
Yeoh got her start in the kung fu cinema world but rose to stardom in 1992 as Jackie Chan's co-star in “Supercop." American audiences got to know her even better over the next decade with hits like “Tomorrow Never Dies” and Ang Lee's “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon."
When she first read the script for “Everything Everywhere,” Yeoh thought it was “an independent film on steroids.” She was ultimately swayed by the opportunity to give voice to immigrant mothers and grandmothers who go unnoticed. The multiverse movie was also a showcase across a bevy of genres — drama, comedy, sci-fi and fantasy.
At 60, Yeoh has been heavily in demand since her standout turn as a controlling matriarch in “Crazy Rich Asians.” From there, she has done everything from a “Star Trek” spinoff to Marvel’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.”
Yeoh will be seen later this year in the Disney+ series “American Born Chinese." She is also preparing to reunite with “Crazy Rich Asians” director Jon M. Chu for the screen adaptation of the musical “Wicked.”
'Everything Everywhere,' 'All Quiet' dominating Oscars
Ke Huy Quan won best supporting actor, “RRR” brought the house down, “Cocaine Bear” tried to maul Malala and Ruth Carter made history at the 95th Academy Awards on Sunday, as Hollywood looked to move past the infamy of last year’s Oscars.
The former child star Quan capped his extraordinary comeback with the Oscar for best supporting actor for his performance in the indie hit “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” Quan, beloved for his roles as Short Round in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and Data in “Goonies,” had all but given up acting before being cast in “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
His win, among the most expected of the night, was nevertheless one of the ceremony's most moving moments. The audience — including his “Temple of Doom” director, Steven Spielberg — gave Quan a standing ovation as he fought back tears.
“Mom, I just won an Oscar!” said Quan, 51, whose family fled Vietnam in the war when he was a child.
“They say stories like this only happen in the movies. I can't believe it's happening,” said Quan. "This is the American dream."
Also Read: Ke Huy Quan wins Oscar in an inspiring Hollywood comeback
Minutes later, Quan's castmate Jamie Lee Curtis won for best supporting actress. Her win, in one of the most competitive categories this year, denied a victory for comic-book fans. Angela Bassett (“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”) would have been the first performer to win an Oscar for a Marvel movie.
It also made history for Curtis, a first-time winner who alluded to herself as “a Nepo baby” during her win at the Screen Actors Guild Awards. She's the rare Oscar winner whose parents were both Oscar nominees, something she emotionally referenced in her speech. Tony Curtis was nominated for “The Defiant Ones” in 1959 and Janet Leigh was nominated in 1961 for “Psycho.” Curtis thanked “hundreds” of people who put her in that position.
“Everything Everywhere All at Once,” which came in with a leading 11 nominations, later also won for best original screenplay for the script by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, the filmmaking duo known as the Daniels. “My imposter syndrome is at an all-time high,” said Kwan.
The German-language WWI epic “All Quiet on the Western Front” — Netflix’s top contender this year — took four awards as the academy heaped honors on the craft of the harrowing anti-war film. It won for cinematography, production design, score and best international film.
Also Read: 2023 Oscars: What to know about the best actor nominees
Though Bassett missed on supporting actress, Ruth E. Carter won for the costume design of “Wakanda Forever,” four years after becoming the first Black designer to win an Oscar, for “Black Panther.” This one makes Carter the first Black woman to win two Oscars.
“Thank you to the Academy for recognizing the superhero that is a Black woman,” said Carter. “She endures, she loves, she overcomes, she is every woman in this film.”
Carter dedicated the award to her mother, who she said died last week at 101.
The telecast, airing live on ABC, opened traditionally: with a montage of the year's films (with Kimmel edited into a cockpit in “Top Gun: Maverick") and a lengthy monologue. Kimmel, hosting for the third time, didn't dive right into revisiting Will Smith's slap of Chris Rock at last year's ceremony.
But after a number of jokes — including one that noted two stars of “Encino Man,” Quan and Brendan Fraser are nominated — Kimmel noted that there are numerous Irish actors up for Oscars, “which means the odds of another fight on stage just went way up.”
The late-night comedian struggled to find lessons from last year's incident, which was followed by Smith winning best actor. If anyone tried any violence this year, he said, “You will be awarded the Oscar for best actor and permitted to give a 19-minute-long speech.”
But Kimmel, hosting for the third time, said anyone who wanted to “get jiggy with it” this year will have to come through a fearsome battalion of bodyguards, including Michael B. Jordan, Michelle Yeoh, Steven Spielberg and his show's “security guard” Guillermo Rodriguez.
After landmark wins for Chloé Zhao ("Nomadland") and Jane Campion ("The Power of the Dog"), no women were nominated for best director. Sarah Polley, though, won best adapted screenplay to “Women Talking.”
"Thank you to the academy for not being mortally offended by the words ‘women' and ‘talking,’" said Polley.
Daniel Roher's “Navalny,” about the imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, took best documentary. The film’s win came with clear overtones to Navalny’s ongoing imprisonment and Vladimir Putin’s continued war in Ukraine. Yulia Navalnaya joined the filmmakers on the stage.
“My husband is in prison just for telling the truth,” said Navalnaya. “Stay strong my love.”
Some big names weren’t in attendance for other reasons. Neither Tom Cruise, whose “Top Gun: Maverick” is up for best picture, nor James Cameron, director of best-picture nominee “Avatar: The Way of Water,” were at the ceremony. Both have been forefront in Hollywood’s efforts to get moviegoers back after years of pandemic.
“The two guys who asked us to go back to theater aren’t in the theater,” Kimmel said, who added that Cruise without his shirt on in “Top Gun: Maverick” was “L. Ron Hubba Hubba.”
After last year's Oscars, which had stripped some categories from being handed out in the live telecast, the academy restored all awards to the show and leaned on traditional song and and dance numbers. That meant some show-stopping numbers, including the elastic suspenders dance of “Naatu Naatu” from the Telugu action-film sensation “RRR," and an intimate, impassioned performance by Lady Gaga of “Hold My Hand” from “Top Gun: Maverick.” Her appearance was also confirmed just before the ceremony began.
It also meant a long show. “This kind of makes you miss the slapping a little bit, right?” Kimmel said mid-show.
The night’s first award went to “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” for best animated film. That handed Netflix its first Oscar in the category.
After last year's slap, the academy created a crisis management team to better respond to surprises. Neither Rock, who recently made his most forceful statement about the incident in a live special, nor Smith, who was banned by the academy for 10 years, attended.
The Academy Awards is attempting to recapture some of its old luster. One thing working in its favor: This year’s best picture field was stacked with blockbusters. Ratings usually go up when the nominees are more popular, which certainly goes for “Top Gun: Maverick" and “Avatar: The Way of Water."
Neither won much, though. “The Way of Water,” with more than $2.28 billion in box office, won for best visual effects.
Last year, Apple TV’s “CODA” became the first streaming movie to win best picture. But this year, nine of the 10 best picture nominees were theatrical releases. After the movie business cratered during the pandemic, moviegoing recovered to about 67% of pre-pandemic levels. But it was an up and down year, full of smash hits and anxiety-inducing lulls in theaters.
At the same time, the rush to streaming encountered new setbacks as studios questioned long-term profitability and reexamined their release strategies. This year, ticket sales have been strong thanks to releases like “Creed III” and “Cocaine Bear" — which made not one but two cameos at Sunday's show.
But there remain storm clouds on the horizon. The Writers Guild and the major studios are set to begin contract negotiations March 20, a looming battle that has much of the industry girding for the possibility of a work stoppage throughout film and television.
The Oscars, meanwhile, are trying to reestablish their position as the premier award show. Last year's telecast drew 16.6 million viewers, a 58% increase from the scaled-down 2021 edition, watched by a record low 10.5 million.
Ke Huy Quan wins Oscar in an inspiring Hollywood comeback
Ke Huy Quan had mostly disappeared from Hollywood for over two decades, dispirited by the lack of on-camera work for Asian Americans. He returned in a big way, winning the supporting actor Oscar to cap an inspiring comeback story.
Quan accepted the trophy Sunday night for his role in “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” becoming just the second Asian winner ever in the supporting actor category, joining Haing S. Ngor for “The Killing Fields” in 1984.
As his name was announced, Quan rose and hugged co-stars Michelle Yeoh and Jamie Lee Curtis, who won supporting actress honors after him. He clasped his hands to his mouth.
“My mom is 84 years old and she’s at home watching,” Quan said. “Mom, I just won an Oscar!”
An emotional Quan kissed his statue repeatedly and sniffled into the microphone on stage after receiving a standing ovation. Presenter Ariana DeBose was in tears.
“My journey started on a boat. I spent a year in a refugee camp and somehow I ended up here on Hollywood’s biggest stage,” he said. “They say stories like this only happen in the movies. I can’t believe this is happening to me. This is the American dream.”
Quan rode a huge wave of momentum into the Oscars, having won every major award except the BAFTA. Quan endeared himself during acceptance speeches as much as he did in his winning performance. He used his position to encourage other struggling actors that one day they also will find success.
Also Read: 2023 Oscars: What to know about the best actor nominees
Along the awards show trail, the enormously likeable Quan compiled a photo album for the ages as he posed for selfies with everyone from Tom Cruise to directors James Cameron and Steven Spielberg. It seemed anyone famous was happy to smile or make funny faces alongside Quan.
The Vietnam-born actor whose family immigrated to California in the late 1970s first gained attention as a pre-teen in the hugely popular 1980s movies "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" and “The Goonies.” He went on to roles in the TV show “Head of the Class” and the movie “Encino Man” (starring fellow Oscar nominee Brendan Fraser ) in the early 1990s before work dried up.
Finding few on-camera opportunities, Quan turned elsewhere. He earned a film degree from the University of Southern California and worked behind the scenes as a stunt coordinator and assistant director.
“I owe everything to the love of my life, my wife Echo,” he said, “who month after month, year after year for 20 years told me that one day, one day my time will come. 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.”
Inspired by the success of the 2018 movie “Crazy Rich Asians,” Quan returned to acting and landed an audition for “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” which earned a leading 11 Oscar nominations. His former “Goonies” co-star, Jeff Cohen, serves as his lawyer who drew up the contract for his Oscar-winning role.
“Thank you to my ‘Goonies’ brother for life, Jeff Cohen,” Quan said.
Now, people stop him to talk about a movie he made as a grown-up, “Everything Everywhere All at Once."
As Waymond Wang, Quan appears in three different incarnations in the critically acclaimed film. He won a Golden Globe and became the first Asian man to win an individual category at the SAG Awards.
The 51-year-old Quan is busy juggling new roles, including joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe series “Loki” on Disney+.
Quan won the Oscar over fellow nominees Brendan Gleeson and Barry Keoghan of “The Banshees of Inisherin,” Brian Tyree Henry of “Causeway” and Judd Hirsch of “The Fabelmans."
Sabila Nur's debut web series on Chorki
Chorki, a Bangladeshi subscription-based over-the-top media service, is back with another web series titled ‘Mercules’.
This drama-thriller revolves around the true story of a girl.
Directed by Abu Shahed Iman, this series stars Zakia Bari Momo, Sabila Noor, Fazlur Rahman Babu, Rawnak Hasan, Giyas Uddin Selim, Iresh Zaker, and many more.
Related: Shuvoo and Bindu Starrer “Unish 20” to Hit Chorki on 13th February
Sabila Nur talked about her first-time experience acting in a web series, “My character's name in this series is Jayita. Stories of this drama are revealed through her journey. The main plot of this series is about how a girl gains control of her life after a new incident occurs.”
“We don't get to work with such a large team on a TV show. This work experience will stay with me for the rest of my life. Working with the co-stars of this series has been a fantastic experience. Shahid Bhai is a fantastic director,” she added.
2023 Oscars: What to know about the best actor nominees
It’s always fun when an Oscars category is filled with first-time nominees at varying stages of their careers. Best actor is another three-way race, between Austin Butler, Colin Farrell and Brendan Fraser, with each having scored notable wins from guilds and critics groups. The Associated Press’ film writers predict Fraser to have the edge.
Here’s a bit more about the nominees and their roles before the Oscars on March 12, which airs live on ABC beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern. And if you’ve missed a performance, there’s still time to watch this year’s nominees.
BRENDAN FRASER
Brendan Fraser doesn’t mind that people have called his turn in Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale,” in which he plays a reclusive English teacher named Charlie who is grappling with his past in the midst of a dire prognosis, a “comeback.” But it’s not the word he’d choose.
“If anything, this is a reintroduction more than a comeback,” Fraser told The AP. “It’s an opportunity to reintroduce myself to an industry, who I do not believe forgot me as is being perpetrated. I’ve just never been that far away.”
The film, an adaptation of Samuel D. Hunter’s play, shows a different side of Fraser as an actor than the affable action/comedy roles that made him beloved and famous in the 1990s.“I gave it everything I had every day,” he said. “We lived under existential threat of COVID. An actor’s job is to approach everything like it’s the first time. I did but also as if it might be the last time.”
Age: 54
Notable Wins: Critics Choice, Screen Actors Guild.
COLIN FARRELL
In Martin McDonagh’s tragicomic tale of the end of a friendship “The Banshees of Inisherin,” Colin Farrell’s Pádraic is the one being broken up with by Brendan Gleeson’s Colm on their small Irish island in 1923.
“He has an innocence where he can’t comprehend why his friend of so many years has cut him out,” Farrell said of his character last year at the Venice Film Festival, where he’d go on to win the best actor prize. “It shakes him to his core ... He lives in a beautiful life and that beauty is taken away.”
The film was a reunion for the trio who developed a deep bond on “In Bruges” 14 years ago.
“From the start, there was a deep sense of kinship and an understanding of each other,” Farrell told The AP. “In a strange way, I understand myself more through Martin and his mind and his heart and his work. And I understand myself more through my interactions with Brendan.”
Age: 46
Notable Wins: Venice Film Festival, New York Film Critics Circle, National Board of Review, Golden Globes (Musical/Comedy)
AUSTIN BUTLER
Austin Butler spent so much time and mental and emotional energy in preparing to play and playing Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann’s colorful drama that he finds it difficult to talk about without “sounding incredibly pretentious and self-important,” he told The AP. “There are certain aspects that even I don’t fully understand.”
The past few weeks have brought their own emotional highs and lows too, with his Golden Globe win, his Oscar nomination and the tragic death of Lisa Marie Presley in the span of a few days.
“The peaks are so high and the valleys have been so low,” Butler said.
“I just wish Lisa Marie were here with us to celebrate. At times, in the midst of intense grief and just a shattering loss, it feels sort of bizarre to celebrate. But I also know how much this film meant to Lisa Marie, how much her father’s legacy meant to her. So I feel so proud and humble to be a part of that story.”
Age: 31
Notable Wins: Golden Globes (Drama), BAFTA.
BILL NIGHY
Bill Nighy plays a British civil servant who receives a terminal diagnosis in 1953 London in Oliver Hermanus’s remake of the Kurosawa classic “Ikiru.”
“I was very moved by it when we were making it, the fact that we were making it, that we were back and that it was the first thing I’d done since the pandemic,” Nighy told The AP. “The pandemic forced us to look at our priorities in our lives and all that and this film discusses how to make the most of every day. So I suppose in that regard it was timely.”
The veteran actor said he thought they were making something special, but he was unprepared for the rapturous reception everywhere. And thematic resonance aside, it hasn’t got him thinking about his own legacy.
“I don’t ever think in terms of legacy,” he said. “I find it difficult to get enthusiastic about a world which is not going to include me.”
Age: 73
Notable Wins: Los Angeles Film Critics Association.
PAUL MESCAL
Paul Mescal did not expect to come out of “Aftersun” friends with an 11-year-old. But that’s what happened with his co-star Frankie Corio on the set of Charlotte Wells’ personal and evocative film about a young father and his daughter on vacation in Turkey in the 1990s.
“Both of us got out two weeks before filming started. There was kind of a loose plan that we might rehearse. And we did some of that, but ultimately, we just spent the two weeks where I was playing like pretending to be her dad,” Mescal told The AP. “It’s one of the greatest professional experiences that I’ve had. It really surprised me. I fell in love with her and I adore her and she’s just a phenomenal actor.”
The Irish actor said he likes working on smaller films with first-time directors. If anything, he hopes that his raised profile following his nomination might help him be able to get another project like that made.
“I take great pride in the fact that there’s an appetite for those films still,” he said.
Age: 27