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Tag: Everything Everywhere All At Once

  • After 40 years in industry, Jamie Lee Curtis strikes Oscars with ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’

    By AFP

    HOLLYWOOD: She is Hollywood royalty, the daughter of two legendary actors. She became a scream queen for the ages in the “Halloween” films and did a sexy striptease for Arnold Schwarzenegger in “True Lies.” Now, Jamie Lee Curtis is an Oscar winner.

    The 64-year-old Curtis on Sunday took home her first Academy Award on her first nomination for playing a surly tax auditor investigating laundromat owner Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh) in the mind-bending “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”

    After nearly 50 years on the big and small screen, it was certainly a crowning moment, and one that her famous parents — nominees Janet Leigh (“Psycho”) and Tony Curtis (“The Defiant Ones”) — never achieved.

    “I just won an Oscar!” she said tearfully at the end of her speech, in which she paid tribute to her parents, her husband and children, fans and colleagues.

    Curtis is the one notable non-Asian star in the film’s ensemble and one of four Academy Award nominees along with Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Stephanie Hsu, who was also in Curtis’ category. Quan was also a winner on Sunday.

    As IRS agent Deirdre Beaubeirdre (Curtis) reels off all the mistakes that Evelyn has made on her taxes, the characters are all swept into an epic battle across multiple universes to save humanity from a powerful villain.

    Curtis, who was known earlier in her career as “The Body” for her slender physique, subverts that image in her “Everything” turn as the paunchy Deirdre, who sports a frumpy bob, a mustard turtleneck and a lemon yellow sweater vest.

    “I’ve been sucking my stomach in since I was 11, when you start being conscious of boys and bodies, and the jeans are super tight,” she wrote on Instagram in 2022.

    “I very specifically decided to relinquish and release every muscle I had that I used to clench to hide the reality. That was my goal. I have never felt more free creatively and physically.”

    ALSO READ | Oscars 2023: Check out the list of winners; ‘Naatu Naatu’ from ‘RRR’, women create history

    Throughout the course of the film, the lonely IRS agent has an epic fight scene with Yeoh’s character, sprouts hot dog fingers, and ends up in one universe as Yeoh’s lover.

    It’s a gonzo, no-holds-barred performance from an actor who has been working since her late teens.

    “I loved Deirdre because I know how lonely she is and I know how forgotten she is. I understood what a garden exists inside her,” Curtis told The Washington Post.

    Curtis bested a field of nominees that included Golden Globe winner Angela Bassett (“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), Kerry Condon (“The Banshees of Inisherin”), Hong Chau (“The Whale”) and her own co-star Hsu.

    Curtis won the Screen Actors Guild award in the run-up to the Oscars.

    From ‘Halloween’ to ‘Everything’

    Curtis was born in the Los Angeles area in November 1958, but her parents divorced just a few years later, and she was raised by her mother and stock broker stepfather.

    After an itinerant high school life that ended at an elite East Coast boarding school, Curtis managed only one semester at college before dropping out to pursue acting.

    Her film debut came as heroine Laurie Strode in the 1978 horror film “Halloween” — a major box office success that would spawn multiple sequels.

    Producer Debra Hill admitted she hired Curtis because her mother had starred in Hitchcock’s “Psycho,” dying at the hands of Norman Bates in the infamous shower scene.

    But while it was perhaps a bit of stunt casting, it would become one of Curtis’ most iconic roles, one that she reprised most recently in the 2022 film “Halloween Ends.”

    ALSO READ | ‘Naatu Naatu’ performance receives standing ovation at Oscars 2023

    Since then, she has appeared in dozens of film and television roles, from the 1983 comedy “Trading Places” to 1988’s “A Fish Called Wanda” opposite Kevin Kline, to the 1994 spy flick “True Lies” with Schwarzenegger to TV’s “Scream Queens.”

    She recently starred in the all-star whodunit “Knives Out.”

    In 2003, she starred with Lindsay Lohan in a popular remake of “Freaky Friday,” in which the bodies of mother and daughter are magically switched. Curtis has said a sequel is potentially in the cards.

    As for upcoming projects, Curtis is set to star in a film adaptation of the video game “Borderland” with Cate Blanchett, and in a television series based on the Kay Scarpetta mysteries written by Patricia Cornwell.

    Curtis has been married to Oscar-nominated actor/director/writer Christopher Guest (“This Is Spinal Tap”) since 1984. The couple has two children, Annie and Ruby.

    HOLLYWOOD: She is Hollywood royalty, the daughter of two legendary actors. She became a scream queen for the ages in the “Halloween” films and did a sexy striptease for Arnold Schwarzenegger in “True Lies.” Now, Jamie Lee Curtis is an Oscar winner.

    The 64-year-old Curtis on Sunday took home her first Academy Award on her first nomination for playing a surly tax auditor investigating laundromat owner Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh) in the mind-bending “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”

    After nearly 50 years on the big and small screen, it was certainly a crowning moment, and one that her famous parents — nominees Janet Leigh (“Psycho”) and Tony Curtis (“The Defiant Ones”) — never achieved.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2′); });

    “I just won an Oscar!” she said tearfully at the end of her speech, in which she paid tribute to her parents, her husband and children, fans and colleagues.

    Curtis is the one notable non-Asian star in the film’s ensemble and one of four Academy Award nominees along with Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Stephanie Hsu, who was also in Curtis’ category. Quan was also a winner on Sunday.

    As IRS agent Deirdre Beaubeirdre (Curtis) reels off all the mistakes that Evelyn has made on her taxes, the characters are all swept into an epic battle across multiple universes to save humanity from a powerful villain.

    Curtis, who was known earlier in her career as “The Body” for her slender physique, subverts that image in her “Everything” turn as the paunchy Deirdre, who sports a frumpy bob, a mustard turtleneck and a lemon yellow sweater vest.

    “I’ve been sucking my stomach in since I was 11, when you start being conscious of boys and bodies, and the jeans are super tight,” she wrote on Instagram in 2022.

    “I very specifically decided to relinquish and release every muscle I had that I used to clench to hide the reality. That was my goal. I have never felt more free creatively and physically.”

    ALSO READ | Oscars 2023: Check out the list of winners; ‘Naatu Naatu’ from ‘RRR’, women create history

    Throughout the course of the film, the lonely IRS agent has an epic fight scene with Yeoh’s character, sprouts hot dog fingers, and ends up in one universe as Yeoh’s lover.

    It’s a gonzo, no-holds-barred performance from an actor who has been working since her late teens.

    “I loved Deirdre because I know how lonely she is and I know how forgotten she is. I understood what a garden exists inside her,” Curtis told The Washington Post.

    Curtis bested a field of nominees that included Golden Globe winner Angela Bassett (“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), Kerry Condon (“The Banshees of Inisherin”), Hong Chau (“The Whale”) and her own co-star Hsu.

    Curtis won the Screen Actors Guild award in the run-up to the Oscars.

    From ‘Halloween’ to ‘Everything’

    Curtis was born in the Los Angeles area in November 1958, but her parents divorced just a few years later, and she was raised by her mother and stock broker stepfather.

    After an itinerant high school life that ended at an elite East Coast boarding school, Curtis managed only one semester at college before dropping out to pursue acting.

    Her film debut came as heroine Laurie Strode in the 1978 horror film “Halloween” — a major box office success that would spawn multiple sequels.

    Producer Debra Hill admitted she hired Curtis because her mother had starred in Hitchcock’s “Psycho,” dying at the hands of Norman Bates in the infamous shower scene.

    But while it was perhaps a bit of stunt casting, it would become one of Curtis’ most iconic roles, one that she reprised most recently in the 2022 film “Halloween Ends.”

    ALSO READ | ‘Naatu Naatu’ performance receives standing ovation at Oscars 2023

    Since then, she has appeared in dozens of film and television roles, from the 1983 comedy “Trading Places” to 1988’s “A Fish Called Wanda” opposite Kevin Kline, to the 1994 spy flick “True Lies” with Schwarzenegger to TV’s “Scream Queens.”

    She recently starred in the all-star whodunit “Knives Out.”

    In 2003, she starred with Lindsay Lohan in a popular remake of “Freaky Friday,” in which the bodies of mother and daughter are magically switched. Curtis has said a sequel is potentially in the cards.

    As for upcoming projects, Curtis is set to star in a film adaptation of the video game “Borderland” with Cate Blanchett, and in a television series based on the Kay Scarpetta mysteries written by Patricia Cornwell.

    Curtis has been married to Oscar-nominated actor/director/writer Christopher Guest (“This Is Spinal Tap”) since 1984. The couple has two children, Annie and Ruby.

  • After 40 years in industry, Jamie Lee Curtis strikes Oscars with ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’

    By AFP

    HOLLYWOOD: She is Hollywood royalty, the daughter of two legendary actors. She became a scream queen for the ages in the “Halloween” films and did a sexy striptease for Arnold Schwarzenegger in “True Lies.” Now, Jamie Lee Curtis is an Oscar winner.

    The 64-year-old Curtis on Sunday took home her first Academy Award on her first nomination for playing a surly tax auditor investigating laundromat owner Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh) in the mind-bending “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”

    After nearly 50 years on the big and small screen, it was certainly a crowning moment, and one that her famous parents — nominees Janet Leigh (“Psycho”) and Tony Curtis (“The Defiant Ones”) — never achieved.

    “I just won an Oscar!” she said tearfully at the end of her speech, in which she paid tribute to her parents, her husband and children, fans and colleagues.

    Curtis is the one notable non-Asian star in the film’s ensemble and one of four Academy Award nominees along with Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Stephanie Hsu, who was also in Curtis’ category. Quan was also a winner on Sunday.

    As IRS agent Deirdre Beaubeirdre (Curtis) reels off all the mistakes that Evelyn has made on her taxes, the characters are all swept into an epic battle across multiple universes to save humanity from a powerful villain.

    Curtis, who was known earlier in her career as “The Body” for her slender physique, subverts that image in her “Everything” turn as the paunchy Deirdre, who sports a frumpy bob, a mustard turtleneck and a lemon yellow sweater vest.

    “I’ve been sucking my stomach in since I was 11, when you start being conscious of boys and bodies, and the jeans are super tight,” she wrote on Instagram in 2022.

    “I very specifically decided to relinquish and release every muscle I had that I used to clench to hide the reality. That was my goal. I have never felt more free creatively and physically.”

    ALSO READ | Oscars 2023: Check out the list of winners; ‘Naatu Naatu’ from ‘RRR’, women create history

    Throughout the course of the film, the lonely IRS agent has an epic fight scene with Yeoh’s character, sprouts hot dog fingers, and ends up in one universe as Yeoh’s lover.

    It’s a gonzo, no-holds-barred performance from an actor who has been working since her late teens.

    “I loved Deirdre because I know how lonely she is and I know how forgotten she is. I understood what a garden exists inside her,” Curtis told The Washington Post.

    Curtis bested a field of nominees that included Golden Globe winner Angela Bassett (“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), Kerry Condon (“The Banshees of Inisherin”), Hong Chau (“The Whale”) and her own co-star Hsu.

    Curtis won the Screen Actors Guild award in the run-up to the Oscars.

    From ‘Halloween’ to ‘Everything’

    Curtis was born in the Los Angeles area in November 1958, but her parents divorced just a few years later, and she was raised by her mother and stock broker stepfather.

    After an itinerant high school life that ended at an elite East Coast boarding school, Curtis managed only one semester at college before dropping out to pursue acting.

    Her film debut came as heroine Laurie Strode in the 1978 horror film “Halloween” — a major box office success that would spawn multiple sequels.

    Producer Debra Hill admitted she hired Curtis because her mother had starred in Hitchcock’s “Psycho,” dying at the hands of Norman Bates in the infamous shower scene.

    But while it was perhaps a bit of stunt casting, it would become one of Curtis’ most iconic roles, one that she reprised most recently in the 2022 film “Halloween Ends.”

    ALSO READ | ‘Naatu Naatu’ performance receives standing ovation at Oscars 2023

    Since then, she has appeared in dozens of film and television roles, from the 1983 comedy “Trading Places” to 1988’s “A Fish Called Wanda” opposite Kevin Kline, to the 1994 spy flick “True Lies” with Schwarzenegger to TV’s “Scream Queens.”

    She recently starred in the all-star whodunit “Knives Out.”

    In 2003, she starred with Lindsay Lohan in a popular remake of “Freaky Friday,” in which the bodies of mother and daughter are magically switched. Curtis has said a sequel is potentially in the cards.

    As for upcoming projects, Curtis is set to star in a film adaptation of the video game “Borderland” with Cate Blanchett, and in a television series based on the Kay Scarpetta mysteries written by Patricia Cornwell.

    Curtis has been married to Oscar-nominated actor/director/writer Christopher Guest (“This Is Spinal Tap”) since 1984. The couple has two children, Annie and Ruby.

    HOLLYWOOD: She is Hollywood royalty, the daughter of two legendary actors. She became a scream queen for the ages in the “Halloween” films and did a sexy striptease for Arnold Schwarzenegger in “True Lies.” Now, Jamie Lee Curtis is an Oscar winner.

    The 64-year-old Curtis on Sunday took home her first Academy Award on her first nomination for playing a surly tax auditor investigating laundromat owner Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh) in the mind-bending “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”

    After nearly 50 years on the big and small screen, it was certainly a crowning moment, and one that her famous parents — nominees Janet Leigh (“Psycho”) and Tony Curtis (“The Defiant Ones”) — never achieved.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2′); });

    “I just won an Oscar!” she said tearfully at the end of her speech, in which she paid tribute to her parents, her husband and children, fans and colleagues.

    Curtis is the one notable non-Asian star in the film’s ensemble and one of four Academy Award nominees along with Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Stephanie Hsu, who was also in Curtis’ category. Quan was also a winner on Sunday.

    As IRS agent Deirdre Beaubeirdre (Curtis) reels off all the mistakes that Evelyn has made on her taxes, the characters are all swept into an epic battle across multiple universes to save humanity from a powerful villain.

    Curtis, who was known earlier in her career as “The Body” for her slender physique, subverts that image in her “Everything” turn as the paunchy Deirdre, who sports a frumpy bob, a mustard turtleneck and a lemon yellow sweater vest.

    “I’ve been sucking my stomach in since I was 11, when you start being conscious of boys and bodies, and the jeans are super tight,” she wrote on Instagram in 2022.

    “I very specifically decided to relinquish and release every muscle I had that I used to clench to hide the reality. That was my goal. I have never felt more free creatively and physically.”

    ALSO READ | Oscars 2023: Check out the list of winners; ‘Naatu Naatu’ from ‘RRR’, women create history

    Throughout the course of the film, the lonely IRS agent has an epic fight scene with Yeoh’s character, sprouts hot dog fingers, and ends up in one universe as Yeoh’s lover.

    It’s a gonzo, no-holds-barred performance from an actor who has been working since her late teens.

    “I loved Deirdre because I know how lonely she is and I know how forgotten she is. I understood what a garden exists inside her,” Curtis told The Washington Post.

    Curtis bested a field of nominees that included Golden Globe winner Angela Bassett (“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), Kerry Condon (“The Banshees of Inisherin”), Hong Chau (“The Whale”) and her own co-star Hsu.

    Curtis won the Screen Actors Guild award in the run-up to the Oscars.

    From ‘Halloween’ to ‘Everything’

    Curtis was born in the Los Angeles area in November 1958, but her parents divorced just a few years later, and she was raised by her mother and stock broker stepfather.

    After an itinerant high school life that ended at an elite East Coast boarding school, Curtis managed only one semester at college before dropping out to pursue acting.

    Her film debut came as heroine Laurie Strode in the 1978 horror film “Halloween” — a major box office success that would spawn multiple sequels.

    Producer Debra Hill admitted she hired Curtis because her mother had starred in Hitchcock’s “Psycho,” dying at the hands of Norman Bates in the infamous shower scene.

    But while it was perhaps a bit of stunt casting, it would become one of Curtis’ most iconic roles, one that she reprised most recently in the 2022 film “Halloween Ends.”

    ALSO READ | ‘Naatu Naatu’ performance receives standing ovation at Oscars 2023

    Since then, she has appeared in dozens of film and television roles, from the 1983 comedy “Trading Places” to 1988’s “A Fish Called Wanda” opposite Kevin Kline, to the 1994 spy flick “True Lies” with Schwarzenegger to TV’s “Scream Queens.”

    She recently starred in the all-star whodunit “Knives Out.”

    In 2003, she starred with Lindsay Lohan in a popular remake of “Freaky Friday,” in which the bodies of mother and daughter are magically switched. Curtis has said a sequel is potentially in the cards.

    As for upcoming projects, Curtis is set to star in a film adaptation of the video game “Borderland” with Cate Blanchett, and in a television series based on the Kay Scarpetta mysteries written by Patricia Cornwell.

    Curtis has been married to Oscar-nominated actor/director/writer Christopher Guest (“This Is Spinal Tap”) since 1984. The couple has two children, Annie and Ruby.

  • ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ wins best picture, is everywhere at Oscars 2023

    By Associated Press

    LOS ANGELES: 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.

    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.

    READ HERE | Oscar for ‘RRR’: ‘This is just the beginning’, says Jr NTR, ‘Still feels like I’m living in a dream, says Charan

    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.

    ALSO READ | Oscars 2023: Check out the winners; ‘Naatu Naatu’, women create history

    ALSO READ | Tamil documentary ‘The Elephant Whisperers’ triumphs at Oscars 2023

    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.

    LOS ANGELES: 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.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    “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.

    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.

    READ HERE | Oscar for ‘RRR’: ‘This is just the beginning’, says Jr NTR, ‘Still feels like I’m living in a dream, says Charan

    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.

    ALSO READ | Oscars 2023: Check out the winners; ‘Naatu Naatu’, women create history

    ALSO READ | Tamil documentary ‘The Elephant Whisperers’ triumphs at Oscars 2023

    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.

  • ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ wins best picture, is everywhere at Oscars 2023

    By Associated Press

    LOS ANGELES: 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.

    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.

    READ HERE | Oscar for ‘RRR’: ‘This is just the beginning’, says Jr NTR, ‘Still feels like I’m living in a dream, says Charan

    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.

    ALSO READ | Oscars 2023: Check out the winners; ‘Naatu Naatu’, women create history

    ALSO READ | Tamil documentary ‘The Elephant Whisperers’ triumphs at Oscars 2023

    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.

    LOS ANGELES: 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.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    “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.

    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.

    READ HERE | Oscar for ‘RRR’: ‘This is just the beginning’, says Jr NTR, ‘Still feels like I’m living in a dream, says Charan

    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.

    ALSO READ | Oscars 2023: Check out the winners; ‘Naatu Naatu’, women create history

    ALSO READ | Tamil documentary ‘The Elephant Whisperers’ triumphs at Oscars 2023

    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.

  • ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ enters Sunday’s Oscars as unlikely favorite

    By AFP

    HOLLYWOOD: “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” a wacky sci-fi film featuring multiple universes, sex toys and hot dog fingers, enters Sunday’s Oscars ceremony as the highly unorthodox frontrunner for best picture.

    Academy bosses hope audiences will tune in to see whether the zany $100 million-grossing hit can claim Hollywood’s most coveted prize — and draw a line under Will Smith’s infamous slap at last year’s gala.

    “Everything Everywhere” — which leads the overall nominations count at 11 — follows a Chinese immigrant laundromat owner locked in battle with an inter-dimensional supervillain who happens to also be her own daughter.

    Michelle Yeoh’s heroine Evelyn must harness the power of her alter egos living in parallel universes, which feature hot dogs as human fingers, talking rocks and giant dildos used as weapons.

    The film has dominated nearly every awards show in Hollywood, with its charismatic, predominantly Asian stars becoming the feel-good story of the season.

    “It’s a group of very likable people behind the movie who it’s impossible to not be happy for,” Hollywood Reporter awards columnist Scott Feinberg told AFP.

    But although the quirky film is widely expected to dominate Oscars night, it could hit a stumbling block for best picture.

    The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences uses a special “preferential” voting system for that award, in which members rank films from best to worst.

    The approach punishes polarizing films.

    One Oscars voter who asked not to be identified told AFP that some members — particularly among the Academy’s older ranks — are “more divided about ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once.’”

    “It was very bold and unique, but not a traditional movie… it could be further down the ballot for a lot of people,” the voter said.

    If any rival can benefit, it is likely “All Quiet on the Western Front,” Netflix’s German-language World War I movie that dominated Britain’s BAFTAs.

    Another potential beneficiary is “Top Gun: Maverick,” the long-awaited sequel from Tom Cruise — no less a figure than Steven Spielberg recently said the actor and his film “might have saved the entire theatrical industry” from the pandemic.

    “It was that movie that brought audiences back to movie theaters,” said the anonymous Oscars voter.

    REVIEW | ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’: This multiversal madness is absurdist comedy at its best

    Toss-ups

    While the best picture race has a clear favorite, the acting contests are incredibly tight.

    “I can’t remember a year, at least in the time I’ve been doing it, where three of the four acting categories were true toss-ups,” said Feinberg.

    For best actress, Cate Blanchett had long been favorite to win a third Oscar for “Tar,” but “Everything Everywhere” love could propel Yeoh to a historic first win by an Asian woman in the category.

    “I think that Michelle Yeoh will probably win,” said the Oscars voter. “Cate Blanchett has already won twice… some people vote with that in the back of their mind.”

    Best actor is a three-horse race between Austin Butler (“Elvis), Brendan Fraser (“The Whale”) and Colin Farrell (“The Banshees of Inisherin”).

    And the supporting actress race may be even closer.

    Angela Bassett, the first Marvel superhero actor ever nominated with “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” is up against “Everything Everywhere” star Jamie Lee Curtis and “Banshees” actress Kerry Condon.

    One category does appear to be locked.

    Ke Huy Quan, the former child star of “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and “The Goonies,” has won every best supporting actor prize going and looks near-certain to complete a comeback story for the ages.

    ‘The Slap’

    Hanging over the ceremony is the specter of “The Slap” — the shocking moment at last year’s Oscars when Smith assaulted Chris Rock on stage for cracking a joke about his wife.

    At a press conference this week, Oscars executive producer Molly McNearney said: “We’re going to acknowledge it, and then we’re going to move on.”

    Organizers were criticized last year for allowing Smith to remain at the show after the attack, and even collect his best actor award.

    He was later banned from Oscars events for a decade, meaning he cannot present the best actress statuette this year, as is traditional.

    A “crisis team” has been set up for the first time, to immediately respond to any unexpected developments.

    READ MORE | ‘Larger than life’: Indian film-maker Rajamouli shoots for Oscar fame

    Blockbusters

    Partly thanks to “The Slap,” last year’s Oscars TV ratings improved from record lows, but remained well below their late 1990s peak, as interest in awards shows wanes and doomsayers continue to predict the demise of theatergoing.

    This year, organizers have brought back Jimmy Kimmel as host for a third stint, and hope that nominations for widely watched blockbusters like “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Avatar: The Way of Water” will bring viewers back.

    In 1997, when the wildly popular “Titanic” won 11 Oscars, a record 57 million tuned in.

    “If the public cares about the movies, they care about the Oscars, relatively more,” said Feinberg.

    HOLLYWOOD: “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” a wacky sci-fi film featuring multiple universes, sex toys and hot dog fingers, enters Sunday’s Oscars ceremony as the highly unorthodox frontrunner for best picture.

    Academy bosses hope audiences will tune in to see whether the zany $100 million-grossing hit can claim Hollywood’s most coveted prize — and draw a line under Will Smith’s infamous slap at last year’s gala.

    “Everything Everywhere” — which leads the overall nominations count at 11 — follows a Chinese immigrant laundromat owner locked in battle with an inter-dimensional supervillain who happens to also be her own daughter.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    Michelle Yeoh’s heroine Evelyn must harness the power of her alter egos living in parallel universes, which feature hot dogs as human fingers, talking rocks and giant dildos used as weapons.

    The film has dominated nearly every awards show in Hollywood, with its charismatic, predominantly Asian stars becoming the feel-good story of the season.

    “It’s a group of very likable people behind the movie who it’s impossible to not be happy for,” Hollywood Reporter awards columnist Scott Feinberg told AFP.

    But although the quirky film is widely expected to dominate Oscars night, it could hit a stumbling block for best picture.

    The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences uses a special “preferential” voting system for that award, in which members rank films from best to worst.

    The approach punishes polarizing films.

    One Oscars voter who asked not to be identified told AFP that some members — particularly among the Academy’s older ranks — are “more divided about ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once.’”

    “It was very bold and unique, but not a traditional movie… it could be further down the ballot for a lot of people,” the voter said.

    If any rival can benefit, it is likely “All Quiet on the Western Front,” Netflix’s German-language World War I movie that dominated Britain’s BAFTAs.

    Another potential beneficiary is “Top Gun: Maverick,” the long-awaited sequel from Tom Cruise — no less a figure than Steven Spielberg recently said the actor and his film “might have saved the entire theatrical industry” from the pandemic.

    “It was that movie that brought audiences back to movie theaters,” said the anonymous Oscars voter.

    REVIEW | ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’: This multiversal madness is absurdist comedy at its best

    Toss-ups

    While the best picture race has a clear favorite, the acting contests are incredibly tight.

    “I can’t remember a year, at least in the time I’ve been doing it, where three of the four acting categories were true toss-ups,” said Feinberg.

    For best actress, Cate Blanchett had long been favorite to win a third Oscar for “Tar,” but “Everything Everywhere” love could propel Yeoh to a historic first win by an Asian woman in the category.

    “I think that Michelle Yeoh will probably win,” said the Oscars voter. “Cate Blanchett has already won twice… some people vote with that in the back of their mind.”

    Best actor is a three-horse race between Austin Butler (“Elvis), Brendan Fraser (“The Whale”) and Colin Farrell (“The Banshees of Inisherin”).

    And the supporting actress race may be even closer.

    Angela Bassett, the first Marvel superhero actor ever nominated with “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” is up against “Everything Everywhere” star Jamie Lee Curtis and “Banshees” actress Kerry Condon.

    One category does appear to be locked.

    Ke Huy Quan, the former child star of “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and “The Goonies,” has won every best supporting actor prize going and looks near-certain to complete a comeback story for the ages.

    ‘The Slap’

    Hanging over the ceremony is the specter of “The Slap” — the shocking moment at last year’s Oscars when Smith assaulted Chris Rock on stage for cracking a joke about his wife.

    At a press conference this week, Oscars executive producer Molly McNearney said: “We’re going to acknowledge it, and then we’re going to move on.”

    Organizers were criticized last year for allowing Smith to remain at the show after the attack, and even collect his best actor award.

    He was later banned from Oscars events for a decade, meaning he cannot present the best actress statuette this year, as is traditional.

    A “crisis team” has been set up for the first time, to immediately respond to any unexpected developments.

    READ MORE | ‘Larger than life’: Indian film-maker Rajamouli shoots for Oscar fame

    Blockbusters

    Partly thanks to “The Slap,” last year’s Oscars TV ratings improved from record lows, but remained well below their late 1990s peak, as interest in awards shows wanes and doomsayers continue to predict the demise of theatergoing.

    This year, organizers have brought back Jimmy Kimmel as host for a third stint, and hope that nominations for widely watched blockbusters like “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Avatar: The Way of Water” will bring viewers back.

    In 1997, when the wildly popular “Titanic” won 11 Oscars, a record 57 million tuned in.

    “If the public cares about the movies, they care about the Oscars, relatively more,” said Feinberg.

  • ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ enters Sunday’s Oscars as unlikely favorite

    By AFP

    HOLLYWOOD: “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” a wacky sci-fi film featuring multiple universes, sex toys and hot dog fingers, enters Sunday’s Oscars ceremony as the highly unorthodox frontrunner for best picture.

    Academy bosses hope audiences will tune in to see whether the zany $100 million-grossing hit can claim Hollywood’s most coveted prize — and draw a line under Will Smith’s infamous slap at last year’s gala.

    “Everything Everywhere” — which leads the overall nominations count at 11 — follows a Chinese immigrant laundromat owner locked in battle with an inter-dimensional supervillain who happens to also be her own daughter.

    Michelle Yeoh’s heroine Evelyn must harness the power of her alter egos living in parallel universes, which feature hot dogs as human fingers, talking rocks and giant dildos used as weapons.

    The film has dominated nearly every awards show in Hollywood, with its charismatic, predominantly Asian stars becoming the feel-good story of the season.

    “It’s a group of very likable people behind the movie who it’s impossible to not be happy for,” Hollywood Reporter awards columnist Scott Feinberg told AFP.

    But although the quirky film is widely expected to dominate Oscars night, it could hit a stumbling block for best picture.

    The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences uses a special “preferential” voting system for that award, in which members rank films from best to worst.

    The approach punishes polarizing films.

    One Oscars voter who asked not to be identified told AFP that some members — particularly among the Academy’s older ranks — are “more divided about ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once.’”

    “It was very bold and unique, but not a traditional movie… it could be further down the ballot for a lot of people,” the voter said.

    If any rival can benefit, it is likely “All Quiet on the Western Front,” Netflix’s German-language World War I movie that dominated Britain’s BAFTAs.

    Another potential beneficiary is “Top Gun: Maverick,” the long-awaited sequel from Tom Cruise — no less a figure than Steven Spielberg recently said the actor and his film “might have saved the entire theatrical industry” from the pandemic.

    “It was that movie that brought audiences back to movie theaters,” said the anonymous Oscars voter.

    REVIEW | ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’: This multiversal madness is absurdist comedy at its best

    Toss-ups

    While the best picture race has a clear favorite, the acting contests are incredibly tight.

    “I can’t remember a year, at least in the time I’ve been doing it, where three of the four acting categories were true toss-ups,” said Feinberg.

    For best actress, Cate Blanchett had long been favorite to win a third Oscar for “Tar,” but “Everything Everywhere” love could propel Yeoh to a historic first win by an Asian woman in the category.

    “I think that Michelle Yeoh will probably win,” said the Oscars voter. “Cate Blanchett has already won twice… some people vote with that in the back of their mind.”

    Best actor is a three-horse race between Austin Butler (“Elvis), Brendan Fraser (“The Whale”) and Colin Farrell (“The Banshees of Inisherin”).

    And the supporting actress race may be even closer.

    Angela Bassett, the first Marvel superhero actor ever nominated with “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” is up against “Everything Everywhere” star Jamie Lee Curtis and “Banshees” actress Kerry Condon.

    One category does appear to be locked.

    Ke Huy Quan, the former child star of “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and “The Goonies,” has won every best supporting actor prize going and looks near-certain to complete a comeback story for the ages.

    ‘The Slap’

    Hanging over the ceremony is the specter of “The Slap” — the shocking moment at last year’s Oscars when Smith assaulted Chris Rock on stage for cracking a joke about his wife.

    At a press conference this week, Oscars executive producer Molly McNearney said: “We’re going to acknowledge it, and then we’re going to move on.”

    Organizers were criticized last year for allowing Smith to remain at the show after the attack, and even collect his best actor award.

    He was later banned from Oscars events for a decade, meaning he cannot present the best actress statuette this year, as is traditional.

    A “crisis team” has been set up for the first time, to immediately respond to any unexpected developments.

    READ MORE | ‘Larger than life’: Indian film-maker Rajamouli shoots for Oscar fame

    Blockbusters

    Partly thanks to “The Slap,” last year’s Oscars TV ratings improved from record lows, but remained well below their late 1990s peak, as interest in awards shows wanes and doomsayers continue to predict the demise of theatergoing.

    This year, organizers have brought back Jimmy Kimmel as host for a third stint, and hope that nominations for widely watched blockbusters like “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Avatar: The Way of Water” will bring viewers back.

    In 1997, when the wildly popular “Titanic” won 11 Oscars, a record 57 million tuned in.

    “If the public cares about the movies, they care about the Oscars, relatively more,” said Feinberg.

    HOLLYWOOD: “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” a wacky sci-fi film featuring multiple universes, sex toys and hot dog fingers, enters Sunday’s Oscars ceremony as the highly unorthodox frontrunner for best picture.

    Academy bosses hope audiences will tune in to see whether the zany $100 million-grossing hit can claim Hollywood’s most coveted prize — and draw a line under Will Smith’s infamous slap at last year’s gala.

    “Everything Everywhere” — which leads the overall nominations count at 11 — follows a Chinese immigrant laundromat owner locked in battle with an inter-dimensional supervillain who happens to also be her own daughter.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    Michelle Yeoh’s heroine Evelyn must harness the power of her alter egos living in parallel universes, which feature hot dogs as human fingers, talking rocks and giant dildos used as weapons.

    The film has dominated nearly every awards show in Hollywood, with its charismatic, predominantly Asian stars becoming the feel-good story of the season.

    “It’s a group of very likable people behind the movie who it’s impossible to not be happy for,” Hollywood Reporter awards columnist Scott Feinberg told AFP.

    But although the quirky film is widely expected to dominate Oscars night, it could hit a stumbling block for best picture.

    The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences uses a special “preferential” voting system for that award, in which members rank films from best to worst.

    The approach punishes polarizing films.

    One Oscars voter who asked not to be identified told AFP that some members — particularly among the Academy’s older ranks — are “more divided about ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once.’”

    “It was very bold and unique, but not a traditional movie… it could be further down the ballot for a lot of people,” the voter said.

    If any rival can benefit, it is likely “All Quiet on the Western Front,” Netflix’s German-language World War I movie that dominated Britain’s BAFTAs.

    Another potential beneficiary is “Top Gun: Maverick,” the long-awaited sequel from Tom Cruise — no less a figure than Steven Spielberg recently said the actor and his film “might have saved the entire theatrical industry” from the pandemic.

    “It was that movie that brought audiences back to movie theaters,” said the anonymous Oscars voter.

    REVIEW | ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’: This multiversal madness is absurdist comedy at its best

    Toss-ups

    While the best picture race has a clear favorite, the acting contests are incredibly tight.

    “I can’t remember a year, at least in the time I’ve been doing it, where three of the four acting categories were true toss-ups,” said Feinberg.

    For best actress, Cate Blanchett had long been favorite to win a third Oscar for “Tar,” but “Everything Everywhere” love could propel Yeoh to a historic first win by an Asian woman in the category.

    “I think that Michelle Yeoh will probably win,” said the Oscars voter. “Cate Blanchett has already won twice… some people vote with that in the back of their mind.”

    Best actor is a three-horse race between Austin Butler (“Elvis), Brendan Fraser (“The Whale”) and Colin Farrell (“The Banshees of Inisherin”).

    And the supporting actress race may be even closer.

    Angela Bassett, the first Marvel superhero actor ever nominated with “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” is up against “Everything Everywhere” star Jamie Lee Curtis and “Banshees” actress Kerry Condon.

    One category does appear to be locked.

    Ke Huy Quan, the former child star of “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and “The Goonies,” has won every best supporting actor prize going and looks near-certain to complete a comeback story for the ages.

    ‘The Slap’

    Hanging over the ceremony is the specter of “The Slap” — the shocking moment at last year’s Oscars when Smith assaulted Chris Rock on stage for cracking a joke about his wife.

    At a press conference this week, Oscars executive producer Molly McNearney said: “We’re going to acknowledge it, and then we’re going to move on.”

    Organizers were criticized last year for allowing Smith to remain at the show after the attack, and even collect his best actor award.

    He was later banned from Oscars events for a decade, meaning he cannot present the best actress statuette this year, as is traditional.

    A “crisis team” has been set up for the first time, to immediately respond to any unexpected developments.

    READ MORE | ‘Larger than life’: Indian film-maker Rajamouli shoots for Oscar fame

    Blockbusters

    Partly thanks to “The Slap,” last year’s Oscars TV ratings improved from record lows, but remained well below their late 1990s peak, as interest in awards shows wanes and doomsayers continue to predict the demise of theatergoing.

    This year, organizers have brought back Jimmy Kimmel as host for a third stint, and hope that nominations for widely watched blockbusters like “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Avatar: The Way of Water” will bring viewers back.

    In 1997, when the wildly popular “Titanic” won 11 Oscars, a record 57 million tuned in.

    “If the public cares about the movies, they care about the Oscars, relatively more,” said Feinberg.

  • Hollywood’s Asian stars welcome ‘long overdue’ breakthrough at Oscars

    By AFP

    LOS ANGELES: From Oscars favourites “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and “RRR” to an unprecedented four acting nominations, Asian representation in Hollywood has finally achieved a remarkable and overdue breakthrough this year, industry insiders say.

    Among many records tumbling this awards season, Malaysian “Everything Everywhere” star Michelle Yeoh is only the second Asian best actress nominee in 95 years of Oscars history, with a strong chance of becoming the first winner Sunday.

    Only four Asian actors have ever won Oscars. That is the same number nominated this year alone, including Yeoh’s co-stars Ke Huy Quan and Stephanie Hsu, and Hong Chau of “The Whale.”

    Then there is India’s all-singing, all-dancing “RRR,” heavily tipped to win best original song, and Nobel literature laureate Kazuo Ishiguro’s nominated screenplay for “Living.”

    Behind the camera, best picture frontrunner “Everything Everywhere” — a $100 million box office hit with 11 Oscar nominations — has an Asian co-director, Daniel Kwan, and an Asian producer, Jonathan Wang.

    “There’s something really beautiful about being able to show that if you put people in these roles, people will go see it,” Wang told AFP.

    “Why is it only white characters who go on the fun adventures, but Asian and Black characters and Latino characters have to experience the suffering? It’s time to flip that on its head. And people are going to run to the box office.”

    ALSO READ| ‘Larger than life’: Film-maker Rajamouli shoots for Oscar fame

    It is all a far cry from Hollywood’s past. At the recent Screen Actors Guild awards, James Hong, the 94-year-old veteran who appears in “Everything Everywhere,” reflected on how white actors with “their eyes taped up” once played leading Asian roles because producers thought “the Asians are not good enough and they are not box office.”

    “But look at us now,” he said, to a huge ovation.

    ‘Long overdue’

    Back in 1965, Hong co-founded the East West Players, a Los Angeles theatre group created to boost the visibility of Asian American actors and issues. The company has welcomed this year’s diverse Oscar nominations, which artistic director Snehal Desai says are “much appreciated and long overdue.”

    “These are artists who have been doing this work for decades. We are glad for the visibility and recognition, but it really should not have taken this long,” he said.

    Vietnam-born Quan, a major child star in the 1980s with “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and “The Goonies,” all but abandoned acting for decades due to a lack of roles. “Quan’s story of his prolonged absence from the industry, in particular, strikes a resonant chord for our community, as we continue to fight for more opportunities and quality representation,” the group said in a statement.

    ALSO READ | Oscar Predictions: Will ‘Everything’ take everything?

    Kristina Wong, an actor and comedian currently appearing in a one-woman show co-produced by East West Players, said she had been driven to write her own productions because it was the only way to see “weird” immigrant stories told. “It is either this or sit around and audition for bubble gum commercials,” she told AFP.

    “I’ve done that life. And it sucks. It’s not fulfilling creatively. There is still a lack of opportunities in general,” said Wong.

    But with her “Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord” a Pulitzer drama finalist, and “Everything Everywhere” racking up awards and box office receipts, “I think we’re ready” for new stories, she said. “We’ve been seeing the same tired old stories about… this white guy action hero, going ‘I’m going to fix this with a gun.’”

    “It’s made me excited, thinking maybe there’s an audience ready to be challenged.”

    ‘Pull the ladder’

    Still, Asian success at the Oscars has remained limited to a tiny group. Just 23 Asian actors’ performances have ever been nominated, representing a mere 1.2 per cent of all nominations, according to a New York Times study. Only Ben Kingsley, whose father was Indian, has been nominated more than once. And there has never been a year in which more than one Asian actor won.

    ALSO READ | Oscar-bound short film lifts veil on Iranian women rejecting male domination

    Could this be the year representation goes beyond a few, specific individuals?

    South Korea-born Joel Kim Booster, who wrote and starred in gay rom-com “Fire Island,” said having his work championed by two Asian executives at Disney-owned Searchlight had “really pushed this project through and made sure that it was going to get made.”

    “For a long time, there was this pull-the-ladder-up-behind-me mentality” among many minorities who found success in Hollywood, he told AFP.

    “There was a scarcity… a mentality of ‘there’s only room for one of us at the table and that’s going to be me.’ I think that has dissipated in a big way.”

    LOS ANGELES: From Oscars favourites “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and “RRR” to an unprecedented four acting nominations, Asian representation in Hollywood has finally achieved a remarkable and overdue breakthrough this year, industry insiders say.

    Among many records tumbling this awards season, Malaysian “Everything Everywhere” star Michelle Yeoh is only the second Asian best actress nominee in 95 years of Oscars history, with a strong chance of becoming the first winner Sunday.

    Only four Asian actors have ever won Oscars. That is the same number nominated this year alone, including Yeoh’s co-stars Ke Huy Quan and Stephanie Hsu, and Hong Chau of “The Whale.”googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    Then there is India’s all-singing, all-dancing “RRR,” heavily tipped to win best original song, and Nobel literature laureate Kazuo Ishiguro’s nominated screenplay for “Living.”

    Behind the camera, best picture frontrunner “Everything Everywhere” — a $100 million box office hit with 11 Oscar nominations — has an Asian co-director, Daniel Kwan, and an Asian producer, Jonathan Wang.

    “There’s something really beautiful about being able to show that if you put people in these roles, people will go see it,” Wang told AFP.

    “Why is it only white characters who go on the fun adventures, but Asian and Black characters and Latino characters have to experience the suffering? It’s time to flip that on its head. And people are going to run to the box office.”

    ALSO READ| ‘Larger than life’: Film-maker Rajamouli shoots for Oscar fame

    It is all a far cry from Hollywood’s past. At the recent Screen Actors Guild awards, James Hong, the 94-year-old veteran who appears in “Everything Everywhere,” reflected on how white actors with “their eyes taped up” once played leading Asian roles because producers thought “the Asians are not good enough and they are not box office.”

    “But look at us now,” he said, to a huge ovation.

    ‘Long overdue’

    Back in 1965, Hong co-founded the East West Players, a Los Angeles theatre group created to boost the visibility of Asian American actors and issues. The company has welcomed this year’s diverse Oscar nominations, which artistic director Snehal Desai says are “much appreciated and long overdue.”

    “These are artists who have been doing this work for decades. We are glad for the visibility and recognition, but it really should not have taken this long,” he said.

    Vietnam-born Quan, a major child star in the 1980s with “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and “The Goonies,” all but abandoned acting for decades due to a lack of roles. “Quan’s story of his prolonged absence from the industry, in particular, strikes a resonant chord for our community, as we continue to fight for more opportunities and quality representation,” the group said in a statement.

    ALSO READ | Oscar Predictions: Will ‘Everything’ take everything?

    Kristina Wong, an actor and comedian currently appearing in a one-woman show co-produced by East West Players, said she had been driven to write her own productions because it was the only way to see “weird” immigrant stories told. “It is either this or sit around and audition for bubble gum commercials,” she told AFP.

    “I’ve done that life. And it sucks. It’s not fulfilling creatively. There is still a lack of opportunities in general,” said Wong.

    But with her “Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord” a Pulitzer drama finalist, and “Everything Everywhere” racking up awards and box office receipts, “I think we’re ready” for new stories, she said. “We’ve been seeing the same tired old stories about… this white guy action hero, going ‘I’m going to fix this with a gun.’”

    “It’s made me excited, thinking maybe there’s an audience ready to be challenged.”

    ‘Pull the ladder’

    Still, Asian success at the Oscars has remained limited to a tiny group. Just 23 Asian actors’ performances have ever been nominated, representing a mere 1.2 per cent of all nominations, according to a New York Times study. Only Ben Kingsley, whose father was Indian, has been nominated more than once. And there has never been a year in which more than one Asian actor won.

    ALSO READ | Oscar-bound short film lifts veil on Iranian women rejecting male domination

    Could this be the year representation goes beyond a few, specific individuals?

    South Korea-born Joel Kim Booster, who wrote and starred in gay rom-com “Fire Island,” said having his work championed by two Asian executives at Disney-owned Searchlight had “really pushed this project through and made sure that it was going to get made.”

    “For a long time, there was this pull-the-ladder-up-behind-me mentality” among many minorities who found success in Hollywood, he told AFP.

    “There was a scarcity… a mentality of ‘there’s only room for one of us at the table and that’s going to be me.’ I think that has dissipated in a big way.”

  • Hollywood’s Asian stars welcome ‘long overdue’ breakthrough at Oscars

    By AFP

    LOS ANGELES: From Oscars favourites “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and “RRR” to an unprecedented four acting nominations, Asian representation in Hollywood has finally achieved a remarkable and overdue breakthrough this year, industry insiders say.

    Among many records tumbling this awards season, Malaysian “Everything Everywhere” star Michelle Yeoh is only the second Asian best actress nominee in 95 years of Oscars history, with a strong chance of becoming the first winner Sunday.

    Only four Asian actors have ever won Oscars. That is the same number nominated this year alone, including Yeoh’s co-stars Ke Huy Quan and Stephanie Hsu, and Hong Chau of “The Whale.”

    Then there is India’s all-singing, all-dancing “RRR,” heavily tipped to win best original song, and Nobel literature laureate Kazuo Ishiguro’s nominated screenplay for “Living.”

    Behind the camera, best picture frontrunner “Everything Everywhere” — a $100 million box office hit with 11 Oscar nominations — has an Asian co-director, Daniel Kwan, and an Asian producer, Jonathan Wang.

    “There’s something really beautiful about being able to show that if you put people in these roles, people will go see it,” Wang told AFP.

    “Why is it only white characters who go on the fun adventures, but Asian and Black characters and Latino characters have to experience the suffering? It’s time to flip that on its head. And people are going to run to the box office.”

    ALSO READ| ‘Larger than life’: Film-maker Rajamouli shoots for Oscar fame

    It is all a far cry from Hollywood’s past. At the recent Screen Actors Guild awards, James Hong, the 94-year-old veteran who appears in “Everything Everywhere,” reflected on how white actors with “their eyes taped up” once played leading Asian roles because producers thought “the Asians are not good enough and they are not box office.”

    “But look at us now,” he said, to a huge ovation.

    ‘Long overdue’

    Back in 1965, Hong co-founded the East West Players, a Los Angeles theatre group created to boost the visibility of Asian American actors and issues. The company has welcomed this year’s diverse Oscar nominations, which artistic director Snehal Desai says are “much appreciated and long overdue.”

    “These are artists who have been doing this work for decades. We are glad for the visibility and recognition, but it really should not have taken this long,” he said.

    Vietnam-born Quan, a major child star in the 1980s with “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and “The Goonies,” all but abandoned acting for decades due to a lack of roles. “Quan’s story of his prolonged absence from the industry, in particular, strikes a resonant chord for our community, as we continue to fight for more opportunities and quality representation,” the group said in a statement.

    ALSO READ | Oscar Predictions: Will ‘Everything’ take everything?

    Kristina Wong, an actor and comedian currently appearing in a one-woman show co-produced by East West Players, said she had been driven to write her own productions because it was the only way to see “weird” immigrant stories told. “It is either this or sit around and audition for bubble gum commercials,” she told AFP.

    “I’ve done that life. And it sucks. It’s not fulfilling creatively. There is still a lack of opportunities in general,” said Wong.

    But with her “Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord” a Pulitzer drama finalist, and “Everything Everywhere” racking up awards and box office receipts, “I think we’re ready” for new stories, she said. “We’ve been seeing the same tired old stories about… this white guy action hero, going ‘I’m going to fix this with a gun.’”

    “It’s made me excited, thinking maybe there’s an audience ready to be challenged.”

    ‘Pull the ladder’

    Still, Asian success at the Oscars has remained limited to a tiny group. Just 23 Asian actors’ performances have ever been nominated, representing a mere 1.2 per cent of all nominations, according to a New York Times study. Only Ben Kingsley, whose father was Indian, has been nominated more than once. And there has never been a year in which more than one Asian actor won.

    ALSO READ | Oscar-bound short film lifts veil on Iranian women rejecting male domination

    Could this be the year representation goes beyond a few, specific individuals?

    South Korea-born Joel Kim Booster, who wrote and starred in gay rom-com “Fire Island,” said having his work championed by two Asian executives at Disney-owned Searchlight had “really pushed this project through and made sure that it was going to get made.”

    “For a long time, there was this pull-the-ladder-up-behind-me mentality” among many minorities who found success in Hollywood, he told AFP.

    “There was a scarcity… a mentality of ‘there’s only room for one of us at the table and that’s going to be me.’ I think that has dissipated in a big way.”

    LOS ANGELES: From Oscars favourites “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and “RRR” to an unprecedented four acting nominations, Asian representation in Hollywood has finally achieved a remarkable and overdue breakthrough this year, industry insiders say.

    Among many records tumbling this awards season, Malaysian “Everything Everywhere” star Michelle Yeoh is only the second Asian best actress nominee in 95 years of Oscars history, with a strong chance of becoming the first winner Sunday.

    Only four Asian actors have ever won Oscars. That is the same number nominated this year alone, including Yeoh’s co-stars Ke Huy Quan and Stephanie Hsu, and Hong Chau of “The Whale.”googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    Then there is India’s all-singing, all-dancing “RRR,” heavily tipped to win best original song, and Nobel literature laureate Kazuo Ishiguro’s nominated screenplay for “Living.”

    Behind the camera, best picture frontrunner “Everything Everywhere” — a $100 million box office hit with 11 Oscar nominations — has an Asian co-director, Daniel Kwan, and an Asian producer, Jonathan Wang.

    “There’s something really beautiful about being able to show that if you put people in these roles, people will go see it,” Wang told AFP.

    “Why is it only white characters who go on the fun adventures, but Asian and Black characters and Latino characters have to experience the suffering? It’s time to flip that on its head. And people are going to run to the box office.”

    ALSO READ| ‘Larger than life’: Film-maker Rajamouli shoots for Oscar fame

    It is all a far cry from Hollywood’s past. At the recent Screen Actors Guild awards, James Hong, the 94-year-old veteran who appears in “Everything Everywhere,” reflected on how white actors with “their eyes taped up” once played leading Asian roles because producers thought “the Asians are not good enough and they are not box office.”

    “But look at us now,” he said, to a huge ovation.

    ‘Long overdue’

    Back in 1965, Hong co-founded the East West Players, a Los Angeles theatre group created to boost the visibility of Asian American actors and issues. The company has welcomed this year’s diverse Oscar nominations, which artistic director Snehal Desai says are “much appreciated and long overdue.”

    “These are artists who have been doing this work for decades. We are glad for the visibility and recognition, but it really should not have taken this long,” he said.

    Vietnam-born Quan, a major child star in the 1980s with “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and “The Goonies,” all but abandoned acting for decades due to a lack of roles. “Quan’s story of his prolonged absence from the industry, in particular, strikes a resonant chord for our community, as we continue to fight for more opportunities and quality representation,” the group said in a statement.

    ALSO READ | Oscar Predictions: Will ‘Everything’ take everything?

    Kristina Wong, an actor and comedian currently appearing in a one-woman show co-produced by East West Players, said she had been driven to write her own productions because it was the only way to see “weird” immigrant stories told. “It is either this or sit around and audition for bubble gum commercials,” she told AFP.

    “I’ve done that life. And it sucks. It’s not fulfilling creatively. There is still a lack of opportunities in general,” said Wong.

    But with her “Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord” a Pulitzer drama finalist, and “Everything Everywhere” racking up awards and box office receipts, “I think we’re ready” for new stories, she said. “We’ve been seeing the same tired old stories about… this white guy action hero, going ‘I’m going to fix this with a gun.’”

    “It’s made me excited, thinking maybe there’s an audience ready to be challenged.”

    ‘Pull the ladder’

    Still, Asian success at the Oscars has remained limited to a tiny group. Just 23 Asian actors’ performances have ever been nominated, representing a mere 1.2 per cent of all nominations, according to a New York Times study. Only Ben Kingsley, whose father was Indian, has been nominated more than once. And there has never been a year in which more than one Asian actor won.

    ALSO READ | Oscar-bound short film lifts veil on Iranian women rejecting male domination

    Could this be the year representation goes beyond a few, specific individuals?

    South Korea-born Joel Kim Booster, who wrote and starred in gay rom-com “Fire Island,” said having his work championed by two Asian executives at Disney-owned Searchlight had “really pushed this project through and made sure that it was going to get made.”

    “For a long time, there was this pull-the-ladder-up-behind-me mentality” among many minorities who found success in Hollywood, he told AFP.

    “There was a scarcity… a mentality of ‘there’s only room for one of us at the table and that’s going to be me.’ I think that has dissipated in a big way.”

  • 20223 DGA Awards: ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ duo win top Hollywood directing prize

    By AFP

    LOS ANGELES: “Everything Everywhere All At Once” won top honors from Hollywood’s directors Saturday, as the quirky indie sci-fi movie from two relatively unknown young filmmakers upstaged more famous rivals ahead of next month’s Oscars.

    Directing double-act Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, both 35, fended off competition from the likes of Steven Spielberg to win the prize for best feature film at the Directors Guild of America’s annual gala in Beverly Hills.

    “What the hell? Guys, thank you so much. This has been an incredible year for our little film that somehow keeps going,” said a visibly shocked Kwan.

    The movie stars Michelle Yeoh as an immigrant laundromat owner undergoing a tax audit who becomes drawn into an inter-dimensional battle to save the multiverse from a powerful villain.

    It became a huge word-of-mouth hit last year, has grossed more than $100 million worldwide, and holds the most Academy Award nominations this year with 11.

    Kwan and Scheinert, collectively referred to as “Daniels,” made their start directing music videos, and were previously best known for the oddball Daniel Radcliffe comedy “Swiss Army Man.”

    Scheinert thanked his co-director Kwan “for putting up with me when I asked to make our movie weirder.”

    “Thank you for making our movie so much braver and more vulnerable. What an honor… this is crazy!”

    REVIEW | ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’: This multiversal madness is absurdist comedy at its best

    ‘Shark movies’The DGAs, though not broadcast on television, offer highly prestigious recognition from the industry’s top directors, and are now in their 75th year.

    They are also considered a key Oscars predictor. Seventeen of the past 19 DGA winners have gone on to also win best director at the Academy Awards that year.

    The other directors nominated by the DGA were Martin McDonagh (“The Banshees of Inisherin”), Todd Field (“TAR”), Joseph Kosinski (“Top Gun: Maverick”) and Spielberg, for his semi-autobiographical childhood memoir “The Fabelmans.”

    It was Spielberg’s 13th DGA nomination — he has won three times — and nearly every nominee and winner on Saturday evening name-checked the famous director.

    Spielberg himself admitted he had been “terrified” that audiences would watch his latest, deeply personal film and respond: “So what? Your childhood wasn’t all that interesting!”

    He joked that he had also dreaded being told: “Please get back to making scary movies, shark movies, alien movies. Those were fun.”

    But, he concluded, “I have been calling ‘Action!’ for 55 years. So why the hell not?”

    ‘Sacrificed their lives’Elsewhere on Saturday, Sara Dosa won best documentary for “Fire of Love,” her film about two French volcano scientists who fell in love and became celebrities for their daredevil and up-close approach to research.

    “Katia and Maurice (Krafft) literally sacrificed their lives for their filmmaking,” said Dosa.

    “They died while attempting to capture a shot of a pyroclastic surge, which is one of the world’s deadliest forces.

    “But ‘Fire of Love’ is not about Katia and Maurice’s deaths, it’s about how they lived.

    “And they lived in love with each other and with volcanoes.”

    Charlotte Wells won the best first-time feature award for “Aftersun,” but did not attend, with Britain’s BAFTAs due to take place in London less than 24 hours after the DGA gala.

    The independent film stars Paul Mescal as a troubled, single Scottish father trying to reconnect with his young daughter on a summer holiday in Turkey.

    On the television side, Bill Hader won his third DGA for directing “Barry,” the dark hitman comedy in which he also stars.

    The drama prize went to “Euphoria” director Sam Levinson, for the gritty HBO series about teenagers battling with addiction, infidelity and abuse, which stars Zendaya.

    The movie season-capping Academy Awards take place this year on March 12.

    LOS ANGELES: “Everything Everywhere All At Once” won top honors from Hollywood’s directors Saturday, as the quirky indie sci-fi movie from two relatively unknown young filmmakers upstaged more famous rivals ahead of next month’s Oscars.

    Directing double-act Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, both 35, fended off competition from the likes of Steven Spielberg to win the prize for best feature film at the Directors Guild of America’s annual gala in Beverly Hills.

    “What the hell? Guys, thank you so much. This has been an incredible year for our little film that somehow keeps going,” said a visibly shocked Kwan.

    The movie stars Michelle Yeoh as an immigrant laundromat owner undergoing a tax audit who becomes drawn into an inter-dimensional battle to save the multiverse from a powerful villain.

    It became a huge word-of-mouth hit last year, has grossed more than $100 million worldwide, and holds the most Academy Award nominations this year with 11.

    Kwan and Scheinert, collectively referred to as “Daniels,” made their start directing music videos, and were previously best known for the oddball Daniel Radcliffe comedy “Swiss Army Man.”

    Scheinert thanked his co-director Kwan “for putting up with me when I asked to make our movie weirder.”

    “Thank you for making our movie so much braver and more vulnerable. What an honor… this is crazy!”

    REVIEW | ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’: This multiversal madness is absurdist comedy at its best

    ‘Shark movies’
    The DGAs, though not broadcast on television, offer highly prestigious recognition from the industry’s top directors, and are now in their 75th year.

    They are also considered a key Oscars predictor. Seventeen of the past 19 DGA winners have gone on to also win best director at the Academy Awards that year.

    The other directors nominated by the DGA were Martin McDonagh (“The Banshees of Inisherin”), Todd Field (“TAR”), Joseph Kosinski (“Top Gun: Maverick”) and Spielberg, for his semi-autobiographical childhood memoir “The Fabelmans.”

    It was Spielberg’s 13th DGA nomination — he has won three times — and nearly every nominee and winner on Saturday evening name-checked the famous director.

    Spielberg himself admitted he had been “terrified” that audiences would watch his latest, deeply personal film and respond: “So what? Your childhood wasn’t all that interesting!”

    He joked that he had also dreaded being told: “Please get back to making scary movies, shark movies, alien movies. Those were fun.”

    But, he concluded, “I have been calling ‘Action!’ for 55 years. So why the hell not?”

    ‘Sacrificed their lives’
    Elsewhere on Saturday, Sara Dosa won best documentary for “Fire of Love,” her film about two French volcano scientists who fell in love and became celebrities for their daredevil and up-close approach to research.

    “Katia and Maurice (Krafft) literally sacrificed their lives for their filmmaking,” said Dosa.

    “They died while attempting to capture a shot of a pyroclastic surge, which is one of the world’s deadliest forces.

    “But ‘Fire of Love’ is not about Katia and Maurice’s deaths, it’s about how they lived.

    “And they lived in love with each other and with volcanoes.”

    Charlotte Wells won the best first-time feature award for “Aftersun,” but did not attend, with Britain’s BAFTAs due to take place in London less than 24 hours after the DGA gala.

    The independent film stars Paul Mescal as a troubled, single Scottish father trying to reconnect with his young daughter on a summer holiday in Turkey.

    On the television side, Bill Hader won his third DGA for directing “Barry,” the dark hitman comedy in which he also stars.

    The drama prize went to “Euphoria” director Sam Levinson, for the gritty HBO series about teenagers battling with addiction, infidelity and abuse, which stars Zendaya.

    The movie season-capping Academy Awards take place this year on March 12.

  • ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ tops Oscars 2023 with 11 nominations

    By Associated Press

    NEW YORK: The multiverse-skipping sci-fi indie hit Everything Everywhere All at Once led nominations to the 95th Academy Awards as Hollywood heaped honours on big-screen spectacles like Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way of Water a year after a streaming service won best picture for the first time.

    Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan’s Everything Everywhere All at Once landed a leading 11 nominations on Tuesday, including nods for Michelle Yeoh and comeback kid Ke Huy Quan, the former child star of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Released back in March, the A24 film has proved an unlikely Oscar heavyweight against the expectations of even its makers. Yeoh became the first Asian actor nominated for best actress.

    The 10 movies up for best picture are: Everything Everywhere All at Once, The Banshees of Inisherin, The Fabelmans, Tár, Top Gun: Maverick, Avatar: The Way of Water, Elvis, All Quiet on the Western Front, Women Talking, and Triangle of Sadness.

    Nominations were announced Tuesday from the academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, California, by Riz Ahmed and Allison Williams. If last year’s Oscars were dominated by streaming — Apple TV+’s “CODA” won best picture and Netflix landed a leading 27 nominations — movies that drew moviegoers to multiplexes after two years of pandemic make up many of this year’s top contenders.

    For the first time, two sequels — Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way of Water — were nominated for best picture. The two films together account for some $3.5 billion at the box office. Tom Cruise missed out on an acting nomination, but the film credited with bringing many moviegoers back to theatres walked away with seven nominations.

    Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, made in the wake of Chadwick Boseman’s death, scored five nominations, including the first acting nod for a performance in a Marvel movie: Angela Bassett, the likely favourite to win best supporting actress.

    Baz Luhrmanns’ bedazzled biopic Elvis came away with eight nominations, including the best actor nod for star Austin Butler and nominations for its costumes, sound and production design.

    Though Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans struggled to catch on with audiences, the director’s autobiographical coming-of-age tale landed Spielberg his 20th Oscar nomination and eighth nod for best director. John Williams, his longtime composer, extended his record for the most Oscar nominations for a living person. Williams’ 53rd nominations trail only Walt Disney’s 59.

    Only one streaming title broke into the best-picture field: The German WWI film All Quiet on the Western Front. Though Netflix for the first time in years lacks a possible best picture frontrunner, All Quiet on the Western Front landed a better-than-expected nine nominations.

    The other nominees for best actress are: Ana de Armas, Blonde; Cate Blanchett, Tár; Andrea Riseborough, To Leslie; Michelle Williams, The Fabelmans.

    The nominees for best actor: Brendan Fraser, The Whale; Colin Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin; Austin Butler, Elvis; Bill Nighy, Living; Paul Mescal, Aftersun.

    The nominees for best supporting actress are: Angela Bassett, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever; Hong Chau, The Whale; Kerry Condon, The Banshees of Inisherin; Jamie Lee Curtis, Everything Everywhere All at Once; Stephanie Hsu, Everything Everywhere All at Once.

    The nominees for best supporting actor are: Brian Tyree Henry, Causeway; Judd Hirsch, The Fabelmans; Brendan Gleeson, Banshees of Inisherin; Barry Keoghan, Banshees of Inisherin; Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All at Once.

    The nominees for international film are: All Quiet on the Western Front (Germany); Argentina, 1985 (Argentina); Close (Belgium); EO (Poland); The Quiet Girl (Ireland).

    The nominees for original screenplay are: Everything Everywhere All at Once; The Banshees of Inisherin; The Fabelmans; Tár; Triangle of Sadness.

    The nominees for best original score are: Volker Bertelmann, All Quiet on the Western Front; Justin Hurwitz, Babylon; Carter Burwell, The Banshees of Inisherin; Son Lux, Everything Everywhere All at Once; John Williams, The Fabelmans.

    The nominees for best animated film are: Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio; Marcel the Shell With Shoes On; Puss in Boots: The Last Wish; The Sea Beast; Turning Red.

    Last year’s broadcast drew 15.4 million viewers, according to Nielsen, up 56% from the record-low audience of 10.5 million for the pandemic-marred 2021 telecast. This year, ABC is bringing back Jimmy Kimmel to host the March 12 ceremony, one that will surely be seen as a return to the site of the slap.

    But larger concerns are swirling around the movie business. Last year saw flashes of triumphant resurrection for theatres, like the success of “Top Gun: Maverick,” after two years of the pandemic. But partially due to a less steady stream of major releases, ticket sales for the year recovered only about 70% of the pre-pandemic business. Regal Cinemas, the nation’s second-largest chain, announced the closure of 39 cinemas this month.

    At the same time, storm clouds swept into the streaming world after years of once-seemingly boundless growth. Stocks plunged as Wall Street looked to streaming services to earn profits, not just add subscribers. A retrenchment has followed, as the industry again enters an uncertain chapter.

    NEW YORK: The multiverse-skipping sci-fi indie hit Everything Everywhere All at Once led nominations to the 95th Academy Awards as Hollywood heaped honours on big-screen spectacles like Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way of Water a year after a streaming service won best picture for the first time.

    Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan’s Everything Everywhere All at Once landed a leading 11 nominations on Tuesday, including nods for Michelle Yeoh and comeback kid Ke Huy Quan, the former child star of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Released back in March, the A24 film has proved an unlikely Oscar heavyweight against the expectations of even its makers. Yeoh became the first Asian actor nominated for best actress.

    The 10 movies up for best picture are: Everything Everywhere All at Once, The Banshees of Inisherin, The Fabelmans, Tár, Top Gun: Maverick, Avatar: The Way of Water, Elvis, All Quiet on the Western Front, Women Talking, and Triangle of Sadness.

    Nominations were announced Tuesday from the academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, California, by Riz Ahmed and Allison Williams. If last year’s Oscars were dominated by streaming — Apple TV+’s “CODA” won best picture and Netflix landed a leading 27 nominations — movies that drew moviegoers to multiplexes after two years of pandemic make up many of this year’s top contenders.

    For the first time, two sequels — Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way of Water — were nominated for best picture. The two films together account for some $3.5 billion at the box office. Tom Cruise missed out on an acting nomination, but the film credited with bringing many moviegoers back to theatres walked away with seven nominations.

    Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, made in the wake of Chadwick Boseman’s death, scored five nominations, including the first acting nod for a performance in a Marvel movie: Angela Bassett, the likely favourite to win best supporting actress.

    Baz Luhrmanns’ bedazzled biopic Elvis came away with eight nominations, including the best actor nod for star Austin Butler and nominations for its costumes, sound and production design.

    Though Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans struggled to catch on with audiences, the director’s autobiographical coming-of-age tale landed Spielberg his 20th Oscar nomination and eighth nod for best director. John Williams, his longtime composer, extended his record for the most Oscar nominations for a living person. Williams’ 53rd nominations trail only Walt Disney’s 59.

    Only one streaming title broke into the best-picture field: The German WWI film All Quiet on the Western Front. Though Netflix for the first time in years lacks a possible best picture frontrunner, All Quiet on the Western Front landed a better-than-expected nine nominations.

    The other nominees for best actress are: Ana de Armas, Blonde; Cate Blanchett, Tár; Andrea Riseborough, To Leslie; Michelle Williams, The Fabelmans.

    The nominees for best actor: Brendan Fraser, The Whale; Colin Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin; Austin Butler, Elvis; Bill Nighy, Living; Paul Mescal, Aftersun.

    The nominees for best supporting actress are: Angela Bassett, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever; Hong Chau, The Whale; Kerry Condon, The Banshees of Inisherin; Jamie Lee Curtis, Everything Everywhere All at Once; Stephanie Hsu, Everything Everywhere All at Once.

    The nominees for best supporting actor are: Brian Tyree Henry, Causeway; Judd Hirsch, The Fabelmans; Brendan Gleeson, Banshees of Inisherin; Barry Keoghan, Banshees of Inisherin; Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All at Once.

    The nominees for international film are: All Quiet on the Western Front (Germany); Argentina, 1985 (Argentina); Close (Belgium); EO (Poland); The Quiet Girl (Ireland).

    The nominees for original screenplay are: Everything Everywhere All at Once; The Banshees of Inisherin; The Fabelmans; Tár; Triangle of Sadness.

    The nominees for best original score are: Volker Bertelmann, All Quiet on the Western Front; Justin Hurwitz, Babylon; Carter Burwell, The Banshees of Inisherin; Son Lux, Everything Everywhere All at Once; John Williams, The Fabelmans.

    The nominees for best animated film are: Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio; Marcel the Shell With Shoes On; Puss in Boots: The Last Wish; The Sea Beast; Turning Red.

    Last year’s broadcast drew 15.4 million viewers, according to Nielsen, up 56% from the record-low audience of 10.5 million for the pandemic-marred 2021 telecast. This year, ABC is bringing back Jimmy Kimmel to host the March 12 ceremony, one that will surely be seen as a return to the site of the slap.

    But larger concerns are swirling around the movie business. Last year saw flashes of triumphant resurrection for theatres, like the success of “Top Gun: Maverick,” after two years of the pandemic. But partially due to a less steady stream of major releases, ticket sales for the year recovered only about 70% of the pre-pandemic business. Regal Cinemas, the nation’s second-largest chain, announced the closure of 39 cinemas this month.

    At the same time, storm clouds swept into the streaming world after years of once-seemingly boundless growth. Stocks plunged as Wall Street looked to streaming services to earn profits, not just add subscribers. A retrenchment has followed, as the industry again enters an uncertain chapter.