Everything You Need To Know About The 2023 Oscars

Everything Everywhere All At Once Dominated

The key takeaway from last night’s awards is that the Daniels’s Everything Everywhere All At Once was undoubtedly the biggest winner. The multiverse adventure film won seven awards, including best picture, best editing, best director and best original screenplay. In the history of the Oscars, no other film has ever won best picture, best director and three acting prizes.

Perhaps most importantly, Michelle Yeoh became the first Asian woman to win best actress. Accepting her award, 60-year-old Yeoh said: “For all the little boys and girls who look like me watching tonight, this is a beacon of hope and possibilities,” following up with: “And ladies, don't let anybody tell you that you are ever past your prime.” Yeoh is only the second woman of colour to win best actress, following Halle Berry’s win for Monster's Ball more than 20 years ago.

Yeoh’s co-stars Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis also won supporting actor and supporting actress respectively. It was the first Oscar Curtis has won in her almost 50-year acting career. “I know it looks like I'm standing up here by myself, but I am not, I am hundreds of people,” Curtis said during her acceptance speech. “The entire group of artists who made this movie – we just won an Oscar.”

Everything Everywhere All At Once was directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, who are known as the Daniels. Accepting the best picture award, Kwan said: “I realised growing up that one of the things we can do for each other is shelter each other from the chaos of this crazy world that we live in. Thank you to the storytellers who did that for me.” All Quiet on the Western Front – the Netflix German-language WWI film – won four awards for best international feature, original score, production design and cinematography.

It Was A Night Of Comebacks

Best supporting actor winner, 51-year-old Ke Huy Quan, has enjoyed something of a comeback following his performance in Everything Everywhere All At Once. The actor took a 20-year break from acting after starring in The Goonies and Indiana Jones & The Temple of Doom as a child. In an emotional acceptance speech, the Vietnamese-American actor said: “Dreams are something you have to believe in – I almost gave up on mine. My journey started on a boat, I spent a year in a refugee camp, and somehow I ended up here, on Hollywood’s biggest stage… Thank you so much for welcoming me back.” One of our highlights from the ceremony was seeing Quan excitedly embrace Harrison Ford – his co-star in Indiana Jones & The Temple of Doom – who presented the award.

Rounding off the acting categories, Brendan Fraser won best actor for his performance in The Whale, a film that follows a professor as he tries to reconnect with his daughter. Praising the film's director, he said: “I'm grateful to Darren Aronofsky for throwing me a creative lifeline.” The Whale was the first film 2000s megastar Fraser has been in for over a decade. His win saw him beat Austin Butler (Elvis), Paul Mescal (Aftersun), Colin Farrell (The Banshees of Inisherin) and Bill Nighy (Living).

Elsewhere, 2018 best picture winner The Shape of Water’s Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio was named best animated feature; Wakanda Forever's Ruth E Carter won best costume design (repeating her win for the original Black Panther); and there was a win for the Brits for The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse. Based on the illustrated Charlie Mackesy book, the production won best animated short.

Jimmy Kimmel Was A Hit

Coda, The Power of the Dog, West Side Story. 2022 might have been a great year for film, but there’s only one moment most viewers remember from last year’s ceremony: when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock on stage. The 95th Academy Awards ceremony was hosted for a third time by US chat show host Jimmy Kimmel, who didn’t shy away from the controversy. “We want you to have fun, feel safe and, most importantly, we want me to feel safe. So, we have strict policies in place,” he said in his introduction. “If anyone in this theatre commits an act of violence at any point during the show, you will be awarded the Oscar for best actor and permitted to give a 19-minute long speech.” He also brought a donkey on stage at one point – a reference to The Banshees of Inisherin, which walked away empty handed, despite plenty of wins at the other major award ceremonies.