THE 95TH ANNUAL ACADEMY AWARDS

A dark cloud has hung over the Oscars since last year's ceremony after the shocking physical altercation on stage that had left a lingering feeling of PTSD. But as they say, time heals all wounds, and a year later, the 95th annual Academy Awards wants to put all of that distracting unpleasantness behind, shifting the focus back to where it belongs: the celebration of cinema. The first, most important, move was returning to present all twenty-three categories live on the Oscars after eight awards were given out before the telecast last year and later announced throughout the show. The goal might have been an attempt to shorten the length of the Oscars and make the program more appealing to younger viewers, but this misguided act did neither. The show opened with a montage that displayed all the many departments involved in making a movie, as a way to remind viewers why each category matters and should be honored on the show.

The other welcome comeback was to finally have a proper host guiding the show after the last few years without one. On his third outing as host, Jimmy Kimmel kept the atmosphere light and easy, playfully joking about the movies and the nominees. Not all of them landed and a few had the audience groaning (one about the poor box-office of the expensive "Babylon") but he managed to maintain a lively, upbeat mood. And of course, the comedian had to mention the infamous slap that had previously occurred, but the jokes were still relatively tame.

As was predicted due to the film's front-runner status after accumulating many wins in various Hollywood guild awards prior to the show, "Everything Everywhere All at Once" swept the major awards, winning a total of seven including Best Picture. This oddball sci-fi comedy-drama with a warm center created by The Daniels (Kwan and Scheinert) won the team Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. Michelle Yeoh, who began her career starring in a series of Hong Kong action films and became better known here due to her role in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", won Best Actress, making her the first Asian actor to receive this award. The Oscar was presented to Yeoh by last year's winner of the award, Jessica Chastain and Halle Berry, who was the first African American actor (and sadly still the only one) in 2002 to win Best Actress. Jamie Lee Curtis, the veteran performer who first found fame in the 1978 horror classic, "Halloween" and fully embraces her nepo status as the child of Hollywood royalty, Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, received her first Oscar as Best Supporting Actress for her work in the film. And one of the most heartwarming moments was Ke Huy Quan winning Best Supporting Actor. He had started off as a successful child actor, appearing in "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" and "The Goonies", yet had to abandon his career due to a lack of decent opportunities as an adult but Quan managed to come back in a major way with his celebrated performance in this movie.

Another comeback that was warmly celebrated this evening was Brendan Fraser's heartbreaking performance in Darren Aronofsky's "The Whale", winning him the Best Actor Oscar. Fraser had been a popular movie star at one point, appearing in "The Mummy" trilogy, "Gods and Monsters", the 2004 Best Picture winner, "Crash" and "Encino Man" (which co-starred fellow winner, Quan) but his career took a hit after various health problems and the alleged sexual assault that was committed to him by the then-president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Yet his astounding work as a morbidly obese English teacher trying to restore his relationship with his teenage daughter in "The Whale" revealed to audiences that we hadn't really seen Fraser's full potential as an actor.

Another major winner was the German-language remake of "All Quiet on the Western Front" which received four awards including Best International Feature. Based on the 1929 novel by Erich Maria Remarque (and was first made as a Hollywood movie in 1930, winning Best Picture), Edward Berger's WWI set drama is a moving and harrowing depiction on the tragedy of global conflict. The only other feature films that received Oscars were Sarah Polley's adapted screenplay for "Women Talking", Ruth Carter winning her second for Best Costume Design with "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever", "Top Gun: Maverick" taking Best Sound and "Avatar: The Way of Water" obviously getting Best Visual Effects. With so few movies taking most of the prizes, this meant that half of the Best Picture nominees; "Elvis", "Tár", "The Fabelmans", "Triangle of Sadness" and "The Banshees of Inisherin" went home empty-handed.

The only nomination that "RRR" received was for Best Original Song but I think this thrilling Indian epic deserved to be further recognized by the Academy. But "Naatu Naatu" did win the award with the live performance of the song managing to be just as electrifying as it was in the film. The rest of the Original Song nominees were performed on the show by the original artists which included an unannounced Lady Gaga doing a stripped-down version of "Hold My Hand" from the "Top Gun" sequel which ended with a screen tribute to the first film's director, the late Tony Scott.

This year's Oscar telecast ended forty minutes after the planned three-hour runtime which is exactly the same time as last year even with the omitted live categories. And the ratings were up 12% compared to the 94th ceremony with 18.7 million viewers. I'm not sure what this will mean in the long run, as all award shows have suffered ratings decline, but The Oscars have rebounded, revealing that some traditions matter and with the right elements in place, audiences will tune in.

Finally, I have to comment on a moment on the program that really disturbed me: Halle Bailey and Melissa McCarthy, the co-stars of the upcoming live-action version of "The Little Mermaid", came out to introduce the trailer for this upcoming movie. I was highly offended that the Oscars were being used to promote a movie in the middle of the show, made even more shameless by this being done on the Disney-owned station, ABC. I'm sure many studios would love to use this show to plug their next big-budget, extravaganza but the Oscars should not be used for free publicity. Besides, that is exactly what those pricy commercials in between the show are supposed to be for.

Here is the complete list of winners of the 2023 Academy Awards:

Best Picture: "Everything Everywhere All at Once"
Best Director: Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, "Everything Everywhere All at Once"
Best Original Screenplay: Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, "Everything Everywhere All at Once"
Best Adapted Screenplay: Sarah Polley, "Women Talking"
Best Actress in a Leading Role: Michelle Yeoh, "Everything Everywhere All at Once"
Best Actor in a Leading Role: Brendan Fraser, "The Whale"
Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Jamie Lee Curtis, "Everything Everywhere All at Once"
Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Ke Huy Quan, "Everything Everywhere All at Once"
Best International Feature Film: "Im Westen nichts Neues (All Quiet on the Western Front)" (Germany)
Best Animated Feature Film: "Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio"
Best Animated Short Film: "The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse"
Best Documentary Feature Film: "Navalny"
Best Documentary Short Film: "The Elephant Whisperers"
Best Live Action Short Film: "An Irish Goodbye"
Best Cinematography: James Friend, "All Quiet on the Western Front"
Best Editing: Paul Rogers, "Everything Everywhere All at Once"
Best Production Design: Christian M. Goldbeck and Ernestine Hipper, "All Quiet on the Western Front"
Best Costume Design: Ruth Carter, "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever"
Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Adrien Morot, Judy Chin and Annemarie Bradley, "The Whale"
Best Original Music Score: Volker Bertelmann, "All Quiet on the Western Front"
Best Original Song: "Naatu Naatu" from "RRR" (Music by M.M. Keeravaani; Lyric by Chandrabose)
Best Sound: Mark Weingarten, James H. Mather, Al Nelson, Chris Burdon and Mark Taylor, "Top Gun: Maverick"
Best Visual Effects: Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon and Daniel Barrett, "Avatar: The Way of Water"

Academy Honorary Awards:

Euzhan Palcy
Diane Warren
Peter Weir

Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award:

Michael J. Fox