Key Takeaways From The 95th Academy Awards
On March 12, the world of cinema celebrated the 95th rendition of the Academy Awards—the most prestigious ceremony in the world of film.
Held at Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles and hosted by television host Jimmy Kimmel, the event had its fair share of surprises as it honored the best films of 2022.
Here is my list of key takeaways from the Oscars:
Astounding Success
While the success of Everything Everywhere All At Once was not shocking, the magnitude of its acclaim is still impressive. The film earned the coveted Best Picture award while also winning other accolades like Best Original Screenplay and Best Film Editing.
Released last March, the comedy-drama told the story of Evelyn Wang, a Chinese-American immigrant who fights a powerful being by meeting parallel universe versions of herself.
The film’s directors, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, earned their first-ever Best Director award. Ke Huy Quan and Michelle Yeoh also won their first Best Supporting Actor and Best Actress awards respectively.
The film earned seven awards from 11 nominations, giving the production team of Everything Everywhere All at Once plenty of reasons to celebrate. It has won 158 awards this season making it the most-awarded film of all time eclipsing The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
International Achievement
In the International Feature Film category, this year’s clear Oscar-winning film was Netflix’s All Quiet on the Western Front.
Based on the 1929 novel of the same name, the German anti-war film followed the story of Paul Bäumer, a German soldier who experiences the brutality of World War I’s trench warfare. Since its release on Oct. 28, the film has amassed more than 150 million hours of viewership.
Asides from winning the Best International Film award, the production won awards in three other categories: Best Original Score, Best Production Design and Best Cinematography.
All Quiet on the Western Front’s four awards tied for the foreign-language film with the most awards in the history of the Academy Awards.
World Class Acting
In the Best Actor category, Brendan Fraser competed against stars like Austin Butler, Paul Mescal and Colin Farrell for his performance in Darren Aronofsky’s psychological drama The Whale.
Fraser, who earned his first-ever Oscar award, played Charlie, a morbidly obese and isolated English instructor who tries to repair his relationship with his daughter as his health deteriorates.
For the role, Fraser had to wear prosthetics to weigh more than 300 pounds. He also took classes with dance instructors to ensure his movements resembled that of an obese person. The award rightfully appreciates this effort.
Aside from the Best Actor honor, The Whale also received the Best Makeup and Hairstyling Award for its depiction of Charlie.
Unbalanced Representation
There was a lot of debate at the Academy Awards regarding how women were represented during the ceremony.
This year’s nominees for best director are all men, even when female candidates like Charlotte Wells, Gina Prince-Bythewood and Sarah Polley—whose film, Women Talking, earned a Best Picture slot—were all possible nominees.
In the acting categories, Black actresses like The Woman King Viola Davis and Till’s Danielle Deadwyler weren’t even nominated for any awards despite their noteworthy performances.
While this year’s ceremony was historic for Asian representation, it was still sad to see how the work of all these wonderful women wasn’t recognized.
