Michelle Yeoh made history at the Oscars on Sunday, becoming the first actress of Southeast Asian descent to win the Academy Award for best actress. Yeoh won for her role as Evelyn Wang in “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” which also won best picture.
Yeoh is known for her roles in “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” “Tomorrow Never Dies” in the James Bond franchise, and “Crazy Rich Asians” Despite decades of work and dozens of roles, this is Yeoh’s first Oscar nomination.
Michelle Yeoh at the 95th Annual Academy Awards held at Dolby Theatre on March 12, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
Rich Polk/Variety via Getty Images
In her Oscar-winning role, Yeoh plays a Chinese immigrant who can explore alternative lives in other universes.
When she got up on stage to accept her award she received a standing ovation. “Thank you, thank you. For all the little girls and boys who look like me watching tonight, this is a beacon of hope and possibility,” she said in her speech. “This is proof to dream big, and dreams do come true.”
“And ladies, don’t let anybody ever tell you you are past your prime,” Yeoh, who is 60, continued. The comment came after CNN anchor Don Lemon received backlash for saying presidential candidate and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley was past her prime at age 51. Lemon later apologized.
“Never give up,” Yeoh said, as the audience erupted in cheers. She then thanked her directors, the production company A24 and the cast and crew, and dedicated the award to her mom and “all the moms in the world.”
“They are really the superheroes, and without them, none of us would be here tonight,” she said, echoing one of the film’s directors, Daniel Kwan, who also thanked moms in one of his acceptance speeches.
Yeoh said her mom is 84 and she is watching in Malaysia with friends and family. “I love you guys, I’m bringing this home to you,” she said. And she thanked her “extended family” in Hong Kong, where she got her start in acting.
“Everything Everywhere All at Once” was written and directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, a duo known as The Daniels, who also won the Oscars for best director and best screenplay.
Yeoh’s co-star Ke Huy Quan, who got his start as a child actor in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and “The Goonies,” took home best supporting actor award, becoming just second performer of Asian descent to win that award.
And longtime film star Jamie Lee Curtis won best supporting actress for her role in the film — her first Oscar. The film also won for best editing.
When Elizabeth Banks presented the Oscar for best visual effects at the 95th Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles on Sunday night, she shared the stage with one of Hollywood’s hottest characters.
Banks, who directed this year’s box office smash “Cocaine Bear,” announced the nominees alongside a co-presenter wearing a full bear costume. Banks’ new thriller, which has earned $65 million globally since it opened just weeks ago in theaters, is inspired by the true story of a 175-pound black bear in Georgia 40 years ago that ingested a massive dose of cocaine apparently dropped from a plane piloted by a convicted drug smuggler.
“I recently directed the film ‘Cocaine Bear,’” Banks said at the Oscars. “And without visual effects, this is what the bear would look like. It’s terrifying.”
Elizabeth Banks and Cocaine Bear on stage during the 95th Annual Academy Awards at Dolby Theatre on March 12, 2023 in Hollywood, California.
Getty Images
“What’re you doing? Stop it,” Banks told the costumed bear. “Are you trying to score right now? You need to wait ’til the after party like everybody else.”
Banks went on to highlight the importance of visual effects in bringing stories to life onscreen.
“The coke is not real. It’s visual effects,” she said before segueing into a creative introduction for each of the year’s nominees in this category: “All Quiet on the Western Front,” “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” “The Batman,” and the eventual winner, “Avatar: The Way of Water,”
“‘Avatar’ is visual effects. ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’? That’s visual effects. It was a real war, but real visual effects. Batman flying around — that’s not real. Tom Cruise flying around is real, but also, visual effects,” she said of the “Maverick” actor famous for performing his own stunts.
“Wakanda? Wakanda is totally real,” Banks continued, adding, “Visual effects can enhance any story and are an incredible tool for a filmmaker like me. Without visual effects, ‘Cocaine Bear’ would have been some actor in a bear suit … probably on cocaine.”
The award for best visual effects was the first win of the night for “Avatar: The Way of Water,” which was nominated this year in four categories, including best picture.
LOS ANGELES — Ruth E. Carter made history: The costume designer behind the “Black Panther” films has become the first Black woman to win two Oscars.
Carter took home best costume design for the Marvel sequel “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” Carter also won an Academy Award in 2018 for “Black Panther,” which made her the first African American to win in the category.
In her acceptance speech, Carter thanked the film’s director Ryan Coogler and asked if “Black Panther” star Chadwick Boseman could look after her mother, Mabel Carter, who she said died “this past week.” Boseman died in 2020 of cancer at 43.
“This is for my mother. She was 101,” Carter said while accepting the Oscar. She said “this film prepared me for this moment. Chadwick, please take care of mom,” she said.
“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” grappled with the grief of losing Boseman, its superhero.
Lady Gaga is expected to perform at the Oscars on Sunday, after reports that she wouldn’t due to her busy schedule as she films the newest “Joker” movie. Gaga is nominated for best song for “Hold My Hand” from “Top Gun: Maverick,” and while it is customary for the nominated songs to be performed, last week producers said she wouldn’t.
The awards show’s producer, Glen Weiss, explained during a press conference last week why Gaga couldn’t perform. “We have a great relationship with Lady Gaga and her camp,” he said, according to Entertainment Tonight. But because she is in the middle of filming, she didn’t feel she “could deliver a performance at the caliber” she is used to, he said.
However, Gaga showed up to the carpet just ahead of the start of the awards ceremony, and ET confirmed she will perform. She walked part of the carpet with BloodPop, the co-writer of the nominated song.
Lady Gaga and BloodPop attend the 95th Annual Academy Awards on March 12, 2023 in Hollywood, California.
/ Getty Images
The news about her surprise performance was first reported by Variety, and the host of E’s carpet coverage commented that Gaga was there to perform.
In January, Gaga celebrated her nomination by posting an image of a big bouquet on Instagram. She said writing the song alongside BloodPop “was a deep and powerful experience that I will never forget.”
The singer and actress has been nominated for four Oscars. In 2019, she was nominated for best actress for “A Star is Born,” and won the Oscar for best song for “Shallow.” She was also nominated for best song in 2016 for “Til It Happens to You”, from the documentary “The Hunting Ground.”
The trailer for the upcoming live-action remake of “The Little Mermaid” is expected to premiere during the Academy Awards on Sunday night. Halle Bailey, who plays Ariel in the film, revealed the news on Instagram last week, sharing an image of a new movie poster.
Bailey has been tapped as one of the presenters at the ceremony, which is being broadcast live from Los Angeles’ Dolby Theatre.
The sneak peek was enough to inspire fans. Many parents shared videos of their young daughters reacting to the clip, which showed Bailey, one of the only Black women to play a Disney princess, as Ariel.
Even though the clip only showed a few seconds of Bailey as the mermaid, many girls felt the power of the representation on screen. Bailey said she saw some of the videos and that she was, “truly in awe.”
people have been sending these reactions to me all weekend and i’m in truly in awe ♥️this means the world to me 💗😭 https://t.co/cuKjKN8nxH
“This means the world to me,” she tweeted, sharing a compilation video of young girls reacting to the clip.
“k i just sobbed watching this thanks,” she wrote in another tweet with a video of a reaction. “she’s so sweet.”
The film, directed Rob Marshall, will feature music by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Alan Menken, who is behind the music of several other Disney films. Howard Ashman’s score for the 1989 animated movie will remain featured, Marshall said in September at the D23 expo, a Disney fan convention, Variety reported.
The film also stars Javier Bardem as King Triton, Daveed Diggs as the voice of Sebastian and Melissa McCarthy as Ursula.
Glenn Close will not present at the 95th Academy Awards after testing positive for COVID-19, CBS News has confirmed.
The veteran performer, 75, was scheduled to join a packed roster of celebrities who will announce the prizes at Sunday night’s ceremony. Among the personalities set to present awards at the Oscars are Riz Ahmed, Samuel L. Jackson, Dwayne Johnson, Michael B. Jordan, Troy Kotsur, Melissa McCarthy, Janelle Monáe and more. Harrison Ford, who acted opposite Close in the 1997 action thriller “Air Force One,” which itself earned Academy Award nominations for sound and film editing, is also presenting at the show.
Close’s publicist, Catherine Olim, confirmed that the actor contracted COVID-19 and would no longer be able to attend Sunday’s Oscars ceremony.
“She was very much looking forward to taking part in the show,” Olim said in a statement. The publicist did not share details about the extent of Close’s symptoms. The Academy has not commented on the news of her illness, nor has the voting body provided information about who will replace her on stage Sunday evening.
Glenn Close attends The 2022 Met Gala Celebrating “In America: An Anthology of Fashion” at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 02, 2022 in New York City.
Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic
Close was reportedly meant to announce the winner of this year’s Oscar for best picture, according to Deadline. The 2023 nominees in the category are: “All Quiet on the Western Front,” “Avatar: The Way of Water,” “The Banshees of Inisherin,” “Elvis,” “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” “The Fabelmans,” “Tár,” “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Triangle of Sadness” and “Women Talking.”
An eight-time Academy Award nominee, Close has earned critical acclaim over the course of her decades-long career in film, television and on Broadway. In addition to garnering Oscar nods for her roles in movies such as “The Big Chill,” “Fatal Attraction” and, most recently, “Hillbilly Elegy,” Close has won multiple Emmys, Tonys and Screen Actors Guild Awards.
In 2019 she was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by TIME magazine.
At the 95th Academy Awards Sunday night, all eyes will be watching to see if “Everything Everywhere All at Once” can cap off its sweep of major industry awards. Jimmy Kimmel will return to host the Oscars for the third time, with the ceremony being broadcast live from the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles beginning at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
The genre-defying “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” co-written and co-directed by Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan, came into the night with the most nominations, and had already won the top prizes given out by the Screen Actors Guild, Directors Guild, Producers Guild and Writers Guild. All four movies that had previously won each of those awards went on to win best picture at the Oscars, according to the New York Times.
The cast has also been given its fair share of recognition, with Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis taking home individual Screen Actors Guild Awards. The ensemble also won best cast in a motion picture at the ceremony, which is often considered an Oscar bellwether.
Others vying for best picture include the blockbuster sequels “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Avatar: The Way of Water,” along with more traditional Academy Award fare like “The Banshees of Inisherin,” which received nine total nominations, and “Tár,” which got six nods of its own, including a best actress nomination for Cate Blanchett.
A full list of winners and nominees is below:
Best picture
“All Quiet on the Western Front”
“Avatar: The Way of Water”
“The Banshees of Inisherin”
“Elvis”
“Everything Everywhere All at Once”
“The Fabelmans”
“Tár”
“Top Gun: Maverick”
“Triangle of Sadness”
“Women Talking”
Best actor
Brendan Fraser, “The Whale”
Colin Farrell, “The Banshees of Inisherin”
Austin Butler, “Elvis”
Bill Nighy, “Living”
Paul Mescal, “Aftersun”
Best actress
Ana de Armas, “Blonde”
Cate Blanchett, “Tár”
Andrea Riseborough, “To Leslie”
Michelle Williams, “The Fabelmans”
Michelle Yeoh, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
Best director
Martin McDonagh, “The Banshees of Inisherin”
Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
Steven Spielberg, “The Fabelmans”
Todd Field, “Tár”
Ruben Ostlund, “Triangle of Sadness”
Best supporting actor
Brian Tyree Henry, “Causeway”
Judd Hirsch, “The Fabelmans”
Brendan Gleeson, “Banshees on Inisherin”
Barry Keoghan, “Banshees of Inisherin”
Ke Huy Quan, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
Best supporting actress
Angela Bassett, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”
Hong Chau, “The Whale”
Kerry Condon, “The Banshees of Inisherin”
Stephanie Hsu, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
Jamie Lee Curtis, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
International film
“All Quiet on the Western Front” (Germany)
“Argentina, 1985” (Argentina)
“Close” (Belgium)
“EO” (Poland)
“The Quiet Girl” (Ireland)
Best animated feature
“Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio”
“Marcel the Shell With Shoes On”
“Puss in Boots: The Last Wish”
“The Sea Beast”
“Turning Red”
Original screenplay
“Everything Everywhere All at Once”
“The Banshees of Inisherin”
“The Fabelmans”
“Tár”
“Triangle of Sadness”
Adapted screenplay
“All Quiet on the Western Front”
“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery”
“Living”
“Top Gun: Maverick”
“Women Talking”
Visual effects
“Avatar: The Way of Water”
“Top Gun: Maverick”
“The Batman”
“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”
“All Quiet on the Western Front”
Original score
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”
Original song
“Applause,” from “Tell It Like a Woman”
“Hold My Hand,” from “Top Gun: Maverick”
“Lift Me Up” from “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”
“Naatu Naatu” from “RRR”
“This Is a Life” from “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
Documentary feature
“All That Breathes”
“All the Beauty and the Bloodshed”
“Fire of Love”
“A House Made of Splinters”
“Navalny”
Documentary short subject
“The Elephant Whisperers”
“Haulout”
“How Do You Measure a Year?”
“The Martha Mitchell Effect”
“Stranger at the Gate”
Cinematography
James Friend, “All Quiet on the Western Front”
Darius Khondj, “Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths”
Mandy Walker, “Elvis”
Roger Deakins, “Empire of Light”
Florian Hoffmeister, “Tár”
Costume design
“Babylon”
“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”
“Elvis”
“Everything Everywhere All at Once”
“Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris”
Animated short
“The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse”
“The Flying Sailor”
“Ice Merchants”
“My Year of Dicks”
“An Ostrich Told Me the World is Fake and I Think I Believe it”
Live action short
“An Irish Goodbye”
“Ivalu”
“Le Pupille”
“Night Ride”
“The Red Suitcase”
Film editing
“The Banshees of Inisherin”
“Elvis”
“Everything Everywhere All at Once”
“Tár”
“Top Gun: Maverick”
Sound
“All Quiet on the Western Front”
“Avatar: The Way of Water”
“The Batman”
“Elvis”
“Top Gun: Maverick”
Production design
“All Quiet on the Western Front”
“Avatar: The Way of Water”
“Babylon”
“Elvis”
“The Fabelmans”
Makeup and hairstyling
“All Quiet on the Western Front”
“The Batman”
“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”
“Elvis”
“The Whale”
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LOS ANGELES — The road to an Oscar winds through a long awards season, which finally culminates Sunday at the Academy Awards. We take you through the process of getting that golden statuette into a winner’s hand — this is how Oscar voting works:
WHO VOTES ON THE OSCARS?
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences boasts some 10,000-plus members, divided among 17 branches. All academy members have to be involved in the movie business in some capacity, but membership isn’t restricted to creatives — there are branches for executives and marketing and public relations professionals, as well.
While nominations are mostly decided by members of the relevant branch (directors nominate directors, for instance), all voting members can nominate films for best picture. Once nominees are decided, all voting members are eligible to cast their ballots in any category.
In recent years, the academy has taken steps to diversify its membership, especially after receiving criticism for a spate of all-white acting nominees.. It adds new members once a year.
WHEN DOES OSCAR VOTING TAKE PLACE?
Voting takes place over a few days not too long before the ceremony — in 2023, voting opened March 2 and ended March 7, five days before the big night.
HOW ARE VOTES CAST?
While the final results can sometimes be controversial, there’s no risk of hanging chads — voting takes place entirely online.
Tabulation for most categories is simple — the nominee that gets the most votes wins.
Best picture, on the other hand, employs ranked-choice voting (also known as preferential voting). Voters order the nominees by preference; if one movie comes away with more than 50% of the first-place votes in the first round, that’s the winner. But if no movie meets that threshold, then the one with the fewest first-place votes is eliminated — people who had ranked that film first will have their votes transferred to their second choices. And so on it goes until some movie wins a majority.
It sounds complicated, we know, but proponents of ranked-choice voting argue that it’s more representative, especially in a large field of nominees.
WHO KNOWS THE WINNERS BEFORE THEY’RE ANNOUNCED?
According to the academy website, just two PricewaterhouseCoopers partners know the results beforehand. PwC is the accounting firm that tabulates the votes. Each partner is stations in the Dolby Theatre’s wings during the ceremony with a full set of winners’ envelopes. They’re charged with handing the sealed envelope to the winner.
Infamously, in 2017, a PwC accountant handed Warren Beaty and Faye Dunaway the wrong envelope, resulting in the “La La Land”/”Moonlight” best picture fiasco.
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For more coverage of the Academy Awards, visit https://apnews.com/hub/academy-awards
LOS ANGELES — Oscar weekend belonged to “Scream VI” in theaters, as the horror sequel notched a franchise-best $44.5 million in domestic ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday.
The Paramount Pictures and Spyglass Media Group co-production sailed past expectations, easily surpassing the previous series high of $32 million that “Scream 2” opened with in 1997. The film’s robust debut, coming as Hollywood prepared to gather for the 95th Academy Awards, was yet another reminder of how horror has come to be one of the industry’s few sure things at the box office.
After lying dormant for more than a decade, the “Scream” franchise, previously directed by Wes Craven and released by Dimension Films, has found a ripe revival with a young cast led by “Wednesday” star Jenna Ortega and Melissa Barrera.
Directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett have brought back the 27-year-old series’ meta slasher storylines and serial killer Ghostface, and it’s paying off. Last year’s “Scream V” grossed $137 million worldwide on a production budget of $24 million. In the latest chapter, Courtney Cox returns as reporter Gale Weathers, as does Hayden Panettiere, a veteran of “Scream IV.” But it’s the first “Scream” movie without Neve Campbell.
“Scream VI,” quickly greenlit after the success of “V,” has also fared fairly well with both critics and audiences. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 75% fresh rating. Moviegoers gave it a “B+” CinemaScore, a decent grade for a horror film.
Last week’s top film, “Creed III,” slid to second after its above-expectations launch. Michael B. Jordan’s MGM “Rocky” spinoff, starring him and Jonathan Majors, earned $27.1 million in its second weekend. It has rapidly passed $100 million in U.S. and Canadian theaters.
Columbia Pictures’ “65,” a science-fiction thriller starring Adam Driver as a space explorer stranded on prehistoric Earth, opened in third place with an estimated $12.3 million from 3,405 locations. That might be better than expected, too, for a film that got terrible reviews from critics. (It scored just 35% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.) But “65” reportedly carried a hefty production budget of about $90 million, not accounting for tax rebates.
Bobby Farrelly’s “Champions,” starring Woody Harrelson as a disgraced coach trying to lead a basketball team to the Special Olympics, opened with $5.2 million in 3,030 locations. Audiences (an “A” CinemaScore) have liked it more than reviewers (53% on Rotten Tomatoes).
LOS ANGELES — Follow along for real-time updates on the 2023 Oscars from The Associated Press — on the decidedly not red carpet, inside the Dolby Theatre and behind the scenes. Live updates are brought to you by AP journalists in Los Angeles and around the country.
HOW TO WATCH THE OSCARS The 2023 Oscars air live on ABC at 8 p.m. Eastern/5 p.m. Pacific. If you’re looking to tune into the red carpet, there’s an Oscars’ official pre-show beginning at 1:30 p.m. on YouTube. The Associated Press will livestream the first 90 minutes of arrivals on YouTube as well. Here’s more on how to watch and stream the Oscars. ___
OSCARS PREDICTIONS
AP Film Writers Jake Coyle and Lindsey Bahr are pros at the predictions game — but the unexpected can always happen. Last year, Coyle edged out Bahr in predicting the eventual wins. We’ll see who wins tonight, but until then: Read their predictions and check out the interactive Oscar ballot at the end.
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For more Oscars coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/academy-awards
LOS ANGELES (AP) — It’s almost time to give the Academy Awards a big hand.
OK, maybe we should rephrase that.
The telecast from the Dolby in Los Angeles begins at 8 p.m. EDT on ABC. The broadcast can be streamed with a subscription to Hulu Live TV, YouTubeTV, AT&T TV and Fubo TV. You can also stream the show on ABC.com and on the ABC app by authenticating your provider.
Workers ready the carpet during preparations for Sunday’s 95th Academy Awards, Friday, March 10, 2023, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Jimmy Kimmel, the show’s first solo emcee in five years, is hosting for the third time. The late-night comedian has promised to make some jokes about The Slap; it would be “ridiculous” not to, he said.
Bill Kramer, chief executive of the film academy, has said that it was important, given what happened last year, to have “a host in place who can really pivot and manage those moments.”
This image released by A24 shows Michelle Yeoh in a scene from “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” (Allyson Riggs/A24 via AP)
Producers are giving some aspects of the Oscars a makeover. The carpet is champagne-colored, not red. The broadcast has been planned to be more interactive than ever.
But the academy, still trying to find its footing after several years of pandemic and ratings struggles, is also hoping for a smoother ride than last year. A crisis management team has been created to help better respond to surprises. The academy has called its response to Smith’s actions last year “inadequate.” Neither Rock, who recently made his most forceful statement about the incident in a live special, nor Smith, who’s been banned by the academy for 10 years, are expected to attend.
Will Smith, right, hits presenter Chris Rock on stage while presenting the award for best documentary feature at the Oscars on Sunday, March 27, 2022, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)
Chris Pizzello via Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP
The Academy Awards will instead attempt to recapture some of its old luster. One thing working in its favor: This year’s best picture field is stacked with blockbusters. Ratings usually go up when the nominees are more popular, which certainly goes for “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Avatar: The Way of Water” and, to a lesser extent, “Elvis” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
But the late-breaking contender that may fare well in the technical categories — where bigger movies often reign — is Netflix’s top nominee this year: the German WWI epic “All Quiet on the Western Front.” It’s up for nine awards, tied for second most with the Irish dark comedy “The Banshees of Inisherin.” Netflix’s “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” also looks like a shoo-in for best animated film.
The awards will also have some star wattage in the musical performances. Fresh off her Super Bowl performance, Rihanna will perform her Oscar-nominated song, “Lift Me Up,” from “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” “This Is Life,” from “Everything Everywhere All at Once” will be sung by David Byrne and supporting actress nominee Stephanie Hsu with the band Son Lux. Rahul Sipligunj and Kaala Bhairava will perform “Naatu Naatu” from the Indian action epic “RRR.” Lenny Kravitz will perform during the In Memoriam tribute. (Lady Gaga, currently in production on a film, will not perform her nominated song “Hold My Hand” from “Top Gun: Maverick.”)
Jimmy Kimmel, host of Sunday’s 95th Academy Awards, addresses the media before the roll out of the carpet for the event, Wednesday, March 8, 2023, outside the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
Chris Pizzello via Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP
Last year, Apple TV’s “CODA” became the first streaming movie to win best picture. But this year, nine of the 10 best picture nominees were theatrical releases. After the movie business cratered during the pandemic, moviegoing recovered to about 67% of pre-pandemic levels. But it was an up and down year, full of smash hits and anxiety-inducing lulls in theaters.
At the same time, the rush to streaming encountered new setbacks as studios questioned long-term profitability and reexamined their release strategies. This year, ticket sales have been strong thanks to releases like “Creed III” and “Cocaine Bear.” But there remain storm clouds on the horizon. The Writers Guild and the major studios are set to begin contract negotiations March 20, a looming battle that has much of the industry girding for the possibility of a work stoppage throughout film and television.
The Oscars, meanwhile, are trying to reestablish their position as the premier award show. Last year’s telecast drew 16.6 million viewers, a 58% increase from the scaled-down 2021 edition, watched by a record low 10.5 million.
Usually, the previous year’s acting winners present the awards for best actor and best actress. But that won’t be the case this time. Who’ll replace Smith in presenting best actress is just one of the questions heading into the ceremony.
The 2023 Oscars air on Sunday, March 12, on ABC. You can watch the ceremony live on TV at your local ABC affiliate, or online at abc.com (or through the ABC app) by signing in with a participating television provider. (Details on various providers can be found here.) If you’ve cut ties with cable, streaming options include Hulu + Live TV, YouTubeTV, AT&T TV, Sling TV, or FuboTV, many of which come with free trial options. Best news of all? This year, Roku is offering the Oscars for free on the ABC news channel—no subscriptions required.
Where to Watch the the Oscars Red Carpet
The Oscars are a marathon, not a sprint. As such, awards festivities begin hours before the actual telecast. ABC’s On the Red Carpet Live! Countdown to Oscars 95 begins at 1 .p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT on the ABC News Live website. Then, Ashley Graham, Vanessa Hudgens, and Lilly Singh will join forces to host the Countdown to the Oscars lead-in, which begin sat 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. PT on ABC. Over on E!, Live From the Red Carpet coverage with host Laverne Cox will start at 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT.
How to Watch the Oscars Postshows
After the trophies are handed out, the real fun can commence with the Vanity Fair Oscar Party, which will celebrate all of the 2023 Oscar nominees with a night of glamour and gossip. To start, at 9 p.m. PT, Hollywood Black List founder Franklin Leonard will join VF’s Katey Rich and Mike Hogan for an Oscars livestream complete with A-list celebrity interviews and analysis of Oscars 2023. That show, titled After the Awards With Vanity Fair, will air on VF.com as well as Vanity Fair’s YouTube and Twitter channels.
Then, at 10:30 p.m. PT, tune in to the Vanity Fair Oscar Party Live show, which will feature star-studded red-carpet coverage with the night’s biggest nominees and winners. Come for candid interviews and fashion commentary on Vanity Fair’s TikTok channel and vf.com/oscarparty the morning after and beyond for exclusive content. To stay up to speed on all things Oscars 2023, sign up for the “HWD Daily” newsletter, and follow Vanity Fair on Instagram and Twitter.
When Do the Oscars Start?
The 95th annual Academy Awards begin at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on Sunday, March 12. This year’s telecast will air live from the Dolby Theatre.
LOS ANGELES — The night before the Oscars many of Hollywood’s biggest stars were not early to bed before the show. They were instead chatting the night away, martinis and champagne in hand, at the storied Polo Lounge in The Beverly Hills Hotel for the annual Chanel and Charles Finch dinner, an invite that’s even harder to get than a seat at the Academy Awards.
The patio where the likes of Clark Gable and Darryl Zanuck once dined was filled with the industry’s brightest talents, many of whom were dressed head to toe in Chanel, including Kristen Stewart, Marion Cotillard, Nicole Kidman and Camila Morrone.
On the red carpet, Kidman and Stewart ran to one another to catch up, hugging and posing for photographers.
“It’s been so long,” Kidman said.
Cotillard would join in moments later. Later on the patio, Kidman, emerging from a conversation with Idris Elba, could be seen embracing Ariana DeBose as Tessa Thompson spoke with best actress nominee Andrea Riseborough.
“I’m sure you must be tired,” Thompson said.
Elsewhere there was a meeting of Spider-Mans as Andrew Garfield approached Tobey Maguire, who was sipping one of the spot’s iconic martinis.
“You! You!” Maguire said, as Garfield went in for a hug. They then turned to speak to “The Whale” director Darren Aronofsky.
Several feet behind them, Jonathan Majors was deep in conversation with Riz Ahmed, while best supporting actress nominee Kerry Condon tried and failed to get a drink from the bar that had closed down in an attempt to coax the chatty celebrities into the dining room.
Inside, they were treated to a surprise performance by “The White Lotus” actor Beatrice Grannò.
Other attendees included Michael B. Jordan, Danielle Deadwyler, Hugh Grant, Brie Larson, Sigourney Weaver, Vicky Krieps, Minnie Driver, Patty Jenkins, Sarah Polley, Lily James, David O. Russell, Jerry Bruckheimer, Sofia Boutella and Ted Sarandos.
Morrone, star of “Daisy Jones & The Six,” has been going to the event for several years and said it’s one of her favorites.
“It’s like a really glamorous sleepover,” Morrone said. “I just love it here. I love to see all of the people who work in the entertainment industry who are being honored tomorrow. You’re in a room with like really artistic and incredible humans, so you just soak it all in. And I’ve won some pretty incredible Chanel pieces over the past few years here.”
For actor Whitney Peak, who is the new new face of Chanel’s Coco Mademoiselle fragrance, the event was a chance to speak to some of her favorite filmmakers.
“There’s been such great movies this year and so many people who are responsible for making those films are in the room today,” Peak said. “Daniel Kwan is going to be here and I’m like, how do I tell him that I’ve been a fan of him since the Lil Jon music video?”
Chanel and cinema have been intertwined since the fashion house’s earliest days. In 1930, Samuel Goldwyn invited Gabrielle Chanel to Hollywood to dress film stars including Gloria Swanson. On her arrival back in Paris, Chanel collaborated with French filmmakers like Jean Renoir and dressed many of the new wave actresses such as Jeanne Moreau and Romy Schneider.
More recently, Chanel has supported independent productions including Leos Carax’s “Annette” and Mia Hansen-Løve’s “Bergman Island.” Chanel provided the funding for Olivier Assayas’s 35mm camera for “The Clouds of Sils Maria” and has for more than a decade supported programs for emerging filmmakers and cinematic preservation and restorations.
Not every attendee planned to make the trek down the champagne carpet at the Oscars Sunday, but one person who will certainly be there is filmmaker Ava DuVernay, who is on the Academy’s Board of Governors.
“I’m looking forward to seeing a calm, normal Oscars,” DuVernay said. “I was there last year and it was a little traumatizing. I just want it to be chill and uneventful. That would be nice.”
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For more on this year’s Oscars, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/academy-awards.
LOS ANGELES — Follow along for real-time updates on the 2023 Oscars from The Associated Press — on the decidedly not red carpet, inside the Dolby Theatre and behind the scenes. Live updates are brought to you by AP journalists in Los Angeles and around the country.
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OSCARS PREDICTIONS
AP Film Writers Jake Coyle and Lindsey Bahr are pros at the predictions game — but the unexpected can always happen. Last year, Coyle edged out Bahr in predicting the eventual wins. We’ll see who wins tonight, but until then: Read their predictions and check out the interactive Oscar ballot at the end.
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For more Oscars coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/academy-awards
“Listen—no time to explain, but in 2027, someone known as ‘Mr. Beast’ is nominated for Best Director for a film called Coincidentally Spearman. He must not win! If this happens, a timeline is created wherein billions will perish. I have to go—I’ve used all of my time credits on this final jump, and if I stay around any longer, the multiverse will implode.”
Stars, cameras, dazzling gowns and the red carpet — all quintessential ingredients in the Academy Awards. But this year, one of those elements is getting a makeover.
During the Oscars carpet roll out event on Wednesday in Los Angeles, it was revealed that at Sunday’s show, the stars will be walking across a champagne-colored carpet, instead of the iconic red one.
Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel was outside Dolby Theatre Wednesday to present the big news, joking that “no blood will be shed” on the light-colored flooring, in reference to the infamous Will Smith incident at last year’s show, in which Smith walked on stage and slapped comedian Chris Rock.
The Oscars Red Carpet Roll Out event held at Ovation Hollywood on March 8, 2023, in Los Angeles, California.
Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty Images
“People have been asking, is there going to be any trouble this year?” Kimmel said. “Is there going to be any violence this year? We certainly hope not, but if there is, I think the decision to go with a champagne carpet, rather than a red carpet, shows how confident we are that no blood will be shed.”
The red carpet has been a mainstay of the Oscars, where celebritiesshow off their outfits to the world when arriving to the show. In fact, the star-studded walkway has been red since the 33rd Academy Awards in 1961, the Associated Press reports. That was also the first televised version of the awards show, though not in color.
The Oscars are the latest in a series of ceremonies and events to shake up red carpet tradition. For example, the carpet at last year’s Emmy Awards was gold, and this year’s Golden Globes’ carpet was gray.
Lisa Love, a Vogue contributor and creative consultant for this year’s Oscars, led the decision to change the carpet, according to the AP, which she noted was not a controversial choice amongst organizers.
Love also told the AP that organizers opted for a lighter-colored canopy cover as well. The red carpet will be covered from above with a sienna-colored canopy.
“This is just a lightness and hopefully people like it,” Love said, according to the AP. “It doesn’t mean that it’s always going to be a champagne colored carpet.”
The 95th Academy Awards this Sunday bring distinguished stars and behind-the-scenes players from across the film industry to Los Angeles for Hollywood’s biggest night of the year.
Hosted for a third time by late-night personality Jimmy Kimmel, the ceremony is set to begin at 8 p.m. ET at L.A.’s Dolby Theatre. ABC will broadcast the show live, with options to livestream the event on its app or website (with a verified cable or satellite provider).
In addition to the nominees, expected attendees at the Oscars include a stacked roster of presenters, like Riz Ahmed, Emily Blunt, Glenn Close, Jennifer Connelly, Ariana DeBose, Samuel L. Jackson, Dwayne Johnson, Michael B. Jordan, Troy Kotsur, Jonathan Majors, Melissa McCarthy, Janelle Monáe and more.
The show will also feature musical sets by Rihanna, who is due to perform “Lift Me Up” from “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”; Rahul Sipligunj and Kala Bhairava, who will sing MM Keeravaani’s “Naatu Naatu” from “RRR”; and Lenny Kravitz, who will deliver the night’s “In Memoriam.” Lady Gaga was originally scheduled to perform “Hold My Hand” from “Top Gun: Maverick,” but later canceled due to scheduling conflicts, an Oscars producer confirmed this week.
“Everything Everywhere All at Once,” Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s universe-jumping sci-fi knockout, leads this year’s Oscar nominations with 11 nods from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, with at least one in every major category. Trailing closely behind are Martin McDonagh’s “The Banshees of Inisherin” and Netflix’s German-language film “All Quiet on the Western Front,” from director Edward Berger, with nine nominations each.
This image released by A24 Films shows, from left, Stephanie Hsu, Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan in a scene from, “Everything Everywhere All At Once.”
Allyson Riggs/A24 Films via AP
The spread of contenders for this year’s most prestigious accolades looks different than those at the last couple of Oscars ceremonies. Where projects backed by streaming services took many of the highest honors in 2022, the tides turned in 2023 to recognize a number of larger-than-life movies that performed well at the box office and pulled audiences back to theaters. They are accompanied by hard-hitting dramas and semi-nonfiction films, and, as usual, the prize in several leading Oscars categories could be anyone’s game. Here is what to expect from the award ceremony’s top contests.
Best Picture
Arguably the most coveted award of the night, the Oscar for best picture will be chosen from a competitive pool of 10 nominees. This year’s entrants span a broad range of genres, styles and subject matters, with popcorn picks like “Top Gun: Maverick” up against multiple critically acclaimed films, many of which are darker in tone, even the satires.
Clear frontrunners in the race for best picture are: “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” the chaotic sensation from creators Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert whose genre-bending plot delivered to audiences exactly what its title promised; “Tár,” the psychological drama by Todd Field that had a strong start in the festival circuit and became an instant favorite in critics’ circles; “The Banshees of Inisherin,” Martin McDonagh’s deadpan tragic comedy that hearkened back to his roots as a playwright and was praised as a clever allegory for the Irish Civil War; and “The Fabelmans,” Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical family drama that charmed cinephiles and reviewers alike.
Each film has already won recognition this awards season, with “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” “Tár,” “The Banshees of Inisherin” and “The Fabelmans” taking top spots at the Critics Choice Awards, the Screen Actors Guild Awards and the Golden Globes, potentially foreshadowing how they will fare at the Oscars.
Cate Blanchett as an orchestra conductor in “Tár.”
Focus Features
Buzz surrounding Sunday’s ceremony mainly places “Everything Everywhere All At Once” as the obvious choice for best picture, given its impressive track record of nominations and previous wins. In addition to leading the Oscars roster, it won the top titles at the SAG, Producers Guild, Directors Guild and Writers Guild Awards, tying a record only met by four previous Oscar winners for best picture: “American Beauty,” “No Country for Old Men,” “Slumdog Millionaire” and “Argo.” But because “Everything Everywhere All At Once” rebels against structural and narrative conventions, an analogous predecessor has not been seen before in this Oscars category and some argue it could be too offbeat to earn a majority of votes from AMPAS.
The German antiwar film “All Quiet on the Western Front” may be the dark horse of the Oscars’ best picture race, although critics disagree on whether the film is as powerful as it intends. Edward Berger’s remake of the American World War I epic of the same name — which won the Oscar for best picture in 1930, alongside several other accolades — took home the highest honors at this year’s British Academy Film Awards and earned widespread critical acclaim despite a relative lack of publicity in the U.S. The success of Alfonso Cuarón’s 2019 best picture nominee “Roma” and Bong Joon Ho’s 2020 winner “Parasite” have paved the way for other foreign-language films to be taken seriously in this category. Plus, history shows war stories tend to perform well at the Oscars.
A scene from “All Quiet on the Western Front.”
Netflix
But arguments could be made for any one of this year’s best picture nominees as plausible candidates to win. Rounding out the category are the blockbusters “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Avatar: The Way of Water,” the biopic “Elvis,” which was also a huge commercial success, the social satire “Triangle of Sadness” and the sobering drama “Women Talking.”
Best Actress
The Oscar category for best actress was steeped in controversy when nominations were unveiled at the end of January. In an unusual turn, Andrea Riseborough, who starred as an addict attempting recovery in the small independent film “To Leslie,” earned a nomination after a relatively brief but fervent grassroots campaign driven by celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet and Cate Blanchett, who is also nominated for “Tár.”
Riseborough’s nod drew public backlash since neither Viola Davis nor Danielle Deadwyler were nominated, as anticipated, for their roles in “The Woman King” and “Till,” despite both reaping acclaim in the pre-Oscars awards circuit. Omitting Davis and Deadwyler meant that no Black women would contend for this year’s best actress prize, and the allegations of corruption that ensued prompted the Academy to open an investigation into Riseborough’s nomination and whether it was fair. Her nomination was not revoked after the probe.
Viola Davis in TriStar Pictures’ “The Woman King.”
Ilze Kitshoff
That aside, the best actress competition has shaped up to be a fairly tight race between Blanchett, whose portrayal of a renowned conductor’s downfall in the character study “Tár” has been called a career performance for the two-time Oscar winner and eight-time nominee, and Michelle Yeoh, whose leading role as a laundromat owner thrust into the multiverse in “Everything Everywhere All at Once” has garnered comparable praise.
Both Blanchett and Yeoh have already won honors at major award shows this season, with Blanchett winning at the Golden Globes, the Critics Choice Awards and the BAFTAs, and Yeoh at the Golden Globes and the SAG Awards. The latter star’s chances of winning the Oscar for best actress are bolstered by the momentum of her film, which is unrivaled.
Michelle Yeoh in “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
A24
This is Yeoh’s first Oscar nomination, and she became the first Asian actor to earn a nod in this category when she landed it. Yeoh would become the second woman of color, after Halle Berry, to take home the prize should she win.
Joining them in the category for best actress are Ana de Armas, who earned critical acclaim for her cerebral take on Marilyn Monroe in Andrew Dominik’s divisive drama “Blonde,” and Michelle Williams, a five-time Oscar nominee whose performance in “The Fabelmans” was hailed as the highlight of the film.
Best Actor
Who wins the best actor prize at this year’s Oscars ceremony could prove to be one of the night’s biggest surprises, as four of the five nominees have been neck-and-neck for every major acting award given out since the current season began. Austin Butler, for “Elvis”; Brendan Fraser, for “The Whale”; Colin Farrell, for “The Banshees of Inisherin” and Bill Nighy, for “Living,” all received nominations at the Critics Choice, Golden Globe and SAG Awards before securing their spots in this Oscars race.
Fraser’s comeback performance as a reclusive English teacher in Darren Aronofsky’s psychological drama won top honors at the Critics Choice and SAG Awards, while Butler’s lauded portrayal of Elvis Presley, which was celebrated by the rock-and-roll icon’s family as well as critics, won the Golden Globe for best actor in a drama.
Academy Award-nominees for best actor, from left: Austin Butler (“Elvis”), Colin Farrell (“The Banshees of Inisherin”), Brendan Fraser (“The Whale”), Paul Mescal (“Aftersun”), and Bill Nighy (“Living”).
Warner Brothers; Searchlight; A24; Sony Pictures Classics
Farrell won the corresponding comedy award at the Globes for his leading performance in McDonagh’s film — which, for what it is worth, marks the director’s return to the Oscars after 2018’s “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” gave Frances McDormand her first best actress win in two decades. In “Banshees,” Farrell’s performance was hailed as one of the greatest of 2022. But the rousing response to Fraser, who for “The Whale” earned standing ovations at the Venice Film Festival and the London Film Festival that lasted so long they made headlines, may tip the scales in his favor.
Paul Mescal finishes off the best actor category this year as its final nominee, for his performance in “Aftersun,” the critically-adored independent film by Charlotte Wells in her feature directorial debut.
Best Supporting Actress
At the outset of award season, Angela Bassett’s seemed to have a future Oscar win for best supporting actress all but locked up, after the longtime Hollywood legend won the equivalent title at the Golden Globes and the Critics Choice Awards, plus a nod from the Screen Actors Guild, for her performance in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.”
While her ties to “Wakanda Forever” — the second installment in beloved franchise and another box office smash from Marvel Studios — likely make Bassett the fan favorite to take home the Academy Award, she is vying for it among a drove of tough competitors, many of whom moved to the front of the pack as the season progressed.
This year’s Oscar nominees for best supporting actress: Angela Bassett (“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”), Hong Chau (“The Whale”), Kerry Condon (“The Banshees of Inisherin”), and Jamie Lee Curtis and Stephanie Hsu (both “Everything Everywhere All at Once”).
Marvel Comics/Disney, A24 and Searchlight Pictures
Kerry Condon, who is nominated for “The Banshees of Inisherin,” won best supporting actress at the BAFTAs, before Jamie Lee Curtis, who is nominated for “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” took the corresponding title at the SAG Awards in a victory that was perhaps underestimated. Curtis’ co-star Stephanie Hsu is also nominated in this category for her breakout role in “Everything Everywhere,” as is Hong Chau for a standout performance in “The Whale.”
The outcome in this category is still a toss-up. But Curtis’ win at the SAG Awards, which have predicted best supporting actress at the Oscars every year but one since 2010, could be a reliable indicator of how things shake out.
Best Supporting Actor
Among the contenders for best supporting actor this year, Ke Huy Quan may have the edge. He won the hearts of guild voters, critics and viewers with his emotional performance in “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” returning to acting to play the role decades after stepping away from the profession. (He’d once been a child star in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and “The Goonies.”)
Ke Huy Quan, nominated for best supporting actor for “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
CBS News
Quan received the Golden Globe, the Critics Choice Award and, in a historic win, the SAG Award for his work in the film. Like Yeoh, the fact that Quan is one of the faces of a movie at the helm of the awards circuit can only boost his chances of seeing that sweep through at the Oscars.
Joining Quan in the category for best supporting actor are Brian Tyree Henry, who gave a transformative performance opposite Jennifer Lawrence in “Causeway” that also earned a nod at the Critics Choice Awards; Barry Keoghan, whose role in “The Banshees of Inisherin” won him the BAFTA for best supporting actor; Brendan Gleeson, also for “The Banshees of Inisherin”; and Judd Hirsch, for “The Fabelmans.”
Gabriel LaBelle as Sammy Fabelman in The Fabelmans, co-written, produced and directed by Steven Spielberg.
Merie Weismiller Wallace/Universal Pictures
At one time it did not seem inconceivable that Hirsch would win. Now 87, he has been acting for almost 60 years. “The Fabelmans” is Hirsch’s second Oscar nomination since he received a nod in the same category for “Ordinary People” in 1980, and it recognizes his fleeting portrayal of an irascible relative in just a few memorable minutes of Spielberg’s nominated film.
Best Director
After two consecutive wins by women directors — Chloé Zhao for “Nomadland” and Jane Campion for “The Power of the Dog” — and although a number of this year’s qualifying films, including “Aftersun,” “The Woman King” and “Women Talking,” were directed by women, only men are nominated for the Oscar for best director this year.
The nominees are Martin McDonagh, for “The Banshees of Inisherin,” Daniel Kwan and Daniel Schienert, for “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” Steven Spielberg, for “The Fabelmans,” Todd Field, for “Tár,” and Ruben Östlund, for “Triangle of Sadness.” Spielberg, an nine-time nominee in this category who last won in 1999 for “Saving Private Ryan,” initially seemed like a shoo-in for the Oscar for best director for “The Fabelmans,” his most personal work to date. But Kwan and Scheinert, having earned directing accolades over the powerhouse filmmaker at the Critics Choice and Directors Guild Awards, are probably more likely to win.
With days to go before the 95th Academy Awards, Rebecca Ford and David Canfield make some educated guesses about what this year’s show will look like and how they’ll handle last year’s biggest controversy, the slap.
Rebecca Ford: I think it is safe to say that there will be a lot of scrutiny of this year’s Academy Awards broadcast. The past few years have been bumpy—the COVID-altered 2021 ceremony was followed by last year’s many layers of controversy, from the slap to the inclusion of the “fan-favorite award,” which went to Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead. I think we’d all like to forget about that one.
The Academy has brought in new leadership—CEO Bill Kramer and President Janet Yang—along with veterans to produce and host the show. They’ve been hinting about what we can expect from this year’s show, but I would guess they still have a couple surprises up their sleeves. Let’s start with the biggest lingering question, and maybe the show’s biggest hurdle: David, what are you expecting them to do about the slap?
David Canfield: When I attended the Oscar nominees’ luncheon last month, I was surprised by how directly and forcefully Yang addressed what happened last year—communicating directly to the Academy’s selections for 2023 that the handling of that whole fiasco was unacceptable, and that they’ve learned from it. I sensed in her tone a broader commitment to smoothing out some rough edges that’ve been evident on the broadcast for years, as you note.
In short, I think the main response to the slap, as it were, will actually be pretty invisible: Going back to Oscar basics to devise a show that leaves little room for chaotic outbursts, and more for doing what Hollywood does best: celebrating itself. They’ve even got a “crisis team” on hand, and I’ve heard that the dinner table layout employed last year (which allowed Smith to more easily crash the stage) is being replaced by the traditional theatrical layout. So if you want to rush up, better have an aisle seat!
That’s not to say we won’t hear anything. Judging by Chris Rock’s recent Netflix-special ratings and our own internal barometers, public interest in the slap’s fallout remains high and you can count on Jimmy Kimmel—an old pro when it comes to Oscars hosting, who very much fashions himself as a voice for the casual viewer—to hit it hard. In preshow interviews, he’s stayed vague and a little glib about how he might respond, which is to be expected. Indications are that he’s not going to really lean into it in his monologue, though—and as a comic’s comic, we’ll see what kind of stops he can pull out in the process.
To zoom out a bit, Rebecca, you spoke with Yang for our Awards Insider issue about coming into the Academy at such a fraught moment. In the context of this year’s show, what did you sense about how she and Kramer are seeing things for this coming ceremony, and beyond?
Ford: During my chat with Yang, she promised a “slap-free” show, but she also made it clear that the goal was to move forward and not harp on the past. Kramer also recently went on Puck’s podcast and stated that the crisis team is there so that they can take action, should anything dramatic happen. One of the main criticisms last year of the slap was that there was no action taken after it happened. “We have to make a decision and we have to act quickly,” Kramer said. “It’s a live television show, and we have to be able to pivot and do something in real time, and now we’re set up to make those decisions.”
Watch scenes from the performances nominated in the category of best actor at the 95th annual Academy Awards, as well as interviews with the stars at the links below.
Austin Butler won the BAFTA and the Golden Globe for his stirring performance as Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann’s biopic. Butler, who last appeared in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” not only captures the aura of the King of rock ‘n’ roll; he also sang most of his performance, only resorting to lip-syncing Presley recordings in the final scenes, as the aged, overweight singer finishes his career at a Vegas casino.
In this scene, Elvis, who’d just released a hit record, makes his first appearance, in the “newcomer” spot, on the “Louisiana Hayride” radio program, to sing “Baby Come Back.” The audience response is understandably electric, of the high-voltage variety:
Presley bends to the wishes of his manager, TV producers and record execs to sing a more homogenized, more palatable pop – something without “Negro rhythms” – leading to a humiliating television performance dressed like a butler, singing to a basset hound. But he pushes back; no more “New Elvis” for him.
In this clip, he rejects the entreaties of his manager, Col. Tom Parker, and tells an audience they’re going to hear the “Real Elvis,” showing he can sing “Trouble” and give it at the same time:
“When you look at Elvis as this iconic superhuman figure, it’s hard not to feel small,” Butler told “Sunday Morning.” “And so, for me, my task was finding as much humanity and similarity, and the realness, as I could.”
This is Austin Butler’s first Academy Award nomination.
“Elvis” is playing in theaters, available on demand and home video, and is streaming on HBO Max.
Colin Farrell, “The Banshees of Inisherin”
Colin Farrell has contributed memorable performances, often as troubled and sorrowful characters, in such films as “The New World,” “Minority Report,” “Crazy Heart,” “In Bruges,” “Miss Julie,” “True Detective,” “The Lobster,” and “After Yang.” In “The Banshees of Inisherin,” he reteams with writer-director Martin McDonagh and co-star Brendan Gleeson in a tale mixing humor and heartbreak, about two men on an island off the Irish coast, whose friendship is inexplicably severed.
Pádraic (Farrell) cannot understand why his longtime find, Colm, is no longer interested in just sitting and chatting with him. In this scene he talks with his sister, Siobhán (Oscar-nominee Kerry Condon), about the estrangement:
Despite having turned his back on Pádraic, Colm silently comes to his aid after Pádraic has been slugged by an arrogant and abusive policeman (Gary Lydon). Colm’s empathy breaks through the wall he has erected around himself, with the hazard that it will give Pádraic false hope in rekindling their friendship:
“People have said to me that ‘Banshees’ just floored them, just took them days, and they’ve been a bit haunted by it,” Farrell told “Sunday Morning.”
The critical and popular reaction to the film, he said, has been “very humbling, yeah, because I’ve done plenty of things that people haven’t connected to. You don’t always go to work and create stuff that people connect to. It’s not a science. If we knew how to get it right every time, every film would work on every level. It would work for the audience, it would work for the critics, and it would work commercially. That’s magic. That’s money in the bank, you know? You can’t expect that all the time. So, the fact that it’s arrived on this one is fairly cool!”
“The Banshees of Inisherin” is Farrell’s first Academy Award nomination.
Brendan Fraser was a familiar, friendly presence in box office hits beginning in the 1990s and 2000s, from “The Mummy” franchise to “Encino Man” and “George of the Jungle,” and the critically lauded “Gods and Monsters.” He’s earned his first Academy Award nomination for an entirely different kind of film: “The Whale,” from director Darren Aronofsky, is the story of Charlie, a man living with obesity and trying to right a few wrongs in his life. In what may be the most physically demanding role of his career, Fraser was fitted with makeup, latex and prosthetics to inform his performance as a 600-pound man.
“It has us take a look at someone who we would otherwise just dismiss,” he told “Sunday Morning.” “I think this film has the ability to change hearts and minds about how we perceive those who live with obesity.”
In this scene, Charlie talks with his nurse, Liz (Oscar-nominee Hong Chau), about the death of her brother (and his lover):
People are amazing, but also deeply complicated. Charlie, an English professor, has hidden himself from his students, leading classes virtually without a webcam, so that he would be invisible – the extent of his ballooning weight not revealed to anyone. After demanding honesty from his students in their writing, he decides it is time for him to be honest as well:
“The Whale” is playing in theaters, and is available on demand.
Paul Mescal, “Aftersun”
In Charlotte Wells’ “Aftersun” (a prize-winner at last year’s Cannes Film Festival), a 30-year-old father, Calum (Paul Mescal), takes his 11-year-old daughter, Sophie (Frankie Corio), on vacation to Turkey. The film, which is strong in ambiguity about its characters, is comprised of fragments of scenes that mix timelines and memories of the father and daughter.
In this scene Sophie helps mark Calum’s birthday, which segues to a moment where he breaks down sobbing:
In this scene late in the film, annotated with Wells’ script, Calum pleads with his daughter to join him on the dance floor; her experience is crossed with impressions by an adult Sophie of her dad:
Mescal described his take on the character in an interview with Hollywood Reporter: “He’s with the person that he loves most in the world. And he’s had a great day with her, and something’s not adding up. … He doesn’t know what it is in his brain that’s not making [happiness] happen. And that’s scary and that’s confusing.”
Mescal, who earned an Emmy nomination for “Normal People,” and who previously appeared in “The Lost Daughter,” received nominations from the British film academy, the Film Independent Spirit Awards, and numerous critics groups for his performance in “Aftersun.” This is his first Academy Award nomination.
“Aftersun” is playing in theaters, and is available on demand and home video.
Bill Nighy, “Living”
In a 2015 interview with “Sunday Morning,” Bill Nighy said that his interest in acting initially came from his interest in a girl who was going to attend drama school. “She could have said ‘astronaut,’ and I would probably have given that a shot,” he said. “She said, ‘You could be an actor.’ And I had no idea what that meant.”
And how did he find acting? “It terrified me! I thought, ‘In a minute, I’ll stop.’ Every time I finished a job, I swore that I would never put myself through that kind of humiliation ever again.”
But he continued, earning plaudits for his roles on stage in “Pravda,” “Betrayal,” “The Seagull” and “Skylight,” and in films such as “Love Actually,” “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” “The Girl in the Café,” “The Constant Gardener,” “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” and “Emma.” Even under digital makeup, he brought humanity to the squid-faced Davy Jones in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” films.
In “Living,” written by Oscar-nominee and Nobel laureate Kazuo Ishiguro (and adapted from the Akira Kurosawa classic “Ikiru”), Nighy plays Williams, a British civil servant with cancer. He takes this terminal diagnosis as an opportunity to change the course of his life, and to leave behind a legacy that will have given a purpose to his existence.
In this scene, where others see a wasteland – a bombed-out remnant from the war – Williams sees a children’s playground:
In this scene, Williams meets up with Margaret (Aimee Lou Wood), a former colleague, and – in a move very unlike him – asks for her company at the pictures:
