2023 Oscars Recap

The Friendly Film Fan Recounts the 95th Academy Awards Winners.

Well, here we are the day after the 95th Academy Awards, and it has been a historic moment for Everything Everywhere All at Once as the night’s crowning feature, not only as the film with the most Oscar wins since 2014, securing 7 victories across 11 nominations, but also as the film with the most above-the-line Oscar wins ever and the most-awarded single film ever made across an awards season, raking in a whopping record of 165 total wins and decimating the previous record held by The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King at 101. The success of the Daniels’ second feature with A24 is unprecedented in the modern era, and it will surely go down (at least in our book) as one of the most deserving and all-time greatest Best Picture winners of its era.
 
Netflix and Edward Berger’s recent adaptation of All Quiet on the Western Front enjoyed a modicum of success as well, as the film took home 4 awards, including Best International Feature, Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, and one it was not widely expected to win, Best Production Design. The Whale brought Brendan Fraser his long-awaited comeback Oscar as well as winning the Best Makeup & Hairstyling award, leaving just 3 movies total with multi-category victories, although there were some unexpected surprises and close saves in other areas. Ruth Carter was victorious once again for her Costume Design work on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (a deserved win nonetheless) and Sarah Polley manages to pull off a sole win for Women Talking in Best Adapted Screenplay despite the dominance of All Quiet below-the-line.
 
There were a few losses that stung, such as Babylon going winless and no less than five of the Best Picture nominees going home empty handed, including The Banshees of Inisherin, The Fabelmans, and TÁR (Elvis and Triangle of Sadness losses don’t hurt as much), but apart from that, the night went largely as expected. The ceremony itself was lively, celebratory, and apart from an In Memoriam segment which feels more and more gross the more one considers that a lot of deceased creators were reduced to a QR code in the interest of keeping the show moving (including Best Picture nominee Triangle of Sadness star Charlbi Dean), it all went off largely without a hitch. Jimmy Kimmel had some solid moments of genuine support for the film industry, as well as appropriately told and timed jokes (even the “slap” ones were mostly all un-exhausting), and while the show did run a bit long, none of it felt as if anyone didn’t want to be there.
 
Overall, it was a successful night in many senses (we went 19 for 23 on our predicted winners), and it gives me hope that the future of the Academy is as bright as EEAAO’s star has been throughout the awards season. I’m very much looking forward to next year.
 
A full recap of 2023’s Oscar winners is below.
 
Best Picture: Everything Everywhere All at Once
Best Director: Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Best Actress: Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Best Actor: Brendan Fraser, The Whale
Best Supporting Actress: Jamie Lee Curtis, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Best Supporting Actor: Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Best Animated Feature: Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio
Best International Feature: All Quiet on the Western Front
Best Documentary Feature: Navalny
Best Cinematography: James Friend, All Quiet on the Western Front
Best Film Editing: Paul Rogers, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Best Production Design: Christian M. Goldbeck, All Quiet on the Western Front
Best Costume Design: Ruth E. Carter, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Best Makeup & Hairstyling: Adrien Morot, Judy Chin, and Annamarie Bradley, The Whale
Best Original Score: Volker Bertelmann, All Quiet on the Western Front
Best Original Song: “Naatu Naatu,” RRR
Best Adapted Screenplay: Sarah Polley, Women Talking
Best Original Screenplay: Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Best Visual Effects: Avatar: The Way of Water
Best Sound: Top Gun: Maverick
Best Live-Action Short: An Irish Goodbye
Best Animated Short: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse
Best Documentary Short: The Elephant Whisperers
 
What were your favorite Oscar wins of the night? Any particularly stinging losses? What’s your take on the overall ceremony? Leave us your thoughts in the comments below, and thanks for keeping up with The Friendly Film Fan through 2022. Keep an eye out for our awards victors, announced on March 31!
 
- The Friendly Film Fan