Box office hit "Everything Everywhere All at Once" won the Oscar for best feature film on Sunday, capping off a night of several coups for the film which was a favorite heading into the 95th Academy Awards.
The best picture category was hotly contested, with the unorthodox sci-fi flick beating out biopic "Elvis," psychological drama "Tar," action sequel "Top Gun: Maverick" and Germany's "All Quiet on the Western Front," which still picked up four awards earlier in the night.
"Thank you to the Academy, this is history in the making," said the winning movie's star, Michelle Yeoh, who also won the Oscar for best lead actress.
The ceremony was held in the shadow of last year's event, when Will Smith got on stage and slapped host Chris Rock in the face in a incident that made global headlines.
DW wraps up the highlights from the 2023 Academy Awards in Los Angeles
Michelle Yeoh wins best actress with 'Everything Everywhere All at Once'
Michelle Yeoh, who starred in Oscar-favorite "Everything Everywhere All at Once," won the Oscar for best actress in a lead role. She is the first Asian woman to take home the award.
"For all the little boys and girls who look like me watching tonight, this is a beacon of hope and possibilities," Yeoh said in an emotional acceptance speech.
"This is proof that dreams do come true."
Yeoh was widely regarded as a front-runner for what was her first-ever Oscar nomination.
In the film, Yeoh's character Evelyn Wang is a Chinese immigrant laundromat owner who is swept across alternate universes to battle an interdimensional supervillain who happens to be her own daughter.
Yeoh got her start in Hong Kong action movies in the 1990s, where she performed her own stunts. She broke through in Hollywood when she was cast as a Bond girl in "Tomorrow Never Dies" in 1997.
"Ladies, don't let anybody tell you you are ever past your prime," said the 60-year-old actress.
Brendan Fraser wins best actor with 'The Whale'
Brendan Fraser, who rose to fame in the 1990s before a decade in the Hollywood wilderness, marked a major career comeback by winning the Oscar for best lead actor.
Fraser starred in "The Whale," in which he portrayed a morbidly obese man who tries to reconnect with his daughter.
"I started in this business 30 years ago and things didn't come easily to me," said Fraser, breathing heavily.
"I just want to say thank you for this acknowledgement."
Duo behind 'Everything Everywhere All at Once' win directing honor
Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, colloquially known as the Daniels for their work together on "Everything Everywhere All at Once," won the Academy Award for best direction.
"There is greatness in every single person," said Kwan as he accepted the award.
"It doesn't matter who we are, there is genius in every single person, you just have to find it. Thank you to the people who unlocked my genius."
Scheinert also made a comment in defense of drag, which has been targeted by new laws in several US states.
"Everything Everywhere All at Once" was nominated for 11 Oscars — the most nominations of the evening. It ended up taking home seven awards.
Indian epic 'RRR' wins best original song
The smash hit song "Naatu Naatu" from the Telugu-language epic "RRR" won the Oscar for best original song.
"'RRR' has to win, pride of every Indian [...] and has put me at the top of the world," the song's composer M.M. Keeravani sang to the tune of The Carpenters' "Top of the World" while accepting the award alongside lyricist Chandrabose.
Earlier in the evening, Indian singers Rahul Sipligunj and Kaala Bhairava performed the song live.
The performance featured a mix of old and new choreography but it was still slightly more tame than some of the performances at screenings in India, which featured dancing in the aisles.
Rihanna, Lady Gaga and more perform nominated songs
Several of the other artists who were nominated for best original song also gave live performances at the Academy Awards.
Hot off the back of "Elvis" , Rihanna performed "Lift Me Up" from the film "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever."
Meanwhile, Lady Gaga performed "Hold My Hand" from "Top Gun: Maverick."
"Everything Everywhere All at Once" supporting actress Stephanie Hsu also performed "This Is A Life" alongside David Byrne and experimental band Son Lux.
'All Quiet on the Western Front' wins best international film
Midway through the evening, German World War I epic "All Quiet on the Western Front" won the Academy Award for best international film.
The Netflix original film brought audiences a gruesome anti-war message almost a hundred years after the original book by Erich Maria Remarque was published.
Swiss director Edward Berger thanked star Felix Kammerer, an Austrian stage actor who made his cinematic debut in the film.
"This was your first movie and you carried us on your shoulders as it was nothing," he told the 27-year-old Austrian actor. "Without you, none of us would be here."
"All Quiet on the Western Front" beat out international film nominees "EO" from Poland, "The Quiet Girl" from Ireland, "Close" from Belgium and "Argentina, 1985" from Argentina.
The film also won Oscars for best cinematography, best production design and best original score.
"All Quiet on the Western Front" was up for nine awards including best picture, making it Netflix's strongest nominee this year.
Claudia Roth, Germany's culture minister, told DW in Los Angeles that such a large number of nominations for the film was the result of its "gruesome relevance" at a time of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine in Europe.
"It is a film which really brought me close to the limits of what I could bear," she said.
"But that is exactly what war is about — it is dirty, gruesome, brutal, the end of humanity and totally futile."
'Navalny' wins best documentary amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine
A documentary about jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny won the Oscar for best documentary feature.
'Navalny' explores the poisoning that nearly killed the Kremlin critic in 2020 and his subsequent detention upon his return to Moscow in 2021.
"My husband is in prison just for telling the truth. My husband is in prison just for defending democracy," his wife, Yulia Navalnaya, said at the ceremony.
"Alexei, I am dreaming of the day when you will be free and our country will be free. Stay strong, my love."
First gongs roll in early for 'Everything Everywhere All at Once'
Two supporting actors in "Everything Everywhere All at Once," Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis, won the Oscars for best supporting actor and best supporting actress, respectively.
It is the first Academy Award win for either actor.
"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," Quan said.
"They say stories like this only happen in the movies. I can't believe this is happening to me. This is the American dream."
Meanwhile, Curtis became the eight-oldest person to with best supporting actress.
"My mother [Janet Leigh] and my father [Tony Curtis] were both nominated for Oscars in different categories," Curtis said through tears. "I just won an Oscar!"
Oscars opened with thunderous flyover
Hollywood's biggest night began with a fighter jet flyover, in a nod to "Top Gun: Maverick."
The start of the TV broadcast showed a scene where awards host Jimmy Kimmel was in the cockpit of a fighter jet with Tom Cruise, before he was ejected out and appeared to parachute into the Dolby Theater.
"Thank you for inviting me to be a part of it, especially this year, when the world finally got out of the house to see the films you worked so hard to make, the way you intended them to be seen — in a theater," Kimmel said during his opening monologue.
He made several jibes at the controversy surrounding last year's awards: "If anyone in this theater commits an act of violence at any point in the show, you will be awarded the Oscar for best actor and permitted to give a 19-minute-long speech."
