The 95th academy awards was dominated by “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” Will Smith puns, great acceptance speeches, cocaine bear, and lasting a long time.  

Winning 7 out of its 11 nominations, the movie, “Everything Everywhere All At Once” clearly stole the show. Having seen this movie in the summer, I bet this movie to win best picture, but I did not expect the big win it would have overall. I thought this movie was very weird, but very creative and worthy of a win. This movie is one that I would recommend to anyone to see, but it is personally not a favorite of mine. 

Another big part of the Oscars this year was the amount of Will Smith references and puns. Last year, Will Smith made headlines by slapping Chris Rock, the host, for making a joke about his wife, Jada Smith. This year’s host, Jimmy Kimmel, did not get physically assaulted but made many puns about the incident last year. Will Smith was not at the Oscars this year as he starts his ten-year ban from going. Jimmy Kimmel in my opinion was overall only ok. Some of his jokes were funny, but most did not hit hard. 

My favorite part of the Oscars this year was the acceptance speeches. Normally, I feel like acceptance speeches are boring and way too long. This year, however, people took the time to say things I thought were memorable. I loved when they sang happy birthday and the acceptance speeches of Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, and Jamie Lee Curtis. 

A funny segment of the Oscars was the appearance of the cocaine bear. In a skit about how bad movies would be if they did not have computer-generated animation and features, they presented a guy dressed up in a bear costume saying this is how the bear in the cocaine bear would have been. The cocaine bear then went around the rest of the show messing with the audience and having appearances. I thought the cocaine bear was funny just because of how random it was. 

The show lasted a long time this year. I watched the whole thing, and I want to say it was around 3 and a half hours. Last year, they did not present all the awards on the actual show, but that got hate by members of the academy so this year all awards were presented on the show. I get why it is important to have all awards presented, but at times, the show did get boring and felt way too long. 

Another honorable mention about this year’s Oscars is how Austin Butler did not win best actor for his performance in “Elvis.” One of the most talked about performances of the year in my opinion was that of Austin Butler. Apparently, he did method acting and other extreme forms to get into the character of Elvis. I was surprised and felt bad for Austin Butler for not winning. This is no offense to Brendan Fahser, I was just disappointed. 

Overall, I enjoyed watching the 2023 Oscars These were some of my takeaways from the show, but there were many memorable moments. 

Here is a list of the nominations (winner in bold) for each category:

Best Picture

“Everything Everywhere All at Once” — Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert and Jonathan Wang, producers

“All Quiet on the Western Front” — Malte Grunert, producer

“Avatar: The Way of Water” — James Cameron and Jon Landau, producers

“The Banshees of Inisherin” — Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin and Martin McDonagh, producers

“Elvis” — Baz Luhrmann, Catherine Martin, Gail Berman, Patrick McCormick and Schuyler Weiss, producers

“The Fabelmans” — Kristie Macosko Krieger, Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner, producers

“Tár” — Todd Field, Alexandra Milchan and Scott Lambert, producers

“Top Gun: Maverick” — Tom Cruise, Christopher McQuarrie, David Ellison and Jerry Bruckheimer, producers

“Triangle of Sadness” — Erik Hemmendorff and Philippe Bober, producers

“Women Talking” — Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner and Frances McDormand, producers

Best Lead Actress

Michelle Yeoh (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”)

Cate Blanchett (“Tár”) 

Ana de Armas (“Blonde”) 

Andrea Riseborough (“To Leslie”)

Michelle Williams (“The Fabelmans”) 

Best Lead Actor

Brendan Fraser (“The Whale”) 

Austin Butler (“Elvis”) 

Colin Farrell (“The Banshees of Inisherin”) 

Paul Mescal (“Aftersun”) 

Bill Nighy (“Living”) 

Best Director

Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) 

Martin McDonagh (“The Banshees of Inisherin”) 

Steven Spielberg (“The Fabelmans”) 

Todd Field (“Tár”) 

Ruben Östlund (“Triangle of Sadness”)

Best Film Editing

“Everything Everywhere All at Once” — Paul Rogers

“The Banshees of Inisherin” — Mikkel E.G. Nielsen

“Elvis” — Matt Villa and Jonathan Redmond

“Tár” — Monika Willi

“Top Gun: Maverick” — Eddie Hamilton

Best Original Song 

“Naatu Naatu” from “RRR” — music by M.M. Keeravaani, lyric by Chandrabose  

“Applause” from “Tell It Like a Woman” — music and lyric by Diane Warren

“Hold My Hand” from “Top Gun: Maverick” — music and lyric by Lady Gaga and BloodPop

“Lift Me Up” from “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” — music by Tems, Rihanna, Ryan Coogler and Ludwig Goransson; lyric by Tems and Ryan Coogler

“This Is a Life” from “Everything Everywhere All at Once” — music by Ryan Lott, David Byrne and Mitski; lyric by Ryan Lott and David Byrne

Best Sound

“Top Gun: Maverick” — Mark Weingarten, James H. Mather, Al Nelson, Chris Burdon and Mark Taylor

“All Quiet on the Western Front” — Viktor Prášil, Frank Kruse, Markus Stemler, Lars Ginzel and Stefan Korte

“Avatar: The Way of Water” — Julian Howarth, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, Dick Bernstein, Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers and Michael Hedges

“The Batman” — Stuart Wilson, William Files, Douglas Murray and Andy Nelson

“Elvis” — David Lee, Wayne Pashley, Andy Nelson and Michael Keller

Best Adapted Screenplay

“Women Talking” — Sarah Polley

“All Quiet on the Western Front” — Edward Berger, Lesley Paterson and Ian Stokell

“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” — Rian Johnson

“Living” — Kazuo Ishiguro

“Top Gun: Maverick” — screenplay by Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer and Christopher McQuarrie; story by Peter Craig and Justin Marks

Best Original Screenplay

“Everything Everywhere All at Once” — Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert

“The Banshees of Inisherin” — Martin McDonagh

“The Fabelmans” — Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner

“Tár” — Todd Field

“Triangle of Sadness” — Ruben Östlund

Best Visual Effects

“Avatar: The Way of Water” — Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon and Daniel Barrett

“All Quiet on the Western Front” — Frank Petzold, Viktor Müller, Markus Frank and Kamil Jafar

“The Batman” — Dan Lemmon, Russell Earl, Anders Langlands and Dominic Tuohy

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” — Geoffrey Baumann, Craig Hammack, R. Christopher White and Dan Sudick

“Top Gun: Maverick” — Ryan Tudhope, Seth Hill, Bryan Litson and Scott R. Fisher

Best Original Score 

“All Quiet on the Western Front” — Volker Bertelmann

“Babylon” — Justin Hurwitz

“The Banshees of Inisherin” — Carter Burwell

“Everything Everywhere All at Once” — Son Lux

“The Fabelmans” — John Williams

Best Production Design 

“All Quiet on the Western Front” — production design by Christian M. Goldbeck, set decoration by Ernestine Hipper

“Avatar: The Way of Water” — production design by Dylan Cole and Ben Procter, set decoration by Vanessa Cole

“Babylon” — production design by Florencia Martin, set decoration by Anthony Carlino

“Elvis” — production design by Catherine Martin and Karen Murphy, set decoration by Bev Dunn

“The Fabelmans” — production design by Rick Carter, set decoration by Karen O’Hara

Best Animated Short Film

“The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse” — Charlie Mackesy and Matthew Freud

“The Flying Sailor” — Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby

“Ice Merchants” — João Gonzalez and Bruno Caetano

“My Year of Dicks” — Sara Gunnarsdóttir and Pamela Ribon

“An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It” — Lachlan Pendragon

Best Documentary Short Film 

“The Elephant Whisperers” — Kartiki Gonsalves and Guneet Monga

“Haulout” — Evgenia Arbugaeva and Maxim Arbugaev

“How Do You Measure a Year?” — Jay Rosenblatt

“The Martha Mitchell Effect” — Anne Alvergue and Beth Levison

“Stranger at the Gate” — Joshua Seftel and Conall Jones

Best International Feature Film 

“All Quiet on the Western Front” (Germany) 

“Argentina, 1985” (Argentina) 

“Close” (Belgium)

“EO” (Poland) 

“The Quiet Girl” (Ireland) 

Best Costume Design 

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” — Ruth E. Carter

“Babylon” — Mary Zophres

“Elvis” — Catherine Martin

“Everything Everywhere All at Once” — Shirley Kurata

“Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris” — Jenny Beavan

Best Makeup and Hairstyling 

“The Whale” — Adrien Morot, Judy Chin and Anne Marie Bradley

“All Quiet on the Western Front” — Heike Merker and Linda Eisenhamerová

“The Batman” — Naomi Donne, Mike Marino and Mike Fontaine

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” — Camille Friend and Joel Harlow

“Elvis” — Mark Coulier, Jason Baird and Aldo Signoretti

Best Cinematography 

“All Quiet on the Western Front” — James Friend

“Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths” — Darius Khondji

“Elvis” — Mandy Walker

“Empire of Light” — Roger Deakins

“Tár” — Florian Hoffmeister

Best Live Action Short

“An Irish Goodbye” — Tom Berkeley and Ross White

“Ivalu” — Anders Walter and Rebecca Pruzan

“Le Pupille” — Alice Rohrwacher and Alfonso Cuarón

“Night Ride” — Eirik Tveiten and Gaute Lid Larssen

“The Red Suitcase” — Cyrus Neshvad

Best Documentary Feature Film 

“Navalny” — Daniel Roher, Odessa Rae, Diane Becker, Melanie Miller and Shane Boris

“All That Breathes” — Shaunak Sen, Aman Mann and Teddy Leifer

“All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” — Laura Poitras, Howard Gertler, John Lyons, Nan Goldin and Yoni Golijov

“Fire of Love” — Sara Dosa, Shane Boris and Ina Fichman

“A House Made of Splinters” — Simon Lereng Wilmont and Monica Hellström

Best Supporting Actress

Jamie Lee Curtis (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”)

Angela Bassett (“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”) 

Hong Chau (“The Whale”) 

Kerry Condon (“The Banshees of Inisherin”)  

Stephanie Hsu (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”)

Best Supporting Actor

Ke Huy Quan (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) 

Brendan Gleeson (“The Banshees of Inisherin”) 

Brian Tyree Henry (“Causeway”) 

Judd Hirsch (“The Fabelmans”)

Barry Keoghan (“The Banshees of Inisherin”) 

Best Animated Feature Film 

“Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” — Guillermo del Toro, Mark Gustafson, Gary Ungar and Alex Bulkley

“Marcel the Shell With Shoes On” — Dean Fleischer Camp, Elisabeth Holm, Andrew Goldman, Caroline Kaplan and Paul Mezey

“Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” — Joel Crawford and Mark Swift

“The Sea Beast” — Chris Williams and Jed Schlanger

“Turning Red” — Domee Shi and Lindsey Collins