The 95th Academy Awards (aka the Oscars), colloquially known as “Hollywood’s biggest night,” has come and gone. As always, the Academy Awards celebrated the boldest creators in cinema, shining a spotlight on the best films of 2022.
Hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, the ceremony garnered the attention of 18.7 million viewers. Unlike last year, the show went off without a hitch, with minimal interruptions or celebrity drama.
The Oscar statuette is made of gold-plated bronze and stands 13.5 inches tall, weighs around 8.5 pounds, and depicts a knight holding a crusader’s sword, standing on a reel of film (Credit: LanKS / Shutterstock)
In case you missed it, here are the big winners from the 95th Academy Awards, spread out across 23 unique categories.
Congratulations to all the winners and nominees; we owe you our thanks for creating such memorable and fantastic films!
Everything Everywhere All at Once Takes the Cake
If there was one film that dominated the Oscars this year, it was Everything Everywhere All at Once. This mind-bending action/comedy/drama film raked in the awards, winning 7 out of 11 categories in which it was nominated.
Stephanie Hsu as Joy Wang, Michelle Yeoh as Evelyn Wang, and Ke Huy Quan as Waymond Wang in the 2022 absurdist comedy-drama film Everything Everywhere All at Once (Credit: A24)
Produced by popular studio A24 and directed by the duo Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (collectively known as The Daniels), the film won the biggest prize of them all – the award for Best Picture.
It wasn’t an easy win, as the movie beat out other fantastic nominees like Elvis, The Fabelmans, Top Gun: Maverick, and more.
Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan, collectively known as The Daniels, wrote and directed the award-winning multiverse adventure Everything Everywhere All at Once (Credit: BauerGriffin / INSTARimages)
For their efforts on Everything Everywhere All at Once, The Daniels also took home the award for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.
To cap things off on the production side, editor Paul Rogers also won the award for Best Film Editing.
Michelle Yeoh showing off her Oscar trophy for Best Actress in a Giorgio Armani dress at the 2023 Vanity Fair Oscar Party (Credit: PA Images / INSTARimages)
Of course, a lot of the buzz about Everything Everywhere All at Once revolved around the phenomenal acting.
In a much-deserved win, Michelle Yeoh triumphed against all the nominees in the Best Actress category for her performance as the cautious yet caring mother, Evelyn Wang. Michelle Yeoh also made history, becoming the first Asian performer to win in the category.
Jamie Lee Curtis with presenters Troy Kotsur and Ariana DeBose at the 95th Annual Academy Awards press room after winning Best Supporting Actress for her work in Everything Everywhere All at Once (Credit: Valerie Goodloe / Media Punch / INSTARimages / Cover Images)
Everything Everywhere All at Once also swept the supporting performance categories. Jamie Lee Curtis won Best Supporting Actress for her wild role as IRS agent Deirdre Beaubeirdre, beating out Angela Bassett, Kerry Condon, Stephanie Hsu, and Hong Chau.
Ke Huy Quan also nabbed the trophy for Best Supporting Actor, exuding positivity and hope much like his in-film character, Waymond Wang.
Ke Huy Quan showing off his Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his work in Everything Everywhere All at Once at the 2023 Vanity Fair Oscar Party (Credit: PA Images / INSTARimages)
The Comeback Story of the Year
In an uplifting conclusion to the greatest comeback story of 2022, Brendan Fraser won the Oscar for Best Actor for his lead role in the heart-wrenching drama, The Whale.
The 54-year-old actor had a hell of a career in the late 1990s and early 2000s, starring in films like The Mummy, George of the Jungle, and Crash, among others.
Brendan Fraser attending the 2023 Vanity Fair Oscar Party with his Oscar trophy in tow after winning Best Actor for his lead role in The Whale (Credit: Jeffrey Mayer / JTMPhotos / Media Punch / INSTARimages / Cover Images)
However, Brendan Fraser took an extended break from acting and the Hollywood lifestyle, disappearing for decades.
Since his return, he has received overwhelming support and acclaim, but this class-act performer has remained as humble and thankful as possible.
Brendan Fraser as Charlie in the 2022 psychological drama film The Whale (Credit: A24)
Transforming Brendan Fraser into the 600-pound reclusive character Charlie was no easy task, requiring extensive makeup and prosthetics.
For making the character come to life, Judy Chin, Anne Marie Bradley, and Adrien Morot won Best Makeup and Hairstyling for their brilliant efforts.
Best Sound, Visual Effects, Cinematography, and More
Everything Everywhere All at Once wasn’t the only film that collected multiple trophies during the 95th Academy Awards.
The German anti-war film, All Quiet on the Western Front, also nabbed several Oscars. This harrowing tale of soldiers brutally battling in the trenches of World War I won Best Original Score, Best Production Design, Best Cinematography, and Best International Feature Film.
All Quiet on the Western Front is a 2022 German-language epic anti-war film based on the 1929 novel of the same name by Erich Maria Remarque (Credit: Netflix)
On the lighter side of things, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio came out on top and won Best Animated Feature Film, thanks to its heartfelt story and clever use of stop-motion animation.
Additionally, director James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water took home Best Visual Effects, showcasing its immensely beautiful and realistic CGI.
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio is a 2022 stop-motion animated musical dark fantasy film, which is loosely based on the 1883 Italian novel The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi and strongly influenced by Gris Grimly’s illustrations for a 2002 edition of the book (Credit: Netflix)
Big-budget action franchises also got a few nods, with Ruth Carter winning Best Costume Design for her work on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
This highly anticipated MCU sequel wasn’t the only summer blockbuster to take home an Oscar, though, as Top Gun: Maverick bagged the award for Best Sound.
While booming jet engines and the soundtrack of war won in other categories, the Academy embraced Tollywood/Telugu cinema as well, with the award for Best Song going to “Naatu Naatu” from RRR.
Short Films and Documentaries
The Academy Awards aren’t just about feature-length films; short stories also get their chance to shine. This year, the quirky dark comedy An Irish Goodbye won Best Live Action Short Film, telling a somber yet humorous story of loss.
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, which is based on the novel by Charlie Mackesy, won the award for Best Animated Short Film.
Speaking of movies based on books, Sarah Polley won Best Adapted Screenplay for her adaptation of the 2018 novel Women Talking.
Women Talking is a 2022 drama film written and directed by Sarah Polley and stars an ensemble cast that includes Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Judith Ivey, and Frances McDormand (Credit: United Artists Releasing)
Sometimes, truth is stranger than fiction, which is why documentaries are often so compelling. Centered around the suspicious poisoning of a Russian government oppositionist, Navalny won Best Documentary Feature.
On the complete opposite side of the spectrum, The Elephant Whisperers won Best Documentary Short Film for telling a beautiful tale of the relationship between a baby elephant named Raghu and his beloved caretakers.
Overall, the 95th Academy Awards was a wonderful celebration of cinema, and we had a great time watching the show.
We’re eager to check out all the fantastic movies set to release in 2023 and have fun figuring out which of them will be nominated next year!