95th Academy Awards | The (long) ceremony in five stages

The 95e Oscar night marked the return of 23 live awards at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles on Sunday. “Cinema people wanted it as much as TV people didn’t want it! “, summed up host Jimmy Kimmel. So much the better for the cinema. Too bad for the TV show, which lasted 3 h 30 min…


Tears of Ke Huy Quan





Ke Huy Quan must have known he would win the Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. It was Hollywood’s worst-kept secret, which loves stories of comeback. The actor ofEverything Everywhere All at Once was already in tears at the mention of the finalists. He was still in tears backstage ten minutes later, accompanied by fellow Oscar winner Jamie Lee Curtis. Quan moved the Dolby Theater audience to a standing ovation decades after Hollywood more or less ousted the child actor from its ranks. Goonies and D’IndianaJones. “This is the American dream!” “said the actor, who arrived in the United States after fleeing Vietnam by boat and spending a year in a refugee camp. “I almost gave up on my dream. Keep your dreams alive! »

The good-natured humor of Jimmy Kimmel


PHOTO CHRIS PIZZELLO, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Host Jimmy Kimmel

We wondered how Jimmy Kimmel, at the helm of his third Oscars, was going to evoke the famous slap in the face of Will Smith last year. He did so by gently poking fun at the Oscars in his opening monologue: “If there’s something violent going on, we’ll do like last year: we’ll give you an Oscar and we’ll let you go.” a 19 minute speech! He also poked fun at James Cameron’s lack of humility, wondering if the filmmaker’s absence from the filmmaker’s galaAvatar was tied to being snubbed in the Best Director category. “Maybe we thought it was a woman?” Kimmel didn’t intervene too often or too long, with the good-natured humor that we know from him and which suited this long evening rather well.

Lady Gaga steals the show





David Byrne donned sausage fingers while singing This Is a Life from the movie Everything Everywhere All at Oncethe troupe of RRR came up with a rousing number worthy of Bollywood – and the film’s “braces dance” – in support of the song Natu Natu and Rihanna was accompanied by an orchestra and choirs to sing Lift Me Up of Black Panther. But Lady Gaga, who was however not announced, stole the show among the artists invited to push the note on the stage of the Dolby Theater. “You may find that you can be your own hero. Even if you feel broken”, she said, before singing with great emotion and intensity hold my handtaken from Top Gun: Maverick. A raw, stripped down and intimate vocal turn, which (almost) made us forget a few less in tune notes.

Big forgotten


PHOTOGRAPH BY PATRICK T. FALLON, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Lenny Kravitz, at the piano, sang while we saw on the screen the many artists and craftsmen of the cinema who disappeared in 2022.

John Travolta almost lost his voice, knotted with emotion, while presenting the tribute to the fallen, which included his friend and costar of grease Olivia Newton-John. “Friends we will always remain hopelessly devoted to “, he said, using the words and the title of a famous song from the film. Lenny Kravitz, who does not seem to age, sang while accompanying himself on the piano while we saw the many artists and craftsmen of the cinema who disappeared in 2022, including Jean-Luc Godard, James Caan and Rachel Welch. There were, however, great forgotten: Monica Vitti, Antonioni’s muse, as well as Jean-Louis Trintignant, one of the last giants of cinema of the last half-century. A detail. And people will tell me that the Oscars are not American-centric…

A historic victory


PHOTO CHRIS PIZZELLO, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Michelle Yeoh collecting the trophy for best actress.

“For all the little boys and girls who look like me watching tonight, this is a beacon of hope. It’s proof that dreams do come true,” said Michelle Yeoh, who became the first actress of Asian origin to win the Oscar for best actress, for Everything Everywhere All at Once. “And ladies, never let anyone tell you that the best is behind you. The delirious film by Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan, 11-time finalist and big favorite, has taken up quite a challenge in the past year: to give back its meaning to “crazy”, a term overused. The two co-writers and co-directors brightened up an evening that somewhat mocked the American right. Daniel Scheinert said in particular that “dressing as a drag queen was not a threat to anyone”. Kin toeRon DeSantis!


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