The 95th Academy Awards Ceremony, which had 23 prizes to be presented, was a little longer due to the number of categories this time.
It felt like a planned return to form for the Oscars following Will Smith’s last year’s theatrics and an appropriate way to cap off awards season.
Michelle Yeoh winning speech in the Oscars
Yeoh, in her winning speech for Best Actress, absolutely rejected the notion that a woman can ever be past her prime. Everything Everywhere All at Once, directed by the Daniels for A24, completely dominated this year’s ceremony, winning seven of the eleven awards it was nominated for, including Best Picture, Best Direction, Best Film Editing for Paul Rogers, and Best Writing (Original Screenplay). In his victory speech for Best Supporting Actor, Ke Huy Quan praised his family for supporting him throughout his Hollywood career.
Everything Everywhere All at Once made sure that A24 was acknowledged in the room with the unexpected victories of Paul Rogers for Outstanding Editing and Jamie Lee Curtis for Best Supporting Actress. However, it was not the only picture from the company to do well; Brendan Fraser won Best Actor for his work in The Whale, which was only made possible by Adrien Morot, Judy Chin, and Annemarie Bradley, who won Best Makeup and Hairstyling for their contributions to the movie.
The Netflix adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s book more than held its own, with All Quiet on the Western Front’s James Friend winning for cinematography and the film winning Best International Feature Film. As a proponent of animation, Guillermo del Toro made sure to emphasise the fact that animation equals cinema in his acceptance speech for Best Animated Feature Film.
They did not market the movie as awards bait since it did not look like it would be. Nothing fictitious has ever won an Oscar, despite the fact that Spellbound, Undefeated, and For Sama all have Texas roots.
It served as a brilliant launchpad. As they took the stage to show the film, co-director Daniel Kwan said, “I cannot imagine a better audience and crowd for this movie. This film is almost perfectly suited to the cognitive abilities of your boys.”
Surprise Victory or an Expected Winner?
They had blogs as well as tongues. On the first night of their first in-person festival in years, the crowd’s excitement reached a fever pitch, and word of mouth started to spread quickly. Afterwards, A24 capitalised on the momentum and released the movie domestically. It quickly became their highest-grossing movie ever, filling up arthouse theatres and eventually encroaching on multiplexes.
The plan started to change gradually. A24 discovered a trio of performers with distinct comeback stories within the cast who were eager, willing, and successful. Yeoh, Curtis, and Huy Quan were safe bets because they were all already highly regarded by ardent genre fans and influential people in the film industry.
The three were enlisted to provide enthusiastic support for the movie’s global release. It produced profits. As more and more critics and business insiders expressed their love for the movie, the movie’s influence and box office revenue gradually increased.
By the fall, it was obvious that the movie had a genuine chance to win the awards, and A24 went out to acquire them. They achieved this by emphasising the movie’s appeal to real people, particularly young, cool, and movie-going superhero fans, with whom the struggling Academy is eager to connect itself.
