NEW YORK, March 13. /TASS/. The American film ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ (2021) won the Academy Award for Best Picture, as well as for Best Director and Best Lead Actress. The 95th American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Awards ceremony was held in Los Angeles on Sunday, and broadcast by the ABC channel.

The film was shot in the US, but many of the actors and crew members are of Chinese descent. It tells the story of an ordinary woman from our world fighting against evil in parallel universes. The film combines elements of absurdist comedy, science fiction, martial arts action, fantasy and animation.

Top nominations

The Best Director Oscar went to Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan, and Michelle Yeoh took home the Oscar for Best Actress. Ke Huy Quan received a Supporting Actor Oscar and Jamie Lee Curtis won for Best Supporting Actress. The film also won awards for Best Original Screenplay and Best Film Editing.

In all, ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ won seven Academy Awards. It was up for awards in 11 categories.

Brendan Fraser won Best Actor in a Leading Role for his performance in ‘The Whale’ (2022). The film also won a Makeup and Hairstyle Oscar.

Best Foreign Film

The winner in the International Feature Film category was Edward Berger's ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ (Im Westen nichts Neues, 2022. The film was co-produced by Germany, the US and the UK. It is based on the anti-war novel of the same name by Erich Maria Remarque (1898-1970), in which he describes the horrors of World War I from the point of view of nineteen-year old Paul Baumer. The film also won an Academy Award for Best Cinematography. It previously triumphed at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards, where the film was honored in seven categories, including the top prize for Best Picture. The picture also won Oscars for Best Production Design and Best Original Score.

The short film ‘Haulout’ (2022) by Evgenia Arbugaeva and Maxim Arbugaev from Yakutia did not receive the Documentary Short Film Oscar, as the prize went to the Indian film ‘The Elephant Whisperers’ (2022).

The film ’Navalny’ (2022) by Daniel Rohr won the Documentary Feature Film Oscar.

Other categories

Guillermo del Toro's ‘Pinocchio’ (2022) won the Animated Feature Oscar, ‘An Irish Goodbye’ (2022) took home the award for Best Short Film, ‘The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse’ (2022) received an Oscar for Best Short Film (Animated), ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ (2022) won for Best Sound. The song ‘Naatu Naatu’ from the Indian film ‘RRR: Rise Roar Revolt’ (2022) won the Best Song Oscar, while ‘Women Talking’ (2022) won Best Adapted Screenplay.

‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ (2022), nominated in five categories, won just one award for Costume Design, though it was among the favorites, not least because it reflected a certain agenda for Hollywood: the struggle of African peoples against Western white colonizers.

James Cameron's ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ (2022) also won for Best Visual Effects. Cameron, who wasn't nominated for Best Director this year, didn't attend, with the ceremony’s host Jimmy Kimmel taking a jab at his absence at the start of the ceremony.

The Fabelmans (2022), another big-name Hollywood film directed by Steven Spielberg, didn't win a single Oscar, though it was nominated in seven categories.

Return to the pre-pandemic format

The awards ceremony was held for the first time since 2020 without any restrictions or changes related to the pandemic coronavirus. In keeping with past tradition, it was held at the Dolby Theater (called the Kodak before 2012). The organizers returned to a full in-person format of attendance as recently as last year, with the announcement of winners in some categories being recorded in advance, which drew criticism from members of the film industry. This year, all the winners were announced live.

No incidents and Ukraine

This year's ceremony went smoothly and avoided any incidents like last year’s onstage spat between Will Smith and Chris Rock. In the middle of the ceremony, host Jimmy Kimmel joked that some of the guests might have been bored and were waiting for a repeat of the episode, but the ceremony ended without incident.

The organizers did not allow separate retreats on political topics this year. Earlier, Variety magazine reported that the American Academy of Film Arts once again refused to allow Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to give a video address at the ceremony.