“One Battle After Another,” a black comedy thriller about a single father trying to protect his daughter from his past as a revolutionary, won big at the 98th Academy Awards on Sunday night, claiming six statuettes, including for best picture.
Paul Thomas Anderson’s acclaimed film was long favoured to win the top Academy Award, though the race had tightened significantly in recent weeks into a competitive, two-horse contest after Ryan Coogler’s grizzly vampire epic “Sinners” edged it out at the Actor Awards earlier this month.
In the end, however, it was no battle, with Anderson’s film also winning the Oscars for best director, best adapted screenplay, best supporting actor, best casting and best film editing.
Here are the top moments from the Oscars.
1. Conan O’Brien hits all the right notes
Dressed as Amy Madigan from “Weapons” (who went on to win the Oscar for best supporting actress), O’Brien opened with a dizzying montage paying tribute to many of the nominated films — including navigating through a “Marty Supreme”-style ping-pong match and appearing in animated form in a nod to “KPop Demon Hunters.” In his opening monologue, O’Brien balanced self-deprecating humour and a more serious tone, even veering into the political. “When I last hosted, Los Angeles was on fire. But this year, everything’s going great,” he joked, before later closing with: “We pay tribute tonight not just to film, but to the ideals of global artistry, collaboration, patience, resilience and that rarest of qualities today: optimism.”
2. ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ creator Maggie Kang and other Canucks are golden
Canadian artists walked away with a slew of awards, including sweeping the animation categories. Sheridan College alum Maggie Kang earned the prize for best animated feature for her Netflix blockbuster, “KPop Demon Hunters.” Meanwhile, “The Girl Who Cried Pearls,” a heart-tugging stop-motion fable from Canadian duo Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowsk, won the Oscar for best animated short. Set in Montreal at the turn of the century, the 17-minute film follows a poor boy who falls in love with a girl who cries pearls at night. As well, Torontonians Jordan Samuel and Cliona Furey, along with Mike Hill, took home the best makeup and hairstyling Oscar for Guillermo del Toro’s Netflix epic “Frankenstein.”
3. Michael B. Jordan triumphs over Timothée Chalamet
One of the most nail-biting awards of the evening was the race for best actor. “Marty Supreme” star Timothée Chalamet, who played the titular table tennis phenom in Josh Safdie’s film, was long tipped to win his first Oscar after two previous nominations. Leonardo DiCaprio, riding on the wave of “One Battle After Another,” also had a path to victory. But, in the end, it was “Sinners” actor Michael B. Jordan who walked away with the coveted prize for playing the dual roles of Smoke and Stack Moore, twin brothers who hope to escape their criminal pasts by opening up a southern juke joint. In his acceptance speech, the grateful Jordan said: ”I stand here because of the people that came before me. Sidney Poitier, Denzel Washington, Halle Berry, Jamie Foxx, Forest Whitaker, Will Smith.”
4. A historic — and ironic — tie for best live action short
For only the seventh time in the Academy Award’s 98-year history, voting in a category ended up in a tie. “The Singers” and “Two People Exchanging Saliva” both shared the award for best live action short. The last time this occurred was in 2012, when “Skyfall” and “Zero Dark Thirty” shared the prize for best sound editing. Kumail Nanjiani, the Pakistani-American comedian who presented the category, appeared shocked by the result before making light of the situation, saying: “Ironic that the short film Oscar is going to take twice as long.”
5. In memoriam segment is one of the best in recent memory
One of the most challenging segments of any awards show is the in memoriam tribute. But this year’s Oscars show-runners hit all the right notes — most importantly not rushing the segment. Billy Crystal opened the segment with a special tribute for his late friend Rob Reiner, crediting the chameleon director for his range while quoting films like “This is Spinal Tap,” “A Few Good Men” and “Misery.” Rachel McAdams honoured “A Mighty Wind” and her fellow Canadian “icon” Catherine O’Hara, before paying tribute to Diane Keaton “and her many hats.” Val Kilmer and Robert Duvall got big applause from the crowd as the clips continued, before Barbra Streisand came out to honour her “The Way We Were” co-star Robert Redford.
6. Political speeches and statements punctuate a rather bland evening
In an evening of mostly bland, drawn-out acceptance speeches — many pleasant yet boring, filled with obligatory “thank yous” to family, friends and collaborators — one stood out for its boldness: the speech delivered by the documentarians behind “Mr. Nobody Against Putin,” about a Russian teacher who secretly records the actions of Vladimir Putin’s administration as it attempts to turn his small-town school into a war recruitment centre during the invasion of Ukraine. “‘Mr. Nobody Against Putin’ is about how you lose your country, and what we saw when working with this footage is that you lose it through countless small, little acts of complicity,” said director David Borenstein. “When we act complicit, when a government murders people on the streets of our major cities, when we don’t say anything, when oligarchs take over media and control how we produce it.” Later, Spanish actor Javier Bardem, while presenting the award for best international feature, shouted “Free Palestine!” to cheers from the audience, all while wearing a pin that stated, in Spanish, “No to war!.”
7. “Sinners” cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw makes history
Coogler’s “Sinners,” which entered Sunday’s ceremony with a record-breaking 16 nominations, was looking to make more history by winning 12 awards, which would be the most of any film in history. While it fell short of that mark, “Sinners” cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw shattered a major glass ceiling by becoming the first woman to ever win the Oscar for best cinematography, a category historically dominated by men. In accepting her award, Arkapaw asked the woman in the Dolby Theatre to rise to their speech, telling them that she would not be here if not for them.
8. Jessie Buckley completes the awards season sweep
Irish actor Jessie Buckley, who played William Shakespeare’s wife Agnes in “Hamnet,” a meditation on grief and the personal cost of great art, completed the awards season sweep by earning the Oscar for best actress. Her win comes after she already claimed the three other major film acting awards earlier this season: the BAFTA, Golden Globe and Actor Award. “This is the greatest honour,” she said. “I would like to dedicate this to the beautiful chaos of a mother’s heart.”
With files by David Friend, Kristjan Lautens and Briony Smith
