The 98th Academy Awards on Sunday in the US (March 15) saw One Battle After Another win big with six awards, including best picture, director, supporting actor and casting.
Sinners followed with four awards, including best actor for leading man Michael B. Jordan.
Jessie Buckley took home best actress for Hamnet.
Comedian Conan O’Brien returned for a second year to host the ceremony, held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
Best actress winner Jessie Buckley elaborated on her thoughts on the "crazy alchemy” of winning the award on Britain and Ireland version of Mother’s Day when speaking to reporters in the press room. She plays a grieving mother in the historical fiction drama Hamnet.
In addition to being Oscars Sunday, the day also marked Buckley’s first Mother’s Day as a mum, and Buckley said her daughter, who is eight months old, got her first tooth this week. It’s a big milestone, but perhaps not quite as big as her mum snagging her first Oscar.
"It feels like some kind of crazy alchemy that all these things are colliding,” she said of the historic win backstage, plus the collision with Mother’s Day in Britain and Ireland.
When best actor winner Michael B. Jordan came backstage, he had to wait about a full minute for many in the crowd of reporters to stop cheering and sit down before he could answer any questions.
The Sinners star who played twin brothers in the genre-bending vampire epic said his win feels "timely.”
"I’m here because of the people who came before me,” he said.
"I’ve been extremely blessed in my life,” he continued. "There’s a lot of people who’ve seen me grow up in this industry, grow up in this town, and they looked out for me – and they didn’t have to.”
Backstage, Ryan Coogler was greeted with cheers and many a raised placard for questions by members of the press. He credited an English professor when he was 17 who read an assignment and suggested he go to Hollywood and write screenplays.
At the Governors Ball the happiest area was the Warner Bros. One Battle After Another tables where Leonardo DiCaprio, sipping red wine, and Benicio Del Toro, with champagne and not a few small beers, held court with studio executives, including producer Pam Abdy.
Elsewhere, Renate Reinsve ditched her shoes and walked barefoot through the party, which was carpeted. Mandy Patinkin sat alone sampling sushi and trying to make a phone call as the music blared. Kirsten Dunst stayed close to Alicia Silverstone, and Kerry Condon sampled the prime rib.
The best original screenplay Oscar winner for Sinners was once a star wide receiver at Sacramento State, where he had 112 catches over his college career.
Coogler was also a two-time All-Academic selection in the Big Sky Conference.
He joins a rather exclusive club of sports figures who won Oscars, one that includes NBA greats Kobe Bryant, Stephen Curry, Shaquille O’Neal, Kevin Durant and Mike Conley Jr.
Joachim Trier said he cited James Baldwin – "All adults are responsible for all children” – because of revelations about crimes being done to children and the conflicts being waged in the world.
"Me and most people around me have been at times crying a lot,” Trier, a father, said, citing Palestinian, Ukrainian and Sudanese children suffering, in addition to other conflicts.
He said people need to "cross the aisle” to be more collaborative in protecting children.
Serena Williams put a clip of Michael B. Jordan’s best actor speech onto social media and needed two words to sum up her feelings.
"So happy,” the tennis legend wrote in reaction to the Sinners star getting the Oscar.
The winners for Golden in KPop Demon Hunters thanked additional colleagues and family members after they were cut off during their acceptance speech.
Singer songwriter EJAE said she wanted to shoutout her fellow performers Rei Ami and Audrey Nuna, who voiced the singing parts along her in the film.
The cast also delivered thanks to their fans watching in Korea.
"I was very nervous but it was such an honour to be performing, it’s such an incredible stage,” EJAE said. "It was not on my bucket list because I did not think it was possible.”
The Korean American said it was an "incredible experience” to honour their ancestors by beginning their performance with Korean traditional music.
First stop for Oscar winners and invited guests after the show ends is the Governors Ball. They’ll ride escalators up to the Ray Dolby Ballroom atop the shopping and entertainment complex where the ceremony is held.
The show typically runs three hours or more, creating a powerful need for immediate food and drink after sitting that long.
Celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck is in his 32nd year catering the party. He’s supported by 75 savoury chefs and 45 pastry chefs.
Winners can sip on signature cocktails like "The Sequel” with tequila and "After Glow” without booze while waiting for their names to be engraved on their golden statues.
This isn’t a sit-down dinner. It’s the first chance for Oscar-goers to let their hair down on the night’s party circuit, gossip about the show over the din of a live band and move on to the next bash. Over 300 servers swarm the crowd with food on trays and small plates. More elaborate grazing stations feature cheese and charcuterie, wood-fired pizzas, Japanese izakaya, and hand-carved wagyu and steak frites.
A slider bar serves ribeye burgers, Thai sausage dogs, pastrami and fried cod to go with tempura onion rings. A handroll and sushi bar includes spicy ahi tuna, sea bream and salmon. Need to soothe your incurable sweet tooth? Hit the tables featuring patisserie, madeleine and tiramisu, chocolate decadence, and gelato.
Vegans will feel at home since the party has offered over 50% plant-based and vegetarian dishes since 2013.
Everyone leaves feeling like a winner after picking up one of the 2,000 mini chocolate Oscars airbrushed with 24-karat edible gold dust.
The runtime of the show clocked in at 3 hours and 40 minutes, which is pretty typical for the show and somewhat modest considering 24 awards were handed out Sunday evening. The longest ceremony lasted over four hours in 2002.
A bizarre, pre-taped epilogue to the Oscars showed O’Brien being named the Oscars’ "Host for Life” after his performance tonight.
That’s before he’s locked into an office where a green gas fills the room. An unconscious O’Brien is carried out to show his name plaque replaced by... Mr. Beast?
Autumn Durald Arkapaw, the first woman and Black person to win the cinematography award told reporters in the press room that she was worried about using her time wisely for her acceptance speech. "Are they going to kick me off?” she recalled wondering. Still, she managed to give a grounded, moving speech, and one she hopes will inspire future filmmakers.
"A lot of little girls who look like me will sleep really well tonight because they’ll want to become cinematographers,” she said. "I know that.”
She decided to ask all the women in the Dolby Theatre to stand up during her speech because "moments like this don’t happen without women kind of standing up for you and advocating for you,” she said.
The win "isn’t about me anymore,” she continued. "It’s about so much more and I wanted it for all of the ladies in the room, and I wanted it for all the girls at home.”
Barbra Streisand’s tribute to Robert Redford highlighted the late actor-director’s history of defending press freedoms, protecting the environment and encouraging new voices in film.
"Bob had real backbone on and off the screen,” she said.
Babs, as Redford used to call her, sang The Way We Were at the end of her tribute.
"I miss him now more than ever, even though he loved teasing me,” she said, explaining how she got the nickname.
"Believe me when I say there is an actress of my generation who was not inspired by and enthralled with her absolute singularity,” she said.
McAdams told the audience a Girl Scout song Keaton used to sing set on film sets: "Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver, the other is gold. A circle is round, it has no end. That’s how long, I will be your friend."
Billy Crystal opened the in memoriam segment honoring his best friend, Rob Reiner.
He ticked off a list of Reiner’s films, including When Harry Met Sally, starring Crystal and Meg Ryan, Stand By Me, Say Anything and This Is Spinal Tap, among many others.
A photo of Reiner and his wife, Michelle Singer Reiner, appeared behind Crystal.
The Reiners were found dead in their Los Angeles home in December. Their son, Nick Reiner, has been charged in the deaths of his parents and has pleaded not guilty.
Having a slew of actors with longstanding ties to Reiner – Meg Ryan, Kiefer Sutherland, Fred Savage, Demi Moore, John Cusack, Ione Skye and many others – come on stage for the tribute was reminiscent of how the Academy did the same for director John Hughes at the Oscars 16 years ago.
For his first original film, not adapted from any source material, Coogler won the original screenplay Oscar – his very first.
Sean Penn won as supporting actor for One Battle After Another.
"Sean Penn couldn’t be here this evening,” presenter Kieran Culkin said. "Or didn’t want to, so I’ll be accepting the award on his behalf.”
Penn did little campaigning this awards season, and also stayed away from the Actor Awards and BAFTA Awards, where he won trophies.
It’s not the first time Penn has no-showed at the Oscars.
The 65-year-old actor has never appeared too attached to Hollywood hardware, whether he wins or loses. He previously gave one of his Oscars to Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. – AP
