Accepting best supporting actor, Quan said: “I cannot believe it is happening to me”
By Steven McIntosh
Entertainment reporter
Everything Everywhere All at Once star Ke Huy Quan is among the early winners at this year’s Oscars.
He won best supporting actor at the ceremony, which is taking place in Los Angeles, while his co-star Jamie Lee Curtis won best supporting actress.
Quan was catapulted back into the spotlight thanks to his role in the film, which could win best picture.
He told the audience: “Dreams are something you have to believe in – I almost gave up on mine.”
The 51-year-old took an extended break from acting after rising to fame as a child star in films such as The Goonies and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
In an emotional speech, the Vietnamese actor said: “They say stories like this only happen in the movies – I cannot believe it is happening to me. This is the American dream.
“My journey started on a boat, I spent a year in a refugee camp, and somehow I ended up here, on Hollywood’s biggest stage… Thank you so much for welcoming me back.”
Image source, Getty Images
Ke Huy Quan pictured as a child actor holding hands with Harrison Ford on the set of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in 1984
Image source, Reuters
Jamie Lee Curtis’s victory in best supporting actor marks the first Oscar in her 45-year acting career
Curtis’s supporting actress win marks her first Oscar in her 45-year acting career.
“I know it looks like I’m standing up here by myself but I am not, I am hundreds of people,” Curtis said in her acceptance speech.
“The entire group of artists who made this movie – we just won an Oscar.”
Everything Everywhere All at Once is a madcap sci-fi adventure which follows a laundrette owner, played by Michelle Yeoh, who must tap into different versions of herself in the multiverse in order to save the world.
The film also won best original screenplay for Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert – jointly known as Daniels – who also directed the film.
The 95th Academy Awards are currently taking place at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, with US comic Jimmy Kimmel hosting this year’s ceremony.
Stars shine on Oscars champagne carpet
A string of Hollywood A-listers are in attendance, having walked the champagne-coloured carpet outside the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.
All Quiet on the Western Front has won best international feature as well as best original score, best production design and best cinematography.
The Whale – which launched Brendan Fraser’s comeback – took best make-up and hairstyling, while Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio was named best animated feature.
Taking to the stage, the Mexican filmmaker said: “Animation is cinema, animation is not a genre and animation is ready to be taken to the next step.”
Wakanda Forever’s Ruth E Carter repeated the best costume design victory she scored with the original film. She dedicated the prize to her mother, who died aged 101 last week.
Image source, Reuters
Wakanda Forever’s Ruth E Carter dedicated her award for best costume design for her late mother
There was a British win for The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse. The adaptation of the Charlie Mackesy book, which aired on BBC One over Christmas, won best animated short.
The award for best documentary feature film went to Navalny, about Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and the events related to his 2020 poisoning.
In his speech, director Daniel Roher dedicated the award to Navalny and political prisoners around the world, saying: “Alexei, the world has not forgotten your vital message to the world.”
Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, added: “Alexei, I am dreaming of the day you will be free and our country will be free, stay strong my love.”
There was a win in the best sound category for Top Gun: Maverick – one of the biggest box office hits of the past year – while Naatu Naatu from RRR won best original song.
Jimmy Kimmel’s best Oscars jokes
Image source, Reuters
Kimmel joked that the dancers from Indian film RRR would appear behind any winners whose acceptance speeches went on too long
The 95th Academy Awards ceremony is being hosted by US chat show host Jimmy Kimmel, who opened with a monologue which reflected on the last 12 months in the film industry.
“They say Hollywood is running out of ideas. I mean Steven Spielberg had to make a movie about Steven Spielberg,” he joked, referring to the director’s autobiographical best picture nominee The Fabelmans.
He also paid tribute to composer John Williams, the oldest nominee in Oscars history. “John turned 91 last month, and he’s still scoring, if you know what I mean,” Kimmel quipped.
Reflecting on the mixed year Hollywood has had, Kimmel said: “Batgirl became the first superhero to be defeated by the accounting department.”
The US comic also made reference to Avatar: The Way of Water, which he said was “another opportunity for James Cameron to do what he loves doing more than anything else – drowning Kate Winslet” (the actress also appeared in Cameron’s Titanic).
“It was a big year for diversity and inclusion,” Kimmel continued, “we have nominees from every corner of Dublin.” The Banshees of Inisherin has four acting nominations, including Colin Farrell and Kerry Condon.
“Five Irish actors are nominated tonight which means the odds of another fight on stage just went way up.”
Image source, Reuters
Jimmy Kimmel brought a donkey on stage – a reference to the Banshees of Inisherin
Finally – Kimmel referenced the event that overshadowed last year’s ceremony – Will Smith slapping Chris Rock.
“If anyone here commits an act of violence during the show, you will be awarded best actor, and permitted to give a 19-minute speech,” Kimmel said, to much laughter.
This is the chat show host’s third time hosting the Academy Awards. He most recently presided over the 2018 event.
