When on Friday 30th December 2022, my son Eghosa and I decided to go and see a movie, it was to the Filmhouse Cinemas at the old Adeniran Ogunsanya Shopping Centre in Surulere we went on our ‘boys only’ outing.
The movie we chose was ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’, the 2022 American epic science fiction film directed by James Cameron, who co-wrote the screenplay with Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver. All three and a half hours of the box-office juggernaut featuring lots of visual and sound effects! The movie was worth all the time we spent and I knew somehow that there was no way it will not be nominated and may be even win an Oscar during the next Academy Awards.
And I was not disappointed because at the 95th Academy Awards Ceremony at Dolby Theatre, Los Angeles, California last night, ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ won the award for Best Visual Effects.
But the top dog movie last night was ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ which took home 7 Academy awards including the gong for Best Film of the year. The movie was always going to be a frontrunner, having received eleven nominations, but its seven awards include Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Director.
Harrison Ford presented the award for Best Film and he was just one of the prominent stars in the entertainment industry that thronged the Dolby Theatre, which has been the venue for the ceremony since 2002, with familiar host Jimmy Kimmel in control, to mark the third time he is MC, having also been in charge in 2017 and 2018.
The second top performing movie was ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’, which picked up nine nominations, for which it won awards in four.
Oscar 2023 will be memorable to all those who attended or watched on TV and online, but especially for the winners.
Let’s meet all the winners:
1. Best Picture: Everything Everywhere All at Once
2. Best Director: Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (Everything Everywhere All at Once)
3. Best Actress: Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All at Once)
4. Best Actor: Brendan Fraser (The Whale)
5. Best Supporting Actor: Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All at Once)
6. Best Supporting Actress: Jamie Lee Curtis (Everything Everywhere All at Once)
7. Best International Feature Film: All Quiet on the Western Front (Germany)
8. Best Cinematography: James Friend (All Quiet on the Western Front)
9. Best Adapted Screenplay: Sarah Polley (Women Talking)
10. Best Original Screenplay: Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (Everything Everywhere All at Once)
11. Best Animated Feature: Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
12. Best Visual Effects: Avatar: The Way of Water
13. Best Editing: Everything Everywhere All at Once
14. Best Production Design: All Quiet on the Western Front
15. Best Makeup and Hairstyling: The Whale
16. Best Costume Design: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
17. Best Sound: Top Gun: Maverick
18. Best Documentary Feature: “Navalny”
19. Best Documentary Short Subject: “The Elephant Whisperers”
20. Best Live Action Short: “An Irish Goodbye”
21. Best Animated Short: “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse”
22. Best Original Song: “Naatu Naatu”— Kaala Bhairava, M.M. Keeravani, and Rahul Sipligunj (RRR)
23. Best Original Score: Volker Bertelmann (All Quiet on the Western Front)
No doubt the Oscars are the top in movie awards and the dream of everyone in the industry is to be a winner in whatever area he or she features and it is sometimes fight to finish for the golden statuette.
But how much is an Oscar award worth and what the statuette made of?
It is said that the material used to make the awards is the same technology used by NASA for its devices and the statuettes is made with a mixture of britannium, copper, tin and antimony for the base, which is plated with 24-karat gold.
It is said that each award is priceless but the Academy prohibits the sale of the Oscars. In fact, the accrual price of each statuette is one dollar and if a winner or thief wants to get rid of one of the awards, they cannot sell it and will have to return it to the Academy for the one dollar.
