Ke Huy Quan, a former child star who gave up acting for two decades, and Hollywood veteran Jamie Lee Curtis won the Oscars on Sunday for their roles in the quirky, multi-dimensional adventure “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
A tearful Quan, born in Vietnam, kissed his golden Oscar statuette as he held it on stage at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles in front of the biggest names in show business.
“My journey started on a boat. I spent a year in a refugee camp. Somehow I ended up here on the biggest stage in Hollywood,” Quan said.
As a boy, Quan starred in ‘Indiana Jones’ in 1984 and ‘The Goonies’ in 1985. The 51-year-old said he quit acting for years because he saw little opportunities for Asian actors on the big screen.
“They say stories like this only happen in movies,” he added. “I can’t believe this is happening to me. It’s the American dream.”
Quan’s co-star Jamie Lee Curtis, who built a career in horror movies such as ‘Halloween,’ won Best Supporting Actress for playing a bumbling tax auditor named Deirdre Beaubeirdre.
Curtis, 64, looked up and addressed his late parents, Oscar nominees Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh. “I just won an Oscar,” she said in tears.
Among other early accolades, Guillermo del Toro’s “Pinocchio” was named Best Animated Feature.
An emergency response team was on hand in case of an unexpected twist. The group was formed after Will Smith knocked out Chris Rock onstage last year, tarnishing the film industry’s most prestigious ceremony.
Host Jimmy Kimmel, who landed on the Oscars stage by parachute in a tribute to the Best Picture nominee ‘Top Gun: Maverick’, joked in his opening monologue about the audience’s reaction to the attack on Smith last year.
“If anything unpredictable or violent happens at the ceremony, just do what you did last year – nothing,” he told the A-list celebrity crowd. “Maybe give the attacker a hug.”
The film “Navalny” about the poisoning that nearly killed Russia’s most prominent opposition leader Alexei Navalny and his detention upon his return to Moscow in 2021 won the Oscar for best documentary feature.
The 95th Academy Awards aired live on Walt Disney Co’s ABC Network (DIS.N). The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences hoped to go beyond the slap in the face and put on a glitzy show and boost television ratings.
Ahead of the awards, the nominees dressed in designer dresses and tuxedos touted their films on a champagne carpet in place of the traditional red.
Several of 2022’s biggest hits at the multiplex were competing in the best picture race, from “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Everything Everywhere” to “Elvis” and “Avatar: The Way of Water.”
Last year, Oscars television audiences ranked second with 16.6 million viewers.
The big films on Sunday’s ballot, rather than some of the little-seen films nominated in recent years, could help attract more viewers. Musical performances can also increase viewership.
Lady Gaga appeared as a last minute addition and was set to sing her “Top Gun” nominated song “Hold My Hand”. Oscar producers said last week that Gaga was unable to attend because she was filming a sequel to the 2019 movie “Joker.”
Pop superstar Rihanna will also take the stage, performing “Lift Me Up” from “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.”
Michelle Yeoh of ‘Everything Everywhere’ takes on Best Actress Cate Blanchett, who played a devious bandleader in ‘Tar.’ Best actor may be a toss-up between “Elvis” star Austin Butler and Brendan Fraser, who played a seriously obese man in “The Whale.”
The winners are chosen by the approximately 10,000 actors, producers, directors and cinema artisans who make up the film academy.