Four times on this Oscar evening, the dark theme from "All Quiet on the Western Front" was heard. The makers of the German war film received four golden trophies, including the awards for best cinematography, which went to British cinematographer James Friend. In addition, the Netflix production, which adapted the novel of the same name by Erich Maria Remarque, received the Oscar for "Best International Film".

Maria Wiesner

Coordinator "Style".

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Director Edward Berger thanked the streaming service and his family visibly moved and especially emphasized the performance of his leading actor Felix Kammerer, who stood with him on stage: "It's your first film, but you carried us all through it through your talent, without you we wouldn't be here today."

With the Oscar for best international film, "All Quiet on the Western Front" has won a feature film award for Germany for the fourth time in the history of the Academy Awards. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck last achieved this in 2007, when his drama "The Lives of Others" was awarded "Best Foreign Language Film". The category has been called "Best International Film" since 2020.

But before it got emotional in the acceptance speeches and the actual winner of the evening slowly but steadily collected so many prizes that he left the expensive German Netflix production with its four trophies behind, host Jimmy Kimmel opened the show with a 15-minute monologue. Kimmel, who hosted the show for the third time, sprinkled in some facts about the nominees ("Steven Spielberg is the first director to be nominated every decade over six decades.") and couldn't resist a few gentle tips. The presenter said after noting that both James Cameron, whose film "Avatar: The Way of Water" was nominated, and Tom Cruise, who was in the running as a producer for the film "Top Gun: Maverick", stayed away from the evening: "The two guys who insisted that we see their films in the cinema, have avoided cinema today. Well, you know a show is too long when even James Cameron can't stand it." The show actually lasted just under four hours, also because some technical categories such as editing and sound, which had already been awarded in the previous year before the start of the actual gala, had now been included in the main program again after protests from the filmmakers.

In his opening speech, Kimmel also touched on the big scandal of the previous year, the slap in the face that Will Smith gave Chris Rock for a joke about his wife. "I've strategically scattered some people here so that you have to pass them until you can join me on stage if you want to knock one down," he joked, pointing to Spiderman actor Andrew Garfield and action star Michelle Yeoh, among others.

Michelle Yeoh and Jamie Lee Curtis awarded

And so the focus was already briefly on the woman who received the award for best actress at the end of the evening. Michelle Yeoh received the Oscar for her role in the science fiction comedy "Everything Everywhere All at Once". She plays a Chinese immigrant in America who, during a tax audit of her laundromat, learns that she can make contact with her other "I's" in parallel universes – a character who gave her the opportunity to embody multiple roles within a film. "This is for all women: Never let yourself be persuaded that you are too old for something," the actress said triumphantly in her acceptance speech. Yeoh, who became famous as an action star in Hong Kong cinema, had repeatedly stressed in interviews that she had been waiting for years for such a versatile role. The 60-year-old Malaysian actress is the first Asian woman to win an Oscar as a leading actress.

The unusual film also won in the other actor categories. Jamie Lee Curtis was awarded Best Supporting Actress, Ke Huy Quan received the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Like Yeoh, he had repeatedly emphasized in interviews that he had waited a long time for a chance like this film. After he made his feature film debut as a twelve-year-old boy in Steven Spielberg's "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" (1984) alongside Harrison Ford, followed long years in which he was offered only a few supporting roles and finally specialized in advising film crews on action scenes. "Stories like this only happen in movies. This is the American dream," he said through tears as he held the Oscar in his hand.

The directing duo Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert were equally moved when they repeatedly went on stage that evening to receive further trophies for "Everything Everywhere All at Once". Scheinert and Kwan were awarded for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay, among others. The most important category, the Oscar for "Best Film", was also accepted by "Everything Everywhere All at Once". Overall, the film received seven Oscars, the most awards on this evening.