The Big Picture · Discussion
March 13, 2023/ 70 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins
Sean and Amanda tape their reaction minutes after the 95th Academy Awards, working through Everything Everywhere All at Once's sweep of the top categories, a three-hour, 40-minute Jimmy Kimmel telecast light on star power, a Little Mermaid trailer that ran mid-show as unlabeled sponsored content, and a closing case for stripping this year's Best Score winner.
33 films across 11 segments.
AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.
Everything Everywhere All at Once's sweepfive above-the-title wins, a first in Oscar history
Won Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Actress, Supporting Actor, and Supporting Actress: seven wins in total, the most of any film this year and the first to take five above-the-title categories in 95 ceremonies. A24's second Best Picture winner in the studio's 10 years, from directors on only their second feature.
The last film before this one to sweep the 'Big Five' categories. But it and Cuckoo's Nest were adapted from acclaimed novels by seasoned filmmakers, unlike Everything Everywhere's wholly original script from two young directors.
The other Big Five sweep the hosts use as a comparison point.
A24's other major win of the night: Brendan Fraser's Best Actor victory, which the hosts call the most emotionally overwhelmed of the evening's speeches.
Cited alongside Nomadland as recent Best Picture winners that already signaled an 'out with the old' shift in the Academy's taste.
Invoked as the introduction a lot of casual viewers still have to Michelle Yeoh.
A three-hour, 40-minute showJimmy Kimmel hosts; the crowd gets a taste of vinegar, then goes drab
Kimmel opened with a fake parachute entrance riffing on the film, then spent much of the monologue on the no-shows Tom Cruise and James Cameron; the hosts say the show badly missed the movie's actual star power the rest of the night.
Took a few good-natured hits in the monologue and went home empty in every category, including Production Design and Score.
Ruth Carter's surprise costume winthe one award the hosts were authentically surprised by
Ruth Carter's Best Costume Design win, which she dedicated to her mother, who had recently died. The hosts picked her as a should-win with no expectation she'd actually take it.
Carter's prior win, four years earlier, for the first film.
Best and worst presenter pairingsthe red carpet got combative, one duo actually felt like movie stars, and Elizabeth Banks worked the room with a barely-there voice
Hugh Grant and Andie MacDowell's reunion as presenters, after Grant's combative Ashley Graham red carpet interview ('My suit... My tailor.') that the hosts call the highlight of the pre-show.
Michael B. Jordan (who directed it) and Jonathan Majors presented Best Cinematography together. The hosts point to the pairing as proof real movie stars still elevate a category, even a technical one.
Elizabeth Banks, presenting Costume Design with a foam bear prop and a nearly-gone voice, used the moment to pitch her own film.
Warner Bros.' 100th-anniversary ad breaksponsored content dressed up as tribute
Melissa McCarthy and Halle Bailey debuted the live-action remake's trailer mid-ceremony, an ABC/Disney synergy play the hosts find at least transparent about what it is.
Margot Robbie turned up to co-present the baffling, unexplained Warner Bros. anniversary montage, though Barbie itself only flashed in it for half a second.
The Best Original Song slogsix musical numbers, one deserving winner
"Naatu Naatu" was the eventual, deserving winner, though the number that made screening audiences lose their minds didn't fully translate to a live stage performance.
Contributed a David Byrne song to the category, one of the nominees the hosts single out.
Rihanna performed "Lift Me Up" live while pregnant, with Michael B. Jordan shown beaming in the crowd, a moment the hosts call an instant meme.
The little-seen film behind Sophia Carson's nominated song "Applause," which neither host recognized.
A quiet night for the streamersno Amazon or Apple wins; Netflix takes three, but not Best Picture
Won four Oscars (more than The Power of the Dog managed the year before) despite being what the hosts call Netflix's 'third or fourth choice' going into the season. Late in the night it strung together enough technical wins that the hosts briefly got nervous about a Best Picture upset.
Netflix's Best Documentary Short win.
Won Best Documentary Feature; accepted with a speech from Alexei Navalny's wife and children while Navalny remained in solitary confinement.
Won Best Animated Feature, another Netflix title; del Toro used his speech to argue for animation as a serious art form.
The animated-feature also-ran the hosts say they wish had won instead.
The one clean winno larger narrative attached
Sarah Polley's Best Adapted Screenplay win, the hosts' predicted pick and, they argue, the only award of the night that wasn't part of some bigger storyline.
Shut out: Elvis and The Banshees of Inisherinthe year's two biggest starry contenders go home empty
Austin Butler's showcase lost Best Actor to Brendan Fraser, a result the hosts say they never actually expected to flip.
Went 0-for-9, including a Kerry Condon Best Supporting Actress bid that late BAFTA momentum couldn't save from Jamie Lee Curtis.
Tom Cruise's no-showTop Gun: Maverick wins Best Sound, its star stays home
Won Best Sound, its only trophy of the night. Cruise skipped the ceremony after missing Best Picture and Best Actor nominations, despite having worked the rest of the season's circuit.
Cited as part of 'a strange year' for movie stars: a hit full of famous faces buried in blue motion capture, with its visual-effects team absent from the stage for its win.
If we could steal one Oscarclosing bit
Amanda's pick: strip Best Director from the Daniels and give it to Todd Field.
Sean's pick: take Volker Bertelmann's Best Score win away.
And give the Best Score Oscar to Justin Hurwitz instead.
Also mentioned raised along the way
In passing Slumdog MillionaireThe Lord of the Rings: The Return of the KingThe ArtistHalloweenPsychoSweet Smell of SuccessScream VIJohn Wick: Chapter 4BlondeMy Octopus TeacherA Beautiful MindBatgirl
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV Saturday Night Live
Video games FIFA World Cup Launch Edition
Ads NAS EnergyBoar's HeadCarvanaOzempic
Podcasts What About Your Friends