Everything Everywhere All At Once has made history at the Oscars, winning three acting awards and the night’s big prize, for best picture.
The multiverse sci-fi comedy took home seven awards in total, with gongs for stars Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis, as well as the directing prize for Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, aka “the Daniels”.
Other big winners included Brendan Fraser, who was named best actor for his performance as a reclusive, morbidly obese teacher in The Whale, while German anti-war epic All Quiet On The Western Front picked up four awards, including best international feature and cinematography.
Image: Brendan Fraser was named best actor, while Jamie Lee Curtis (below) was named best supporting actress. Pic: AP/Chris Pizzello
Despite going into the ceremony with nine nominations, it was a disappointing evening for The Banshees Of Inisherin, which left empty-handed – as did Austin Butler’s Elvis, which had eight nods. Meanwhile, the three blockbuster sequels – Top Gun: Maverick, Avatar: The Way Of Water and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – were all honoured, taking home an award apiece.
But the night belonged to a film about laundry, taxes and exploring other universes – Everything Everywhere All At Once
Yeoh’s best actress win makes her the first Asian woman to win the award in 94 years of the Oscars. Addressing all the women watching, the 60-year-old said: “Ladies, never let anyone tell you you are past your prime.”
Image: The acting winners celebrate with their Oscars. Pic: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP
Image: Janet Yeoh, right, mother of Michelle Yeoh, was seen celebrating in Malaysia following her daughter’s win. Pic: AP Photo/Vincent Thian
She fought off competition from two-time Oscar winner Cate Blanchett, Ana De Armas, Andrea Riseborough and Michelle Williams to win the award.
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“For all the little boys and girls who look like me, this is a beacon of hope and possibilities,” she said in her acceptance speech. “Dream big, dreams do come true.”
She dedicated the award to her mother – who was pictured cheering her victory in Malaysia – and “all the mums in the world because they are really the superheroes and without them none of us would be here tonight”.
Yeoh added: “This is history in the making.”
From Goonie to Oscar winner
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‘Ma, I just won an Oscar’
Former child star Quan, who appeared in The Goonies and Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom in the 1980s, was reunited with his old pal Dr Jones when the Everything Everywhere cast took to the stage to pick up the best film award from none other than Harrison Ford.
Earlier in the night, he received a standing ovation as he accepted the award for best supporting actor, telling the audience: “My mom is 84 years old and she is at home watching. Ma, I just won an Oscar!”
Quan told how his story “started on a boat” and that, after spending a year in a refugee camp, “somehow I ended up here on Hollywood’s biggest stage”.
He continued: “They say stories like this only happen in the movies. I cannot believe this is happening to me – this is the American dream.”
Image: Rihanna and Lady Gaga (below) were among the night’s performers, but both missed out on the award for best song. Pic: AP/Chris Pizzello
‘We just won an Oscar together’
For Curtis, 64, the win was about all the people who have supported her along the way.
“I know it looks like I am standing up here on my own but I am not,” she said, getting emotional on stage. “There are hundreds of people and hundreds of people – we just won an Oscar…
“To all of the people who have supported the genre movies that I have made for hundreds and hundreds of thousands – we just won an Oscar together.”
Fraser’s win completed a dramatic career comeback after years out of the spotlight, with the actor taking the prize ahead of Butler, for Elvis; Colin Farrell, for The Banshees of Inisherin; Paul Mescal, for Aftersun; and Bill Nighy, for Living. The Mummy star was also emotional as he accepted his award, thanking The Whale director Darren Aronofsky for “throwing me a creative lifeline”.
‘If anyone commits an act of violence…’
Image: Host Jimmy Kimmel Pic: AP/Chris Pizzello
Elsewhere, costume designer Ruth E Carter became the first African-American to win two Oscars for best costume design – for her work on the first Black Panther film and now its sequel, Wakanda Forever.
The award for best documentary feature film went to Navalny, about Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and the events related to his 2020 poisoning.
Comedian Jimmy Kimmel, hosting for the third time, kicked off the night by entering the stage attached to a parachute, in a nod to best picture nominee Top Gun: Maverick.
He also made reference to last year’s slap by Will Smith pretty early on in his opening speech. “If anyone in this theatre commits an act of violence at any point during the show, you will be awarded the Oscar for best actor,” he joked.
“No, but seriously the Academy have a crisis team in place, if anything unpredictable or violent happens during the ceremony, just do what you did last year – nothing. Maybe even give the assailant a hug.”
Four British wins
Image: Top Gun: Maverick won the Oscar for best sound. Pic: Paramount Pictures
It wasn’t the most successful Oscars for British talent, with four awards – the lowest tally since 2017, when the UK came away with just a single prize.
The UK winners included James Friend, who picked up the cinematography award for his work on the First World War film All Quiet On The Western Front, and An Irish Goodbye, which was shot entirely on location in Northern Ireland, was named best short film.
Best animated short film went to The Boy, The Mole, The Fox & The Horse, a UK-US co-production, while the award for best sound went to the team who worked on Top Gun: Maverick, which included British talent Chris Burdon and Mark Taylor.
Rihanna and Lady Gaga were both up for the best song award, for tracks in the Black Panther and Top Gun sequels respectively, and both performed on the night. However, they lost out to Naatu Naatu, from the film RRR.
This year’s Academy Awards carpet looked a little different to previous years, with organisers swapping the traditional red for a champagne colour, apparently to allow all the outfits to stand out more.
Malcolm-Jamal Warner, who played The Cosby Show character Theo, has drowned in Costa Rica, according to authorities.
The country’s Judicial Investigation Department said the 54-year-old actor drowned on Sunday afternoon off a beach on the Caribbean coast.
It is understood he was swimming at Playa Grande de Cocles in Limon province when he was pulled underwater by a current.
“He was rescued by people on the beach,” according to the department’s early report, but emergency workers from Costa Rica’s Red Cross found him without any signs of life and he was taken to the morgue.
Warner was on holiday with his family at the time, according to US celebrity news site People.
The Cosby Show aired from 1984 to 1992 on NBC in the US and is regarded as a groundbreaking show for its portrayal of a successful black middle-class family. It was also shown on Channel 4 in the UK at around the same time.
Image: Malcolm-Jamal Warner in September 2017. Pic: Reuters
Its star, Bill Cosby, played a doctor named Cliff Huxtable, with Warner in the role of Theo, his only son.
The NBC sitcom was the most popular show in America for much of its run between 1984 and 1992.
Warner played the role for eight seasons in all 197 episodes, winning an Emmy nomination for supporting actor in a comedy in 1986.
For many, the lasting image of the character, and of Warner, is of him wearing a badly-botched mock designer shirt sewn by his sister Denise, played by Lisa Bonet.
Warner ‘proud’ of show despite Cosby claims
The legacy of The Cosby Show has been tarnished after Cosby was jailed in 2018 following a conviction for sexual assault.
Warner told the Associated Press in 2015: “My biggest concern is when it comes to images of people of colour on television and film… We’ve always had ‘The Cosby Show’ to hold up against that. And the fact that we no longer have that, that’s the thing that saddens me the most because in a few generations the Huxtables will have been just a fairy tale.”
In 2023, Warner told People in an interview: “I know I can speak for all the cast when I say The Cosby Show is something that we are all still very proud of.”
Image: Warner (left) on stage with Stevie Wonder and Bill Cosby at an awards show in 2011. Pic: AP
Warner wins a Grammy
Following his career on The Cosby Show,Warner later appeared on the sitcom Malcolm & Eddie, co-starring with comedian Eddie Griffin in the series on the UPN network from 1996 to 2000.
In the 2010s he starred opposite Tracee Ellis Ross as a family-blending couple for two seasons on the BET sitcom Read Between The Lines.
He also had a role as OJ Simpson’s friend Al Cowlings in American Crime Story and was a series regular on Fox’s The Resident.
Films he has appeared in include the 2008 rom-com Fool’s Gold with Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson.
A poet and a musician, Warner won a Grammy for best traditional R&B performance for the song Jesus Children with Robert Glasper and Lalah Hathaway. He was also nominated for best spoken word poetry album for Hiding In Plain View.
Warner was married with a daughter, but chose to not publicly disclose their names.
From Human Traffic and The Business to his critically acclaimed performance in the raunchy TV adaptation of Rivals, via a stint as Queen Vic landlord Mick Carter in EastEnders, Danny Dyer has been on our screens for more than 30 years.
But it was his performance in the TV comedy Mr Bigstuff that earned him his first BAFTAwin – and one of the ceremony’s biggest cheers from the audience – earlier this year.
Image: Danny Dyer as Lee Campbell in Mr Bigstuff
Now, he returns to his prize-winning role for the second series of the Sky show, which tells the story of two estranged brothers – Glen (played by creator Ryan Sampson), an anxious carpet salesman living his ideal suburban life with fiancee Kirsty (Harriet Webb), and Lee (played by Dyer), an alpha male who struts back into his brother’s life carrying their father’s ashes.
Image: Ryan Sampson (right) created the series and stars alongside Dyer
Several EastEnders alumni feature, including Nitin Ganatra, Victoria Alcock and Linda Henry, who played Dyer’s on-screen mother, Shirley Carter.
Reflecting on some of Albert Square’s most famous characters and who would work well in Mr Bigstuff, Dyer says he would have loved to see the late June Brown, who played the chain-smoking hypochondriac Dot Cotton for 35 years, taking on a role.
“Absolute legend,” he says.
Sampson suggests the late Dame Barbara Windsor, who played the formidable Queen Vic landlady Peggy Mitchell, but has a clear pitch if season three gets the green light.
“It could still be a possible, it would be amazing,” he says. “You want your Pat Butcher, don’t you? You want Pam St Clement. Why hasn’t she played a mafia boss yet? She’d be amazing. She’d be incredible at it.”
Image: Dyer at the BAFTAs earlier this year. Pic: PA
Dyer reveals his screensaver
After his long career on screen, Dyer is now enjoying playing a variety of roles alongside the Cockney geezer types that became his bread and butter in the early noughties.
His nuanced performance as awkward entrepreneur Freddie Jones in Rivals brought him praise from fans and critics alike, and Mr Bigstuff his BAFTA.
But Dyer always had range. After small TV roles in shows including The Bill and A Touch Of Frost, he grew close to the Nobel Prize-winning playwright Harold Pinter in 2000 after auditioning and earning the role of a waiter in his play Celebration at the Almeida Theatre in Islington, north London.
“I’ve got Harold Pinter as a screensaver on my phone,” he says. “I always feel that he’s sort of looking down on me or close to me, so I like to just feel that he’s around me.”
Dyer continued the role in Celebration both in the West End and on Broadway, with Pinter becoming his mentor in the process.
In 2020, he presented a Sky Arts documentary, Danny Dyer On Pinter, which explored the life, career and impact of the playwright and screenwriter, who died in 2008.
He also has plans to develop a stage tribute to his friend, currently titled When Harry Met Danny.
Reflecting on his entry into the industry, he says theatre was quite inaccessible at the time, but Pinter opened it up to him.
“I think it’s even worse now, which I feel is a sad state of affairs,” he says. “I don’t know why that is. Everything’s become quite elite. All the elite f****** looking after themselves, so that needs to change.”
‘Love in the air’ at Oasis gig
But Pinter isn’t his only big influence – Dyer was one of the thousands of fans to see Oasis make their return to the stage in Cardiff earlier this month.
“It was really emotional seeing them come out,” he says. “There was a lot of love in the air, a lot of good energy.
“You know, there’s a lot of f****** shit going on. I think people, of my age as well, just want to jump around and sing them songs at the top of their lungs. So I’m still recovering, I’m not going to lie.”
Mr Bigstuff returns for season two on Thursday, on Sky Max and NOW
A brief scuffle broke out at London’s Royal Opera House after a performer unfurled a Palestinian flag during a show.
The incident took place during a performance of Il Trovatore on Saturday.
During the final night of the 11-night run of the show, a performer held up the flag on stage.
In video footage, shared online, someone backstage could be seen attempting to take it off the performer. The performer grabs it back following a brief scuffle.
A spokesperson for the Royal Ballet and Opera said: “The display of the flag was an unauthorised action by the artist.
“It was not approved by the Royal Ballet and Opera and is a wholly inappropriate act.”
The reaction to the flag was mixed, with some people heard applauding and cheering, while another audience member was heard saying “oh my God”.
One poster on X, who claimed to have been a member of the audience, said: “Extraordinary scenes at the Royal Opera House tonight.
“During the curtain call for Il Trovatore one of the background artists came on stage waving a Palestine flag. Just stood there, no bowing or shouting. Someone off stage kept trying to take it off him. Incredible.”
Performers show support for Palestinians
A number of performers have shown support for Palestinians amid the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
During Glastonbury Festival, numerous acts offered messages of support during their sets, including Kneecap, Bob Vylan, Wolf Alice, and Amyl And The Sniffers.
During her band’s set, Wolf Alice singer Ellie Rowsell told the crowd at the Other Stage: “Whilst we have the stage for just a little bit longer, we want to express our solidarity with the people of Palestine.
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BBC ‘regrets’ not pulling Bob Vylan live performance
Bob Vylan were widely criticised after leading on-stage chants of “death to the IDF” (Israel Defence Forces).
The performance was live-streamed by the BBC, sparking a backlash against the broadcaster – which later issued an apology.
The investigation into Kneecap was later dropped, with the police saying there was insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction for any offence”.