Navalny, like Everything Everywhere, had won multiple prizes in the run-up to the Academy Awards, so its success was not unexpected. But the night did bring some surprises, including a thrilling win for Sarah Polley in the Best Adapted Screenplay category. Her film Women Talking, one of the most original and thoughtful of the Best Picture nominees, has struggled to gain traction in the awards race.
“I’d like to thank the Academy for not being mortally offended by the words ‘women’ and ‘talking’ so close together,” said Polley, wryly, suggesting that the film, which centres on a group of women who have been abused, offers a vision of how people “who don’t agree on every single issue manage to sit together in a room and carve out a way forward together free of violence. They do so not just by talking but also by listening.”
Her hopeful words felt like a breath of fresh air. So did composer MM Keeravani’s acceptance speech, sung to a tune by The Carpenters, when “Naatu Naatu” from the film RRR became the first song from an Indian production to win an Oscar. There was more impromptu when Tom Berkeley and Ross White who took the prize for Best Live Action Short for An Irish Goodbye, asked everyone to sing “Happy Birthday” to its star James Martin, who has Down syndrome.
But the night categorically belonged to Everything Everywhere All At Once, and to the camaraderie and joy of its cast that has done so much to propel it to success ever since it launched itself on an unsuspecting world a year ago. It is undoubtedly a phenomenon: an independent movie that has grossed $100 million globally, making it the most successful release ever for the production company A24 (who had a good night, since it is also responsible for The Whale).
A film which Kwan said started out with the notion “Let’s put my mum in The Matrix” is rare in that it is a comedy, and comedies don’t usually win Oscars. It is even rarer in that it features a…
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