by Michelle Yeoh made history at the 95th Academy Awards as Everything Everywhere All At Once took home a slew of significant awards.
The multiverse sci-fi epic, directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, won seven awards including three acting gongs, best director and best film, the biggest of the night.
It was a disappointing night for Irish talent as The Banshees Of Inisherin went home empty-handed despite nine nominations.
Yeoh won the Academy Award for Best Actress and fought off competition from two-time Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett to become the first woman of Asian descent to win the award.
On stage, she said: “For all the little boys and girls who look like me, this is a beacon of hope and possibility.
“Dream big, dreams come true. Ladies, never let anyone tell you you’re past your prime.”
She added: “This is history in the making.”
Speaking later in the winners’ room, she told reporters that she had the “glass ceiling” with her kung fud win.
“I think that’s something we’ve been working toward for a very long time, and tonight we friggin’ broke that glass ceiling,” she said.
“I ripped it out and smashed it with kung fud, and we need that because there are so many who have felt unseen or unheard.”
Yeoh’s co-star Jamie Lee Curtis, 64, won her first supporting actress Oscar, paying tribute to all the special people in her life.
The actress, who is the daughter of Hollywood stars Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis, added, “And my mum and dad have both been nominated for Oscars in different categories, I just won an Oscar.”
Kwan and Scheinert, collectively known as “The Daniels,” took home the award for best director – only the third time it had gone to a duo.
Vietnam-born American star Ke Huy Quan received a standing ovation as he took the stage after winning Best Supporting Actor for his role in Everything Everywhere All At Once, becoming the first person of Asian origin to win the category.
“My journey began on a boat,” he said. “I spent a year in a refugee camp and somehow ended up here on Hollywood’s biggest stage.”
Brendan Fraser won the Best Actor Oscar for his performance as a reclusive English teacher with morbid obesity in The Whale, completing a dramatic career comeback after years away from the limelight.
The Mummy actor, 54, was clearly emotional as he thanked director Darren Aronofsky for “throwing me a creative lifeline”.
Costume designer Ruth E Carter became the first African American woman to win two Academy Awards for Best Costume Design for her work on the first Black Panther film and now its sequel, Wakanda Forever.
All Quiet On The Western Front also had a successful night and continued their runaway success at last month’s Baftas by scooping up four awards including best cinematography and original music.
The UK’s tally of four Oscars is the lowest since 2017, when the country picked up just one award. Last year Great Britain won six.
The co-directors of An Irish Goodbye performed a Happy Birthday chorus offstage for movie star James Martin after the film won Best Live-Action Short.
Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis failed to capitalize on his eight Oscar nominations and went home empty-handed, despite its star Austin Butler being touted as a favorite for best actor.
Elsewhere in the night, Elizabeth Banks stumbled as she walked onstage to present the Best Visual Effects award, which went to Avatar: The Way Of Water, but quickly managed to calm down.
She was joined by a person wearing a bear costume in a nod to her recent film, Cocaine Bear, and quipped, “Oh my god. He tripped me.”
John Travolta got emotional as he introduced an in-memoriam segment that began with a tribute to his late Grease co-star Dame Olivia Newton-John.
The award for best documentary went to Navalny on Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and the events surrounding his poisoning in 2020.
Dedicating the award to Navalny and political prisoners around the world, director Daniel Roher said: “Alexei, the world has not forgotten your vital message to the world.”
Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, added: “Alexei, I dream of the day when you will be free and our country will be free, stay strong my love.”
Host Jimmy Kimmel opened the night by taking the stage strapped to a parachute, nodding to best picture nominee Top Gun: Maverick and citing last year’s stroke involving Will Smith and Chris Rock .
Unlike previous years, the Oscars swapped their usual red carpet for a champagne carpet, with stars including Bill Nighy and Cate Blanchett wearing a blue ribbon as part of an initiative by the United Nations Refugee Agency, UNHCR.
