HIGHLIGHTS: The 95th Academy Awards

The 95th Academy Awards honored some of the most outstanding names and contributions to the film industry in the past year.

Everything Everywhere All at Once emerged as the biggest winner of the night, bagging the top prize for Best Picture. Michelle Yeoh made history as the first Asian star to win an Oscar for Best Actress. Ke Huy Quan won Best Actor in a Supporting Role, while Jamie Lee Curtis bagged Best Actress in a Supporting Role. The Daniels, meanwhile, won the award for Best Director.

Absurdist multiverse film Everything Everywhere All At Once was named Best Picture at the 2023 Oscars.

It bested nine other nominees, including Top Gun: Maverick, Women Talking, The Banshees of Inisherin, Triangle of Sadness, The Fabelmans, All Quiet on the Western Front, Avatar: The Way of Water, Elvis, and Tár.

It previously won all the major Oscar precursors: Screen Actors Guild Awards, Producers Guild Awards, Writers Guild Awards, and Spirit Awards.

This year's best picture winner only lost at the BAFTAs, which went in favor of German anti-war film All Quiet on the Western Front.

Earlier in the ceremony, Everything Everywhere All At Once won best director, best original screenplay, and best film editing.

It also swept across the three acting categories it was nominated in. Michelle Yeoh won Best Actress, while Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis won best supporting actor and best supporting actress, respectively. (with Ratziel San Juan)

First-time Academy Award nominee Michelle Yeoh is the first Asian to win the Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role, thanks to her performance as Evelyn Wang in Everything Everywhere All at Once.

She is also the first Asian star to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Actress since Merle Oberon in 1935.

Yeoh’s achievement means Everything Everywhere All At Once swept across the three acting categories it was nominated in, as Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis won in the ceremony’s acting categories for supporting roles.

Brendan Fraser (The Whale) outweighed all other performances by lead actors this year, as the Academy awarded him the Oscar for Actor in a Leading Role.

He went ahead of frontrunners Austin Butler and Colin Farrell, who won Golden Globe awards for Best Actor in the Drama and Comedy categories, respectively.

Earlier in the ceremony, The Whale won the Oscar for Makeup and Hairstyling.

Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan, the director duo known as “The Daniels,” won the Oscar for Best Director in recognition of their filmmaking performance for Everything Everywhere All at Once.

They previously won at the Directors Guild Awards and the Critics Choice Awards this year.

The Daniels follow the trend of the Best Director Oscar going to films recognized for technical achievement, after Ang Lee's Life of Pi, Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity and Roma, Alejandro González Iñárritu's Birdman, Bong Joon-ho's Parasite, Chloe Zhao's Nomadland, and Jane Campion's The Power of the Dog.

Lenny Kravitz sang Calling All Angels during the "in memoriam" segment of the 95th Academy Awards. 

The memorial paid tribute to fallen members of the film industry, including actors and filmmakers.

Featured late personalities included Ray Liotta, James Caan, Raquel Welch, Angela Lansbury, among others.

Prior to the moving segment, John Travolta tearfully said onstage: "They've made us smile, and became dear friends who we will always remain hopelessly devoted to."

Rihanna performed Lift Me Up from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever during the Oscars ceremony.

Lift Me Up, the lead single of the movie's original soundtrack, was produced by Swedish composer Ludwig Göransson and was written by Rihanna, Black Panther director Ryan Coogler, and Nigerian singer Tems.

Danai Gurira, who portrayed Okoye in the superhero movie, introduced Rihanna and said the song is dedicated in honor of the late Chadwick Boseman.

"Chadwick's powerful artistry, his magnetism, and incomparable humanity left an indelible mark on our hearts," Gurira said before the performance.

Lift Me Up is nominated for original song, and is Rihanna's first Oscar nomination.

Lady Gaga performed Hold My Hand, the lead single to the soundtrack for Top Gun: Maverick, at the 95th Academy Awards. 

Hold My Hand is nominated for the Oscar for Best Original Song while Top Gun: Maverick is nominated for Best Picture at the prestigious awards ceremony. 

"You can be your own hero even if you feel broken inside," Lady Gaga said before her performance. 

The song was also nominated for a Grammy for Best Song Written for Visual Media, but lost to Encanto's We Don't Talk About Bruno.

American experimental band Son Lux, which composed the music for Everything Everywhere All at Once, performed the movie's theme song alongside its star Stephanie Hsu and Talking Heads frontman David Byrne.

They performed This is a Life, of which Byrne is also a co-composer alongside Japanese-American musician Mitski. It's nominated for best original song.

Action film veteran Donnie Yen introduced the performers.

Son Lux made the movie's 49-track score, which included collaborations with Byrne, Mitski, Randy Newman, and Moses Sumney, among others.

Everything Everywhere All At Once follows Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh), an unassuming laundromat owner and immigrant thrust into different multiverses and life paths in order to save the entire universe.

Earlier in the ceremony, Ke Huy Quan won Best Supporting Actor while Jamie Lee Curtis won the award for Best Supporting Actress.

Jamie Lee Curtis, who made her big-screen debut in the 1978 film Halloween as the original "scream queen" has won the competitive Oscar for Actress in a Supporting Role.

"We just won an Oscar together!" the first-time nominee said as she shared her win with the Everything Everywhere All at Once team and her family members.

She also paid tribute to her Academy Award-nominated parents Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh.

Vietnamese-American actor Ke Huy Quan won the Oscar for Actor in a Supporting Role.

He swept almost all major awards except the BAFTA, which went to Barry Keoghan (The Banshees of Inisherin).

"Stories like this happen only in the movies. I can't believe this is happening to me. This, this is the American dream," the actor tearfully said in his acceptance speech as he paid tribute to his mom and talked about his beginnings on a boat.

Host Jimmy Kimmel assured the Oscars audience that there won't be a repeat of the slapping incident last year.

"We want you to have fun. We want you to feel safe," Kimmel said. "Most of all, we want me to feel safe."

He said there are "strict policies" in place, including having a crisis team. He then jokingly stated that those who will commit any act of violence will receive a best actor award and deliver a 19-minute speech.

During the 2022 Oscars ceremony, Will Smith stormed the stage to slap host Chris Rock after the comedian joked about the hair of his wife Jada Pinkett Smith who has alopecia, a hair loss condition.

Moments after the slap, Smith won Best Actor for King Richard, during which he delivered an emotional speech in a room already filled with much tension.

Kimmel also said that if anybody try to "get jiggy" with his jokes, the would-be assailant would have to go through his friends first, as he gave a special mention to Michael B. Jordan, Michelle Yeoh, Pedro Pascal, Andrew Garfield, Steven Spielberg, Guillermo Rodriguez, and Cate Blanchett for their respective movie roles.

Smith has kept a relatively low profile since that night. He made a public apology shortly after the incident, and released an emotional social media video about the moment in July, offering to meet with Rock "whenever you're ready to talk."

He also resigned his membership with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, though the organization didn't revoke his best actor award.

His decade-long ban from attending the ceremony doesn't also prevent him from being nominated for Oscars.

Hollywood's biggest night, the Oscars ceremony, began with a thunderous flyover in a nod to the nominated film Top Gun: Maverick.

"Thank you for inviting me to be a part of it, especially this year, when the world finally got out of the house to see the films you worked so hard to make, the way you intended them to be seen—in a theater," host Jimmy Kimmel said in his opening.

He also referenced the return of televising all 23 Oscar categories and jokingly predicted that All Quiet on the Western Front will win Best Picture.

Hollywood stars have arrived at the 95th Academy Awards.

The likes of Lady Gaga, Salma Hayek, Pedro Pascal, Rihanna, and more graced the red carpet with their show-stopping ensembles. 

The ceremony is currently being livestreamed on Disney+.