Did DHS Watch This Year’s Oscars Sweep?
March 15, 2023
Recently the biggest night for film awards, The Oscars, aired. For weeks people have been speculating who the winners would turn out to be, due to it being such a close race in many of the categories. Many people called it the “Comeback Year” because of Brendan Fraser and Ke Huey Quan’s nominations after their hiatus from the film industry. Mr. Herberger says that he doesn’t normally watch the Oscars but he will this year to see if anyone will slap anyone again. While many notable films won their categories, Everything Everywhere all at once made history on Oscars night.
Everything Everywhere All at Once came out last March, it is a primarily Asian lead cast with the exception of Jaime Lee Curtis. The film was nominated for 11 Oscars and won 7 of those nominations. Sweeping the Oscars and winning more awards than Lord of the Rings, Fellowship of the Ring. Jaime Lee Curtis earned her first Oscar, for best supporting actress, after being a titan in the film industry for years. 12th-grade student Kaitlyn Kirby says that her driving reason to go see the movie was Jaime Lee, after watching she stated she was an even bigger fan of the comedian and had more respect for her acting roles. The film also won for best directors and original screenplay, these awards went to the director duo, the Daniels. This is one of the few times in Oscars history that a team has won the award. They both gave emotional speeches, Daniel Scheinhart thanked his public school teachers by name, and his parents for never giving up on him when he was making weird short films, or dressing in drag. Daniel said that he used to dress in drag and he proclaimed that “drag harms no one”, it is so important that he used his incredibly huge platform to say this given the social climate we live in presently. 12th grader Griffin Acevado says that he went back and watched the Oscars for this specific moment. Daniel Kwan gave a heartfelt speech thanking his immigrant parents who got him to where he is today. The film also won for best editing, one of my personal favorite categories. This trophy went to the hands of Paul Rogers. He won the audience over with his genuine appreciation for his position, while accepting his award he said “This is only my second film yall, this is crazy”.
Everything Everywhere All at Once’s Ke Huy Quan has swept this awards season for Best Supporting Actor. He became the first Asian Actor to win in this category at the SAG awards. It was no surprise when Arian Debouise announced his name at the Oscars. He gave one of my favorite speeches of all time, tears in his eyes all the while, screaming “Mom! I just won an Oscar”, and telling the audience that dreams are something we have to believe in and that he almost gave up on his. He thanked his wife Echo, and told the audience at home to never give up on their dreams because their time will come. Senior Class Officer canadate, 11th grader, Kiera Luciano noted that she has not seen the film, however this moment from the night inspired her, when she saw it in clips on Tik Tok. This movie may have made history, however on top of that, the winner for best actress in a leading role made her own mark on the ceremonies. Michelle Yeoh winning this award makes her the second POC actress ever, to win leading woman, the only other being Halley Berry. She is also the first Asian woman to win said Oscar.
To bring it all together Everything Everywhere All At Once won best movie this year. When I asked some students in the cafeteria if they had seen it, 4 out of 6 people said yes. When I asked what their favorite moment was, three of the replied with the line, “I would have loved doing laundry and taxes with you”. When giving his speech Jonathan Yang said to his wife, “If all this shiny stuff goes away, I would just love to do laundry and taxes with you for the rest of my life. Closing off the night with a crowd pleasing speech.
