On Sunday night, Hollywood celebrated the biggest night in the movie industry: the Oscars. The 95th annual awards show was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel at the iconic Dolby Theater, with many acclaimed movies up for nominations. This year’s Oscars also had two significant changes made. The red carpet this year wasn’t red, but champagne, a change not done since 1961. The New York Times says that the main reason was so the red wouldn’t clash with the orange tent that was over the carpet that shielded attendees from the weather. Jimmy Kimmel suggested that the change was made “to imply that there would be no bloodshed”, a jab at the infamous Will Smith slap from last year. The other change was that the Academy had all 23 categories televised during the program, which was a request made by many. A “crisis team” was also put in place to prevent any possible violent situations.  

The competition was fierce among all categories. Lady Gaga and Rhianna competed for best original song, Cate Blanchett and Michelle Williams went up against each other for best actress, along with some new nominees up against Steven Spielberg for directing and screenplay.  John Williams was also in the running, and at age 91, he made history as the oldest person to be nominated for an Oscar. Many of the category winners, including Jimmy Kimmel, said that it was amazing to have people seeing movies how they should be seen again: in a theater.  Movies like Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way of Water did this to encourage people to get the full experience of their movie in a theater. Others like All Quiet on the Western Front and Tár were exclusively on streaming services like Apple TV and Netflix.  

Everything Everywhere All at Once won 7 of their 11 nominated categories, with Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis dominating the supporting role categories. Daniel Kwan and Daniel Steinert won two of those Oscars for the movie as well. Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio beat Disney’s Turning Red and Dreamwork’s Puss in Boots: The Last Wish in the animation category. Brendan Fraser also shocked everyone by winning best actor for The Whale, which many thought would be given to Austin Butler for his performance as Elvis Presley in Elvis. Ruth Carter’s designs for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever also won the film an Oscar, and most of them were made by 3D printers to create the intricate patterns on the crowns and necklaces. 

The Oscars made dreams come true for some lucky people, and some walked away with the determination to make their work better for a nomination next year.