Ke Huy Quan, a onetime child star who quit acting for two decades, and Hollywood veteran Jamie Lee Curtis won Academy Awards on Sunday for their roles in the offbeat, dimension-hopping adventure that “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
A tearful Quan, who was born in Vietnam, kissed his golden Oscar statue as he held it on stage at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles in front of the biggest names in show business.
“My journey started on a boat. I spent a year in a refugee camp. Somehow I ended up here on the biggest stage in Hollywood,” said Quan.
As a child, Quan starred in the 1984 “Indiana Jones” movie and 1985’s “The Goonies.” The 51-year-old said he gave up acting over the years because he saw little opportunity in Asian actors on the big screen.
“They say stories like this only happen in movies,” he added. “I can’t believe this is happening to me. This is the American dream.”
Quan’s co-star Jamie Lee Curtis, who has built a career in horror films like “Halloween,” won best supporting actress for her role as a frumpy tax auditor named Deirdre Beaubeirdre.
Curtis, 64, looked up and spoke to his late parents, Oscar nominees Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh. “I just won an Oscar,” she cried.
Among other early awards, Guillermo del Toro’s “Pinocchio” was named best animated feature.
There is a crisis response team in case of an unexpected twist. The group was formed after Will Smith punched Chris Rock on stage last year, disrupting the film industry’s most prestigious ceremony.
Host Jimmy Kimmel, who landed on the Oscars stage by parachute in tribute to best picture nominee “Top Gun: Maverick,” joked in his opening monologue about the audience’s reaction to Smith’s attack last year.
“If anything unpredictable or violent happens at the ceremony, just do what you did last year – nothing,” he told the crowd of A-list celebrities. “Maybe give the killer a hug.”
The film “Navalny” about the poisoning that nearly killed Alexei Navalny, Russia’s most prominent opposition leader, and his imprisonment upon his return to Moscow in 2021, won the Oscar for best documentary feature.
The 95th Academy Awards ceremony was broadcast live on Walt Disney Co’s ( DIS.N ) ABC network. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is hoping to skip the slap and put on a flashy show and boost sagging TV ratings.
Before the awards, nominees dressed in designer gowns and tuxedos announced their performances on a champagne carpet instead of the traditional red.
Several of 2022’s biggest hits at the multiplex are competing in the best picture race, from “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Everything Everywhere” to “Elvis” and “Avatar: The Way of Water.”
Last year, the television audience for the Academy Awards was the second lowest ever with 16.6 million viewers.
Big movies on Sunday’s ballot, rather than some of the lesser-seen movies nominated in recent years, will help attract more viewers. Musical performances can also enhance viewing.
Lady Gaga came out as a last-minute addition and was expected to sing her “Top Gun”-nominated song “Hold My Hand.” Oscars producers said last week that Gaga was unable to make it because she was in the middle of filming a sequel to the 2019 movie “Joker.”
Pop superstar Rihanna will also take the stage, performing “Lift Me Up” from “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.”
Michelle Yeoh of “Everything Everywhere” faced off in the best actress category with Cate Blanchett, who played a devious orchestra conductor in “Tar.” Best actor will be a toss-up between “Elvis” star Austin Butler and Brendan Fraser, who played a morbidly obese man in “The Whale.”
The winners are voted on by nearly 10,000 actors, producers, directors and film artists who make up the film academy.
