The 95th Academy Awards, which aired live on ABC, took over the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday (March 12).
Everything Everywhere All at Once was the evening’s biggest winner, nabbing seven trophies out of its 11 nominations, including best picture, best directing, best actress, best supporting actress and best supporting actor.
Pop royalty was present and accounted for, with Rihanna performing “Lift Me Up” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Lady Gaga belting “Hold My Hand” from Top Gun: Maverick. Both were nominated in the best original song category, but lost out to M.M. Keeravaani and Chandrabose for “Naatu Naatu” from RRR. In the best original score category, Volker Bertelmann won for All Quiet on the Western Front.
John Travolta introduced Lenny Kravitz’s performance of “Calling All Angels” during the In Memoriam segment. Travolta paid homage to “dear friends who we will always remain hopelessly devoted to,” choking up while referencing his late Grease co-star Olivia Newton-John, who died last August at age 73. Travolta teared up while saluting his friend and musical collaborator.
It was host Jimmy Kimmel’s third time steering the Academy Awards. In his opening monologue, Kimmel naturally had a joke about Will Smith’s infamous slap of 2022 Oscars host Chris Rock. “We want me to feel safe. We have strict policies in place. If anyone in this theater commits an act of violence at any point during this show, you will be awarded the Oscar for best actor and permitted to give a 19-minute-long speech,” Kimmel said.