Oscars 2023: Brendan Fraser, Michelle Yeoh win best actor awards as Everything Everywhere sweeps Oscars

Great result for India with M.M. Keeravani and Chandrabose winning best original song for Naatu Naatu from RRR.

But it means that American songwriter Diane Warren has been nominated for best original song now 14 times without a win, including for the past six years in a row.

However, it has not been an unhappy awards season for Warren.

She joined great Australian director Peter Weir and trailblazing Martinican-born director Euzhan Palcy in winning an honourary Oscar earlier this year.

There hasn’t been a lot of love for the Australian nominees this time around, though our Cate remains a strong chance of winning the best actress gong.

But there was no mistaking who got top billing in the In Memoriam segment: Olivia Newton-John.

Not only did she start the roll call of those who passed away in the past year, the segment was introduced by John Travolta, her Grease co-star, who teared up as he noted that these were people to whom we would remain “hopelessly devoted”.

It was a genuinely touching moment. But while you’re pondering the shunned Aussies, spare a thought for the Israelis.

Putting together the In Memoriam segment is always a fraught exercise for the producers – don’t imagine for a second that every actor, writer, producer, director, make-up artist, whatever who died in the past 12 months is going to be included. But you’d think that being nominated for an Oscar makes a person a certainty.

Well, yes and no.

Chaim Topol – better known simply as Topol – was nominated in 1972 for best actor for his starring turn as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof (he lost out to Gene Hackman for The French Connection). But he wasn’t on this year’s In Memoriam list, despite the fact he died just days ago (on March 9), aged 87.

The omission is far more likely to be a product of production logistics than a deliberate snub (you’d hope it wasn’t simply that they forgot, or failed to notice he had died), but it’s a shoddy one all the same. Oy vey.

It’s the first acceptance speech of the night delivered via song! M.M. Keeravani, the composer of RRR’s Naatu Naatu, has beaten the likes of Rihanna (Black Panther) and Lady Gaga (Top Gun: Maverick) to win best song and celebrated with a track from The Carpenters.

After saying he grew up listening to the band, he sang his thank yous to the tune of 1973’s Top of the World: “There was only one wish on my mind,” he sang through a smile.

“RRR has to win, pride of every Indian. And must put me on the top of the world!”

Despite a whole lot of love for this Indian blockbuster both in Hollywood and around the world, this is RRR’s only nomination of the night. It would have been nice to see a bit more specific love about the film itself, but whatever - a win’s a win!

Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, the kooky writers and directors of Everything Everywhere All At Once, have won best original screenplay and delivered a very sweet speech shouting out their family and the public school teachers who supported them along the way.

Noting he’s always had self-esteem problems and “never thought of himself as a writer”, Kwan looked totally elated by the crowd cheering him on and said his “imposter syndrome is at an all-time high”.

The love in the room for EEAO seems huge! And, as truly great as this film is, I think everyone was also stoked to get a break from the ominous tones of All Quiet for a second.

Sarah Polley, the writer and director of Women Talking, also took out the award for best adapted screenplay. She opened with a direct hit to the academy: “Thanks to the academy for not being mortally offended by the words women and talking being so close together. Thank you for that!”

Just weeks after her Super Bowl half-time show performance, Rihanna has made a guest appearance at the Oscars where she is nominated for best original song.

Rihanna performed her nominated song Lift Me Up from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

The audience looked like they were blown away by the performance, and it seems like the people at home agree. Twitter is going crazy for this Rihanna content, which is a rarity from the singer and entrepreneur in 2023.

Elizabeth Banks, director of 2023’s most deranged movie so far, presented the award for best visual effects with her muse Cocaine Bear.

“Without visual effects, this is what the bear would look like,” she said, while a person in a raggedy bear suit joked about trying to score coke off celebs in the front row.

Honestly, the past hour of this ceremony has been a snoozefest, so I welcome whatever this is.

For the record, Avatar: The Ways of Water won the award for best visual effects because, of course, it did.

The Netflix war drama All Quiet On The Western Front emerged as a dark horse at the Oscars when it won best picture, director and five other British Academy Film Awards last month. With the closeness of the war in Ukraine, it resonated strongly with BAFTA voters.

But it’s also proving surprisingly popular at the Oscars so far. Going in with nine nominations, the latest adaptation of a classic German novel by Erich Maria Remarque has won four awards so far: best cinematography, international feature film, production design and original score.

So, is it a chance of upsetting favourite Everything Everywhere All At Once for best picture? We’ll see.

Hugh Grant and Andie McDowell come onstage to introduce the award for production design, and this is the Grant everyone knows and loves, funny, awkward, self-deprecating.

He starts by saying they are here for two reasons, the first of which is to highlight the importance of using moisturiser.

“Andie’s been using it every day,” he says of his Four Weddings and a Funeral co-star.

“I’ve never used it in my life. Still stunning,” he says, indicating her. “Basically a scrotum” he says, referring to himself. It gets a big laugh.

What a contrast to the Hugh Grant on the red carpet earlier; a man who looked like he would rather be anywhere else than answering the questions model and TV presenter Ashley Graham was putting to him.

Who do you want to win? I don’t really care.

What are you wearing? My suit.

Who made it? My tailor.

How much fun was it to make Glass Onion? I’m barely in it.

The highlight was his line that “all of humanity” is here, a reference to the A-listers in the auditorium and the great unwashed standing at the barricades either side of the red carpet.

“It’s Vanity Fair,” he added, referring to William Makepeace Thackeray’s magnificent social satire of 19th century England.

Oh, Graham replied, that’s where everyone cuts loose, referring to the glossy magazine’s famous after-party.

His lack of enthusiasm for the inanity of the questions was perhaps understandable, but the utter charmlessness of his handling of it – I mean, dude, it’s 60 seconds of your life, just play along a little – was astonishing.

Unsurprisingly, it didn’t go down too well on the socials, where some were quick to grant Hugh the award for biggest douchebag of the night.

Still, if he survived Divine Brown, I’m betting he’ll sail past this one too.

Besides, that eyebrow raise at the end is kinda priceless.