The 95th Academy Awards are being presented at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Monday morning. Over a hundred films are competing across 23 categories for the prestigious awards with plenty of Indian showing at the award ceremony too. For the first time in eight decades, three Indian films have been nominated at the Oscars. While Naatu Naatu, the song from RRR, has been nominated for Best Original Song, two documentary films - All That Breathes and The Elephant Whisperers - are also in contention. In addition, Deepika Padukone and Priyanka Chopra are also among the attendees with Deepika set to present an award.
Absurdist sc-fi adventure Everything Everywhere All At Once and German war drama All Quiet on the Western Front are set to dominate the night with the most nominations while RRR is keeping the Indian flag flying high. Follow this space for all the live updates from the ceremony from LA.
Deepika Padukone stunned fans with her appearance in a vintage Hollywood-style black Louis Vitton gown at the champagne carpet. Fans praised her look calling her 'always on point'.
The award ceremony kicked off with the first award - for Best Animated Feature Film - going to Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio. The emotional filmmaker thanked his late parents in his heartfelt acceptance speech. Ke Huy Quan then created history with his Best Supporting Actor win and broke down on stage as he received a standing ovation. Jamie Lee Curtis made it two in two for the film with the Best Supporting Actress as well.
Indian documentary film All That Breathes lost the Best Documentary Feature award to Navalny. The Shaunak Sen film had won the top prizes at the Cannes and Sundance film festivals. Ruth Carter won Best Costume Design for Black Panther Wakanda Forever and remembered her late mom with a message for the late Chadwick Boseman: 'Chadwick, please take care of her!'
All Quiet on the Western Front, the German Netflix film, took home the Best International Feature Film award. The war drama is one of the big contenders of the night with nine nominations.
The first cheer for India came as The Elephant Whisperers, a documentary short film won the award in the Best Documentary Short Subject category. The director Kartiki Gonsalves dedicated the award to 'my motherland India'.
Rihanna performed a rendition of her Oscar-nominated song Lift Me Up from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. The performance was introduced by Black Panther star Danai Gurira, who dedicated it to the late Chadwick Boseman, the actor who originally played Black Panther in the first film.
India had more positivity coming its way with RRR song Naatu Naatu winning the Best Original Song. Composer MM Keeravani even sang on stage, thanking director SS Rajamouli. The film's award announcement received one of the loudest cheers of the night. Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, collectively called the Daniels, won the Best Director for Everything Everywhere All at Once.
Brendan Fraser beat some tough competition to win the Best Actor for The Whale in his comeback film while Michelle Yeoh became the first woman of Asian origin to win the Best Actress for her performance in Everything Everywhere All at Once.
Everything Everywhere All at Once doinated the night, winning Best Picture as well, bringing its total haul to seven. It was followed by All Quiet on the Western Front with four awards.
