Congratulations Oscar® Winners

Congratulations Oscar® Winners
by Staff Editors

(March 12, 2023 – Toronto, ON) It’s been quite some time since Canada made a mark at the Academy Awards but last night all of that changed. Nothing can compare to the near sweep by Everything Everywhere All at Once, but our haul, which might be an exaggeration, was still impressive compared to past years.

It began with a win for documentary filmmaker Daniel Roher for his 2022 film Navalny, which is about the events related to the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and the subsequent investigation. Navalny fell sick during a flight from Tomsk to Moscow, and was hospitalized in serious condition. He was then taken to a hospital in Omsk after an emergency landing there, and put in a coma. Two days later, he was evacuated to the Charité hospital in Berlin, Germany. The use of the nerve agent was confirmed by five certified laboratories. Navalny shows how Bellingcat journalist Christo Grozev and Maria Pevchikh, the head investigator for Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, reveal the details of a plot that indicates the involvement of Putin. Navlany screened at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival where it won the Audience Award in the US Documentary competition. Based on applause, it was the favorite of those at the Dolby Theatre last night.

James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water won a 2023 Oscar® for Best Visual Effects. The team behind the work included Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon and Daniel Barrett.

Montreal-based prosthetics whiz Adrien Morot and his crew Judy Chin and Annemarie Bradley won the 2023 Academy Award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling for the feature The Whale, starring Brendan Fraser. Morot picked up a nomination for his work on the Canadian feature Barney’s Version 13 years ago.

The next award in the Canadian list may have surprised many if not most watchers. Up against Top Gun: Maverick, All Quiet on the Western Front, Living and Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery in the Best Adapted Screenplay category, Sarah Polley won for her cinematic retelling of the Miriam Toews book, Women Talking. “First of all, I want to thank the academy for not being mortally offended by the words ‘women’ and ‘talking’ so close together like that,” Polley said to laughter.

Our “streak” ended with a well-deserved Oscar® for Best Actor for Brendan Fraser for his remarkable role in The Whale. It was his first Oscar®.

Northernstars.ca congratulates all of the nominees and winners at the 95th Annual Academy Awards, hosted for the third time by Jimmy Kimmel and held at the Dolby Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles.

Also see: Canadians and the Oscars – 2023.