The Best Moments From the Show, Ranked

Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photos: Getty Images

For the 95th time, the Oscars are back, baby! Whether or not you’re tuning in, we can all get behind an Academy Awards ceremony full of Florence Pugh in Valentino hot pants and big wins for the beloved Everything Everywhere All at Once.

Celebrities blended into the Champagne carpet before gathering at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Sunday to celebrate Hollywood’s biggest night and politely endure Jimmy Kimmel. This year’s Academy Awards are particularly momentous for Asian and Asian American creatives, with Ke Huy Quan taking home the statuette for Best Supporting Actor and Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, Hong Chau all nominated for acting awards. Also up for statues: director Daniel Kwan, costume designer Shirley Kurata, musicians Ian Chang and Rafiq Bhatia (two-thirds of the band Son Lux), Mitski, and Nobel laureate Kazuo Ishiguro, who’s in contention for Best Adapted Screenplay for Living. The Grammy-winning bop “Naatu Naatu” from the Indian film RRR is nominated for Best Original Song, and I will be vibing to it all over again. If Yeoh wins Best Actress for Everything Everywhere All at Once — the film has racked up 11 nominations going into the night — she’ll be the first Southeast Asian actor to do so. Yeoh is up against Blonde’s Ana de Armas, Michelle Williams, surprise nominee Andrea Risebourough, and Cate Blanchett in the category, who earned a nomination for her immersive performance as composer Lydia Tár, who, might I remind you, is not a real person.

The 2023 Oscars are also a big night for musicians: Lady Gaga and Rihanna are both nominated for Best Original Song, with Rihanna set to perform her track “Lift Me Up” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. If tonight’s sheer black Alaïa outfit is any indication, Rihanna’s second pregnancy fashion will be giving just as much, if not more, as her first. Ten out of ten Champagne carpets for her, and more of our rankings of the best and worst moments from the show below.

This year’s red carpet was, inexplicably, Champagne-colored. Oscars organizers justified their bizarre choice by saying they wanted this year’s rug to be mellow (okay, but did they also want it to be filthy?) and because the unveiling of the new shade took place days before the show, celebs were left with little notice that they would essentially be blending into the carpet — a sordid fate for Florence Pugh’s Valentino gown, Zoë Saldana’s cream-colored Fendi ensemble, and countless other Champagne-carpet casualties. Three out of ten Champagne carpets.

Resident internet boyfriend and Man Who Blushes in Zendaya’s Presence (understandable) arrived on the red carpet in a little mullet, a white tux, and a rose corsage, and the answer is yes, we will go to prom with him. Mescal is nominated for Best Actor for his performance in Aftersun, in which he plays a sad dad on a Turkish holiday with his young daughter. Eight out of ten Champagne carpets.

Photo: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images

Did you expect the Creed III star to arrive empty-handed? This man loves his little cup: “We have the mug because we always have the mug,” the actor explained on the Champagne carpet. A beautiful, unshakeable bond. Ten out of ten Champagne carpets.

Butler, who is nominated for Best Actor for his performance as Elvis in the 2022 biopic, took method acting a little too seriously when he refused to stop using the singer’s southern drawl even months after the film was released. But he may finally be phasing it out: While talking about how people getting Oscars “really really moves” him on the carpet, Butler’s voice sounded just a touch less low. Is this a soft launch of his normal voice? Or is it, like the Elvis outfit he kept from set, here to stay? Who is to say. Three out of ten Champagne carpets.

Days before the show, Kimmel told The Hollywood Reporter he didn’t “necessarily think” he’d be asked to host the Oscars again, but lo and behold, the Academy, creatures of habit that they are, invited him back to emcee the event for a third time. Kimmel’s monologue was, as expected, a snoozefest — he gave us little jokes about the rampant Ozempic use in the room, the lack of women directors nominated for Best Director, and Austin Butler’s ongoing Elvis schtick. Though Kimmel warned us in advance that some of his monologue would revolve around The Slap That Apparently Must Not Be Named, the bits were still particularly cringe. Two out of ten Champagne carpets.

After Jamie Lee Curtis won her very first (!) Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role as IRS inspector Deirdre Beaubeirdra in Everything Everywhere All at Once, she dedicated the award to the cast, crew, family, and “all of the people who have supported the genre movies” she’s made over the years. “We just won an Oscar, together!” Curtis said. While we’re sad to be robbed of another “Angela Bassett did the thing” moment, we’re still happy for one of our favorite nepo babies. Seven out of ten Champagne carpets.

Despite the fact that Sarah Polley, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Charlotte Wells and Maria Schrader all made some pretty major films last year — Women Talking, The Woman King, Aftersun, and She Said, respectively — Academy snubbed all of them for Best Director nominations; the 573 members of its directors’ branch didn’t nominate any women directors at all. Days before the award show, Prince-Bythewood told People the shutout was “egregious” and “speaks to a bigger issue in our industry,” while Women in Film, Los Angeles openly condemned the Academy and its failure to “value women’s voices,” adding, “An Academy Award is more than a gold statute, it’s a career accelerator that can lead to continued work and increased compensation.” One out of ten Champagne carpets.

Acceptance speeches usually involve a litany of thank-yous and tears, but after taking home the award for Best Live Action Short Film, the creators of An Irish Goodbye spent the second half of their time onstage singing happy birthday to star James Martin. Ten out of ten Champagne carpets for the gesture. 

This story will be updated throughout the evening.