Neither Steven Spielberg nor Cate Blanchett managed to steal the show.
Tom Cruise indeed lived up to his status as the “last real movie star” during the Oscars luncheon, held on Monday, February 13.
Nearly 200 nominees in the statuette race thus thronged to the event - and all had eyes only for the eternal hero of
Top Gun
.
From Hollywood moguls to Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, a crowd of admirers took care to salute him.
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“I just want people to go to the cinema”
The actor is among the Oscar nominees as producer of
Top Gun: Maverick
(2022), in which he also plays.
The feature film, which was a hit in theaters, is among the favorites for the statuette of the best film.
"It's unbelievable (...)," he told AFP.
I just want people to go to movie theaters.”
The actor nevertheless agreed that these feasts, between giant statuettes and champagne at will, were "charming".
The 95th Academy Awards will take place on March 12.
This year, voters gave several nominations to blockbusters such as
Maverick
,
Avatar: The Way of the Water
(2022) and
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
(2022).
Something to counter the continuous erosion of the ceremony on television.
In her lunch speech, Academy President Janet Yang reiterated her desire to turn the page on the “unprecedented” controversy that arose the year before, when Will Smith slapped comedian Chris Rock in the face. live before being expelled.
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The slap of Will Smith
"What happened on stage was totally unacceptable," she said.
And the response from our organization has been inadequate.”
Will Smith had thus been able to stay on the Oscars stage and had accepted his prize for best actor, before being banned in a second time from any ceremony for ten years.
The Academy “must act with compassion and determination” in times of crisis, argued Janet Yang, to applause.
success story
After lunch, the names of the 182 nominees present, as well as directors representing their countries in the category of the best international films, were read.
The nominees then posed for the traditional “class photo”.
A favorite of many pundits for the Best Picture Oscar, comedy
Everything Everywhere All At Once
(2022) earned its cast the highest acclaim.
“We paid them a lot of money to do that!” joked Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh, nominated for Best Actress and already a Golden Globe winner in that category.
The enormous success of this independent film, nominated in 11 categories, is for her “a dream come true”.
In photos, Tom Cruise through the years, from the portrait of a schoolboy to the Palme d'or d'honneur
In images, in pictures
See the slideshow34 photos
See the slideshow34 photos
A controversial appointment
Colin Farrell and Austin Butler, rivals for the title of best actor thanks to their respective roles in the Irish tragicomedy
The Banshees of Inisherin
(2022) and the biopic
Elvis
(2022) about the rock'n'roll legend, also collected loud applause.
British actress Andrea Riseborough, on the other hand, was conspicuous by her absence, after her controversial nomination in the best actress category for her role as an alcoholic in remission in the low-budget film To Leslie (2022), obtained without a real campaign, thanks
to
the sustained lobbying of certain actors on social networks.
Even if the appointment was maintained, our colleagues from the Guardian indicate that an internal investigation has been opened into “campaign tactics”
.
The guests present savored the moment, like the writer Kazuo Ishiguro, nominated for the screenplay of the British drama
Vivre
(2022) after receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature five years ago in Stockholm .
Another Nobel Peace Prize this time, Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai, who was also campaigning.
She is executive producer of
Stranger at the Gate
(2022), a short documentary about a former American serviceman who wanted to blow up a mosque in his hometown.
“It's surreal, she said after meeting Tom Cruise.
I saw it on screen and now I see it in person.