ARRI cameras, lenses, and lighting shine behind 2023 Oscar® winners

At the 95th Academy Awards, golden Oscar statues, honoring films released in 2022, were doled out in 23 categories to some of the brightest stars from around the world. ARRI and ARRI Rental are honored to have served films such as “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” “All Quiet on the Western Front,” “Elvis,” “The Banshees of Inisherin,” “TÁR,” “Triangle of Sadness,” “Empire of Light,” “Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths,” and many more!

The 2023 Oscar for Best Picture goes to … “Everything Everywhere All at Once”

“Everything Everywhere All at Once,” directed, written, and co-produced by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, known collectively as the Daniels, was the big winner of the evening. The film earned seven Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Editing, Best Original Screenplay, and three of the top four acting categories. The great nihilistic multiverse, family drama, kung fu action sequences, death and taxes, a laundromat and bagels, combined with an exhausted protagonist. It is hard to define the big-hearted action drama “Everything Everywhere All at Once” but audiences and jurors all agree—it’s a hit! Cinematographer on the film, Larkin Seiple, chose to shoot “Everything Everywhere All at Once” on the ALEXA Mini camera. ARRI Master Prime lenses were used for the rock universe scenes and ARRI SkyPanels were also on set to create 4x20-feet walls of light.

Oscar winners for “Everything Everywhere All at Once” backstage

Out of the ten films nominated by the Academy for Best Picture, seven of them were captured, at least partially, on ARRI cameras, with large format still dominating. Three were also up for Best Cinematography: “All Quiet on the Western Front,” “Elvis,” and “TÁR.” Other Best Picture contenders included Martin McDonagh’s “The Banshees of Inisherin,” lensed by Ben Davis BSC with ALEXA Mini LF and ARRI Signature Primes. Earlier this year, “Banshees” was awarded with “Outstanding British Film” at the BAFTAs and was nominated for nine Academy Awards. Stephen Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans” utilized a variety of analog cameras including the ARRIFLEX 16S, ARRIFLEX 416 under the watchful eye of DP Janusz Kaminski. Palme d’Or winner at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, “Triangle of Sadness,” was directed by Ruben Östlund and shot by cinematographer Fredrik Wenzel on the ALEXA LF.

Shot on ARRI equipment and serviced by ARRI Rental, “All Quiet on the Western Front” wins the Oscar for Cinematography

As a camera designer and manufacturer, ARRI always pays very close attention to the Achievement in Cinematography award. This year, five out of five contenders in Best Cinematography chose to capture their masterpieces with ARRI cameras.

Netflix’s devastating retelling of Remarque’s anti-war novel, “All Quiet on the Western Front,” swept the BAFTAs earlier this year and was nominated for nine Academy Awards. In an extremely competitive category, cinematographer James Friend ASC, BSC, collected the well-deserved golden statue for his work on “All Quiet on the Western Front.” Directed by Edward Berger, the picture was shot mainly on the ALEXA 65 and ALEXA Mini LF cameras with DNA and Prime 65 S lenses. ARRI lights, including Orbiter and SkyPanel, helped illuminate the production that was serviced with camera, lighting, and grip gear by ARRI Rental.

James Friend accepts the Oscar for Cinematography during the live ABC telecast of the 95th Oscars

In an interview with ARRI Rental, DP James Friend talks about his choice of cameras, “When testing the ALEXA 65, it became very apparent that the grammar of the format suited vistas. But I was also curious to see how it worked in confined spaces and just letting the actors move within a frame, and that's where the majesty of the format really came to life for me. So, although we certainly used it for vistas, most of the 65 mm sequences are in confined spaces that you wouldn’t normally associate with large format … it was amazing how immersive the ALEXA 65 felt as it moved down a trench.” Friend also appreciated working with a variety of lenses recommended and tuned by ARRI Rental but also with ARRI Rental’s exclusive HEXATRON, the largest all-terrain crane positioning vehicle in Europe. He sums up: “Overall, the ALEXA 65 and the HEXATRON gave us such technical and creative power as filmmakers that the film just wouldn't be the same without them.” The full article can be found here.

“All Quiet On The Western Front” also took advantage of LED lighting technology. ARRI SkyPanels and Orbiter were used to light the vast exteriors. Gaffer on the film, Daniel Kafka, speaks about working with ARRI lights: “I love working with SkyPanels S60 and especially S360. They are very flexible lights. I used the S60 on set as a key light through magic cloth.” Using ARRI Rental’s HEXATRON, Friend, Kafka, and the team were able to suspend a huge softbox, containing dozens of SkyPanels, for a flood of light over the middle of the battlefield. Kafka explains: “I also had a large soft box with 30 S60s on the battlefield as top and back light, and three S360s as a keylight on each side of the battlefield. We used the ARRI Orbiter to read the light values of the flares to achieve the exact color.”

Inside the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood for the telecast of the 95th Oscars

Also nominated for Achievement in Cinematography, “Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths,” was directed by five-time Academy Award®-winner Alejandro González Ińárritu and shot by cinematographer Darius Khondji ASC, AFC. “Bardo” was illuminated with ARRI lights, Orbiter and SkyPanel, and shot with the ALEXA 65 camera and a lens package supplied by ARRI Rental.

Cinematographer Mandy Walker AM, ACS, ASC, already became the first female recipient of multiple awards this year for her sensational work on Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis.” Just as nuanced and emotional as the life of Elvis Presley surely was, “Elvis” was shot with the ARRI ALEXA 65 as the main camera and ARRI ALEXA LF as support, both provided by ARRI Rental. ARRI lighting, including the SkyPanel and Orbiter, was also behind the scenes.

Evergreen cinematography legend Sir Roger Deakins CBE, ASC, BSC teamed up once again with director Sam Mendes to film “Empire of Light.” This romantic drama was shot on ALEXA Mini LF with Signature Primes lenses. Deakins’ team, including key grip Gary Hymns, also turned to the ARRI MAXIMA, a three-axis stabilized gimbal.

Coming off his golden frog victory at the most recent Camerimage in Poland, DP Florian Hoffmeister BSC was also nominated for an Oscar for his work on “TÁR.” Director Todd Field’s emotional drama was filmed with ALEXA LF, ALEXA Mini LF cameras with ARRI Signature Prime lenses that were detuned with custom optics by ARRI Rental.

The 95th Oscars at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood.

“All Quiet on the Western Front” from Germany wins the Oscar for Best International Feature Film

All but one of the nominated films in the category Best International Feature Film was shot with ARRI. The Oscar went to Germany for “All Quiet on the Western Front.” Already adapted for the screen twice before in the 1930s and 1970s, Edward Berger’s adaptation is the very first cinematic retelling of the novel in the German language by a German director. This new version was also created by a mostly German team of actors and crew. The production was based in the Czech Republic and serviced by ARRI Rental in Prague. “All Quiet on the Western Front” was nominated for nine Academy Awards and is the third most-nominated non-English-language film in Oscar history, behind only “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and “Roma.” Besides Best International Foreign Film, and Best Cinematography, the picture also won Best Music (Original Score) and Best Production Design.

Director Edward Berger accepts the Oscar for International Feature Film for “All Quiet on the Western Front”

The other contenders in Best International Feature Film who used ARRI equipment were Argentina with “Argentina, 1985” shot by Javier Juliá on ALEXA Mini LF and ARRI Signature Primes; Belgium with “Close” lensed by Frank van den Eeden on ALEXA Mini; and Poland with “EO” shot with ALEXA Mini LF by cinematographer Michal Dymek.

For a complete list of winners, along with their acceptance speeches, please see the Academy’s webpage.

ARRI congratulates all the winners and nominees of the 95th annual Academy Awards. We thank you for relying on ARRI cameras, lenses, stabilizers, lighting, and services to help bring your artistic visions to life.