Academy Awards are presented annually for outstanding achievements in filmmaking. Winners of an Academy Award receive a gold-plated statue commonly called an Oscar, shown here. Credit: © Richard Levine, Alamy Images

On Sunday, March 12, the 95th Academy Awards—commonly known as the Oscars—were held at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California. The Oscars celebrate the past year’s achievements in filmmaking. In 2023, late night talk show host and comedian Jimmy Kimmel hosted the show. A variety of celebrities introduced and handed out the awards.

Michelle Yeoh stars as a woman who suddenly develops the power to leap between parallel universes in the action-adventure-fantasy Everything Everywhere All at Once.
Credit: A24

Everything Everywhere All at Once swept the Oscars, picking up awards in 7 of its 11 nominated categories, the most of any film nominations this year. Among those was the most coveted Best Picture award going to the directing pair Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, affectionately called the Daniels, and Jonathan Wang. Best Film Editing went to Paul Rogers. The Daniels also share the Best Director and Best Original Screenplay trophies. Kwan became the second Asian director to win best picture, director, and screenplay at the Academy Awards. The first was Joon Ho for Parasite (2019).

The sci-fi, multiverse-traveling, action adventure truly covered everything and everywhere. Michelle Yeoh won Best Actress for her role as Evelyn Wang in Everything Everywhere All at Once. The film beautifully portrayed the connection between Evelyn and her daughter Joy, and Joy’s powerful alter-ego Jobu Tupaki. Stephanie Hsu portrayed Joy and Jobu as they hopped realities. Ke Huy Quan won Best Supporting Actor as Waymond Wang, Evelyn’s goofy husband. Jamie Lee Curtis won Best Supporting Actress as the IRS auditor threatening to shut down the Wang’s laundromat.

Yeoh became the first Asian woman to win Best Actress. Quan made his return to acting after 30 years and became the second Asian actor to win Best Supporting Actor. As a child actor, he worked with legendary director Steven Spielberg on Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) and was cast by Spielberg for The Goonies (1985). This year, Spielberg became the first person nominated for Best Director in six different decades. Both with their first Oscars, Yeoh and Quan became the first actors to win the award portraying a character speaking Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese.

In another standout film, Brendan Fraser took home Best Actor for the psychological drama The Whale. It also won for Best Makeup and Hairstyling. The German-language film All Quiet on the Western Front, adapted from the book by Erich Maria Remarque, had nine nominations, winning four Academy Awards. The film took home Best International Film, Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, and Best Production Design.

“Naatu Naatu” from the adventure film RRR became the first Indian film song to win an Oscar with Best Original Song. The upbeat, Telugu-language song was composed by M. M. Keeravani and written by Chandrabose. The Elephant Whisperers became the first Indian film to win Best Documentary Short.

Navalny, about Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, won Best Documentary Feature. Women Talking won Best Adapted Screenplay. Best Animated Feature went to Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio.

Vice-presidential nominee Kamala Harris
Credit: California Attorney General’s Office

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month. All month long, Behind the Headlines will feature AAPI pioneers in a variety of areas.

In January 2021, Kamala Harris became the first woman to serve as vice president of the United States. She is also the first person of African American and South Asian ancestry to serve in the position. Harris and Joe Biden, the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee, defeated their Republican opponents, President Donald J. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, in the 2020 election. Before becoming vice president, Harris represented California in the U.S. Senate since 2017. She had earlier served as California’s attorney general —the state’s chief law officer. Prior to serving as attorney general, Harris was the district attorney of San Francisco, California.

Kamala Devi Harris was born in Oakland, California, on Oct. 20, 1964. Her mother was a physician and cancer specialist who was born in India. Her father, who was born in Jamaica, became an economics professor. In 1986, Harris received a bachelor’s degree in political science and economics from Howard University. In 1989, she earned a law degree from the University of California’s Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco. Harris married Doug Emhoff, an entertainment lawyer, in 2014.

From 1990 to 1998, Harris served as deputy district attorney for Alameda County, California. In 1998, she became the managing attorney of the Career Criminal Unit of the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office. In 2000, she was named to lead the San Francisco City Attorney’s Division on Families and Children.

In 2003, Harris won the election as San Francisco district attorney. She was reelected in 2007 and served through 2010. Her victory in the 2010 campaign for state attorney general marked the first time that a woman and—because of her mixed ethnicity—a person of African American and South Asian ancestry won the post. Harris took office in 2011. As attorney general, she gained attention for her work to combat transnational gangs and investigate banks that engaged in mortgage fraud. She was reelected in 2014 and served until 2017.

In January 2015, Barbara Boxer, long-time U.S. senator from California, announced that she would not seek reelection in 2016. Shortly afterward, Harris announced that she would campaign for the open Senate seat. In June 2016, Harris finished first in California’s open primary for the U.S. Senate seat. She defeated U.S. Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, a fellow Democrat, in the November election. As a U.S. senator, Harris served on a number of committees, including the Judiciary Committee and the Select Committee on Intelligence.

In January 2019, Harris began a campaign for her party’s 2020 nomination for president. She dropped out of the race in December 2019, while trailing her competitors in fundraising and in support in public opinion polls. Harris’s memoir, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey, was published in 2019.

In August 2020, Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, named Harris his vice presidential running mate. Issues in the campaign included the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and tensions between Black communities and police. Days after the November 3 election, major news outlets called the election for Biden and Harris, though election results had yet to be certified. Trump and Pence refused to concede, however, and challenged several state results via lawsuit. On November 23, following a string of legal defeats, the Trump administration authorized the start of the formal transition to a Biden administration. The Electoral College confirmed Biden’s victory on December 14. Harris resigned her Senate seat in January 2021, days before she and Biden took office.

Asian American actress Anna May Wong.
Credit: © Paramount Pictures

March is Women’s History Month, an annual observance of women’s achievements and contributions to society. This month, Behind the Headlines will feature woman pioneers in a variety of areas.

Her face has gone from the big screen to quarters! Anna May Wong was an Asian American actress. She became famous during the early years of American cinema. In her time, she was one of the few Asian performers to achieve widespread success. Wong eventually grew disappointed with the limited roles offered to her. She also became an outspoken critic of the casting of white performers in Asian roles. The U.S. Mint announced in 2021 that Wong would be one of five women commemorated on the quarter in their American Women Quarters series.

U.S. Mint’s American Women Quarters Program 2022 quarters.
Credit: US Mint

Wong Liu Tsong was born Jan. 3, 1905, in Los Angeles, California. Her parents operated a laundry. She made her first motion-picture appearance as an extra in The Red Lantern (1919). Wong continued acting in small roles. For years, she hid her work as an extra from her family. Her first credited role was in Bits of Life (1921). When her father learned of her acting career, he insisted on being present when she was on set.

Wong starred in the 1923 film Toll of the Sea, the first widely released feature film made in Technicolor. Before Technicolor, films were either shown in black and white or colored by hand. In Toll of the Sea, Wong played the romantic lead, bringing her new fame. However, her stardom started to strain her family life, with photographers and fans showing up at the family laundry to see her. Her family was further upset with her role in The Thief of Bagdad (1924) as an untrustworthy “Mongol slave.”

By the late 1920’s, Wong had grown disappointed in Hollywood. She was consistently offered roles as villains, slaves, or temptresses. In contrast, sympathetic leading roles were often reserved for white performers. Even Asian lead roles were often performed by better-known white actors made up to look Asian. In The Crimson City (1928), for example, Wong played a supporting role to lead actress Myrna Loy, a white woman made to look Asian. Wong moved to Europe in hopes of finding more realistic roles. There, she learned to speak French, German, and Italian. In 1929, Wong starred alongside the British actor Laurence Olivier in the play A Circle of Chalk in London.

In 1931, Wong starred as the lead in the Broadway play On the Spot. The role led to a return to Hollywood, with Daughter of the Dragon (1931) and Shanghai Express (1932). Both films offered the type of Asian villainess roles Wong had sought to escape. Yet Shanghai Express allowed for a more nuanced portrayal. Wong played Hui Fei, a prostitute (sex worker) and ally of a Chinese warlord who later turns on him, killing him.

Despite the acclaim she received for Shanghai Express, Wong continued to be offered disappointing roles. Producers had wanted Wong to play Lotus, a dancer, in the film adaptation of the novel The Good Earth. Wong wanted to play O-Lan, the female lead. The German actress Luise Rainer went on to win an Academy Award for portraying O-Lan.

In 1936, Wong again left Hollywood, this time for China. In China, Wong was criticized for her early film roles and for being too western for Chinese audiences. When she returned to America, filmmakers were more interested in hiring her to coach white actors performing Asian roles. In 1942, she retired from acting in films.

During the 1950’s, Wong acted in television shows, including her own series in 1951. In “The Gallery of Mme. Liu Tsong,” Wong portrayed a gallery owner who solved crimes. In 1960, she attempted a return to film, portraying a housekeeper in Portrait in Black. Wong died Feb. 3, 1961, from a heart attack. The Chinese American actress Michelle Krusiec played Wong in the television miniseries Hollywood (2020).

Yo-Yo Ma is a world-famous cello player known for his performances as a soloist with symphony orchestras and in chamber music groups.
Credit: © Fulya Atalay, Shutterstock

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month. All month long, Behind the Headlines will feature AAPI pioneers in a variety of areas.

Long before such teenage stars as JoJo Siwa and Olivia Rodrigo, there was a teenage cello-playing star named Yo-Yo Ma. Nearly 50 years later, Ma continues to be one of the world’s greatest and most popular cello players.

He has won praise for the warmth and sensitivity of his performances. Ma performs equally well playing solo cello, as part of chamber groups, and as a soloist with orchestras. He plays a broad repertoire that includes music from the 1600′s as well as the works of modern composers. In his live performances and recordings, he has united the Western classical music tradition with the music of non-Western cultures.

Cellist Yo-Yo Ma performs for people waiting in line at a COVID-19 vaccination site at Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, on March 13, 2021.
Credit: © Berkshire Community College

Ma was born in Paris on Oct. 5, 1955, to Chinese-born parents. He moved to the United States with his family at the age of 7. He studied with the famous cellist Leonard Rose from 1964 to 1971. Ma gained his first major exposure at the age of 15 when conductor Leonard Bernstein presented him on a television program.

After studying at Harvard University from 1972 to 1976, Ma began his career as a soloist. Since then, he has appeared with the world’s major symphony orchestras and played chamber music with many distinguished musicians.

In 2009, Ma became a creative consultant with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the country’s highest civilian honors, in 2011. That year, Ma also became a Kennedy Center Honoree.