Oscars night: latest developments

Welcome to Oscars night! 

AFP is bringing you all the latest developments from the star-studded 98th Academy Awards in Hollywood.

Following the red carpet where A-listers showed off their top looks for the industry's most glamorous night of the year, host Conan O'Brien kicked off the main event with a comedic skit highlighting the night's top films.

Watch this space for the latest:

-- a film that exposes the propaganda and indoctrination of children in Russian schools in the wake of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine -- won the statuette for best documentary feature.

"Stop all of these wars now," said the teacher and film co-director Pavel Talankin , who smuggled the footage out of Russia after teaming up with filmmaker David Borenstein .

A lengthy

segment was given ample airtime to bloom at its own pace after a year that took a number of film legends with it.

Billy Crystal -- whose famed run as an Oscars host was practically synonymous with the awards show itself -- delivered a heartfelt tribute to his late friend and regular collaborator Rob Reiner , who was murdered along with his wife at their Los Angeles home late last year.

"Rob's movies will last for lifetimes because they were about what makes us laugh and cry and what we aspire to be -- far better in his eyes, far kinder, far funnier and far more human. And when Michele Singer entered his life, they were unstoppable," Crystal said, before a crew of people Reiner famously worked with, including Meg Ryan , appeared onstage.

"All we can say is buddy, what fun we had storming the castle," said Crystal, a reference to Reiner's cult smash "The Princess Bride."

A who's who of some of Hollywood's heaviest hitters who died in the last year followed, including

Rachel McAdams , who starred with Keaton in "The Family Stone," delivered a lengthy, teary homage to the late actor famed for films like "Annie Hall."

She was "a legend with no end," said McAdams.

The 83-year-old icon Barbra Streisand brought out the singing chops behind her star power to honor Redford, her co-star in "The Way We Were" who she called "a brilliant, subtle actor."

"Bob had real backbone, on and off the screen," said Streisand. "I called him an intellectual cowboy who blazed his own trail." 

"I miss him now more than ever."  

The best original screenplay prize went to

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for

the supernatural vampire drama set in the segregated Deep South, which he dubbed "an incredible honor" as he thanked his family and cast members.

"I'm very nervous," he said, "and they're going to play me off. I grew up in Oakland, California, and we can talk a lot."

Paul Thomas Anderson scored the prize for best adapted screenplay for "One Battle After Another," which is inspired by a Thomas Pynchon novel.

"I wrote this movie for my kids to say sorry for the housekeeping mess that we left in this world we're handing off to them," Anderson said, "but also with the encouragement that they will be the generation that hopefully brings us some common sense and decency."

Sean Penn won best supporting actor for his turn as a racist military officer in "One Battle" -- but wasn't there.

He reportedly skipped the ceremony to instead visit Ukraine.

"Sean Penn couldn't be here this evening -- or didn't want to," said presenter Kieran Culkin , accepting on the actor's behalf.

The Oscars audience witnessed a

: two films won the prize for best live-action short,

and

"You just ruined 22 million Oscar pools," said O'Brien, after waiting for the double acceptance speeches to end.

Best actor nominee Timothee Chalamet was among the night's punching bags, as O'Brien used his opening monologue to roast the actor up for his role in the ping-pong nailbiter "Marty Supreme."

"Security is extremely tight tonight," O'Brien said, in what initially appeared to refer to heightened security measures over the ongoing US-Israeli war on Iran.

"I'm told there's concerns about attacks from both the opera and ballet communities," the comedian instead quipped, before the camera cut to Chalamet laughing.

"They're just mad you left out jazz."

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