Michelle Yeoh became the first Asian woman to win best actress, as Everything Everywhere All at Once dominated at the Oscars.
The dazzling multiverse adventure won seven awards including best picture, director and original screenplay.
Accepting her statuette, Yeoh said: “For all the little boys and girls who look like me watching tonight, this is a beacon of hope and possibilities.
“And ladies, don’t let anybody tell you that you are ever past your prime.”
Yeoh’s co-stars Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis triumphed in the supporting actor and actress categories. In the history of the Oscars, no other film has ever won best picture, best director and three acting prizes.
In Everything Everywhere All at Once, Yeoh plays a Chinese-American laundrette owner who is mired in a tax audit, stuck in a crumbling marriage and struggling to connect with her daughter Joy.
But when she discovers different versions of herself in the multiverse, she must tap into their skills in order to save the world.
“This is proof that dreams do come true,” Yeoh said in her speech. “I have to dedicate this to all the moms in the world because they are the superheroes, and without them, none of us would be here tonight.”
The 60-year-old enjoyed a late surge in momentum in this year’s Oscars race, ultimately overtaking the early frontrunner Cate Blanchett.
Yeoh is only the second woman of colour to win best leading actress, following Halle Berry for Monster’s Ball more than two decades ago.
Best leading actress has historically been far less diverse than the supporting actress category, where Ariana DeBose, Yuh-jung Youn, Regina King, Viola Davis, Lupita Nyong’o and Octavia Spencer have won in the past decade.
Elsewhere, Brendan Fraser capped his extraordinary comeback after years away from the Hollywood spotlight by winning best actor for his performance in The Whale.
Thanking the film’s director, the 54-year-old said: “I’m grateful to Darren Aronofsky for throwing me a creative lifeline.”
“I just wanted to say thank you for this acknowledgement,” he said.
Addressing his fellow nominees, he said: “You laid your whale-sized hearts so we could see into your souls, like no-one else could do, and it is my honour to be named alongside you in this category.”
Fraser was a huge film star at the turn of the millennium, starring in films such as George of the Jungle and The Mummy.
But he spent years out of the spotlight as he struggled to recapture his earlier success, mostly taking on smaller roles.
That changed when he was cast in The Whale as an overweight professor trying to repair his relationship with his estranged daughter.
Fraser transformed his appearance for the film, which also won best make-up and hairstyling.
Much like Fraser, best supporting actor winner Quan has enjoyed a comeback narrative this awards season. The actor catapulted back into the spotlight thanks to his role in Everything Everywhere All at Once.
He told the audience: “Dreams are something you have to believe in – I almost gave up on mine.”
The 51-year-old took an extended break from acting after rising to fame as a child star in films such as The Goonies and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
In an emotional speech, the Vietnamese-American actor said: “They say stories like this only happen in the movies – I cannot believe it is happening to me. This is the American dream.
“My journey started on a boat, I spent a year in a refugee camp, and somehow I ended up here, on Hollywood’s biggest stage… Thank you so much for welcoming me back.”
Curtis won the first Oscar of her 45-year acting career by scoring best supporting actress – one of the tightest categories of the night.
“I know it looks like I’m standing up here by myself but I am not, I am hundreds of people,” Curtis said in her acceptance speech. “The entire group of artists who made this movie – we just won an Oscar.”
Everything Everywhere also won best editing, best original screenplay and best directing for Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert – jointly known as Daniels.
All Quiet on the Western Front, Netflix’s German-language World War One epic, finished the night in second place with four awards – best international feature, original score, production design and cinematography.
Its success at the Oscars follows a string of technical wins at the Baftas, but the film failed to replicate its British victory in the top category.
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio was named best animated feature. The Mexican filmmaker said: “Animation is cinema, animation is not a genre and animation is ready to be taken to the next step.”
Wakanda Forever’s Ruth E Carter repeated the best costume design victory she scored with the original Black Panther. She dedicated the prize to her mother, who died aged 101 last week.
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