It was Hollywood's biggest night of the year - but two big names were noticeably absent.
Tom Cruise and James Cameron were both no-shows at this year's Oscars ceremony, despite them both having movies up for the Best Picture award.
Those films are, of course, Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way Of Water.
These movies were credited with 'saving cinema' after a few of years of dismal cinema attendance due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Advert
Steven Spielberg was even filmed telling Cruise that he 'saved Hollywood's ass'.
Top Gun: Maverick grossed $1.4 billion at the box office, with Cruise both starring in and producing the long-awaited sequel to the 1986 original.
However, Cruise was unable to attend the 95th Oscars ceremony, with his representatives confirming that the 60-year-old actor was busy filming Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part II.
Advert
Jerry Bruckheimer, Cruise's co-producer on Top Gun: Maverick, was in attendance to receive the Best Picture Oscar on his behalf - but the statue went to Everything Everywhere All At Once.
The film did win one of the six Oscars it was nominated for - Best Sound.
The absence of Cameron on the other hand was a little ambiguous.
While Avatar: The Way Of Water may be the third highest grossing film of all time, the director still didn't show up to the ceremony.
Advert
Cameron’s producing partner and fellow nominee Jon Landau claimed that his absence was due to 'personal reasons'.
Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel didn't let the absences of Cruise and Cameron go unnoticed, as he cracked a joke about their absence.
Kimmel said: "You know, Tom [Cruise] and James Cameron didn’t show up tonight. The two guys who insisted we go to the theatre didn’t come the theatre."
Advert
The 55-year-old then made a dig at Cruise's religious beliefs: "Everyone loved Top Gun, everyone! I mean, Tom Cruise with his shirt off and that beach football scene? L Ron hubba hubba."
This was in reference to the founder of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard.
Rounding back to Cameron, Kimmel said: "Some of the cynics are saying James Cameron isn’t here because he didn’t get a best director nomination.
Advert
"And while I find that very hard to believe about a man of such deep humility, he does have a point. I mean, how does the Academy not nominate the guy who directed Avatar? What do they think he is, a woman?"
Then, sparing a remark for the lengthy runtime of the latest The Way of Water, Kimmel remarked: "You know a show is too long when even James Cameron can’t sit through it."
Topics: Tom Cruise, Oscars, Top Gun
Ben Thompson