Winning is `Everything'
Sci-fi fantasy snags 7 Oscars, including for picture, director and 3 actors
“Everything Everywhere All at Once” proved to be the weird little movie that could at the 95th annual Academy Awards on Sunday, winning seven of its 11 nominations, including Oscars for best picture, best director and three of its actors.
Producer Jonathan Wang thanked the “brilliant and bighearted cast and crew” who surrounded him onstage at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood after “Everything Everywhere” closed out the night with a win for best picture. Codirector Daniel Kwan wrapped up with a message of hope for the continuing role of film to help “shelter each other from the crazy chaos of this world.”
“I have great faith in our stories,” Kwan said of film in general. “These stories have changed my life. They have for generations. And I know that we'll get through this.”
Michelle Yeoh, the first Asian to win a best actress Oscar, accepted her award for “Everything Everywhere” with a shout-out for holding fast to your dreams no matter one's background or age.
“For all the little boys and girls who look like me watching tonight, this is a beacon of hope and possibilities,” the 60-year-old said. “And ladies don't let anybody ever tell you you are past your prime.”
Brendan Fraser won the Oscar for best actor for his work as a grief-stricken depressed character in “The Whale,” which also won for makeup and hairstyling for transforming Fraser into a 600-pound man.
“So this is what the multiverse looks like,” a visibly emotional Fraser said in a nod to the setting of “Everything Everywhere.” “Oh my goodness.”
After thanking director Darren Aronofsky for “throwing me a creative lifeline,” Fraser said he had come to realize that he had taken his success in Hollywood as a younger actor a bit for granted.
“Things, they didn't come easy to me,” he said. “But here was a facility that I didn't appreciate at the time until it stopped. And I just want to say thank you for this.”
“Everything Everywhere” got off to a fast start with a pair of wins for best supporting actor Ke Huy Quan and best supporting actress for Jamie Lee Curtis.
Quan had been widely expected to win his category after sweeping nearly all of the awards leading up to the Oscars on Sunday, and his win was received with raucous cheers and applause from the audience inside the Dolby Theatre.
He arrived onstage already in tears and quickly thanked his 84-year-old mother, who'd brought him from Vietnam after the war, for her support.
“My journey started on a boat,” Quan said. “I spent a year in a refugee camp. And somehow I ended up here on Hollywood's biggest stage. They say stories like this only happen in the movies. I cannot believe it's happening