‘EVERYTHING’ TO WIN
‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ wins big at 95th Academy Awards
LOS ANGELES — It didn’t win quite everything everywhere all at once. But it came pretty darn close.
“Everything Everywhere All at Once,” a gleefully bonkers sci-fi-action-comedy mash-up about a Chinese American immigrant who traverses the multiverse to keep her family together, claimed best picture at the 95th Academy Awards on Sunday night, March 12, beating out a diverse field that included massive blockbusters as well as intimate art-house fare.
Leading the field with 11 nominations, “Everything Everywhere” won seven, including lead actress for Michelle Yeoh, supporting actor for Ke Huy Quan and supporting actress for Jamie Lee Curtis, along with original screenplay and directing wins for co-directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert.
The outside-the-box indie — which features dizzying martial-arts fights, fingers made of hot dogs and sex toys used as weapons — initially seemed an unlikely candidate for Oscar glory when it was released nearly a year ago. But “Everything Everywhere” proved a sleeper hit, grossing more than $100 million worldwide and, powered by its combination of gonzo filmmaking and poignant themes of familial love and generational trauma, gradually established itself as a genuine contender.
As awards season heated up, the film picked up momentum, steamrolling through the major Hollywood guilds to emerge as an Oscar front-runner.
Accepting the directing trophy alongside Kwan, Scheinert thanked his parents “for not squashing my creativity when I was making really disturbing horror films, or really perverted comedy films or dressing in drag as a kid — which is a threat to nobody.”
Yeoh took home the lead actress award for her turn as the no-nonsense matriarch of “Everything Everywhere,” making the Malaysian-born action icon the first Asian to win that prize. “For all the little girls and boys who look like me watching tonight, this is a beacon of hope and possibilities,” Yeoh said. “And ladies, don’t let anybody tell you you are past your prime.”
Capping one of the year’s most inspiring comeback stories, Quan — who broke out as a 1980s child star in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and “The Goonies” only to step away from acting due to a lack of opportunities — was honored for his turn as the film’s meek husband.
“My journey started on a boat,” Quan said in one of the evening’s most emotional speeches. “I spent a year in a refugee camp. And somehow I ended up on Hollywood’s biggest stage. They say stories like this only happen in the movies.”
Former matinee idol Brendan Fraser, with the lead actor win for his wrenching turn as a morbidly obese man in “The Whale,” reached the climax of a his own comeback story.
Lending a potential boost to the Oscars telecast, which has seen its viewership drop by nearly two-thirds over the last decade, this year’s best picture race included a handful of bona fide blockbusters, including “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Avatar: The Way of Water” and “Elvis.” In a tribute to “Top Gun,” which grossed $1.5 billion worldwide last summer, the show kicked off with a U.S. Navy flyover.
In the end, though, “Top Gun” and “Avatar,” like many commercial tentpole films before them, saw their victories limited to technical categories, with “Avatar” taking the visual effects prize and “Top Gun” winning for sound.