Se Everything Everywhere All at Once

A combination of old fashioned star power and zeitgeisty marketing captured Oscar voters (and audiences) across the board.

By the autumn, it was clear the film had a real shot at the gongs, and A24 set about securing them. Such strategies encouraged the idea of a grassroots push for an underdog. But Tuesday was the last day of voting, and in a tight race, every little helps. It looks like a film from the future and relies for its pull on the past. Yeoh joined in too, and last Tuesday screenshotted an article on her personal account explicitly comparing the career prospects for herself and fellow nominee Cate Blanchett, should each of them prove triumphant. [declaring](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrDekTrJ13o) “Everything has led to this” - the campaign leant heavily on the zeitgeisty lingo which also defines its aesthetic. Gradually the film’s clout snowballed along with its box office, as more and more critics - as well as industry insiders - declared their love. It was almost everything, almost everywhere, over the course of almost four hours. “I cannot imagine a better audience and crowd for this movie,” said c0-director Daniel Kwan as they took to the stage to present it. Word of mouth began strongly from a crowd at fever-pitch excitement, on the opening night of their first in-person festival in years. [Everything Everywhere All At Once](https://www.theguardian.com/film/everything-everywhere-all-at-once) took the top prize this year, victory felt an inevitability. The strategy slowly began to shift.

The movie dominated the 2023 Academy Awards, winning seven of the 11 awards it was nominated for. The result meant that movies like The Banshees of Inisherin, ...

They're not the first duo to win the prize, as Joel and Ethan Coen won for No Country for Old Men in 2007. After Halle Berry, she is also only the second ever woman of color to win the Best Actress award. The result meant that movies like The Banshees of Inisherin, Elvis and The Fabelmans went home empty handed.

Brendan Fraser, Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times/Getty Images; PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP/Getty Images (2); Kevin ...

[the ceremony a quarter-century ago](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/titanic-oscars-oral-history-1235343150/) at which Titanic was expected to dominate, and did, was and remains the most watched ever, whereas the last two ceremonies, held during the darkest days of the pandemic, when moviegoing was decimated, attracted the two lowest figures ever. [Top Gun’s Tom Cruise](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/tom-cruise-jokes-top-gun-scientology-2023-oscars-1235349713/) and Avatar’s James Cameron apparently saw the writing on the wall and opted to skip the ceremony altogether — not the nicest thing to do when one’s studio has spent a fortune campaigning for one’s movie, when one’s colleagues are up for many awards, and when the Academy is desperate for big names to help draw viewers to the Oscars. A full half of the best picture nominees were completely shut out: Searchlight’s Banshees went 0-for-9; Warners’ Elvis went 0-for-8 (with lead actor Austin Butler’s loss probably partly the result of voters assuming that he will have more chances in the future than Fraser); Universal’s The Fabelmans went 0-for-7 (Steven Spielberg probably would have won his third directing Oscar and first in 24 years but for the Daniels); Focus’ Tár went 0-for-6 (lead actress Cate Blanchett was not helped by the fact that she already has two Oscars on her mantelpiece); and Neon’s Triangle of Sadness went 0-for-3. While the 95th Oscars was dominated by an indie distributor — out of 23 categories, A24 films won nine — it wasn’t a bad night for the streamers that are increasingly central to the business. Given the real-world popularity of this year’s top contenders — Top Gun: Maverick, Avatar, Elvis and yes, Everything Everywhere — I would be very surprised and, frankly, concerned, if this year’s ratings don’t tick up quite a bit from the last two. People in Ireland had plenty of reason to care about this year’s ceremony, too, given that five of the 20 acting nominees — four from The Banshees of Inisherin and one from Aftersun — and the team behind the eventual winner of best live-action short, An Irish Goodbye, all hail from the Emerald Isle. It’s especially remarkable that A24 — which previously backed one other film that went on to win best picture, Moonlight — managed to keep Everything Everywhere in the conversation for more than a year. Everything Everywhere — which has grossed $106.7 million, the most of any release of A24 Films ever — also exemplifies the strides that the Academy has made over the seven years since the second consecutive installment of #OscarsSoWhite. The film premiered at SXSW on March 11, 2022, and was then released in the U.S. on April 8, 2022; no eventual best picture winner had that early of a theatrical release since The Silence of the Lambs came out Feb. And A24 appears to have spent less on Everything Everywhere’s [President Janet Yang](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/podcast-janet-yang-academy-president-oscars-2023-will-smith-1235348650/) — was [dominated by ](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/2023-oscars-winners-list-1235349224/) [Everything Everywhere All at Once](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/t/everything-everywhere-all-at-once/), a film that certainly isn’t for everyone, but apparently is for enough of the 10,000 members of the [Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/t/academy-motion-picture-arts-sciences/) to prevail over formidable competition on the preferential (read: weighted/ranked-choice) ballot that the organization uses to determine its best picture.

March 13, 2023 6:38 a.m.. Directors ...

This was a year in which they didn't try much in terms of change; in fact, the goal seemed to be the most normal Oscars possible. At the same time, it was a reminder that while only a few years ago, Netflix was trying to wedge itself into the Oscars, it's now established a home there. It was perhaps the most utterly traditional choice they could have made in every way except for the fact that it's a film that's not in English. The film perhaps sneaked up on people, but as Oscar night wore on and it started to rake in prizes, including for score, cinematography, production design and international feature, the fondness that Academy voters still have for epic war sequences became perfectly clear. Some montages, a nice In Memoriam segment, an okay monologue, solid musical performances from Lady Gaga and Rihanna among others, and a return to theater seating after last year's cocktail tables and the train station set the year before. Perhaps it's fitting that Avatar won for visual effects and Top Gun: Maverick for sound — the spectacles won awards that relate, in part, to their status as such. That theory might turn out to be right or it might be wrong, but if this year didn't do it, then nominating big movies isn't a solution to the ratings problem as has so often been speculated. [Ke Huy Quan](https://www.npr.org/2023/03/12/1160156811/ke-huy-quan-best-supporting-actor-oscar-everything-everywhere-all-at-once) once found himself shut out of Hollywood after a big start as a child actor in movies like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and The Goonies. The awards for supporting actor and supporting actress went to two very, very different "newcomers." But it's also part of the Academy's effort to revive interest in the ceremony after years of hearing the theory that the ratings were dropping because blockbusters weren't being nominated. What's perhaps most surprising is how many films that once seemed like strong contenders for major awards wound up getting completely shut out: Tár, The Banshees of Inisherin, The Fabelmans and Elvis all went home empty-handed. Of the 20 acting nominees across lead and supporting categories, 16 were first-time nominees.