Everything Everywhere All At Once

The futuristic film from the studio A24 won seven awards, including for best picture, directing and in three of the four acting categories.

The Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund (“Triangle of Sadness”) and the British-born Martin McDonagh (“The Banshees of Inisherin”) were honored. “Top Gun: Maverick” collected $1.5 billion, and “Avatar: The Way of Water” took in $2.3 billion. In the days leading up to the Oscars, another in a series of rainstorms soaked Los Angeles, so much so that the academy sent an alert to the news media on Wednesday warning that it may “need to clear the carpet at a moment’s notice.” In the end, the weather cooperated, and it was a sunny 63 degrees. [any women](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/12/movies/female-directors-oscars.html) in the best director category. Jordan, the “Creed” star, and Pedro Pascal, who plays the title role in “The Mandalorian,” were prepared to intervene. This year, Sarah Polley (“Women Talking”) was left out even though her film was nominated for best picture. (The most-viewed Oscars telecast was in 1998, when 57.2 million people watched “Titanic” win the trophy for best picture.) Carter also won for “Black Panther” in 2019.) “Never give up.” She was the first Asian woman to receive the award. So did the little-seen art films “Triangle of Sadness,” “Women Talking” and “Tár.” Voters also made room for a musical (“Elvis”) and a memory piece (“The Fabelmans”). [95th Academy Awards](https://www.nytimes.com/news-event/awards-season), they may mark it as the start of a new New Hollywood. Curtis was also in tears by the time she reached the fiery conclusion of her acceptance speech.

Best picture, best original screenplay, best director, best supporting actor and actress, best actress, and best editing — Everything Everywhere All at Once ...

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. 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. 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. 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.

All four acting winners—Michelle Yeoh, Brendan Fraser, Jamie Lee Curtis and Ke Huy Quan—earned their first Oscars during the ceremony; 16 nominees were first- ...

But this year, three were nominated for the top prize: Top Gun: Maverick, Avatar: The Way Of Water and Elvis. The CEO of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Bill Kramer, said the group has implemented a “crisis team” to handle surprises at the event going forward. Will Smith was banned from attending the ceremony for 10 years. Sound: All Quiet on the Western Front, Avatar: The Way Of Water, Elvis, Top Gun: Maverick (WINNER), The Batman Original Score: All Quiet on the Western Front (WINNER), Babylon, The Banshees of Inisherin, Everything Everywhere All At Once, The Fabelmans Best Picture: All Quiet on the Western Front, Avatar: The Way Of Water, The Banshees of Inisherin, Elvis, Everything Everywhere All At Once (WINNER), The Fabelmans, Tár, Top Gun: Maverick, Triangle of Sadness, Women Talking

The A24 film that premiered at SXSW almost exactly one year ago won seven total Oscars.

EEAAO also swept at the Independent Spirit Awards, winning in every category it was nominated in, for a total of seven awards. All four other films—American Beauty, No Country for Old Men, Slumdog Millionaire, and Argo—went on to win best picture. It is one of only five films to ever win the top prizes at Kwan took the stage upon his film’s best-picture win to celebrate his film’s message of community. Everything Everywhere All at Once, written and directed by now multi-Oscar winners Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, went into the night with 11 nominations, the most of any film. He then thanked his father, “who, like so many immigrant parents, died young.” “He is so proud of me not because of this,” Wang said, gesturing to the trophy, “but because we made this movie with what he taught me to do, which is: No person is more important than profits, and no one is more important than anyone else.”

Producer Jonathan Wang was the first to give a speech as the cast and crew gathered on stage. He dedicated the award to his father, “who, like so many immigrant ...

However, the race was still a tossup heading into Sunday’s ceremony, considering All Quiet on the Western Front won the BAFTA, which is often another strong predictor for which film will prevail at the Oscars. Sometimes it’s a little scary knowing that movies move at the rate of years and the world on the internet is moving at the rate of milliseconds. EEAAO’s Oscars sweep comes after it pulled off a clean sweep at the major quartet of PGA, DGA, SAG, and WGA awards. I think one of the things that I realized growing up is that one of the best things we can do for each other is shelter each other from the chaos of this crazy world we live in. That was the biggest haul for a Best Picture winner since Slumdog Millionaire‘s eight [Oscars](https://deadline.com/tag/oscar/) in 2009. “The world is changing rapidly, and I fear that our stories are not keeping at pace.

It was a historic night at the Academy Awards for a truly distinctive and radical film set in the multiverse — with an almost all-Asian cast.

Every year, she covers the Oscars and the Grammy awards for NPR, as well as the Sundance Film Festival and other events. Leila Fadel is a national correspondent for NPR based in Los Angeles, covering issues of culture, diversity, and race. As an arts correspondent based at NPR West, Mandalit del Barco reports and produces stories about film, television, music, visual arts, dance and other topics.