The once-unlikely Oscars contender bought its fairy-tale ending.
There was a second in the midst of tonight’s Oscar ceremony after I began becoming concerned textual content messages from pals. Their line of inquiry was the identical: Was All Quiet on the Western Front about to tug an enormous upset for Best Picture? The German World War I movie, distributed by Netflix, had racked up a slew of technical wins, and a ceremony that had begun with a burst of joyous vitality appeared headed in a extra fusty, old style path. Fear not, I assured each anxious pal: Everything Everywhere All at Once could be successful massive.
Indeed, a riotous, baroque sci-fi motion movie full of martial arts, crude humor, and ruminations on the multiverse dominated the ninety fifth Academy Awards, capturing seven trophies—essentially the most for a Best Picture winner since Slumdog Millionaire in 2009. Everything Everywhere All at Once secured the highest prize, capping a wild award season for a movie that got here out nearly a yr in the past and defied many of the typical formulation for an Oscar marketing campaign. But the film had constructed steam off the again of its heartfelt storytelling and box-office success at a time when cinemas have been nonetheless struggling to rebound from COVID closures. It additionally made for milestone moments, most notably Michelle Yeoh’s win as Best Actress in a Leading Role, the primary Asian performer to win in that class and solely the second lady of shade.
The first, Halle Berry, handed Yeoh the trophy in a satisfying TV second that the Oscar producers had possible hoped for after they organized for Berry to exchange Will Smith as a presenter (the prior yr’s performing winners historically current these classes, however Smith is banned from attending the Oscars for 10 years). In common, the present went easily, avoiding the surrealism of 2021’s COVID-impacted, small-scale ceremony, and the dizzying chaos of 2022’s, which was overshadowed by Smith slapping Chris Rock onstage. This yr, producers Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner swerved towards traditionalism, bringing again a single host and, not like final time, airing each award reside.
The ensuing ceremony was lengthy, however not unusually so, and the pageantry acquainted. Audiences witnessed many hosannas for the ability of cinema and the fun of the collective viewing expertise. Jimmy Kimmel, in his third go-round as host, was his dependable self, holding the patter mild with simply a few acidic jabs; extra importantly, he lent a way of construction that the previous few years sorely lacked. Though Kimmel’s monologue lamented the absence of Tom Cruise (his movie Top Gun: Maverick was a Best Picture nominee, however he’s reportedly busy filming), Everything Everywhere shortly emerged because the story of the evening—no shock given the way it swept the precursor movie awards.
The night began off with two main wins for the film: The endlessly gleeful and open-hearted Ke Huy Quan, a former little one star who had principally retired from performing within the early ’90s resulting from lack of alternative, gained Best Supporting Actor and gave a joyous speech. His co-star Jamie Lee Curtis, trade royalty who had solely obtained her first nomination this yr, adopted by successful Best Supporting Actress.
But then the ceremony bounced between technical awards, track performances, and montages (together with a very egregious little bit of spon-con for Disney’s upcoming Little Mermaid remake), and the vitality started to dwindle. All Quiet on the Western Front gained 4 awards, principally in classes that Everything Everywhere wasn’t competing in, conveying the impression of momentum for a bleak work with a well-known title (one other All Quiet gained the Oscar for Best Picture in 1931). But simply as my curiosity was flagging, issues picked again up, partly because of track performances from Lady Gaga (singing “Hold My Hand” from Top Gun) and Kaala Bhairava and Rahul Sipligunj (performing RRR’s “Naatu Naatu”).
RRR gained for Best Song, the primary Indian movie to take action, and Sarah Polley’s Women Talking mildly stunned All Quiet within the Adapted Screenplay class. Then it was a buzzy rush to the top, with Everything Everywhere successful for Directing (going to Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan), Lead Actress, and Picture, after additionally selecting up the Original Screenplay award. The Whale was the one different a number of winner of the evening, gathering a make-up and hairstyling award together with a Lead Actor trophy for Brendan Fraser, who appeared deeply overwhelmed by the second. His was one other comeback story following years within the Hollywood wilderness, and the group’s enthusiasm was palpable.
The strangeness of Everything Everywhere’s march to victory has been much-remarked upon already. Its March 2022 premiere makes it the earliest-in-the-year launch to win Best Picture since The Silence of the Lambs in 1992, bucking the concept a film has to come back out within the fall or later to get Oscar consideration. It is a dense and difficult little bit of style storytelling for an awards physique that has lengthy been proof against handing main trophies to such works. And it’s a breakthrough for Asian and Asian American performers, who’ve been under-recognized all through Oscar historical past. But the Academy Awards replicate how the trade adjustments, even when the velocity with which it occurs can really feel painfully gradual, and the sight of Yeoh, Quan, and the Daniels gathering their trophies clearly signaled a thunderous, triumphant shift.