While 2022 has seen a slew of box office blockbusters, including Top Gun: Maverick, Avatar: The Way of Water, and The Batman, A24’s special blockbuster Everything Everywhere All at Once swooped into the race with a heartfelt premise and a fresh take on the multiverse. It grossed more than $104 million worldwide, making it the first A24 film to cross the $100 million mark. Given that the film was nominated for eleven Academy Awards, the $100 million achievement feels well-deserved.
The 2023 Oscar race has begun, and Everything Everywhere All at Once has stormed in with a staggering 11 nominations across all categories. Along with Best Picture and Best Director nominations, the film received four acting nominations, two of which were in the same category: Actress in a Supporting Role. Since the Oscar competition is so fierce this year, despite receiving eleven nominations, how probable is it that Everything Everywhere All at Once will win? To be sure, this ground-breaking film is deserving of an Oscar in a few different categories.
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Best Leading Actress for Michelle Yeoh
A24
Michelle Yeoh, who made appearances in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and The Witcher: Blood Origin, played Evelyn Wang in the film. Initially, she was not in line for the lead role because it was intended for Jackie Chan, but since he was unavailable, the cast was altered. They moved her from the supporting role of Chan’s wife to the lead actor. The swap of characters made it easy to craft an impactful storyline, and Michelle delivered precisely the right performance to keep the audience sobbing at the climax.
Throughout her decade-long career, she has been a cinematic icon but has never gotten a role that could bring out the fantastic actor in her until Evelyn Wang from Everything Everywhere All at Once. While she portrayed badass and heroic characters, they simply made her appear cool, but Evelyn Wang moved the audience by showing her in the new role, and for the incredible performance she put in the film, she could win an Oscar this time.
Best Director for The Daniels
It takes more than supervising everything in person to create a film like Everything Everywhere All at Once, which deals with one of the most challenging themes in film history: the multiverse. It takes careful planning to avoid plot holes and to engage viewers with the proper execution, and The Daniels (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert) excelled at both. To begin with, the movie was fast-paced, so there would be less time to grasp what was going on entirely, but the directors made certain to express everything with pinpoint accuracy without taking up much screen time.
On the one hand, they kept the action and humor flowing at the same pace, while on the other, they made us empathize with the characters. Since The Daniels served as writers and directors, they have the right to take credit for demonstrating the insanity of the multiverse in the most unexpected way. Even if the movie won’t win Best Picture at the Oscars, it deserves one for The Daniels’ ingenious direction.
Best Supporting Actor for Ke Huy Quan
Ke Huy Quan, like Michelle Yeoh, shaped the character of Waymond Wang, and his performance was one of the best in his career. He has already received multiple supporting actor awards from Everything Everywhere All at Once for his portrayal of an exhausted spouse on the verge of divorce. When the other Waymond from the multiverse takes over his consciousness, we see a different actor, and when he’s attempting to mend his crumbling marriage, we see a caring and sweet husband who would do anything to make his unfortunate wife happy. Despite stiff competition from The Fabelmans and The Banshees of Inisherin, Everything Everywhere All at Once is quite likely to win an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
Best Costume Design for Shirley Kurata
The extravagant costumes are one of the most striking features of Everything Everywhere All at Once. Jobu Tupaki’s costume in the film was inspired by genres such as K-Pop, Japanese fashion, and sci-fi films. Throughout the film, Jobu, the other Joy, changes outfits at regular intervals to highlight the villainess’s outlandish personality. For instance, when Jobu initially meets Evelyn, she appears in a preppy golf outfit but later changes into an Elvis costume to antagonize her mother.
Furthermore, when Jobu falls down the stairs at the film’s climax, her outfit is a tangled mess, showing how the character struggles to absorb every feeling. Behind each scenario is a one-of-a-kind costume that corresponds to the feeling, and the effort Kurata puts into each one is beyond anyone’s expectations. While the other nominated films, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Babylon, Elvis, and Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, all have magnificent costume designs deserving of awards, Everything Everywhere All at Once stands out and makes itself Oscar-worthy.
Although the film has been nominated for 11 Oscars, it is most likely to win the ones listed above, with the exception of Best Supporting Actress, which might go to either Jamie Lee Curtis or Stephanie Hsu. The 95th Academy Awards will be held on March 12 and the results will be available then.
