Oscars 2023: ‘Everything Everywhere’ wins best picture

LOS ANGELES –

The metaphysical multiverse comedy “Everything, Everywhere, All At Once” wrapped its arms around Hollywood’s top prize on Sunday, winning best picture at the 95th Academy Awards along with Michelle Yeoh, Ke Hui Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis.

Though worlds away from Oscar bait, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s anarchic ballet of everything, rocks and a messy tax check, has emerged as an unlikely Academy Award heavyweight. The indie hit, A24’s second Best Picture winner behind Moonlight, has won a total of 7 Oscars. Only two other films in Oscar history, A Streetcar Named Desire and The Network, have won three acting Academy Awards.

Fifty years after The Godfather won the Oscar, Everything, Everywhere, At Once won for a very different immigrant experience. His eccentric tale of a Chinese immigrant family, the second film for Daniels, as the filmmaking duo is known, blended science fiction and alternate reality into the story of an ordinary woman and a laundromat owner.

Yeo became the first Asian woman to win Best Actress, winning the award for her performance in Everything, Everywhere, At Once. Malaysian-born Yeo, 60, won his first Oscar for a performance that relied as much on his comedic and dramatic chops as his kung fu skills. This is the first Best Actress win for a non-white actress in 20 years.

“Ladies, don’t let anyone ever tell you that you’re past your prime,” said Yeo, who received a standing ovation.

Everything Everywhere, released back in March 2022, helped revive arthouse cinemas after a two-year pandemic, raking in more than $100 million in ticket sales. And despite its initially slim expectations of Oscar glory, “Everything, Everywhere, At Once” beat out both blockbusters (Top Gun: Maverick, Avatar: The Last Airbender).

In winning best director, the Daniels, both 35, are only the third directing couple to win the award, following Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins (“West Side Story”) and Joel and Ethan Coen (“No Country for Old Men”). ) Scheinert dedicated the award to the “mothers of the world”. “My impostor syndrome is at an all-time high,” Kwan said.

Brendan Fraser won Best Actor, culminating in the former action star’s return to center stage for his 600lb physical transformation. reclusive professor “The Whale”. The Best Actor race was one of the closest contests of the night, but Frazier ultimately edged out Austin Butler.

“So this is what the multiverse looks like,” said a clearly excited Fraser, gesturing to the Everything, Everywhere, At Once crew.

“Everything, everywhere, at once,” a jolt of freshness in a movie industry filled with sequels and reboots, helped Hollywood turn the page on one of the most infamous moments in Oscar history: the slap. Jimmy Kimmel, hosting for the third time, promised a ceremony with no “nonsense.” He said anyone who wanted to “mess with it” this year would have to go through a formidable battalion of bodyguards, including Michael B. Jordan, Yeon. , Steven Spielberg and his show’s “security guard” Guillermo Rodriguez.

Former child star Quan completed his extraordinary comeback with a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his role in the indie hit Everything Everywhere All Intime. Popular for his roles as Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Data in The Goonies, Quan gave up acting before appearing in Everything, Everywhere, At Once.

His victory, which was one of the most anticipated of the night, was nevertheless one of the most exciting moments of the ceremony. The audience, including her “Temple of Judgment” director Steven Spielberg, gave Quan a standing ovation as she fought back tears.

“Mom, I just won an Oscar!” said Quan, 51, whose family fled the Vietnam War when he was a child.

“They say that such stories only happen in movies. I can’t believe this is happening,” Quan said. “This is the American dream.”

Minutes later, Quan’s co-star Jamie Lee Curtis won best supporting actress. His win, in one of the most competitive categories this year, denied comic book fans a win. Angela Bassett (“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”) would be the first actress to win an Oscar for a Marvel film.

It also made history for Curtis, a first-time winner who referred to himself as the “Nepo Kid” during his win at the Screen Actors Guild Awards. She is the rare Oscar winner whose parents were both Oscar nominees, something she touched on in her speech. Tony Curtis was nominated for The Defiant Ones in 1959, and Janet Leigh was nominated in 1961 for Psycho. Curtis thanked the “hundreds” of people who put him in the position.

The German-language World War I epic All Quiet on the Western Front , Netflix’s top contender this year, won four awards as the Academy honored the craft of the gruesome anti-war film. It won for cinematography, production design, score and best international film.

Although Bassett missed the supporting actress, Ruth E. Carter won for his costume design for Wakanda Forever, becoming the first black designer to win an Oscar four years later for Black Panther. This one makes Carter the first black woman to win two Oscars.

“Thank you to the Academy for recognizing a black woman as a superhero,” Carter said. “She endures, she loves, she overcomes. She is every woman in this film.”

ABC’s telecast opened traditionally with a montage of the year’s films (Kimmel was edited for Top Gun. Smith was soon named best actor.

If anyone tries any violence this year, Kimmel said, “you’re going to be given the Oscar for best actor and you’re going to be given a 19-minute speech.”

No women were nominated for best director after important wins for Chloe Zhao (Nomadic Land) and Jane Campion (Power of the Dog). Sarah Pauley, however, won Best Adapted Screenplay for the Mennonite-rich Drama Women Talking.

“I thank the academy for not being fatally offended by the words ‘women’ and ‘speakers’,” Polly said.

Daniel Roher’s “Navalny,” about imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, was named best documentary. The film’s victory came with clear overtones of Navalny’s continued imprisonment and Vladimir Putin’s ongoing war in Ukraine. Yulia Navalnaya joined the filmmakers on stage.

“My husband is in prison only for telling the truth,” said Navalnaya. “Stay strong, my love.”

Some famous names were not present for other reasons. Not Tom Cruise, whose “Top Gun. Maverick is up for Best Picture, and neither is James Cameron’s Avatar. Both have been at the forefront of Hollywood’s efforts to win back moviegoers after years of the pandemic.

“The two guys who asked us to come back to the theater are not in the theater,” said Kimmel, who added that Cruise was shirtless in “Top Gun. “Maverick” in “L. Ron Hubba Hubba.”

After last year’s Oscars, which stripped some categories of live broadcasts, the Academy reinstated all of the show’s awards and relied on traditional song-and-dance numbers. That meant some shows, including the dance-off to “Naatu Naatu” from Telugu action sensation “RRR,” Lady Gaga’s intimate, passionate rendition of “Hold My Hand” from “Top Gun.” Maverick, “And Rihanna’s Next Super Bowl Move? “Naatu Naatu” won the best song.

It also meant a long show. “Kind of makes you miss the slap a little, doesn’t it?” Kimmel said mid-show.

The first award of the night went to Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio for Best Animated Feature. It gave Netflix its first Oscar nomination.

After last year’s slap in the face, the academy created a crisis management team to better respond to surprises. Not Rock, who recently gave his strongest statement yet about the incident live, and not Smith, who has been banned for 10 years by the Academy.

The Academy Awards are trying to regain their former luster. One thing works in his favor. this year’s best picture field was full of blockbusters. Ratings usually go up when the contenders are more popular, which is certainly the case for “Top Gun. Maverick” and “Avatar. “The Way of Water” films.

However, neither gained much. The winner for best visual effects was “Water Road”, which has a box office of more than $2.28 billion. The Top Gun sequel ($1.49 billion) earned the top vote.

Last year, Apple TV’s CODA became the first streaming movie to win Best Picture. But nine of the 10 Best Picture nominees this year were theatrical releases. After the movie business took a hit during the pandemic, movie theaters recovered to about 67% of pre-epidemic levels. But it’s been an up-and-down year, full of smash hits and troubling stays at theaters.

Ticket sales have been strong this year with Creed III and Cocaine Bear performing not one, but two videos at Sunday’s show. But there are still storm clouds on the horizon. The Writers Guild and major studios will begin contract negotiations on March 20, a high-profile battle that has tied much of the industry for the possibility of layoffs in film and television.

Oscar is also looking for stability. Last year’s broadcast drew 16.6 million viewers, a 58 percent increase over the shortened 2021 edition, which drew a record low of 10.5 million.

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AP film writer Lindsay Bahr contributed to this report.