With less than a week to go before the Academy Awards, it’s becoming increasingly clear which film is likely to dominate Sunday’s ceremony: Everything Everywhere All at Once.
In three significant award ceremonies over the weekend, the multi-dimensional dramedy took home every prize for which it was eligible. Although some early movie honors do not always foretell the ultimate victors at the Oscars, Everything has shown only one deficiency — the mathematical impossibility of having two winners in the same category: supporting actress.
First, in Saturday’s Independent Spirit Awards, which only includes movies costing less than $30 million to produce — sorry, Avatar — Everything was victorious in each category in which it was nominated.
Its leading seven wins were for best feature; best lead performer for Michelle Yeoh (the Spirit Awards combine all actors in non-gendered categories); best supporting performer for Ke Huy Quan (who beat co-star Jamie Lee Curtis); best director for filmmakers Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert; best screenplay for Kwan and Scheinert; best breakthrough performance for Stephanie Hsu; and best editing for Paul Rogers.
Then, on Sunday night, the Writers Guild of America honored Everything for best original screenplay. The WGA prize for adapted screenplay was presented to Sarah Polley, whose Women Talking was adapted from the Miriam Toews novel of the same name.
Finally, also on Sunday, Everything collected the best edited comedic feature prize from the American Cinema Editors. The ACE award for dramatic feature went to Top Gun: Maverick.
In Hollywood union awards presented in the preceding weeks, Everything won top trophies from the Producers Guild of America, the Directors Guild of America, and the Screen Actors Guild. The film has the most nominations of any movie in next Sunday’s Academy Awards with 11 selections.
Unless there is a rare tie in the Oscars — it only has happened six times ever, the last being a draw between Zero Dark Thirty and Skyfall for sound editing 10 years ago — Everything will likely lose in at least one category, as the film’s Curtis and Hsu face each other for the supporting actress statuette.
The film, which has grossed an impressive $73 million in domestic theaters, is unlikely to take home the Oscar for costume design, as Elvis is favored in that category. And Everything also could lose to The Banshees of Inisherin for original screenplay.
Prognosticators who obsess over Hollywood awards as if they were Kremlinologists reading tea leaves have noted that not all Spirit Award best film winners repeat for the same at the Oscars. Indeed, Nomadland is the only picture that hit that exacta since 2017.
But even if the plot of Everything Everywhere All at Once does not adhere to the basic tenets of space and time, its Oscar fortunes look very grounded in reality.
