How Everything Everywhere All At Once Became an Oscars Frontrunner
Less than a year ago, Everything Everywhere All at Once was released on 10 screens across the U.S., grossing over half a million dollars in its opening weekend. From there, it expanded and has since earned more than $100 million worldwide, becoming the independent production company A24’s first film to do so.
RELATED Tems wins first-ever Grammy award as Burna Boy loses categories : full list of winners
Its box office success was matched by critical acclaim, racking up enough accolades to have their own Wikipedia page. In January, Everything Everywhere garnered 11 Oscar nominations—including for Best Picture, Best Director (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, collectively known as the Daniels), Best Actress (Michelle Yeoh), Best Supporting Actress (Stephanie Hsu and Jamie Lee Curtis), and Best Supporting Actor (Ke Huy Quan)—the most of any movie this year.
But nobody expected for the film to make it this far—perhaps least of all the Daniels, says Jeff Yang, co-author of Rise: A Pop History of Asian America From the Nineties to Now. This was an indie spring release, while most Oscar heavy hitters, by major movie studios, premiere at prestigious fall film festivals. Other Best Picture nominees, like All Quiet on the Western Front and The Fabelmans, for instance, opened at the Toronto film festival, while The Banshees of Inisherin and Tár premiered in Venice. Elvis and Triangle of Sadness debuted at Cannes, and Women Talking at Telluride.
RELATED Kierra Sheard-Kelly ’s New Album ‘ALL YOURS’ Available Now
“There were so many good stories about the film, but they’re all the kind of stories that point to indie success and critical darling,” Yang tells TIME. “They don’t point to awards blockbuster. They definitely don’t point to a clean sweep—every major mark of inevitability that is possible coming up Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
Feel-good stories swirled around the movie, including, but not limited to, Ke Huy Quan’s return to acting after nearly two decades away. Then, between mid-February and early March, came a string of recognition from Hollywood: the Directors Guild of America (DGA) gave Daniels a trophy for feature directing. The Producers Guild (PGA) bestowed the film its top honor. The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) showered it with awards. The Writers Guild (WGA) named Everything Everywhere Best Original Screenplay. Not to mention the Golden Globes that Yeoh and Quan picked up in January. The movie soon became a veritable frontrunner for Best Picture.
But, as Yang qualifies, “I have to sometimes be reminded that all of the accolades coming from these guilds—and even the Academy Awards—if we actually put them into context, the only reason why they are so meaningful is because we haven’t had them in the past. But they really are this weird sense of us clutching at the hem of the Hollywood establishment.”
