Everything Everywhere All at Once

The imaginative film is inspired by real theories that suggest our universe is part of a vast multiverse where many alternate realities unfold.

In yet another, she’s a sentient rock with googly eyes. It’s a fantastical plot device, but also an extended riff on a real idea in physics. In one, she’s a glamorous movie star and kung fu master.

Will the Daniels' absurdist sci-fi pave the way for genre films to win Oscars … or is this just a glitch in the multiverse?

All in all, the film is nominated for 11 awards and has a good chance of carrying off at least six of them. Incredibly, it’s starting to look as if the first piece in the puzzle is moving into position. The assembled glitterati have made their way to the Dolby theatre in Los Angeles, but things are not as they used to be.

I can almost guarantee that 2023 Academy Awards won't be as exciting as last year's event. There will be no Round 3 of the Will Smith vs.

I’d like to see “Top Gun: Maverick” upset “Avatar” in this category, but I just don’t see it happening. However, don’t count out Jamie Lee Curtis for “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” She did a wonderful job in a zany movie. I liked “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” so much more than I anticipated and just a smidge more than “Turning Red,” which I personally preferred to “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” and “Avatar: The Way of Water.” I liked “The Sea Beast” better than those two, as well. “Elvis” received eight. Personally, if I had a vote, it would go to “The Fabelmans.” I think this is where the movie will be honored beyond Best International Film, which it is a shoo-in for. Hailing from near Memphis, I probably identify with this movie too much to be objective, but I found the movie just a joy to look at. “Countdown to the Oscars” begins at 5:30 p.m., also on ABC. Nearly everyone who saw the film has their own personal view of Elvis Presley in their mind’s eye. Splitting the vote on the two categories seems double-minded to me. Any other year, Farrell would likely be the favorite, but to me Butler’s work in “Elvis” was fantastic. Rock, a much smaller man, did not retaliate in the moment.

Exclusive: We chat with Everything Everywhere producer Jonathan Wang and awards experts about the role film festivals like SXSW play during Oscar season.

“I think it’s great to not be in the pressure position of being the first big film festival of the year or the festival that’s going to have all the Oscar nominees,” Godfrey says. “I have to give kudos to A24 for believing that this would be this sort of event that would be loud,” Wang says, acknowledging it was the studio who decided to submit for SXSW, as opposed to Sundance or TIFF, in part because of the festival’s more genre-loving, idiosyncratic audience. Simmons in [Whiplash](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/whiplash-review/); Emerald Fennell’s script for [Promising Young Woman](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/promising-young-woman-costumes-clothing/). [Blonde](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/blonde-review-ana-de-armas-marilyn-monroe-deserve-better/) debuted at Venice,” says Davis. Among the big four of the fall, Venice is always the first since it’s also the oldest festival in the world, beginning in 1932. after debuting at other festivals (Tár, The Banshees of Inisherin, Decision to Leave) and those that still premiered elsewhere but were not yet out in general theaters, such as The Whale. “I see the distinction [between them], but the average person probably does not.” Nearly 44 percent of the last 15 years of Best Picture nominees, and over 85 percent of the winners, premiered at those fests. Ever since Crash (2005) became the first Best Picture winner to be acquired at a festival (the A dazzlingly original film that marries the existential weight of the universe to the intimacy of the Asian American immigrant experience—and all by way of multiverse theory, martial arts, and those marvelous hot dog fingers—the movie appeared to be a perfect opening night film for a festival at the intersection of cinema, music, technology, and just plain old innovation. [Oscars telecast](https://www.denofgeek.com/the-oscars/) beams out of the Dolby Theatre on Sunday, March 12, it will be one year and a day since Everything Everywhere All at Once enjoyed its world premiere at the [SXSW Film Festival](https://www.denofgeek.com/sxsw/). “There’s a video of me in the Zoom being like, ‘We’re on pace for 11,’ and everyone’s like, ‘What are you talking about?!’” Wang recalls. And to Jonathan Wang, producer of [Everything Everywhere All at Once](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/everything-everywhere-all-at-once-best-multiverse-movie/), it was nothing short of surreal as he realized their little movie with wobbly hot dog fingers was on track to score 11 Oscar nominations—making it this year’s de facto frontrunner.

'Everything Everywhere All At Once' was an indie spring release, while most Oscar heavy hitters premiere at prestigious fall film festivals.

The bagel is, in many ways, a microcosm for the film. [own Wikipedia page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_accolades_received_by_Everything_Everywhere_All_at_Once). [half a million dollars](https://deadline.com/2022/03/everything-everywhere-all-at-once-a24-specialty-box-office-rrr-1234987724/) in its opening weekend. [Rise](https://www.harpercollins.com/pages/Rise): A Pop History of Asian America From the Nineties to Now. But then there is, of course, the everything bagel. The report revealed that 20 nominations, or 9% of all Asian nominees, were named in 2023—the highest number and percentage yet. Smith, the founder of the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative. [return to acting](https://www.gq.com/story/ke-huy-quan-everything-everywhere-all-at-once) after nearly two decades away. The Producers Guild (PGA) bestowed the film its top honor. The Writers Guild (WGA) named Everything Everywhere Best Original Screenplay. But they really are this weird sense of us clutching at the hem of the Hollywood establishment.” The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) showered it with awards.

Sci-fi action-comedy family drama is favored in most top categories at Sunday's Academy Awards.

The chatter: "Everything Everywhere" director duo Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, collectively known as Daniels, won't be the first pair to win a co-Best Director trophy — the Coen Brothers won for "No Country for Old Men" in 2007, and Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise won for "West Side Story" in 1961 — but they will be the latest, completing the near-sweep of "Everything Everywhere All at Once" at the top of the show. The chatter: Ideally, every Oscar year has a heartwarming narrative that everyone can get behind, and this year it's Ke Huy Quan, the former child actor (you remember him from "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" and "The Goonies") who flushed out of Hollywood for a long time and came roaring back in "Everything Everywhere All at Once." Bassett is powerful in "Black Panther," Condon is terrific in "Banshees" and Curtis, well, it's great to see Curtis in a movie where she isn't battling Michael Myers. The one sure thing in this category is that Hong Chau was nominated for the wrong movie — it should have been "The Menu," where she was an ice-cold scene stealer. Take him out of the race and it's possible that Keoghan gets a look for "Banshees" and that viral clip from the movie that shows him going through about six shades of heartbreak in 60 seconds, but this race is all Quan, all the time, all at once. It could go either way here, but we're going with the "Elvis" actor to be crowned King. The chatter: The year's most nominated film (it has 11 nods total), the wildly inventive "Everything Everywhere All at Once," which is like if every movie in your streaming queue somehow played at the same time, is favored to win here, having already won top honors at the Directors Guild of America Awards, Producers Guild of America Awards, Writers Guild of America Awards and Screen Actors Guild Awards. Several of the evening's big categories are wide open, including Best Picture, where the wackadoodle genre mashup "Everything Everywhere All at Once" is favored to win, unless that prize goes to the World War I drama "All Quiet on the Western Front," or if the mega-blockbuster "Top Gun: Maverick" somehow swoops in and takes top honors. The Best Actor race is a lock for "Elvis" star Austin Butler, unless comeback kid Brendan Fraser takes the trophy for "The Whale." You can crunch the results of the various guild awards, you can play the politics of the various categories and nominees, but in the end, it all comes down to a gut feeling. There's a school of thought that says the Academy's older voters may brisk at "Everything Everywhere's" fluid approach to genre and style, and may instead favor the more conventional war epic "All Quiet on the Western Front," itself a time-honored Oscar brand (the 1930 version was a previous Best Picture winner). And then there's the Best Supporting Actress category, an all-out wrestling match between "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever's" Angela Bassett, "The Banshees of Inisherin's" Kerry Condon and "Everything Everywhere All at Once's" Jamie Lee Curtis.

Big Nose is a character in the film played by Jenny Slate, who's introduced on-screen by Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh) reacting in shock when she sees her. She says of ...

But that doesn’t make the “Big Nose” character any less troubling, and it certainly doesn’t absolve the film of including the stereotype. “It's nothing to do with the Jewish people, which now we're realizing, ‘Oh, fuck.’” The Daniels also explained that there was more to Slate’s character, and there was a redemption filmed, but it ended up on the cutting room floor. Whether the cut footage would have alleviated the antisemitic undertones is impossible to know, and the fact that the stereotype’s meaning in Chinese culture differs from that elsewhere doesn’t make it sit any less uncomfortably. “One of the weird blind spots that happened was that in Chinese culture, everyone who is white is called ‘Big Nose,’” explained Kwan. In fact, it’s the opposite: Evelyn defines Slate’s character only by the size of her nose, diving headfirst into a well-worn antisemitic trope. A core part of the movie lies in their evolving relationship, which illustrates the power of how seeing things in a new light can expand our minds and ourselves. The scene between the two of them provides an opportunity for Evelyn to grow from her prejudiced comments, but instead, a dog ends up receiving more humanity than Slate’s character. Frankly, the lack of discourse around “Big Nose'' may be due to the larger narrative surrounding the film— But one of the most long-standing antisemitic tropes is that Jewish people are identifiable by their supposedly big noses. But there remains a nagging problem that lies at [the heart of EEAAO](https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/the-michelle-yeoh-moment-with-everything-everywhere-all-at-once-is-already-changing-hollywood), best summarized in two words: “Big Nose.” Yet the conversation around the film rarely involves or interrogates the fact that one of the characters in the film is a walking Jewish American Princess stereotype, known only by a facial feature closely tied to prejudiced beliefs. [Everything Everywhere All at Once](https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/the-trippy-everything-everywhere-all-at-once-transports-sxsw-to-the-hot-dog-fingered-multiverse) absolutely dominated the SAG Awards, winning best supporting actor, best supporting actress, best actress, and the big award of the night, best motion picture cast.

It may have swept awards season so far, but the Daniels' absurdist comedy-drama is still an underdog in this race. Annabel Nugent makes the case that it's a ...

Yeoh is one of the most recognisable Asian actors in the world, but EEAO is the first time the actor has topped a Hollywood call sheet. In a way, EEAO is a victim of its own success. Even recently, as the crazy rich mum in Crazy Rich Asians, she doesn’t have a hair out of place. It’s fair to say, then, that EEAO is worlds away from the sort of prestige drama that usually gets the Academy going. And for once, the same can be said of much of its competition. They made good on that buzz this year, as the film swept awards season in remarkable fashion, turning out a slew of heartwarming acceptance speeches that have gone viral every time.

Michelle Yeoh looking at her hands in disbelief with Jamie Lee Curtis and Ke Huy Quan. “Everything Everywhere All at Once” is the exception to the industry's ...

[Avatar: The Way of Water](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/12/26/avatar-the-way-of-water-is-split-by-james-camerons-contradictory-instincts)” on one side, indies such as “ [Triangle of Sadness](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/triangle-of-sadness-reviewed-were-on-a-yacht-and-were-puking)” and “ [Women Talking](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/women-talking-reviewed-a-sublime-script-a-merely-very-good-movie)” on the other. Yeoh also travelled the fall-festival circuit, with a special screening of “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” at Telluride and an honorary award at Toronto. [Tár](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/10/10/cate-blanchett-is-imperious-and-incandescent-in-tar),” a chillier, more sardonic movie that leaves its audience conflicted over its disgraced antiheroine. “You start with Michelle, because she is the movie.” By October, the Times was The film finished production on March 13, 2020, on the cusp of the pandemic. On its surface, “Everything Everywhere” doesn’t have the hallmarks of Oscar bait: it’s a sci-fi comedy (two genres that the Academy tends to overlook) about a middle-aged Chinese American woman who runs a laundromat, with a premise that is comprehensible mostly to philosophers and comic-book geeks (verse-jumping?), and subplots involving talking rocks, an enchanted everything bagel, and butt plugs. This voter, who had picked “Everything Everywhere” for Best Picture, was drawn to the story of “a woman trying to deal with her life” and observed that the film has a more uplifting ending than many of its competitors: “As we’ve seen with the Oscars over past years, it’s the film that makes you feel happiest when you walk out.” The movie has the spectacle of a superhero blockbuster and the idiosyncratic style of an indie dramedy, but at its core it’s a heartwarming tale of a woman finding her purpose, saving her frayed marriage, and reconciling with her queer daughter. And yet “Everything Everywhere” more than endured—it soared. In yet another reality that we are definitely not in, “ [The Woman King](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/sisterhood-and-slavery-in-the-woman-king)” will herald a new era of Black-female empowerment in Hollywood when it wins Best Picture, Best Director (Gina Prince-Bythewood), and Best Actress (Viola Davis). In the fall and winter, a cavalcade of Oscar-worthy films burst onto the scene, tugging awards speculation in other directions: There is still a world in which “Everything Everywhere” loses all eleven awards for which it’s nominated—but we probably don’t live in that universe, either. [Everything Everywhere All at Once](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/everything-everywhere-all-at-once-reviewed-theres-no-there-there)” is the dominant front-runner for Best Picture.

Ver películas queer no es el antídoto perfecto para todas las familias, especialmente porque la carga del trabajo emocional a menudo recae sobre el miembro ...

Ver películas queer no es el antídoto perfecto para todas las familias, especialmente porque la carga del trabajo emocional a menudo recae sobre el miembro de la familia queer. En lugar de preguntarme por qué no me casaría con un hombre para encajar en la sociedad, las películas queer como “Bohemian Rhapsody” empujaron a mis padres a considerar por qué Freddie Mercury no podía casarse con Mary Austin. A medida que se siente más cómoda con nuestras noches de cine y la posibilidad de que mi vida queer viva felizmente para siempre, recuerdo que somos una especie que teme lo que no comprende. Había huido tan lejos como pude desde que cumplí 18 años: a la universidad en todo el país, a trabajar en el extranjero después y a graduarme de la escuela en la costa este. En cambio, mi mamá me miró con ojos suplicantes y me preguntó: “¿Eso significa que no vas a volver a casa?” Con lágrimas en los ojos, leí una carta llena de “lo sé” y “lo siento”, levanté la vista, esperando que me repudiara.