EVERYTHINGEVERYWHEREALLATONCEWAS

ANA MCGUIRE | STAFF WRITER

It’s that time of year again! A time where we celebrate not only the actors and directors of films but also sound mixers, screen writers, costume designers, make-up artists and all the behind the scenes people who put hours of work into making these Oscar nominated films perfect I believe that the Oscars are a great event for this very reason Often when audiences watch films, they are focused on the plot and the characters but there is so much more that goes on behind the scenes and this is an evening where the hands that made these films are rewarded.

The Oscars are always a massive deal in the film industry as people are rewarded for a year of hard work at a very prestigious event It is a big event for families and friends watching from home too as they gather around the television for Oscars watch parties, ready to wind down for five hours At the Oscars every year, there is always some drama, an issue that needs to be solved In 2022, it was Will Ferrell slapping Chris Rock for insulting his wife In 2017, it was La La Land being announced winner of Best Picture when it was really Moonlight that won However, in 2023, the event ran smoothly and history was made with the movie Everything Everywhere All at Once bringing home seven out of the eleven awards it was nominated for Everything Everywhere All at Once is an American science fiction drama movie that was released in May 2022 and has taken the world by storm The film follows Chinese American immigrant Evelyn Wang as she connects with parallel versions of herself in order to stop a powerful being from destroying the multiverse It stars Michelle Yeoh as Evelyn Wang and Stephanie Hsu, Jamie Lee Curtis and Ke Huy Quan in supporting roles This film is unique as it mixes multiple genres such as comedy, drama, fiction and fantasy, just to name a few. It is directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert In case you are living under a rock or are just without social media, I will be going through each of the awards that Everything Everywhere All at Once was nominated for, all the awards it won, and why it won them:

Best Picture

Starting off this article and ending the night, the genre twisting movie took home the biggest Oscar of them all, the Best Picture It was a favourite to win this award ever since the nominations came out ahead of the award ceremony The other nominees included The Banshees of Inisherin, The Fabelmans, Avatar: The Way of Water, Tár, Top Gun: Maverick, Women Talking, Triangle of Sadness, All Quiet on the Western Front and Elvis

Best Actress

Michelle Yeoh took home the Oscar for best actress, making history as the first Asian woman to receive the award In her acceptance speech, she empowered women to never give up and to not listen to anyone who says that you are past your prime “For all the little boys and girls who look like me watching tonight this is a beacon of hope and possibility,” she said, before adding: “Ladies, don't ever let anybody tell you are ever past your prime ” She called out gendered ageism in the film industry in her speech but she reminded everyone that you are never too old to work and live out your dreams She is a symbol of hope for many people around the world She was up against Cate Blanchett, Andrea Riseborough, Michelle Williams and Ana de Armas

Best Supporting Actress

Stephanie Hsu was nominated for her supporting role as Jobu Tupaki in the picture and while she did not win, she gave an astounding performance in the film She is most well known for her roles in Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings in 2021 and the Marvelous Mrs Maisel in 2017 However, I know her from performing in the Broadway production of Be More Chill as Christine The other nominees were Angela Bassett, Kerry Condon, Hong Chau and Jamie Lee Curtis, with Jamie Lee Curtis taking home the trophy So even though Hsu did not receive an award, Everything Everywhere All at Once still took home the Best Supporting Actress award This is her first win at the Oscars since she started acting in 1977 Her acceptance speech is a reminder that genre films deserve recognition too. Her chosen genre, horror, has always been considered beneath the Academy’s notice and Curtis highlights this “To all the people who have supported the genre movies that I’ve made all these years, the thousands and hundreds of thousands of people, we just won an Oscar together!” However, this shows that the Academy prefers giving awards to white women Curtis only had a very minor role as the female while Hsu played the secondary main female character This is an example of the still ongoing prejudice within the Academy and film industry.

Best Supporting Actor

Ke Huy Quan also made history at the 95th Annual Academy Awards on the 13th of March by taking home the Best Supporting Actor Award He is most well known for his roles in The Goonies and Indiana Jones but when the 21st Century rolled around, his acting career grew cold and he turned to stunt work. So this was a dream come

Best Director

Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert and Jonathan Wong won best director for Everything Everywhere All at Once Daniel Scheinert thanked his mother for being so open and letting him so creative as a kid: “We want to dedicate this to the mommies, all the mommies of the world Specifically to my mum and dad, thank you for not crushing my creativity when I was making really disturbing horror movies and dressing in drag as a kid, which is a threat to nobody, by the way” Exploring your creativity and different ideas is exactly what you should be doing as a kid and no one should have the power to destroy that Destroying a kid's creativity is destroying a dream in the making Daniel Kwan addresses his kid while accepting this award: “You rearrange my DNA every day You should never have to live up to this standard; this is not normal This is kind of crazy I will love you no matter what.” Living up to the legacy of a parent with an Oscar can be tough but there are no expectations set hischildren, they are meant to live their dreams and carve a path for themselves They were up against Martin McDonagh, Todd Field, Ruben Ostlund and Steven Spielberg

Best Film Editing and Best Original Screenplay

Paul Rogers accepted the Academy Award for Best Film Editing of Everything Everywhere All at Once He seemed to be overwhelmed by the whole experience and receiving an award saying “This is too much. This is my second film, y’all, this is crazy ” He was up against the film editors of Elvis, Top Gun: Maverick, The Banshees of Inisherin and Tár The Daniels, the affectionate nickname for the directors of Everything Everywhere All at Once, accepted the award for Best Original Screenplay, bringing their total of Oscar wins up to seven! They were up against The Fabelmans, The Banshees of Inisherin, Triangle of Sadness and Tár

On top of winning seven Oscars, Everything Everywhere All at Once was nominated for Best Original Score for Son Lux, Best Original Song for Ryan Lott, David Byte and Mitski and Best Costume Design for Shirley Kurata Winning seven out of the eleven nominations brings this film to a tie for the number of Oscars won by a science fiction movie Gravity in 2014 won the same amount of Oscars

Nevertheless, this sweeping of the awards by Everything Everywhere All at Once has made history at the 95th Annual Academy Awards