Oscars Best Picture nominee profile: ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ hopes to make the most its 11 bids
As soon as “Everything Everywhere All at Once” became this year’s Oscar nominations leader with 11 bids in 10 categories, pundits began pointing to the unfortunate fact that only one-third of 21st century films that got the most nominations have actually gone on to win Best Picture. However, the prospect of it becoming the first entrant on that list since 2017’s “The Shape of Water” has been increasingly bolstered by outpourings of industry support, most notably in the form of a record-breaking four SAG Award wins. Along with its crucial victories at this year’s PGA and DGA Awards, it appears primed to defy the historic odds.
“Everything Everywhere All at Once” stars Michelle Yeoh as Evelyn Wang, a Chinese-American laundromat owner who finds herself losing control of her life as both her business and marriage start to crumble. As she works to resolve her tax debt, she and her husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan) are sucked into a potentially catastrophic multiversal conflict that turns out to have been instigated by their dejected daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu). After initially focusing on fighting for her life, Evelyn comes to understand that it is solely up to her to heal her broken family in her own universe.
Following 2016’s “Swiss Army Man,” “Everything Everywhere All at Once” is the second feature helmed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (aka the Daniels), whose filmmaking partnership dates back to 2010. Both are triple Oscar nominees this year with bids for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay, the first of which is shared with their fellow first-time contender, producer Jonathan Wang. Along with “All Quiet on the Western Front” and “Triangle of Sadness,” theirs is one of three films in the current Best Picture lineup that does not include any past Oscar nominees among its recognized producers.
Both “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and “The Banshees of Inisherin” have brought the total number of films with four or more acting Oscar nominations each to 40, with the former’s Hsu and SAG Award winner Jamie Lee Curtis being the supporting female category’s 35th pair of dueling co-stars. Rounding out the quartet are respective Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor nominees Yeoh and Quan, who have both taken home Golden Globes and SAG Awards this season.
The four craft categories in which “Everything Everywhere All at Once” is competing are Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing, Best Score and Best Song (“This Is a Life”). The only individual nominee associated with any of those bids who has been recognized by the academy before is songwriter David Byrne, who won for scoring 1987 Best Picture recipient “The Last Emperor.” Aside from its solid performance with the producing, directing and acting guilds, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” has some below-the-line advantages in that it has also won the Costume Designers Guild Award for Best Fantasy Costumes and the BAFTA Award for Best Film Editing.
This article is a part of Gold Derby’s “Oscar nominee profile” series spotlighting the 2022 Best Picture nominees.
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