Everything, Everywhere, All at Once Sweeps the 2023 Oscars

The 2023 Oscars were historic on many accounts with studio A24 sweeping the top six awards, Michelle Yeoh becoming the first Asian woman to win best actress, Ruth E. Carter becoming the first black woman to win two Oscars, and many more moments. Winner of the 2023 Oscars are listed below:

– Best Picture - Everything Everywhere All at Once

– Actress in a Supporting Role - Jamie Lee Curtis, Everything Everywhere All at Once

– Actor in a Supporting Role - Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All at Once

– International Feature Film - All Quiet on the Western Front, Germany

– Documentary

(Short) - “The Elephant Whisperers”

– Documentary

Feature - “Navalny”

– Original Song“Naatu Naatu” from “RRR”

– Animated Feature Film - Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio

– Adapted

Screenplay - Women Talking

– Original Screenplay - Everything Everywhere All at Once

– Actor in a Leading Role - Brendan Fraser, The Whale

– Actress in a Leading Role - Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All at Once

– Director - Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan, Everything Everywhere All at Once

– Production Design - All Quiet on the Western Front

– Cinematography - All Quiet on the Western Front

– Costume Design - Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

– Achievement in Sound - Top Gun: Maverick

– Animated Short Film - The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse

– Live Action Short Film - An Irish Goodbye

– Original Score - All Quiet on the Western Front

– Visual Effects - Avatar: The Way of Water

– Film Editing - Everything Everywhere All at Once

– Makeup and Hairstyling - The Whale

The main story was the huge sweep of main awards

By Mia Costello

from Everything Everywhere All at Once, the first science fiction film to be awarded Best Picture. The movie follows a woman named Evelyn Wang (played by Michelle Yeoh) who struggles to keep both her family laundromat and marriage afloat under her father’s disapproving watch. As she and her daughter Joy clash, Evelyn stumbles upon the multiverse, in which she lives as one of many Evelyns that all coexist, but she is the only Evelyn in all of the universes that can save her world. The directors, collectively known as the Daniels, constructed their take on the multiverse as similar to the constantly evolving internet. Daniel Kwan said that they realized the internet had begun to craft alternate universes for people to live in, often moving rapidly from “techno optimism” to “techno terror,” and created a movie depicting that chaos.

On another note, a more indirect result of the context of the movie, Everything Everywhere All at Once speaks for many immigrant families that hit home for both the directors and the cast. Many Americans come to the US in hopes of finding a better life for themselves as well as setting their children up for success. Yet, the struggle in effective communication between Evelyn and her daughter demonstrates the fact that many immigrant parents struggle to expand their worldview to allow their children the choice to go onto different career paths. In this movie, the multiverse forces Evelyn to look at the universe in a different way, making it a bit easier to understand her daughter.

Primarily, the creativity of the film is what set it apart from many others. Despite having odd and confusing images at times, the directors set out to make the audience feel a sense of hope in the possibilities that the multiverse represents. Kwan says, “We need to be looking at all the possibilities, not just the one we think we’re in… and we definitely shouldn’t be looking backwards.”