Everything Everywhere All at Once leads the Academy Award nominations for 2023 with a total of 11 nods over various categories.
Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert wrote and directed the multiversal odyssey, receiving nominations for their writing and directing talents. The central cast including, Mchelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Jaime Lee Curtis and Stephanie Hsu also received nominations in their respective acting categories - all of them richly deserving.
The movie as a whole is nominated for Best Picture, and MovieMeter looks at why it should win.
Everything Everywhere All at Once is bold and unique
To put it simply, there has not been a film released this year (or in the last few years) that has been as bold and original as Everything Everywhere All at Once. From its visual style, fluid genre jumping and a cast that were willing to embrace the spectacular silliness of it all – there really is no other movie quite like it.
It has become a common trend for the Academy to reward the most original films with a Best Original Screenplay nomination in order to cover their backs instead of simply rewarding them in the Best Picture category. In a time when people are calling Hollywood unoriginal, fuelling franchise films forever, maybe it’s time they awarded something that gushes with originality. The Academy might not realise the impact a win like this could have on the industry.
In some cases, it might lead to some studios taking bigger risks on more original films and filmmakers alike.
Fantasy movie snubs
Over the last decade or so, fantasy films have often been brushed to the wayside. The Lord of the Rings trilogy was the last time the genre took home a win for Best Picture, which came via The Return of the King.
While other fantasy films have garnered nominations over the years such as Black Panther and Mad Max: Fury Road, their recognition stopped at a nomination. While Avatar: The Way of Water has garnered some recognition too, that purely boils down to the Academy’s unrequited love for James Cameron rather than the quality of the film itself.
It is a shame that so many fantasy productions get overlooked every year when some are more intelligent and more profound than what eventually gets nominated (look at last year’s The Green Knight or this year’s Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio). In the last fifty years there have only been two 'outright' fantasy films that have won Best Picture, so it really is overdue.
Everything Everywhere All at Once has...everything!
The Daniels’ tale of a family in crisis set across the backdrop of an apocalyptic multiversal threat is at times overwhelming, but what is most impressive is the film’s attention to balance. The film manages to combine action, comedy and a sincere emotional peril to the picture that could easily have been drowned out by the overwhelming scope of the film and its visual wackiness.
Indeed, no other Best Picture nominee manages to pack so much into its runtime while simultaneously being so successful in every aspect. In its essence, Everything Everywhere manages to capture so much of what cinema has to offer. It is multifaceted in its nature and, in a sense, celebrates the many facets of cinema.
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