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Source: Deadline
Throughout much of the current films awards season, indie distributor A24’s absurdist comedy-drama “Everything Everywhere All at Once”, written and directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, has been regarded as one the most prominent frontrunners for the highly coveted Academy Award for Best Picture, yet hadn’t quite been able to create the impression that the prize was its to lose. On the one hand, several guilds and local critics associations were happy to endorse the film with their highest honors, with the Critics Choice Awards and Directors Guild of America being among the more prestigious organizations to name “Everything Everything All at Once” as the best film of the previous year. On the other hand, some of the other prominent awards ceremonies that have taken place so far were not as willing to do the same. The Golden Globes chose Martin McDonagh’s “The Banshees of Inisherin” as its Best Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical, and the BAFTAs selected “All Quiet on the Western Front” as Best Film; in doing so, both organizations all but ignored the Daniels’ surreal and unconventional genre mash-up in favor of a film that many would consider to be “safer” picks. Neither of these losses completely diminished the chances of “Everything Everywhere All at Once” winning a Best Picture Oscar, but they certainly proved that it was far from a guarantee, causing many to speculate how great its chances really were. However, two recent guild awards ceremonies, both of which are highly esteemed and widely considered to be major predictors for the forthcoming Oscars, have provided a more clear and possibly more definitive answer, one that could cement “Everything Everywhere All at Once” as the Best Picture of 2022: Those guilds: the Producers Guild of America (PGA) and the Screen Actors Guild of America (SAGA).
Though it only had a three film awards to hand out on Saturday, February 25th – Theatrical Motion Picture, Animated Motion Picture, and Documentary Theatrical Motion Picture (the latter two being won by “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” and “Nalvany” respectively) – the PGAs are nonetheless regarded as a useful tool in predicting the Academy Award for Best Picture, not necessarily because of the award itself or those who vote for it, but rather how the award itself is voted. Instead of voters merely choosing which film they think is best, the vote is chosen via a ranked-choice system, one in which each voter ranks each film option from best to worst. Through this process, the eventual winner is that which is given the highest average ranking among all the delivered ballots, and depending on how the vote goes along, the winning film may not necessarily be the film that receives the most #1 picks so much as it is the film considered the least polarizing. Theoretically, the film that receives the most #2 or #3 votes could end up winning over a film that receives far more #1 votes, but also a significant number of lower-ranking votes. Why is this important? Because the Academy Awards decide their Best Picture in a very similar manner to the PGAs, and many of the people who partook in the PGA voting make up a significant bulk of Academy voters; in short, the film that is the PGA winner for Best Theatrical Motion Picture has also been the film to win the Best Picture Oscar in recent years, with last year’s surprise breakout “CODA” being the latest example of this phenomenon. If this trend continues as anticipated, then “Everything Everywhere All at Once”, which the Producers Guild of America has honored with its highest film honor of the year, should likewise be named Best Picture by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Further encouraging the chances of “Everything Everywhere All at Once” winning Best Picture was the Screen Actors Guild of America Awards, which took place just a day after the PGAs on Sunday, February 26th. Rather than vote on Best Picture, the SAGs votes on Outstanding Performance by a Cast in Motion Picture, which does not honor a film as a whole so much as it honors its acting cast (though it nevertheless regarded as a Best Picture equivalent), and this year, the cast of “Everything Everywhere All at Once” was selected as the best of 2022, with Jamie Lee Curtis, James Hong, Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, Harry Shum, Jr., Jenny Slate, and Michelle Yeoh all being named in recognition of this honor. Granted, the Outstanding Ensemble in a Motion Picture Award hasn’t always been an accurate indicator of what will win the Oscar for Best Picture, but given both it and the PGAs had somehow foreseen the rise and eventual triumph of “CODA” in the previous year, as well as the prominent number of actors that make up Academy membership, these results should not be overlooked.
If “Everything Everywhere All at Once” winning Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture isn’t convincing enough of the film being all but guaranteed to win big at the Academy Awards, then the film’s success elsewhere throughout this year’s SAGAs. With the exception of the award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role (which instead went to Brendan Fraser for “The Whale”, which had also been distributed by A24), all of the major film awards were given to a performance from “Everything Everywhere All at Once”. Michelle Yeoh won for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role, Ke Huy Quan received the prize for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role, and Jamie Lee Curtis took home the accolade for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role; all of these actors were honored for their performances in “Everything Everywhere All at Once”. With the film winning four of six film awards handed out by the Screen Actors Guild of America (the last award going to “Top Gun: Maverick” for Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture), it’s safe to say that the Daniels’ cinematic achievement will be on everyone’s mind when the Oscars finally commence on Sunday, March 12th.
Does all this mean that “Everywhere All at Once” will indeed win Best Picture (and several other accolades) at the upcoming Academy Awards? Again, nothing is certain until the winners are officially announced, but considering all that’s happened, it will be very surprising (if not outright disappointing) if things turn out differently than hoped.
