It’s almost been a year since “Everything Everywhere All At Once” was released. Since then, the film has become a hit, with audiences everywhere, grossing $107.5 million worldwide. Not only was “Everything Everywhere All At Once” successful with moviegoers, but it became a critical darling that has taken over awards season in a way we haven’t seen, maybe ever. “Everything Everywhere All At Once” has earned eleven Academy Award nominations and swept prestigious guilds such as the PGA, DGA, and SAG. At this point in the season, the film will likely be our next Best Picture winner at the 95th Academy Awards. “Everything Everywhere All At Once” is looking to have a solid Oscar night, but how many awards will it ultimately end up racking up?
Let’s start with some categories that “Everything Everywhere All At Once” will likely not win since it is contentious in quite a few of these races. The Academy Awards for Best Original Score and Best Original Song will probably not go to “Everything Everywhere All At Once.” Best Original Score is a two-way race between Volker Bertelemann’s work for “All Quiet On The Western Front” and Justin Hurwitz’s score for “Babylon.” “All Quiet On The Western Front” is poised to win Best Original Score after winning the BAFTA and having broad support for the film, scoring nine nominations, including Best Picture. “Babylon” is purely supported by passion after only winning the Golden Globe and having no Best Picture nomination. At its best, the score for “Everything Everywhere All At Once” would be in third place and considered a shocking win. The nomination was a delightful surprise, along with the Best Original Song nomination for “This Is A Life.” Best Original Song is looking to be a sealed win for “Naatu Naatu” from the “RRR” as it has swept every precursor for this category including the Critics Choice Award and the Golden Globe. Since the Critics Choice has been around, no film that has won both that and the Golden Globe has gone on to lose the Oscar if nominated. As of the last few years, if you aren’t sweeping, the Oscar tends to go to the biggest star; in this case, that would be a battle between “Hold My Hand” by Lady Gaga and “Lift Me Up” by Rihanna. But “RRR” is sweeping and will likely win over “Everything Everywhere All At Once” in song. At the same time, a Best Original Score win could happen as there has been precedent in the past where the Oscar winner didn’t win the Critics Choice, Golden Globe, or BAFTA but went on to win the Oscar. And wouldn’t you know, they all happen to be Best Picture nominees: “Finding Neverland,” “Brokeback Mountain,” and “Black Panther.”
Best Costume Design is another category that “Everything Everywhere All At Once” will most likely not win. That race is between Academy Award winners Ruth E. Carter for “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” and Catherine Martin for “Elvis.” “Everything Everywhere All At Once” landing a nomination here was more so a sign of the film’s strength as a whole. Also, the Academy tends to ignore contemporary costume design for the Oscar win. Despite the variety and extravagant work of “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” this will probably stick as just a cool nomination despite recently prevailing at the Costume Designer’s Guild.
Best Original Screenplay, on the other hand, is more challenging as it is between Martin McDonagh’s script for “The Banshees Of Inisherin” and the Daniels for “Everything Everywhere All At Once.” Martin McDonagh has won the Golden Globe and BAFTA, and the Daniels currently have only won Critics Choice Award. “Everything Everywhere All At Once” will most likely win the WGA award as “The Banshees Of Inisherin” was deemed ineligible. McDonagh’s film has had goodwill all awards season and has landed everywhere it possibly could. This is only one of two categories it has a legitimate chance of winning on Oscar night. It is looking like McDonagh will win, but the Daniels are right on his heels. If “Everything Everywhere All At Once” wins the WGA tomorrow, it will have the same precursor haul as “Get Out” did against McDonagh’s previous film “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” which also won the Golden Globe and BAFTA. History will likely repeat itself, but if the WGA goes to something like “Tár” instead, McDonagh will be better positioned to win than in 2017.
Best Film Editing is a tricky award to examine because, on paper, it should be “Everything Everywhere All At Once’s” award for the taking. It has swept every precursor so far, including Critics Choice and BAFTA, and will most likely win the ACE Eddie award as well. The only thing holding back “Everything Everywhere All At Once” from a guaranteed win is “Top Gun: Maverick.” It has been years since the Best Film Editing winner didn’t have a Best Sound nomination (“The Departed” in 2006). “Everything Everywhere All At Once” missed a nomination for Best Sound, unlike “Top Gun: Maverick” (which also earned a Best Film Editing nomination). “Top Gun: Maverick” has a great chance to win Best Sound and the ACE for Best Drama, so who knows what the Academy might go with in this situation.
The Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress races are also very competitive for “Everything Everywhere All At Once.” Best Actress is a two-way race between Cate Blanchett for “Tár” and Michelle Yeoh for “Everything Everywhere All At Once.” Blanchett has been the dominant force this awards season, winning the Golden Globe, Critics Choice Award, and BAFTA. Yeoh (who also won a Golden Globe, but for Comedy Actress) most recently won Best Actress at SAG, which was a massive boost to her campaign right before Oscar voting started. This late into the season has shown the actors’ are behind Yeoh, and they represent the largest branch of the Academy. Most importantly, it allowed her to give a speech that moved everyone who watched. Although Blanchett is a two-time winner, this might be the right place and time to award Yeoh with a historic win that would honor her illustrious career in the industry.
Speaking of overdue narratives, Jamie Lee Curtis is now contending for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar win. The whole award season’s focus has been solely on Angela Bassett (“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever“) and Kerry Condon (“The Banshees Of Inisherin“). Bassett started the season strong, winning the Golden Globe and the Critics Choice Award. The sweep was looking like a possibility until Condon won at BAFTA. Then, the SAG awards happened, and Curtis shockingly won over both of them. Curtis gave an incredibly endearing and comical speech, charming everyone who watched. At this point, with a BAFTA win and a Best Picture nomination, I think the Oscar is Condon’s to lose. Curtis winning at SAG was probably a SAG only thing where they reward a veteran actor because they finally have the opportunity to do so. The four acting races went to the actors who have been incredibly overdue or have made incredible comeback narratives. Curtis winning at SAG tells us if anything that Bassett doesn’t have the support of the actors’ branch on her side. Condon is looking good at the moment, but Curtis is sneaking up there now that she’s in that number two spot.
The race for Best Supporting Actor is a wrap. Congratulations, Ke Huy Quan, on your Oscar win! He has won every precursor besides BAFTA, which is only because BAFTA totally shunned “Everything Everywhere All At Once” except for Best Film Editing. Quan has continued to win the hearts of everyone. Speech after speech, he has had the ability to bring us to tears with one of the more genuinely heartwarming narratives this season. This will be an easy win for “Everything Everywhere All At Once.”
The race for Best Director also appears to be wrapped up for the Daniels. After losing the Golden Globe to presumed favorite Steven Spielberg, the Daniels bounced back with wins at Critics Choice and DGA. Their loss at BAFTA can be summed up due to the British Academy’s love for “All Quiet On The Western Front” (which wasn’t nominated for Best Director at the Oscars). And again, to remind everyone, “Everything Everywhere All At Once” is almost certainly winning Best Picture after sweeping PGA, DGA, SAG, and most likely WGA next. The DGA win was huge and likely puts it in the winner’s chair for the Oscar. To recap, “Everything Everywhere All At Once” is nominated for the following Academy Awards and will likely win the following…
Likely Winning
Best Picture
Best Director
Best Supporting Actor
Still Likely, But With Some Doubt
Best Original Screenplay
Best Film Editing
It Could Go Either Way
Best Actress
Not Likely, But Would Be A Welcome Surprise
Best Supporting Actress
Best Costume Design
Best Original Score
Likely Not Happening
Best Original Song
If this all comes to be, “Everything Everywhere All At Once” could be the first Best Picture winner since “The Artist” to win five or more Oscars, and if it wins six or more will be the first since “The Hurt Locker,” and if it somehow pulls off a win for a combination of two out of three for Jamie Lee Curtis, Best Costume Design or Best Original Score, it will be the first film since “Slumdog Millionaire” to win eight.
What do you think? Is “Everything Everywhere All At Once” going to over perform on Oscar night? What categories do you think it can sneak a win in? Please let us know in the comments below or on our Twitter account, and check out our latest Oscar predictions here.
