The film ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ was nominated for 11 Oscars on Tuesday and is leading the race for the prestigious statuettes, with stiff competition for best picture from Irish tragedy ‘The Banshees of Inisherin’ and the very personal ‘The Fabelmans ‘ by Steven Spielberg.
This independent comedy was a huge hit when it hit theaters this spring. It is named in nine categories before “The Banshees von Inisherin” and the German feature film “Nothing New in the West”.
The Academy also paid tribute to blockbusters Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way of the Water, which largely filled dark spaces all too often neglected since the pandemic.
Both are nominated for the Best Picture Award.
In this Queen category, they have to face the biopic “Elvis” about the rock ‘n’ roll legend, the moving “The Fabelmans”, in which Steven Spielberg reveals his childhood, and the impressive “Tar”, portraying Cate Blanchett, among others a ruthless conductor and the final Palme d’Or at Cannes “Without Filter”.
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With its crazy sci-fi scenario, “Everything Everwhere All At Once” tells the story of a laundromat owner, exhausted from her administrative work, who suddenly finds herself immersed in parallel universes.
In addition to the Oscar for best film, its makers Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert are also nominated for best director.
The other characters in this feature film are also worthy of a nomination for a statuette for Best Supporting Actor for their cast, actor Ke Huy Quan and actresses Jamie Lee Curtis and Stephanie Hsu.
The headliner, Malaysian Michelle Yeoh, won a Golden Globe back in early January. Now the second Asian woman in Oscars history to be nominated for the Best Actress statuette, her duel with Cate Blanchett (“Tar”) promises to be highly controversial.
“It’s way beyond me,” Ms. Yeoh told Variety magazine. Her appointment, she says, resonates with “so many people who have longed to be recognized in that way, to take their place at the table.”
The other nominations in this category, however, are likely to stoke criticism of the Oscars’ lack of diversity, which has become routine since the hashtag #oscarssowhite was introduced in 2015, like the action film The Woman King and Danielle Deadwyler in Emmett Till, which starred America’s segregationist past.
The Academy favored Ana de Armas for her portrayal of a perpetually brutalized Marilyn Monroe in Blonde, Michelle Williams, who plays Steven Spielberg’s mother in The Fabelmans, and Andrea Riseborough for the unexpected To Leslie.
A controversy is also beginning on social networks about the category of best directors, in which only men appear this year, including Spielberg, who has already won the Golden Globes.
Colin Farrell was nominated for the Best Actor award for his role as an Irish islander in The Banshees of Inisherin, who was overwhelmed by the sudden breakup with his lifelong friend. He will notably face Austin Butler, who is larger than life in his incarnation of the Elvis Presley mythos, and Brendan Fraser, who was named for his role as an obese reclusive professor in The Whale.
Between ambitious narratives and big hits with audiences, the tension is at its peak and the predictions promise to be difficult.
“This year is one of the most uncertain,” said trade journalist Clayton Davis of Variety magazine before the announcements.
He told AFP he spoke to many sources among the academy’s constituents “more than every year” to gauge their vote. “And I’ve never known so little in my entire career!” he added.
Complicating the forecasts further is the recent addition of new foreign-born members to the electoral college, who some credit for the 2020 success of South Korean film Parasite.
In recent years, the Academy has recognized independent films that are less well known to the general public, such as “Nomadland” and “CODA”. In this regard, the fate of the second part of Avatar and the pompous sequel to Top Gun on March 12 will be closely watched.
Because the two films are widely regarded as saviors from ailing darkrooms – the giant Cineworld, the second largest cinema operator in the world, for example, filed for bankruptcy this autumn. The James Cameron film passed the symbolic $2 billion mark at the box office last weekend and Tom Cruise’s grossed around $1.5 billion.
According to Mr. Davis, Top Gun: Maverick “could win Best Picture.”
Best actor:
- Austin Butler, “Elvis”
- Colin Farrell, “The Banshees of Inisherin”
- Brendan Fraser, “The Whale”
- Paul Mescal, “After Sun”
- Bill Nighty, “Live”
Best Actress:
- Cate Blanchett, “Tar”
- Ana de Armas, “Blonde”
- Andrea Riseborough, “To Leslie”
- Michelle Williams, “The Fabelmans”
- Michelle Yeoh, “Everything Everywhere at Once”
Best Director:
- Martin McDonagh, “The Banshees of Inisherin”
- Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, “Everything Everywhere at Once”
- Steven Spielberg, The Fablemans
- Todd Field, “Tar”
- Ruben Ostlund, “Without Filter”
Best movie:
- “Nothing is new in the West”
- “Avatar 2: The Way of Water”
- “The Banshees of Inisherin”
- “Elvis”
- “Everything everywhere at once”
- “The Fable Men”
- “Tar”
- “Top Gun: Maverick”
- “Without filter”
- “Women in Conversation”
The best supporting actress:
- Angela Bassett, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”
- Hong Chau, “The Whale”
- Kerry Condon, “The Banshees of Inisherin”
- Jamie Lee Curtis, “Everything Everywhere at Once”
- Stephanie Hsu, “Everything Everywhere at Once”
Best supporting actor:
- Brendan Gleeson, “The Banshees of Inisherin”
- Brian Tyree Henry, “Causeway”
- Judd Hirsch, “The Fabelmans”
- Barry Keoghan, “The Banshees of Inisherin”
- Ke Huy Quan, “Everything, Everywhere at Once”
Best Foreign Film:
- “Nothing New in the West” (Germany)
- “Argentina, 1985” (Argentina)
- «Close (Belgium)
- “EO” (Poland)
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