Everything Everywhere All At Once just demolished the Independent Spirit Awards
The sci-fi comedy won for Best Performance, Best Feature, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Editing, and more, dominating the film slate
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Once upon a time, the Film Independent Spirit Awards occupied a very particular spot in the awards season timeline: Perched literally a day before the Oscars, they served as a gentle critical barometer for where the Big Show might be going, were it to let its more, y’know, creative impulses take the wheel. That hasn’t been the case for the last two years—the Spirit Awards got shunted to 8 days before the Oscars, instead—but they’re still the place where less conventional victories can be wrought. Like: Will sci-fi comedy Everything Everywhere All At Once sweep the Academy Awards next Sunday? It’s hard to say. But it sure as hell crushed it at the Spirit Awards today.
You can see the full list of winners right here, but rest assured that you’ll see a whole lot of bold being thrown around the words All, Everything, Once, Everywhere, and At. Stars Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, and Michelle Yeoh all won in their categories—for Breakthrough Star, Supporting Performance, and Lead Performance, respectively—while editor Paul Rogers and writer-directors Dan Kawn and Daniel Scheinert (“My boys,” as an emotional Yeoh put it) won Best Editing, Best Screenplay, and Best Director.
It was a dominant performance, honestly: Everything Everywhere won in every single category it was nominated for, finishing with a victory for Best Feature outright. (It also forced a lot of very austere actors to make jokes about hot-dog fingers, which was fun.) “This is too many,” Daniel Scheinert said, only half-joking, after the Best Feature win, as the directors and producers attempted some graciousness in the face of kicking everyone else’s asses.
Other big winners today, over in the Bagel-immune realm of TV: The Bear, which won for Best New Scripted Series and for Best Supporting Performance In A New Series. (Ayo Edibiri took that one home; she took a joking shot at co-star and co-nominee Ebon Moss-Bachrach during an emotional acceptance speech.) Quinta Brunson scored a win for acting in Abbott Elementary. And, most importantly, Nathan Fielder got to get up and give a speech for The Rehearsal, 90 percent of which was about the lunch served at the awards, because Nathan Fielder is perfect.
29 Comments
I’m so happy for EEAAO. Usually I’ll see these prestige movies, say “Yeah, that was good, I can see why people like it”, and barely think of them again. This is the first multi-award-winning movie that I keep watching over and over again. It’s wonderful.The commentary track by the Daniels is also very good, if you can get your hands on it.
I saw it in theaters early on because of the glow-up the AV Club gave it. I texted someone to watch it during a bathroom break. After the credits, they had texted back that they had already seen it and were also amazed. I felt like I should have been standing the last 30 minutes or so. Love this movie, so glad it wasn’t just ignored because it was Weird.
I texted someone to watch it during a bathroom break.That’s an odd time to watch a movie. And a long bathroom break!
I learned about it here too and after we saw it I was practically grabbing strangers on the street telling them to see it.
I’m not one that gets invested in these sort of awards but it would still be cool to see EEAAO win big at the Oscars. I have a feeling it won’t, I bet the Whale eats it lunch because the Academy loves actor transformations and sad shit.
The Whale is only competing with EEAO in supporting actress. Don’t think Fraser is gonna influence that category. Its not even nominated for best picture.
Really. I could have sworn it was. I just looked and you are right. I still don’t think the give it to EEAAO. My bet is Tar or Banshees gets it. Although the academy loves Spielberg and loves movies about making movies which you can argue The Fablemans is sorta about.
I dunno, EEAAO has a lot of energy right now and outside of BAFTA basically all the other awards shows and guilds have lined up behind it. There was a chunk of time a decade ago when the academy was giving awards to movies about movies (The Artist, Argo and Birdman), but by and large those tend to be locks for nominations rather than actual wins, and Spielberg himself hasn’t won an award (for Picture or Director) since Saving Private Ryan. The Fablemans is his best shot in a long time, but the inertia of EEAAO is going to be damn hard to beat.
I just feel like EEAAO lost a lot of boomer academy members early on. How many best picture winners have butt plugs be a major plot element?
I’m pulling for a Banshees upset, but EEAAO is the obvious frontrunner at this point and I’m perfectly fine with that. Its a great film and pretty rare for quality absurdism to be so highly recognized. I thought Tar was also an incredible achievement, not my pick but it would be a deserving win. I haven’t yet seen The Fablemans, but yeah it does have the movie-about-movies thing going for it so I’d say there’s non-zero chance it takes the win, but I don’t think it’s likely.
Really? I feel like Best Actor is the only award The Whale has a chance at winning.
Oh, it will sweep. We’re past the point of a backlash now. Personally, I find it unwatchable. It’s a mess, even compared to Daniel Scheinert’s previous films Swiss Army Man and The Death of Dick Long. It’s difficult to get behind and root for any one character. But all of Hollywood is saying it’s great, and it is winning all the awards. The Producers Guild (PGA), SAG and DGA awards all sealed the deal. There would have to be some pretty rotten people in the Academy to deny it now.
I think EEAO not only has momentum (won big at PGA), but it is also the only way all the white actresses can relieve themselves of their guilt (and make themselves look better) after the Best Actress kerfuffle.
Good for everyone here, but especially so for Stephanie Hsu. I think both Yeoh and Quan have good chances to pick up their respective Oscars, but I suspect Bassett is going to win her career award over her next weekend. Which won’t be a huge disappointment, as she’s definitely earned it, and she’s terrific in Wakanda Forever anyway.
It makes me feel so good that the worst people in the world are so upset at all the awards this movie has gotten.
I’m not upset, just puzzled. I tried watching this and lost all interest/comprehension at the butt plug scene.
Apparently I missed something here that a lot of other people got.
But I’m not mad about that! (I’m kind of used to it)
It makes me feel so good these awards are just meaningless ways to stroke a rich celebrities ego and you are far too stupid to see it.
But it’s a good movie, it has asians yo!
Is it OK not to like the film that much? I love the performances but got bored a lot. In a film where anything can happen I found I didn’t want ‘anything’ but instead a bit more focus and more rules. It’s staggeringly creative but too much a lot of the time.
it was a mother/daughter story. there was a lot of focus on that and it landed very well.
I liked it and think a lot of EEAAO biggest fans have been arses about the film.
Wait- is it ok to not care if this film got awards or not, but still not like the movie?Please tell me how to think, thanks in advance.
I really loved the movie and I’m glad it’s winning awards. Sure I enjoyed The Banshees of Inisherin and Tár more but I’d rather see Michelle Yeoh finally get her due for being awesome.
We’re saying that EEAAO actually won Everything, Everywhere All At Once?
Well, almost. As per usual the British ruined everything given how the BAFTAs played out.
Everybody please don’t miss the amazing speech given by Reid Davenport after winning for his documentary “I Didn’t See You There,” afflicted with cerebral palsy but directing a remarkable feature film:
whatever they are
I’m sure every celebrity proudly displays their Independent Spirits award on their mantle.
I really love this film and I’m not looking forward to the backlash it’s going to get from edgelords who think it won to many awards in a few years
All the online people I know who have been accused of being edgelords have been urging people to see this film, it’s just that good!