Academy bosses are hoping the public will tune in to see if the $100 million blockbuster can claim Hollywood’s most coveted award and draw a line under Will Smith’s infamous slap at last year’s gala.
“Everything Everywhere” — which leads the overall nomination tally to 11 — follows a Chinese immigrant laundromat owner locked in battle with an interdimensional supervillain who also happens to be his daughter.
Michelle Yeoh’s hero Evelyn must harness the power of her alter egos living in parallel universes, which feature hot dogs as human fingers, talking rocks and giant dildos used as weapons.
The film dominated nearly every Hollywood award show, with its charismatic predominantly Asian stars becoming the hot story of the season.
But while the wacky film is expected to dominate Oscar night, it could hit a snag for Best Picture.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences uses a special “preferred” voting system for that award, in which members rank films from best to worst.
If any rival can take advantage of it, it’s likely to be ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’, the German-language WWI film that dominated Britain’s BAFTAs.
While the best film race has a clear favorite, the acting contests are incredibly close.
For Best Actress, Cate Blanchett had long been the favorite to win a third Oscar for “Tar,” but love for “Everything Everywhere” could propel Yeoh to a historic first win by an Asian woman in the category.
Best Actor is a three-horse race between Austin Butler (“Elvis”), Brendan Fraser (“The Whale”) and Colin Farrell (“The Banshees of Inisherin”).
Angela Bassett, the first-ever Marvel superhero actress nominated with ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,’ faces ‘Everything Everywhere’ star Jamie Lee Curtis and ‘Banshees’ actress Kerry Condon.
A category appears to be locked. Ke Huy Quan, the former child star of ‘Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom’ and ‘The Goonies’ has won every Best Supporting Actor award and seems all but certain to complete a comeback story for the ages.
Here are the first predictions:
Best Movie
All everywhere all at once – Winner
The Banshees of Inisherin – They could win
All quiet on the west front
Avatar: The Way of Water
Elvis
The Fabelmans
Tar
Top Gun: nonconformist
Triangle of sadness
Women who speak
Best director
Steven Spielberg (“The Fabelmans”) – Winner
Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert (“Everything, everywhere, all at once”) – Could win
Martin McDonagh (“The Banshees of Inisherin”)
Todd Field (“Tár”)
Ruben Östlund (“Triangle of sadness”)
Best Leading Actor
Colin Farrell (“The Banshees of Inisherin”) – Winner
Brendan Fraser (“The Whale”) – Might win
Austin Butler (“Elvis”)
Paul Mescal (“After Sun”)
Bill Nighy (“Living”)
Best Leading Actress
Michelle Yeoh (“Everything, everywhere, all at once”) – Winner
Cate Blanchett (“Tár”) – Might win
Ana de Armas (“Blonde”)
Andrea Riseborough (“To Leslie”)
Michelle Williams (“The Fabelmans”)
Best Supporting Actor
Ke Huy Quan (“Everything, everywhere, all at once”) – Winner
Brendan Gleeson (“The Banshees of Inisherin”)
Brian Tyree Henry (“Causeway”)
Judd Hirsch (“The Fabelmans”)
Barry Keoghan (“The Banshees of Inisherin”)
Best Supporting Actress
Kerry Condon (“The Banshees of Inisherin”) – Winner
Angela Bassett (“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”) – He could win
Jamie Lee Curtis (“Everything, Everywhere, All at Once”)
Hong Chau (“The Whale”)
Stephanie Hsu (“Everything everywhere all at once”)
Best Adapted Screenplay
“All Quiet on the Western Front”, screenplay by Edward Berger, Lesley Paterson and Ian Stokell – Winner
“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery”, written by Rian Johnson
“Living”, written by Kazuo Ishiguro
“Top Gun: Maverick,” screenplay by Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer and Christopher McQuarrie; Story by Peter Craig and Justin Marks
“Women Who Talk”, screenplay by Sarah Polley
Best Original Screenplay
“Everything, Everywhere, All at Once” written by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert – Winner
“The Banshees of Inisherin”, written by Martin McDonagh – He could win
“The Fabelmans”, written by Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner
Tár,” Written by Todd Field
“Triangle of sadness”, written by Ruben Östlund
Best photography
“All Quiet on the Western Front”, James Friend – Winner
“Bard, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths”, Darius Khondji
“Elvis”, Mandy Walker
“Empire of Light”, Roger Deakins
“Tàr”, Florian Hoffmeister
Best Feature Documentary
“Navalny”, Daniel Roher, Odessa Rae, Diane Becker, Melanie Miller and Shane Boris – Winner
“Anything That Breathes”, Shaunak Sen, Aman Mann and Teddy Leifer – could win
“All the Beauty and the Bloodshed”, Laura Poitras, Howard Gertler, John Lyons, Nan Goldin and Yoni Golijov
“Fire of Love”, Sara Dosa, Shane Boris and Ina Fichman
“A house made of splinters”, Simon Lereng Wilmont and Monica Hellström
Best Documentary Short
“The Elephant Whisperers”, Kartiki Gonsalves & Guneet Monga – Winner
“Haulout”, Evgenia Arbugaeva and Maxim Arbugaev
“How do you measure a year?” Jay Rosenblatt
“The Martha Mitchell Effect”, Anne Alvergue and Beth Levison
“Stranger at the Door”, Joshua Seftel and Conall Jones
Best Film Editing
“Everything everywhere all at once”, Paul Rogers – Winner
“The Banshees of Inisherin,” Mikkel EG Nielsen
“Elvis”, Matt Villa and Jonathan Redmond
“Tár”, Monika Willi
Top Gun: Maverick,” Eddie Hamilton
Best international feature film
“All Quiet on the Western Front” (Germany) – Winner
“Argentina, 1985” (Argentina) – Could win
“Close” (Belgium)
“EO” (Poland)
“The Quiet Girl” (Ireland)
Best Original Song
“Naatu Naatu” from “RRR”, music by MM Keeravaani; Chandrabose lyrics – Winner
“Applause” from “Tell It Like a Woman”, music and lyrics by Diane Warren
“Hold My Hand” from “Top Gun: Maverick”, music and lyrics by Lady Gaga and BloodPop
“Lift Me Up” from “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” music by Tems, Rihanna, Ryan Coogler and Ludwig Goransson; Texts by Tems and Ryan Coogler
“This Is a Life” from “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” music by Ryan Lott, David Byrne and Mitski; Text by Ryan Lott and David Byrne
Best scenography
“Babylon”, scenography: Florencia Martin; Set decoration: Anthony Carlino – Winner
“Elvis”, production designers: Catherine Martin and Karen Murphy; Decoration of the set: Bev Dunn – He could win
“All Quiet on the Western Front,” Production Designers: Christian M. Goldbeck; Decoration of the set: Ernestine Hipper
“Avatar: The Way of Water,” Production Design: Dylan Cole and Ben Procter; Decoration of the set: Vanessa Cole
“The Fabelmans,” Production Design: Rick Carter; Set decoration: Karen O’Hara
Best visual effects
“Avatar: The Way of Water”, Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon and Daniel Barrett – Winner
“All Quiet on the Western Front”, Frank Petzold, Viktor Müller, Markus Frank and Kamil Jafar
“The Batman”, Dan Lemmon, Russell Earl, Anders Langlands and Dominic Tuohy
“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” Geoffrey Baumann, Craig Hammack, R. Christopher White and Dan Sudick
“Top Gun: Maverick”, Ryan Tudhope, Seth Hill, Bryan Litson and Scott R. Fisher
Best animated feature film
“Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio”, Guillermo del Toro, Mark Gustafson, Gary Ungar and Alex Bulkley – Winner
“Marcel the Shell With Shoes On”, Dean Fleischer Camp, Elisabeth Holm, Andrew Goldman, Caroline Kaplan and Paul Mezey
“Puss in Boots: The Last Wish”, Joel Crawford and Mark Swift
“The Sea Beast”, Chris Williams and Jed Schlanger
“Going Red”, Domee Shi and Lindsey Collins
Best animated short
“My year of cocks”, Sara Gunnarsdóttir and Pamela Ribon – Winner
“The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse”, Charlie Mackesy and Matthew Freud
“The Flying Sailor”, Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby
“Merchants of Ice”, João Gonzalez and Bruno Caetano
“An ostrich told me the world is false and I think I believe it,” Lachlan Pendragon
Best costume designer
“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”, Ruth Carter – Winner
“Elvis”, Catherine Martin – could win
“Babylon”, Mary Zophres
“Everything everywhere all at once”, Shirley Kurata
“Mrs. Harris goes to Paris”, Jenny Beavan
Best live action short film
“The Red Suitcase”, Cyrus Neshvad – Winner
“An Irish Goodbye”, Tom Berkeley and Ross White
“Ivalu”, Anders Walter and Rebecca Pruzan
“The Pupils”, Alice Rohrwacher and Alfonso Cuarón
“Night Ride”, Eirik Tveiten and Gaute Lid Larssen
Best Makeup and Hairstyle
“The Whale”, Adrien Morot, Judy Chin and Anne Marie Bradley – Winner
“All Quiet on the Western Front”, Heike Merker and Linda Eisenhamerová
“The Batman”, Naomi Donne, Mike Marino and Mike Fontaine
“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”, Camille Friend and Joel Harlow
“Elvis”, Mark Coulier, Jason Baird and Aldo Signoretti
Best Original Score
“All Quiet on the Western Front”, Volker Bertelmann – Winner
“Babylon”, Justin Hurwitz
“The Banshees of Inisherin”, Carter Burwell
“Everything everywhere all at once”, Son Lux
“The Fabelmans”, John Williams
Best sound
“All Quiet on the Western Front,” Viktor Prášil, Frank Kruse, Markus Stemler, Lars Ginzel and Stefan Korte – Winner
“Avatar: The Way of Water”, Julian Howarth, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, Dick Bernstein, Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers and Michael Hedges
“The Batman”, Stuart Wilson, William Files, Douglas Murray and Andy Nelson
“Elvis”, David Lee, Wayne Pashley, Andy Nelson and Michael Keller
“Top Gun: Maverick”, Mark Weingarten, James H. Mather, Al Nelson, Chris Burdon and Mark Taylor
