The Oscar for Best Original Screenplay has been awarded to The Daniels — Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert — for Everything Everywhere All At Once, as just announced at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. The award winner was presented with the famous gold statuette at the 95th Academy Awards.
Last year saw Kenneth Branagh win his first Academy Award for his semi-autobiographical film Belfast, which detailed his upbringing amongst the Troubles in Northern Ireland in the 1960s. He beat out competition from Adam McKay for Don't Look Up, Paul Thomas Anderson for Licorice Pizza, Zach Baylin for King Richard and The Worst Person in the World from Eskil Vogt and Joachin Trier.
Everything Everywhere All At Once tells the story of Evelyn Wang, a down-on-her-luck laundromat owner who ends up with the ability to channel the multiverse after an interdimensional rupture threatens to unravel reality itself. Hot dog fingers, stop-motion rocks and a black hole within a bagel crafted by her oppressed daughter are some of the more standard features in a mind-bending adventure that blends the themes of bizarre comedy and family unity as Evelyn attempts to save the universe - and her daughter.
The Nominees
Martin McDonagh received a nomination for The Banshees of Inisherin, while Steven Spielberg was also recognized alongside Tony Kushner for The Fabelmans, loosely based on Spielberg's adolescence and his breakthrough years as a filmmaker. Daniels - the directing duo of Daniel Kwan and Daniel Schweinert- received a nomination for Everything Everywhere All at Once, the story of a Chinese-American laundromat owner who finds herself forced to connect with parallel universe versions of herself in order to save the multiverse from collapse. Todd Field also received a nomination from the Academy for his work on TÁR and Ruben Östlund's Triangle of Sadness about a luxury cruise liner that sinks, leaving its passengers stranded, completed the line-up.
Everything Everywhere All at Once came into the evening as the favourite and front-runner. With 11 nominations, the movie shows up in more categories than any other nominee this year, while All Quiet on the Western Front - the German-language film from Netflix - and The Banshees of Inisherin followed with 9 nominations each.
The return of audiences to movie theatres following the pandemic was also acknowledged, with two films - Avatar: The Way of Water and Top Gun: Maverick - both being nominated for Best Picture, having earned over $1 billion each at the worldwide box office, marking the first time two films to pass that milestone had earned nominations.