The first and only sci-fi movie to win the ‘Best Picture’ Oscar
In the 95 years since the first Academy Awards ceremony, certain genres have come to be commended and celebrated more than others. Epic histories and dramas always seem to take the award season by storm, particularly those films based on real stories or period pieces. While those pictures claim the ‘Best Picture’ title year after year, more otherworldly genres have taken a backseat.
From Gone with the Wind to Green Book, this pattern has remained relatively unchanged for almost a decade. While grit and realism thrive, the awards have often neglected genres such as fantasy and sci-fi. Throughout the years, the Academy have overlooked all-time greats such as Blade Runner and The Matrix as well as modern feats in the genre such as Arrival.
It took 95 years for the Academy to finally recognise the genre as worthy of ‘Best Picture’, a moment when Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s wildly successful Everything Everywhere All at Once finally broke the pattern in 2022. A huge commercial and critical success, the mammoth movie was impossible to ignore at the 95th ceremony. It garnered 11 nominations and, amidst seven wins, took home the title for ‘Best Picture’.
With stunning surrealist visuals and humanity at its core, it’s unsurprising that Everything Everywhere All at Once was the film to turn the tides for sci-fi. The film contemplated universal themes surrounding identity, perfectly balanced comedy and sincerity, and even featured a musical collaboration between David Byrne and Mitski. The film was also much more than a sci-fi.
Though it finds its footing in science and surrealism, Everything Everywhere All at Once is an amalgamation of a million genres. It’s fantastical, funny, and action-fuelled all at once. As the directors explained during an interview with NPR, the exaggerated sci-fi elements of the film are steeped in humanity and heart.
“We’re borrowing heavily from Vonnegut and Douglas Adams in the way that – they take science and they just take the absurdity and dial it up to, like, a hundred and try to apply that to the multiverse,” Kwan explained. To the directors, this became a “really good metaphor for what it feels like to be alive right now, to exist in an infinite number of different stories and narratives, kind of colliding constantly in contradictions and emotional whiplash.”
This element of the film was crucial in its worldwide critical and commercial success. It’s a study in sci-fi but it’s also a contemporary commentary on our current circumstances. Infused with empathy and science in equal measure, Everything Everywhere All at Once was a worthy first and only sci-fi ‘Best Picture’ winner.
Revisit the trailer for the ground-breaking film below.
