DECRYPTION – Acclaimed by the powerful union of Hollywood actors, the science fiction comedy, worn by Michelle Yeoh, was awarded by the producers’ guild. Very good omen for the Oscars.
In this award season, the wheel of fortune is spinning fast. Last September, The Fabelmans where Steven Spielberg told his childhood took the ascendancy at the Toronto festival. Then the Golden Globes gave the advantage to Banshees of Inesherina pole position confirmed by the English Cesars of the Bafta who also acclaimed the German war film AT the west nothing new.
But the powerful guilds of Hollywood make hear another music which joins that of the nominations with the Oscars and plebiscite Everything Everywhere All At Once, competing in 11 categories at the Oscars on March 12. The wanderings of Michelle Yeoh, owner of a laundromat in conflict with the IRS and caught in a whirlwind of alternate realities and parallel realities, had a triumphant weekend.
On Saturday, the film by Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwana won the PGA awards. In front of Steven Spielberg, in front Top Gun: Maverick before The Banshees of Inisherinbefore Elvis by Baz Luhrman. This victory is significant because the producers’ guild uses the same preferential voting system of the Oscars. Wins the ballot, the film best placed on all the ballots, not necessarily the one that comes first. The PGA and the Oscars rarely diverge. A trophy that joins the one awarded by the directors’ guild last week. Another sign that suggestsEverything Everywhere All At Once is on course to bring home the Oscar king for Best Picture.
The emotion of Michelle Yeoh. MARIO ANZUONI / REUTERS
On Sunday, the actors guild cemented the hopes ofEverything Everywhere All At Once who took four of the five trophies at stake. Best cast, best supporting roles for Jamie Lee Curtis, who gives priority to favorite Angela Bassett (Black Panther 2), and the ghost Ke Huy Quan, child star ofIndiana Jones, which had turned its back on Hollywood for lack of roles for Asian actors. Without forgetting the statuette of best actress for Michelle Yeoh. The Malaysian superstar scores a point against her most prominent rival Cate Blanchett, who had prevailed in the other ceremonies so far thanks to her role as a genius and tyrannical conductor in Tar.
Brendan Fraser returns to the race
Everything Everywhere All At Once was not in the running for best actor. The winner defied all expectations. Rather than crowning Baz Luhrmann Austin Butler’s Elvis Presley, winner of the Golden Globes and Bafta, the guild bestowed its award on Brendan Fraser for his smash comeback in The Whale, oppressive portrait of an obese father.
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The other huge surprise of the evening was the absence from the list of Banshees of Inisherin. Yet Martin McDonagh’s account of the broken friendship between two Irish farmers rests on equally brilliant performances by Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Barry Keoghan and Kerry Condon who had just triumphed at the Bafta.
The patriarch ofEverything Everywhere All At Once, James Hong, 94, summed up the joy of his partners and the historic nature of their victories. He recalled his beginnings, when Hollywood gave white actors, “scooping their eyes” (to curb them, editor’s note) the main Asian roles because the producers thought that “Asians were not good enough”. “But look at us now, huh?” he said, to a huge ovation.
Michelle Yeoh also referenced the long struggle for more diversity in Hollywood. This award “isn’t just for me, it’s for all the little girls who look like me”, argued actress Ke Huy Quan noted that he was the first Asian actor to win in his category. “When I learned of this, I quickly realized that this moment no longer belonged just to me. It also belongs to all those who” have worked for more diversity, he said.
Important language in the race for the Oscars, whose voters tend to follow the advice of the actors’ union three times out of four. Actors are indeed the most represented electorate at the Oscars, which has 17 professional branches. However, remains an unknown. The Academy of Oscars has diversified a lot in recent years, recruiting new members in Europe, South America and Asia. If the pro track record In the West nothing new of the Bafta reveals one thing, it is that tastes between Hollywood and the Old Continent can seriously diverge. And perhaps question the historical reliability of the guild barometer.