Everything Everywhere All At Once swept up yet more film prizes Saturday, as it was named best feature at the Spirit Awards – one of the last major Hollywood ceremonies before next weekend’s Oscars.
The trippy sci-fi won in every category it was nominated, at a ceremony held in a giant tent at Los Angeles’ Santa Monica beach to celebrate low- and mid-budget movies.
Its voters granted a whopping seven awards to the film, which was made for around $25 million and became independent studio A24’s biggest-ever hit, with a global box office gross above $100 million.
“This is too many. We’re so lucky!” said co-director Daniel Scheinert, collecting the night’s final prize.
Michelle Yeoh won best lead performance, and Stephanie Hsu won best breakthrough performance.
It is the first year in which the Film Independent Spirit Awards have opted for gender-neutral acting categories.
This year’s Spirit Awards were held the weekend before the Oscars. Voting for the season-concluding Academy Awards is currently underway.
Final Oscars voting closes on Tuesday, before Hollywood’s most coveted golden statuettes are handed out at a glitzy ceremony next Sunday.
Among the films that could receive a late Oscars boost from their Spirit Award wins Saturday were best documentary All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, best first feature Aftersun, and best cinematography winner Tar.
Women Talking received the pre-announced Robert Altman Award, which honors a film’s director, casting director and overall cast.
But in a repeat of scenes at recent high-profile prizegiving ceremonies from Hollywood’s actors’, producers’, and directors’ guilds, the night’s big winner was Everything Everywhere, which cemented its already clear Academy Award frontrunner status.
The movie, which features characters with hot dog fingers, sex toy-shaped trophies, and talking rocks, has overcome predictions from some pundits that it would prove too bizarre for mainstream audiences and voters. It leads the nominations at the Oscars, with 11 nods.