Everything Everywhere sweeps almost all before it at Oscars 2023, winning best picture and director and three of the four acting awards, with Michelle Yeoh making history

Madcap comedy drama wins best picture, best director for ‘Daniels’, and Michelle Yeoh makes history as first Asian best actress winner

It picks up other prizes including best supporting actor, for Ke Huy Quan, and best supporting actress, for Jamie Lee Curtis; Brendan Fraser wins best actor

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“Everything Everywhere All at Once” cast members including James Hong, 94 (front, centre, holding its Oscar for best picture), celebrate on stage at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. The film dominated Oscars night, winning seven awards. Photo: Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Published: 12:40pm, 13 Mar 2023Updated: 7:03pm, 13 Mar 2023

Everything Everywhere All at Once won the prestigious best picture trophy at the Academy Awards as Hollywood embraced an offbeat story about a Chinese-American family working out their problems across multiple dimensions.

The movie claimed three of the four acting Oscars for stars Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis. Yeoh played the lead role of a stressed-out laundromat owner who finds she has superpowers in alternate universes, as well as best director and best original screenplay for its directors Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan, known as “Daniels”.

Their win made it he third time in four years in which a feature made by a director of Asian descent – in this case Kwan – has won the biggest prize in the American film industry, after Bong Joon-ho triumphed with Parasite in 2020 and Chloé Zhao did likewise with Nomadland in 2021.

“For all the little boys and girls who look like me watching tonight, this is a beacon of hope and possibilities,” the 60-year-old Malaysian actress said on stage. “And ladies, don’t let anybody ever tell you are ever past your prime.”

Yeoh made history by winning the Oscar for lead actress, as the first Asian ever to triumph in the category.

Michelle Yeoh accepts the Oscar for best actress. Photo: Reuters

“Thank you to the academy,” Yeoh concluded her speech. “This is history in the making.”