'Everything Everywhere All At Once' pile up awards from actors, directors and producers guilds

The cast of 'Everything Everywhere All at Once' accept SAG's Best Ensemble award.

UPDATED Jan. 27, 2 p.m.

Momentum for Everything Everywhere All At Once continues to build enroute to a big night at the Academy Awards next month after winning major awards from the Screen Actors Guild Awards show last night.

With actors making up a large portion of the Academy membership, the SAG Awards is a good indicator for the Oscars. The films chances for Academy Awards were strengthened when the Directors Guild and Producers Guild gave the film its top awards, also.

Four of the five acting awards for films were won by members of the Everything Everywhere cast: Best Actress, Michele Yeo; Best Supporting Actor, Ke Huy Quan; Best Supporting Actress, Jamie Lee Curtis; and Best Ensemble.

Only the Best Actor award, which went to Brendan Fraser for The Whate, kept EEAAO from a sweep.

“This is not just for me,” said Yeoh, the first Asian actress to win the SAG Award for female lead. “It’s for every little girl that looks like me.”

Her co-star Quan, the first Asian to win best male supporting actor at the SAG Awards, almost gave up acting for lack of work, said:

“When I stepped away from acting, it was because there were so few opportunities,” said Quan. “Now, tonight we are celebrating James Hong, Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, Hong Chau, Harry Shum Jr. The landscape looks so different now.”

But it was 94-year old James Hong, a veteran of hundreds of roles, who stole the show speaking about  the historic nature of the awards when he joined other cast members to receive the Best Ensemble award. He brought up the history of using yellowface in the movie The Good Earth made in 1937.

“The leading role was played with these guys with their eyes taped up like this and they talked like this because the producers said the Asians were not good enough and they were not box office,” said Hong. “But look at us now!”

James Hong's acceptance speech in behalf of the cast stole the show.

The SAG awards come a week after the Directors Guild gave their top award to EEAAO's directors and writers, Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan, and on Saturday, Producer Jonathan Wang accepted the best film award from the Producer's Guild of America. 

Although it looks like EEAAO will do well at the Oscars, the Hollywood Reporter points out that when results sometimes differ between the two major awards, it is because SAG-AFTRA, a more diverse group than the Academy as a whole, voted for a person of color. Members from other less diverse crafts could choose someone else.

Everything Everywhere All at Once is expected to garner more accolades and praise during the Academy Awards, the most prestigious award show in in the movie industry. The 2023 Oscars will be held Sunday, March 12, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. The ceremony is set to begin at 8 p.m. EST and be broadcast live on ABC. Can you stream the Oscars? The broadcast can be streamed with a subscription to Hulu Live TV, YouTubeTV, AT&T TV and Fubo TV.

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