There was a moment last week in preparing for Oscar coverage when it hit me. Almost exactly a year prior, in the middle of March 2022, I’d interviewed Michelle Yeoh and The Daniels about their new movie at the time, “Everything Everywhere All At Once.” 12 months ago. The beginning of what became an extremely long campaign for A24’s eventual Best Picture champion. Their second in just 12 years of existence.
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To be fair, perhaps an early start even in the guise of a traditional release campaign is a trend worth paying attention to. Last year’s Best Picture winner, “CODA,” began its publicity journey during a virtual 2022 Sundance Film Festival before being acquired by Apple TV+. And, moreover, many Sundance films have ridden Oscar buzz a full year before their respective ceremonies including “Little Miss Sunshine,” “Precious,” “An Education” and “Get Out,” among others. But none of them were able to muster up a marathon of a campaign like “EEAAO” did.
Many studios will try to duplicate the “EEAAO” strategy in the years to come and likely fail. Every Oscar-winning campaign is different, but this was absolutely an anomaly. It was the perfect mix of a critically acclaimed film, a movie that had “heart”(a requirement to win Best Picture), a movie that is utterly cinematic (you needed to see it in a theater), an art-house crossover hit when the industry desperately needed one, the narrative of a contender with an almost all Asian cast (still too rare), a once-in-a-lifetime Hollywood comeback story (Ke Huy Quan) and a long-gestating opportunity to reward a beloved international icon (Michelle Yeoh, whose Oscar drumbeat began in earnest with “Crazy Rich Asians” five years ago).
And then there was the social media cheerleader who arrived in the visage of a Hollywood lifer with more organic connections in this town than all of A24’s employees combined. A top-tier red carpet interview maestro who is so down to earth she can make even the most cynical industry insider laugh at her “nepo baby” jokes (Jamie Lee Curtis). And if you want to know how she won Supporting Actress when she was arguably the weakest performance of the bunch (we see you Angela), that’s pretty much why. The Academy rarely and we mean rarely rewards contenders for lifetime achievement, but when they also love the movie strange things happen.
The goodwill toward “Everything Everywhere” was so strong that despite the fact the talent was campaigning off and on for a year it never felt overboard. It never felt forced. It never felt like A24 or its consultants were ramming the film down either the industry or AMPAS members’ throats (now, the movie’s hardcore fans on social media were another story). That is extremely hard to pull off and for all those studios who think they can do it next year, yeah, well, good luck with that.
In this swirl of publicity was another campaign that perhaps even a larger success story for the mini-major. Another movie that thrived off goodwill for its talent, “The Whale.” If you asked anyone off the record at A24 about the drama following its Venice Film Festival premiere they would likely admit how polarizing it was. To this day, you rarely run into anyone ambivalent about it. You either love it or detest it. But no one, and I mean no one was going to rain on Brendan Fraser‘s comeback parade. A genuinely nice guy who has experienced the highs and lows of an industry that can often be viciously cruel. Especially to actors.
Before “The Whale,” Fraser’s regular paycheck was that of a man stuck in a robot suit on the HBO Max series “Doom Patrol.” A fun series, mind you, but a role where you almost never see his face. Now, a leading role in a Darren Aronofsky prestige drama? A fine performance in what many consider a slightly problematic film? No one is going to touch Fraser for that. It was simply impossible not to be happy for him in that regard. It was organically a feel-good story that always felt genuine during a fall award season full of contenders who often want it far too much.
That being said, the film also has its AMPAS detractors. Despite some very good art-house box office in the U.S. ($17 million to date) and a PGA Awards nomination, it did not make the Best Picture cut and was snubbed by the Writer’s Branch in a historically weak Adapted Screenplay category. But Fraser’s co-star Hong Chau, perhaps the best performance in the film, was also nominated after a stellar year overall. And, as always expected, it landed a Makeup and Hairstyling nomination. There was clearly enough support to pull off two unexpected wins.
And yet, we’re still sort of puzzled over Fraser’s triumph (as are a number of people in this town). Did Austin Butler’s “Elvis” accent do him in after his BAFTA win? Did Academy members just decide they didn’t like Baz Luhrmann‘s movie anymore? Did Colin Farrell not campaign enough? Or was it an extremely tight three-way race with industry goodwill putting Fraser over the top? Whatever the case, it landed A24 with a win in every acting category. An achievement no studio has pulled off since 1959. Yes, the first time it’s happened in a whopping 64 years.
This was the sort of night a mini-major had not pulled off since the days of “he who shall not be named” (and we haven’t even touched on their first Animated Film and International Film nominations). It was partially A24’s campaign. It was certainly their taste level. Heck, their brand might have had something to do with it considering all those younger members that joined The Academy the past seven years. Maybe the stars aligned just right. But, especially in “Everything Everywhere All At Once’s” case, it was the simplest reason of all, it was the movie stupid.
