'Everything Everywhere All at Once" wins best picture at Oscars

The metaphysical multiverse comedy "Everything Everywhere All at Once" wrapped its hot dog fingers around Hollywood's top prize Sunday, winning best picture at the 95th Academy Awards, along with awards for Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis.

Though worlds away from Oscar bait, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert's anarchic ballet of everything bagels, googly-eyed rocks and one messy tax audit emerged as an improbable Academy Awards heavyweight. The indie hit, A24's second best-picture winner following "Moonlight," won seven Oscars in all.

Fifty years after "The Godfather" won at the Oscars, "Everything Everywhere All at Once" triumphed with a much different immigrant experience. Its eccentric tale about a Chinese immigrant family – just the second feature by the Daniels, as the filmmaking duo is known – blended science fiction and alternate realities in the story of an ordinary woman and laundromat owner.

"Everything Everywhere," released all the way back in March 2022, helped revive arthouse cinemas after two years of the pandemic, racking up more than $100 million in ticket sales. And despite initially scant expectations of Oscar glory, "Everything Everywhere All at Once" toppled both blockbusters ("Top Gun: Maverick," "Avatar: The Way of Water") and critical darlings ("Tar," "The Banshees of Inisherin").

Yeoh became the first Asian woman to best actress, taking the award for her lauded performance in "Everything Everywhere All at Once." The 60-year-old Malaysian-born Yeoh won her first Oscar for a performance that relied as much on her comic and dramatic chops as it did her kung fu skills. She's the first best actress to win for a non-white actress in 20 years.

"Ladies, don't let anyone ever tell you you're past your prime," said Yeoh, who received a raucous standing ovation.