Will the promised surge take place? The Oscars open on Sunday with an unorthodox ultra-favorite: “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” a wacky comedy that intertwines a bagel-shaped black hole with sex toys used as nunchucks.
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The Academy hopes that the audience of the big nights will be there to witness the announced triumph of this wacky film, nominated in 11 categories and which was a great success in theaters, with 100 million dollars at the box office.
What can finally make us forget the famous slap of Will Smith, who had hit the headlines last year.
Combining action, schoolboy humor and science fiction, “Everything Everywhere” tells the adventures of an overworked laundromat owner, played by Michelle Yeoh, suddenly summoned to save a multitude of parallel universes from an evil force: the alter ego of his depressed daughter.
To achieve this, she must use the powers of her various alternative lives, visiting often completely crazy worlds, where some humans, for example, have fingers in the shape of hot dogs.
A moving reflection on family love, the film is carried by a brilliant cast, mostly Asian. He won most of the prizes awarded before the Oscars.
“Behind the film, there is a group of very endearing people, for whom it is impossible not to feel sympathy”, summarizes Scott Feinberg, specialized columnist for The Hollywood Reporter.
But this domination, prophesied for weeks, could come up against the voting system for the Oscar for best film, which tends to penalize polarizing works.
One of the Oscar voters thus confides to AFP that certain members of the Academy, in particular among the oldest, have reservations about the success of the film.
“It was a very daring and unique film, but not a traditional film, (…) it could end up higher in the classification for a lot of people”, he explains on condition of anonymity.
This could benefit the German adaptation of the pacifist novel “In the West, nothing new”, or Tom Cruise’s blockbuster “Top Gun: Maverick”, a popular card which has allowed the public to finally reconnect with dark rooms. after the pandemic.
The competition between actors is much tighter.
“I don’t remember a year (…) where three of the four categories of actors were really quits or doubles,” observes Mr. Feinberg.
The Oscar for best actress is played between Cate Blanchett, ruthless conductor in “Tar”, and Michelle Yeoh, the heroine of “Everything Everywhere”, who could become the first winner of Asian origin to win this price.
For best actor, Austin Butler (“Elvis”), Brendan Fraser (“The Whale”) and Colin Farrell (“The Banshees of Inisherin”) are neck and neck.
Just like Angela Bassett (“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”), Jamie Lee Curtis (“Everything Everywhere All At Once”) and Kerry Condon (“The Banshees of Inisherin”) for the statuette of the best female supporting role.
Only Ke Huy Quan, former child star of “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” forgotten by Hollywood for more than 20 years, seems almost certain to win an Oscar, by dint of accumulating the rewards for his second role of husband endearing in “Everything Everywhere”.
The shadow of the famous slap in the face last year by Will Smith to comedian Chris Rock, after a joke about his wife’s alopecia, also hovers over this ceremony.
The episode should generate some inevitable banter, but Oscars executive producer Molly McNearney clearly wants closure. “We are going to talk about the event (…) and move on,” she said this week.
Last year, the Academy was criticized for letting Mr Smith receive his award for best actor on stage after his attack. He has since been banned from ceremonies for 10 years and this year, a “crisis team” must work behind the scenes to prepare for any eventuality.
The ceremony is counting on the presence of the sequels to “Top Gun” and “Avatar”, two major blockbusters, to try to counter the general decline in its audience.
Because despite a rebound last year, interest in the Oscars has waned considerably since the golden age of the 90s. In 1998, 57 million viewers – an absolute record – had attended the triumph of “Titanic” , rewarded with 11 statuettes.
“That world is gone,” observes Mr. Feinberg. “But if the viewership doesn’t increase from last year, the Academy will have a big problem.”