There’s a lot to be celebrated for the amount of Asian representation that Daniels’ brilliant Everything, Everywhere, All at Once so gloriously illuminates after capping a masterful awards season run with 7 Oscar wins including Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Editing, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actress, Best Directing, and, of course, Best Picture. They won every category they were nominated in except for one, Best Song. In fact, there’s a lot to be celebrated for Everything, Everywhere, All at Once becoming the most decorated movie to come out in 2022.

It’s an an original movie (and an indie one at that) that proved to be an undeniable box office hit (though not at the magnitude of Top Gun: Maverick… yet?). Heading out of lockdown, the fate of original movies on the big screen seemed grim, but, as fate would have it, the movie that wrapped principal photography the day before COVID-19 was announced as global pandemic would be the perfect balance of escape, maximalism, absurdism, and family tenderness that would capture the hearts and minds of audiences around the globe. With populist movies such as Avatar: The Way of Water and Top Gun: Maverick looming large as appointed saviors of the movie industry and finding their way into the Best Picture category at The Oscars, one could only wonder how many more cinematic universes would be treated to had either of them won. We’re still going to very much be subject to the MCU, DCEU, Fast & Furious, Blade Runner, Ghostbusters, Mission Impossible, James Bond, Star Wars, and yes, probably Top Gun, but there’s a glimmer of hope in the sheen of A24’s landmark 2022 that included not only Everything, Everywhere, All at Once, but also the acclaimed/nominated/award winning Marcel the Shell with Shoes On and The Whale. The independent spirit is still alive and well, so long as audiences keep watching those films after being let down by Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

Also, not enough is said for Everything Everywhere All at Once being a comedy and, very likely, the wackiest movie that has every won a Best Picture Oscar. The entire pantheon of Best Picture winners that can be categorized, even somewhat, as comedies include such classics as It Happened One Night, Annie Hall, Gigi, Birdman, and The Artist. None of them had a multi-verse or hot dog fingers or numerous sex toy jokes or glue-on googly-eyes on rocks, just a sampling of the magical soup in Everything, Everywhere, All at Once. The most “out-there” movie to win Best Picture before this year might be The Shape of Water, a noir-thriller romance where a woman falls in love with a fish god. The mash-up of sincerity and slapstick revelry is something that hasn’t really graced the Academy’s consideration, but this historic win (apparently, more above-the-line wins than any other movie in Oscars history) might just be the shake-up/sign that things for one of cinema’s oldest institutions is maybe catching up with the times.

More so than probably anything else that came out last year, Everything, Everywhere, All at Once should be a testament to the artistry in comedy and let’s hope no one ever forgets that anywhere, ever again.