Oscars: 'Everything Everywhere All at Once' will be the big winner, says Rafer Guzmán

The 95th Academy Awards take place Sunday night. NewsdayTV's Rafer Guzmán predicts this year's winners.

By Rafer Guzmánrafer.guzman@newsday.comUpdated March 10, 2023

At last year’s Academy Awards, the Best Picture contest came down to two movies: Jane Campion’s moody Western, “Power of the Dog,” and the indie drama “CODA.” Before the show aired, I predicted: “Whatever else happens during the broadcast, this top Oscar category should be a nail-biting moment.”

Something else happened, all right.

After Will Smith strode onstage and slapped host Chris Rock midway through the evening, nobody was biting any nails over the award for Best Picture — our mouths were hanging open from shock. The show devolved into such chaos that night (remember Smith’s unhinged acceptance speech for Best Actor?) that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is still figuring out how to respond. Smith got hit with a 10-year ban from the Oscars, and recently the Academy announced that a “crisis team” will be present at this year’s ceremony. Details on said team are scarce, but according to Academy CEO Bill Kramer it’ll handle “anything that we may not anticipate.”

Assuming all goes well Sunday (8 p.m. on ABC/7), returning host Jimmy Kimmel — in his third outing — will probably keep the mood light and safe. This post-traumatic Oscar show is surely not the time for pointed barbs and touchy subjects. Nevertheless, he’ll have to acknowledge that slap, plus a few other elephants in the Dolby Theater.

To start, there’s the fracas over Andrea Riseborough, whose nomination in the little-seen drama “To Leslie” prompted an Academy review of the movie’s campaign tactics. Then there’s the Oscars’ snubbing of two powerful performances by Black women, Danielle Deadwyler in “Till” and Viola Davis in “The Woman King.” Speaking of women, there aren’t any at all in the directing category — and that’s despite a year that saw a lot of them, from Maria Schrader (“She Said”) to Sarah Polley (“Women Talking”) to Charlotte Wells (whose “Aftersun” earned a nod for lead actor Paul Mescal).

As for who’ll get the gold, here’s the short version: “Everything Everywhere All at Once” will win just about everything, everywhere. That oddball indie film (featuring Michelle Yeoh as a laundromat-owner who zigzags through the multiverse) should turn several of its 11 nominations into prizes, including for Best Picture. The more it wins, the slimmer the chances for "The Banshees of Inisherin,” Martin McDonagh’s prestige comedy-drama, to take home a statue. As for last year’s big-budget blockbusters, “Top Gun: Maverick” has a good shot at Film Editing and Sound, while James Cameron’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” seems like a lock for Visual Effects.

Here are my picks for Sunday’s 95th Academy Awards: