The 95th Academy Awards were held on Sunday, March 12, and as predicted, it was a more-than-successful night for “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” Heading into the ceremony, the film led the pack with 11 total nominations, and was the frontrunner for Best Picture as well as several other categories. As put in a previous article, “a sweep was all but inevitable, and the only question was how big it’ll be.”

The supporting acting categories were awarded early in the night, following “Pinocchio’s” win for Best Animated Feature. Ke Huy Quan took Supporting Actor in one of the night’s most runaway wins, delivering an emotional speech to follow it up. In a surprise upset over contenders Angela Bassett and Kerry Condon, Jamie Lee Curtis won Best Supporting Actress. Her speech pleased many, and was an early indicator of the sheer locomotive momentum “Everything Everywhere” would have.

“All Quiet on the Western Front” bagged four wins to be the runner-up of the night. It didn’t win Adapted Screenplay, losing to narrow frontrunner “Women Talking,” but despite the presence of films like “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Avatar: The Way of Water,” it was the big tech sweeper of the year. The team behind “All Quiet” left Oscar night with awards for Cinematography, International Feature, Production Design, and Original Score (those last two big upsets over frontrunner “Babylon”).

The head-to-head battle between “Elvis” and “The Whale” finally came to its conclusion. Best Actor looked like a coin toss between Austin Butler and Brendan Fraser, and the hotly contested Makeup and Hairstyling category would be an early indicator as to how that would turn out. “The Whale” won Makeup and Hair and sure enough, Fraser soon took the stage to deliver the tears that won him the award in the first place. The only other predicted win for the rock biopic was Costume Design, but in an unanticipated win for “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” “Elvis” left the building with nothing.

On the topic of blockbusters, fan favorites got their due. “Avatar” had an easy win in Visual Effects, “Top Gun” took Sound, and “Naatu Naatu” came out on top over Lady Gaga and Rihanna to score Best Original Song for “RRR.”

The looming victory for “Everything Everywhere” was always present, and after the Daniels took the stage for the first time to accept awards for Best Original Screenplay, it was practically over. Four of the last five awards of the night went to the film, including Editing, Director, Actress, and Best Picture. Michelle Yeoh’s win for Best Actress in a Leading Role over Cate Blanchett made history, the first person of Asian descent to claim it. That’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to records being broken.

“Everything Everywhere All at Once” is the third movie in Oscars history to win three acting awards, 1951’s “A Streetcar Named Desire” and 1976’s “Network” the other two. Among the three, it’s the only one that went on to take Best Picture or Best Director, and it took both. It’s the first movie to win more than six awards since Gravity did it back in 2014, and the first Best Picture winner with that big a haul since 2008’s “Slumdog Millionaire.”

“Everything Everywhere” won in seven of the 10 categories it was up for (the missing nomination there is for Stephanie Hsu, also up for Supporting Actress in addition to Curtis), and while films like “Lord of the Rings: Return of the King” have accomplished bigger feats, going undefeated across 11 nominations, “Everything Everywhere” pulled off an above-the-line sweep never seen before.

There are eight above-the-line categories at the Oscars: Picture, Director, the four Acting awards, and the two for Screenplay. Other than Paul Rogers’ win for Best Editing, every award the movie took home was above-the-line. Five above-the-line wins were seen in 1935, 1977, and 1992, but this is the first time ever that a film has won six. Since you can’t win both Original and Adapted Screenplay (it’s either one or the other), the highest possible above-the-line tally is seven, and with “Everything Everywhere” not eligible for Best Actor, it’s safe to say its historic sweep was as great as anyone could have hoped for.

The movie marks the earliest release date for a Best Picture winner since “The Silence of the Lambs” over 30 years ago, making its theatrical debut back in March of last year, which means the next Oscar contender may not be waiting until November or December to rear its head. The 2023 release calendar features new films from Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese, David Fincher, Greta Gerwig, Wes Anderson, Denis Villeneuve, and many more, so while it may be too early to call, next year’s awards season could be a real exciting one. Time will tell, but for now, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” reigns supreme.