“Everything Everywhere All at Once” Triumphs at Portland Critics Association Awards

Members of the Portland Critics Association have announced the winners of their annual awards, honoring the best films, filmmakers, actors and other cinematic achievements of 2022.

Surprising no one, the PCA’s most-nominated film of the year, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s Everything Everywhere All at Once, won big, triumphing in seven out of the 14 categories it was nominated in. The film scored Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress (Michelle Yeoh), along with both Best Supporting categories (for Ke Huy Quan and Stephanie Hsu).

Yeoh’s victory is especially notable. She beat Cate Blanchett, star of Portland-raised filmmaker Todd Field’s TÁR (although both Blanchett and Field were runners-up in their respective categories).

However, one film actually made in the Portland area emerged triumphant: Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (a collaboration between the Shape of Water director and filmmaker Mark Gustafson), which earned Best Animated Feature and Best Original Score.

Mirroring the Oscars trend of big-budget films winning mostly in technical categories, Top Gun: Maverick won Best Sound Design, Best Stunts or Action Choreography, and Best Cinematography (for Claudio Miranda, who has shot all of Maverick director Joseph Kosinski’s films, starting with 2010′s Tron: Legacy).

Also recognized was Glass Onion, the Knives Out sequel from writer-director Rian Johnson (Looper, The Last Jedi). It earned both Best Screenplay and Best Ensemble Cast.

The PCA’s list of the 10 best films of the year includes Everything Everywhere All at Once, TÁR, Decision to Leave, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, Top Gun: Maverick, RRR, Avatar: The Way of Water, Glass Onion, The Banshees of Inisherin and The Whale.

A full list of winners is available at http://portlandcritics.com/2022-awards (full disclosure: This critic is a PCA member).