By Susan Swagler
“Everything Everywhere All at Once” is certainly all that: an of-the-moment, global box-office sensation with 11 Oscar nominations, more than any other film in the running this year.
And it’s locally relevant.
Two Over the Mountain natives, director and screenwriter Daniel Scheinert and film editor Paul Rogers, have been nominated for Oscars for their work on this buzzy film.
Scheinert has two nominations: Best Director, along with co-director Daniel Kwan, and Best Original Screenplay. Scheinert and Kwan make up the filmmaking duo is known as “Daniels.” Rogers is nominated for Best Film Editing.
The film leads all nominees at the 95th Annual Academy Awards with nominations for best picture, director, actress (Michelle Yeoh), supporting actor (Ke Huy Quan), supporting actress (Jamie Lee Curtis and Stephanie Hsu), original screenplay, film editing, costume design, original score and original song.
This year, Oscars Night is March 12.
In celebration of all these Oscar nominations and the movie’s cool hometown connection, Sidewalk Cinema will show “Everything Everywhere All at Once” Feb. 10-12.
A modern science fiction/comedy/adventure film, described as “an assault on the senses,” it’s about an aging Chinese immigrant who, while being audited by the IRS and going through a midlife crisis, realizes that she –and she alone – can save the world by connecting with parallel universe versions of herself. The New York Times called the film a “swirl of genre anarchy” with elements of surreal comedy, science fiction, fantasy, martial arts films and animation. It explores themes of generational trauma, mother-daughter relationships, ADHD and Asian-American identity. And there’s an important message of kindness, too. It is one of the best-reviewed movies of the year.
A Shared Passion for Film
Both Scheinert and Rogers were born in Birmingham. The two met in Los Angeles at Scheinert’s birthday party a decade ago and, realizing their hometown connection and a shared passion for filmmaking, collaborated on the music video for “Turn Down for What” by DJ Snake and Lil Jon.
“That video was way bigger than any of us thought it would be,” Rogers told the Hollywood media outlet Deadline. “It just kinda snowballed from there.”
Rogers was raised in a home where art mattered.
His mother, Melissa Springer, is an acclaimed photojournalist and one of the first to document the AIDS epidemic.
She said, “He was surrounded by my friends. I had a wonderful group of studio mates, and we hung out together. He went to every art opening since he was 2 years old. And the first thing he learned was where the cookies were. So, he went to art openings his whole life. He also had a good friend who was interested in movies, and they started making them together. He was 8 when he made his first one.”
Springer tells a story about when Rogers was in the seventh grade, and he got into a fight. As punishment, she made him read a biography of Gandhi.
“It was 432 pages. And then we both read it and both fell in love with Gandhi,” she said. “So, one of his films that he made – I guess he was 13 years old – was ‘Gandhi: No More Mr. Nice Guy.’” There were no fake guns in the house, so they had to use sticks, she said. “It was hilarious.”
Rogers attended Homewood High School and then the College of Santa Fe in New Mexico. Upon graduating, he returned home to Birmingham and worked at Alabama Public Television on the “We Have Signal” live episodic music program filmed at the Bottletree Cafe in Birmingham.
“He’s always been interested in music,” Springer said. When Rogers was a teenager, she bought him and his friends a 12×12 piece of linoleum from Mazer, and they used it as a roll-out stage for breakdancing at Five Points South.
Springer’s friends still surround Rogers with love and support.
When the film came out, several of them joined Springer at the movie theater to celebrate Rogers’ accomplishment.
“There were about 12 of us,” she said. “When his name came up, we all jumped up screaming. And then somebody in the audience said, ‘Is Paul Rogers here?’ and I said, ‘No, but his mama is.’”
These friends, of course, are hosting an Oscar party. When Rogers came home this past Christmas, some of them came to Springer’s house with googly eyes (they feature in the film) on their foreheads and posed for a photo with Rogers.
Springer is intensely proud of her son.
“I love his creative mind. It was always there, and I’m so happy to see that he’s found his place in the world and his voice in the world. And he’s speaking loudly.”
Scheinert also grew up in Birmingham, attending Oak Mountain elementary and middle schools. He then went to the Jefferson County International Baccalaureate School on the Shades Valley campus for high school. That’s when he became interested in filmmaking through local competitions and musical theater.
His solo directing debut, in 2019, was “The Death of Dick Long,” an Alabama-based film shot in and around the greater Birmingham area. Rogers edited this film, too. It was screened with a filmmaker chat at Sidewalk Film Festival.
Scheinert still comes back for Sidewalk when he can, and he’s served on the festival’s jury. It is, he has said, his “favorite film festival.”
Accumulating Accolades
The Oscars might be icing. “Everything Everywhere All at Once” came into the Oscar competition already a huge winner.
The film has won Critics Choice Awards for best picture, director, screenplay, supporting actor for Quan, and editing. It won two Golden Globes for Yeoh and Quan at the 80th Golden Globe Awards from a total of six nominations that included Best Director and Best Motion Picture–Musical or Comedy.
It took home five awards from its 14 nominations at the 28th Critics’ Circle Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Editing. There were five nominations at the 29th Screen Actors Guild Awards, including acting nominations for the overall ensemble and individual nominations for Yeoh, Quan, Hsu and Curtis. These will be presented Feb. 26.
The film has earned $105 million at the global box office, becoming distributor A24’s highest-grossing film and its first to pass the $100 million mark.
It has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 95% with the critics’ consensus saying, “Led by an outstanding Michelle Yeoh, ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ lives up to its title with an expertly calibrated assault on the senses.”
The audience reviews cite the film’s “incredible acting; stunning visuals; and a really deep, powerful story.”
“It’s a wild ride,” Springer said. “It really is. Of course, I’m the mother, but editing is such an integral part of making this movie understood. It’s a pretty crazy film but with a beautiful message that I think the world needed.
“Obviously, the world did because they are embracing it. It’s a movie about kindness and loving yourself … accepting your life and loving who you are. It’s a lot of really positive, wonderful things put out in the world.”
