Everything Everywhere All at Once swept up yet more film prizes when it was named Best Feature at the Film Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday night - one of the last major Hollywood ceremonies before next weekend's Oscars.
The trippy sci-fi adventure won in every category in which it was nominated, at a ceremony held in a giant tent at Los Angeles' Santa Monica beach to celebrate low- and mid-budget movies.
Voters granted a whopping seven awards to the film, which was made for around $25 million and became independent studio A24's biggest-ever hit, with a global box office gross above $100 million.
"This is too many. We're so lucky!" said co-director Daniel Scheinert, collecting the night's final prize.
Everything Everywhere All at Once star Michelle Yeoh won Best Lead Performance, and co-star Stephanie Hsu won Best Breakthrough Performance.
It is the first year in which the awards have opted for gender-neutral acting categories.
"Michelle, you beat a bunch of men!" yelled co-star Jamie Lee Curtis in the backstage press room.
Curtis was the film's only nominee who failed to win - losing Best Supporting Performance to her co-star Ke Huy Quan.
Scheinert and Daniel Kwan won Director and Best Screenplay, and the film also won Best Editing.
Everything Everywhere All at Once stars Yeoh as the matriarch of a Chinese-American laundromat-owning family, who end up fighting a universe-hopping supervillain while undergoing a tax audit.
"You believed in us. You believed in the masterpiece from the Daniels," said Yeoh, addressing the film's producers.
"My boys, thank you for writing such an incredible script that gave us the opportunity to be here, to be seen, to be heard."
This year's awards were held the weekend before the Oscars. Voting for the season-concluding Academy Awards is currently under way.
Final Oscars voting closes on Tuesday, before Hollywood's most coveted golden statuettes are handed out at a glitzy ceremony next Sunday.
Among the films that could receive a late Oscars boost from their Spirit wins are Best Documentary All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, Best First Feature Aftersun and Best Cinematography winner TÁR.
Women Talking received the pre-announced Robert Altman Award, which honours a film's director, casting director and overall cast. The film includes Irish star Jessie Buckley among its cast.
But in a repeat of scenes at recent high-profile prizegiving ceremonies from Hollywood's guilds, the night's big winner was Everything Everywhere All at Once, which cemented its Academy Award frontrunner status.
"It's been so humbling and so cool," producer Jonathan Wang told AFP on Saturday's red carpet.
The movie - which features characters with hot dog fingers, sex toy-shaped trophies and talking rocks - has overcome predictions from some pundits that it would prove too bizarre for mainstream audiences and voters.
It leads the nominations at the Oscars, with 11 nods.
"What's happened is a lot of people went out and they gave our movie a chance," said Wang.
"They said, 'Let's watch it for what it is' and they got past the kind of things that were going to be 'too edgy' for them. And then they were bulldozed by the emotion of it.
"That's what we wanted to do. So that's the highest compliment - that we were able to actually do that."
Source: AFP
The Winners in Full:
Film Categories
Best Feature
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Best Director
Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Best Lead Performance
Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Best Supporting Performance
Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Best Breakthrough Performance
Stephanie Hsu, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Best Screenplay
Everything Everywhere All at Once, Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert
Best First Screenplay
Emily the Criminal, John Patton Ford
Best First Feature
Aftersun
John Cassavetes Award (Given to the best feature made for under $1,000,000)
The Cathedral
Best Cinematography
TÁR, Florian Hoffmeister
Best Documentary
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Best Editing
Everything Everywhere All at Once, Paul Rogers
Robert Altman Award (Given to one film's director, casting director and ensemble cast)
Women Talking, Sarah Polley (director), John Buchan, Jason Knight (casting directors), Shayla Brown, Jessie Buckley, Claire Foy, Kira Guloien, Kate Hallett, Judith Ivey, Rooney Mara, Sheila McCarthy, Frances McDormand, Michelle McLeod, Liv McNeil, Ben Whishaw, August Winter (ensemble cast)
Best International Film
Joyland
Producers Award
Tory Lenosky
Someone to Watch Award
Nikyatu Jusu, Nanny
The Truer Than Fiction Award
Reid Davenport, I Didn't See You There
Television Categories
Best New Scripted Series
The Bear
Best Lead Performance in a New Scripted Series
Quinta Brunson, Abbott Elementary
Best Supporting Performance in a New Scripted Series
Ayo Edebiri, The Bear
Best New Non-Scripted or Documentary Series
The Rehearsal
