The night after Everything everywhere at once took home an incredible seven Oscars, including the Academy Award for Best Picture, Tilda Swinton’s own praise for the film.
“It’s a new world,” Swinton said of the benefits, in a conversation at the SXSW conference with Eugene Hernandez, the new director of the Sundance Film Festival. “I feel like we’ve all spent a lot of time saying that the Oscars don’t matter,” she continued, adding that we’re delighted to see an original film like Everywhereoften overlooked during awards season, are getting recognition.
However, Swinton said she deserved the idea of giving up anything to be the best, saying, “I think the whole ‘best’ thing is not ‘to serve anyone. Swinton, herself an Oscar winner, taps the icon for her supporting role in the 2007 drama Michael Clayton.
Everywhere premiered at the SXSW film festival a year earlier in 2022. (“Congratulations, Southern, for picking a good one,” Swinton said.) On Sunday night, the film made history by honoring actresses Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan – both appearing to headline SXSW Chinese born in America – as well as awards for writer-director Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan.
Swinton premieres her latest film, A24’s Difficulty, at the festival. The film is the directorial debut for SNL alum Julio Torres, in which he stars as an aspiring toy designer in New York City with an expiring work visa who takes a job with an art-world revolutionist (played by Swinton) to live in the country.
“The script came to her and she already knew my work,” Torres said THR before the festival. “The thing about working with her is that she’s so giving. It’s a testament to her that she never felt intimidated.” Produced by Oscar winner Emma Stone and another SNL said alum Dave McCary, Torres THR that the film draws inspiration from what he calls the “Kafkaesque” bureaucracy of the US immigration system.
Swinton offered in her keynote speech, “It’s still a pleasure to relate to Julio. It is a great pleasure to call him a partner.”
