Sir Samuel Alexander Mendes CBE (born 1 August 1965) is an English film and stage director, producer and screenwriter. In theatre, he is known for his dark re-inventions of the stage musicals Cabaret (1994), Oliver! (1994), Company (1995), and Gypsy (2003). He directed an original West End stage musical for the first time with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2013).
For directing the play The Ferryman, Mendes was awarded the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play in 2019.
Oscars Analysis: How ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ Became the Poster Child for the New Academy
thewrap.comwin Best Picture still seemed crazy. After all, nobody had seen any of the fall festival movies that often dominate the awards lineup.
Still to come were Todd Field’s “Tár,” Martin McDonagh’s ”The Banshees of Inisherin,” Sarah Polley’s “Women Talking,” Alejandro G.
Inarritu’s “Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths,” Noah Baumbach’s “White Noise,” Sam Mendes’ “Empire of Light,” Rian Johnson’s “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale,” Damien Chazelle’s “Babylon,” Gina Prince-Bythewood’s “The Woman King,” Maria Schrader’s “She Said,” Florian Zeller’s “The Son,” Ryan Coogler’s “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” James Cameron’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” and, maybe above all, Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans.”Given that lineup of 15 potential heavy hitters, plus the fact that “Top Gun” and “Elvis” seemed likelier nominees than “Everything Everywhere,” the crazy little movie remained a longshot.
But about half of those movies didn’t get much awards traction when they came out, and “Everything” never dropped out of the conversation.
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