The movie about a Chinese-American laundromat owner struggling to finish her taxes also took home the top movie prize, in addition to two other acting awards for supporting actors Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis.

The winners were chosen by members of the SAG-Aftra acting union. The film honourees are closely watched because actors make up the largest group of voters for March 12’s Academy Awards.

An overwhelmed Yeoh spoke through tears – and a few expletives – as she accepted her trophy.

“This is not just for me. This is for every little girl that looks like me,” Yeoh said. “Thank you for giving me a seat at the table.”

Quan, a former child star who had given up on acting for years, claimed the trophy for male actor in a supporting role. Choking back tears, the Vietnamese-American actor said he was the first Asian to win in the category.

“When I stepped away from acting it was because there were so few opportunities,” he said. “The landscape looks so different now than before. Thank you to everyone in this room who contributed to these changes.”

Curtis, who played an exacting tax agent in “Everything Everywhere”, claimed the award for female actor in a supporting role.

“I’m 64 years old and this is just amazing,” she said.

The movie’s 94-year-old patriarch James Hong stole the show at last night’s gala, collecting the night’s final prize of best cast in a motion picture – the star-studded ceremony’s equivalent of best film.

Hong reflected on how Hollywood once cast white actors with “their eyes taped up” to play leading Asian roles because producers thought “the Asians are not good enough and they are not box office”.

“But look at us now, huh?” he said, to a huge ovation.

The SAG prizes from the actors’ union round out a month in which “Everything Everywhere” has won best film from directors’ and producers’ groups, too, making it firm favourite for the Academy Awards next month.