The Academy just loves to stir the waters when it comes to its nominations for the Oscars and this year is no different. In 2023, Everything Everywhere All at Once led with 11 nominations, followed by The Banshees of Inisherin and All Quiet on the Western Front. After the great run that Everything Everywhere All at Once had in other award ceremonies, the 11 nominations come as no surprise. Although it will probably not win in all of the categories, it is still impressive to see a Sci-Fi movie get this much appreciation. The Science Fiction genre has always had a hard time at the Academy Awards, mainly because the majority of movies are hit or miss for the audience. We have seen some success in the past with The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, but lately not enough recognition has been going towards this genre, with groundbreaking movies such as Arrival (2016), Ex Machina (2014) and The Martian (2015) being snubbed of several awards.
The Academy had some very interesting names pop up in its highly anticipated acting categories. For Best Actor, alongside Brendan Fraser, Austin Butler and Colin Farrell, who all picked up major awards this season, Paul Mescal was also nominated for his role in Aftersun. It is indeed nice to see Paul Mescal be appreciated for his very touching performances that always have a special way of transmitting emotion to the viewer. After he starred in the romantic TV mini-series Normal People (2020) and gave an incredibly underrated performance in The lost daughter (2021), Paul Mescal was finally starting to grab the attention of more people. Aftersun is an intimate portrayal of a father-daughter relationship and the on-screen chemistry between Paul Mescal and Frankie Corio is completely unique. Being able to achieve this beautiful and private connection while also depicting real mental issues and struggles is what made me consider Paul Mescal’s acting as the best one we have seen this year. Even though winning is rather difficult for such a newcomer, I think a nomination is still huge for him as it might get him involved in more acting gigs that can finally bring him to light.
In the Best Actress category, Andrea Riseborough’s nomination for her role in To Leslie, a small-budget film ($1 million compared to the $35 million Tár), raised a lot of controversy as not many people have watched the movie or consider it worthy of this award. In my opinion, Andrea Riseborough’s acting is in no way a bad one, in fact it does a good job in portraying the character that she is playing through a lot of emotional stages, but I have to say this is nothing that we have not seen before in other strong female lead performances. I guess the important aspect to take from this nomination is the fact that The Academy does pay attention to smaller movies and it offers everyone a chance, no matter the impact of the film. The other actresses nominated are Cate Blanchett, Michelle Yeoh, Michelle Williams and Ana de Armas. After the critical appreciation she received for Tár, I think Blanchett has the highest chance of winning; in my personal opinion, I see no winner other than her. Tár can definitely be seen as a “one-woman show”, as her performance gives life to the movie, but also deals with the obsessive nature of an artist, similar to what we have seen with Natalie Portman in the Black Swan (2010), but somehow in a new, different approach.
In supporting roles, the male category nominees have not been very surprising, being in line with most predictions. Although Banshees of Inisherin managed to score two nominations with Brendan Gleeson and Barry Keoghan, Ke Huy Quan has an almost guaranteed lock in this category. Not only has he won every single distinction during this amazing award run of the actor, but his role is so mesmerising as it adds something special to the movie and makes him stand out in a film that encapsulates so much chaos. For actresses, the race is close, with all five nominees having a real chance at winning. The actresses have all received praise for their roles as well as some awards, so it is hard to give a prediction. Jamie Lee Curtis and Stephanie Hsu, both starring in Everything Everywhere All at Once can benefit from the movie’s amazing success, but Angela Bassett could finally land the first acting Oscar for Marvel, after her powerful role in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. I think Angela Bassett could and should take home the award as her performance is incredibly well distributed along her short screen time. She did not appear in many scenes, but when she did, she stole the show and delivered the lines with passion. I would say that Kerry Condon also has a shot and I could not imagine Banshees of Inisherin being as good without her.
Animated Feature Film has always been a tough competition, but after huge critical acclaim, Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio has a high probability of winning, although movies like Marcel the Shell with Shoes On and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish can steal the award as they received fairly good reviews. Despite the beautiful and dynamic animation of Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, I think the stop-motion animation approach of Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio works just perfectly for the story. The whole setting and scenery of the movie are introduced so smoothly using stop-motion, that the viewer feels like actually entering this Italian city of Pinocchio.
The Cinematography category was a bit surprising with movies like Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths and Empire of Light making their way on the list despite not being spectacular movies. Empire of Light, directed by Oscar winner Sam Mendes and backed by Olivia Colman in the leading role, is not really a groundbreaking love affair, unfolding weirdly due to its shallow script. On the other hand, Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths is a bold and maybe too modern approach to storytelling that is trying way too hard to be outside the ordinary. In this category, I have to go with All Quiet on the Western Front as the favourite, just by being a shocking technical wonder. Everything from the score, to the accurate and brutal depiction of war, this movie manages to take the editing and visuals to a masterpiece level.
Costume and Production Design have all the expected nominees with Babylon making its way into both of these categories. Although Avatar: The Way of Water was nominated for Production Design for its magnificent production and editing, I am personally rooting for Babylon to take home both of the awards. Babylon just does a better job with production, especially when we look at the set-ups behind those massive parties found in the movie, that add some expressivity to the absolute chaos.
In the two writing categories, Original and Adapted Screenplay, the nominees are predictable, most of them being repeated films from the acting categories, while the others are the blockbusters of the year. For Adapted Screenplay, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery and Top Gun: Maverick are commercial and crowd-pleasing screenplays and the script for Living is just an American adaptation of the Japanese masterpiece Ikiru (1952). The only real contender here is the script for Women Talking, although I could see All Quiet on the Western Front taking the prize. These two movies did an impressive job when it comes to screenplay. All Quiet on the Western Front tells the same story of an older version of the film, but adapts it in a smart and modern way; Women Talking is a good adaptation of a novel of the same name, and does justice to the original book.
When it comes to Original Screenplay, I think Martin McDonagh should win for Banshees of Inisherin, his second attempt in this category, after losing with In Bruges (2008), but this could go to any of the other movies, as the Academy has only selected safe picks. I feel like Martin McDonagh has a unique way of combining comedic elements with dark or grim motives, a fact that makes his scripts very catchy to the viewer. He first did it with In Bruges, but now with Banshees of Inisherin he has taken it to the next level.
The Oscars for Visual Effects and Sound should undoubtedly go to Avatar: The Way of Water, but Elvis might also have a chance for the latter since it is a movie that focuses more on sound.
Justin Hurwitz might win yet another Oscar for the Original Score of Babylon, as I do not think there are any real competitors in this category. There are many good scores among the nominees, including All Quiet on the Western Front and The Fabelmans, but they are not as immersive and connected to the movie as Babylon’s. Regarding Original Song, all of the five are actually deserving of a nomination, but I would love to see ‘Naatu Naatu’ win, the song from RRR, as it represents this movie’s only nomination. RRR would have been a powerful contender in categories such as International Feature Film and even Best Picture, but unfortunately the Film Federation of India decided not to submit it as their official proposal for the awards.
With many movies missing from the list, International Feature Film is an easy decision: the award has to go to All Quiet on the Western Front, mainly because it is the only movie on the list which also picked up other nominations.
The most valuable category for many, Best Directing, has announced some predictable names this year. Steven Spielberg was almost a guaranteed pick for his movie The Fabelmans, while Daniels, Martin McDonagh and Todd Field were hard to exclude after all of their respective movies managed to score a lot of other nominations. The only slight surprise here was Ruben Östlund, who was nominated for his movie Triangle of Sadness, after what I have to admit was an amazing three-film run of the director. This comes as an interesting pick, proving again that the Academy is indeed paying attention to some hidden corners of the international cinematographic world. I would have personally chosen Edward Berger for All Quiet on the Western Front as the fifth nominee, as the movie was named in all of the other major categories.
The most anticipated category, Best Picture, has of course included all of the biggest movies from the other categories, but also forced some names on the list, that I think were not needed. Although Top Gun: Maverick was a box office hit, I would have picked Babylon over it just because it was the more unconventional movie – it was experimental in some ways, but also put out some incredible performances and storytelling. I would have also swapped Women Talking for The Batman, which was underappreciated at these awards, probably because The Academy is not yet capable of seeing comic book inspired movies as a real contender. The Whale and Aftersun are also nowhere to be found on the list, as Best Picture seems to select only mainstream films.
As we are used to, the 95th Academy Awards Nominations were full of snubs, as several great movies were omitted from the lists. To start with, early 2022 films seem to have been forgotten by the Academy, as The Northman and Nope, two beautifully-shot movies, did not pick up any nominations, with both of them being real contenders for Cinematography, Best Picture and even Directing. The Menu was an authentic horror comedy based on an interesting script, but was not nominated in any category, not even in Original Screenplay.
In my personal opinion, the biggest snub across multiple categories is definitely Decision to Leave directed by Park Chan-wook, an absolute masterpiece and another proof of how powerful the South Korean movie industry actually is. For a first, the movie was not even mentioned for International Film Feature, where there is not one doubt it would have had a place. Moreover, my personal opinion is that this film would have been a possible nominee in Best Picture, Cinematography, Original Score and Film Editing, while Park Chan-wook should have been named in Directing, as his work in Decision to Leave is impeccable.
As usual, a lot of the expected movies picked up nominations, and some important ones were left out, but the Academy did a good job trying to encapsulate a year that was packed with good cinema.