On Tuesday 24 January, the official nominations for the 2023 Oscars were announced by hosts Allison Williams (star and executive producer of M3GAN) and Riz Ahmed (nominated for best actor in 2021 for his role in Sound Of Metal and co-writer of The Long Goodbye, winner of Best Live Action Short Film in 2022). 

The Oscars themselves will be awarded on 12 March, hosted once again by Jimmy Kimmel.

The spectacular multiversal sci-fi, Everything Everywhere All at Once, is the deserving leader of the pack with 11 nominations, followed by the Irish dark comedy, The Banshees of Inisherin, and the Netflix World War I epic All Quiet on the Western Front, which both received nine nominations. For the most part, nominations went as expected, but the few surprises were pretty drastic upsets.

Best Picture

The contenders for the most anticipated award at the ceremony this year is particularly dominated by big mainstream productions. The list includes both of the highest-grossing films for 2022: Avatar: The Way of Water and Top Gun: Maverick, making 2023 the first time ever that two sequels are in the running for Best Picture. The absence of their kindred spirit, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, opened the door for a few edgier candidates, including Triangle of Sadness, a scathing satire of the rich, and Women Talking, a drama based on a repressive religious Bolivian community.

Janet Yang, President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, opened the nomination ceremony by noting that “nominees in most categories are chosen by their peers – actors nominate actors, film editors vote for the best edited movies of the year… But the final and most anticipated award, Best Picture, is chosen by the entire academy membership – that’s around 10,000 filmmakers and artists living and working in over 80 countries.”

It’s looking like your best bet to take it home is Everything Everywhere All at Once, not just because it received the most awards but because of its extremely wide appeal. Still, it’s anyone’s guess – The Banshees of Inisherin is a more typical winner in this category and has been very well received. And Hollywood does love its own reflection, so it would be disappointing (albeit not unexpected) if Spielberg’s autobiographical The Fabelmans came out on top.

Best Picture nominees

All Quiet on the Western Front
Avatar: The Way of Water
Elvis
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Tár
The Banshees of Inisherin
The Fabelmans
Top Gun: Maverick
Triangle of Sadness
Women Talking

***

Best Director 

This year, the directors receiving recognition are exclusively men. The winners of this category in the past two years were both women: Jane Campion won in 2022 for The Power of the Dog, a lengthy Western about toxic masculinity, and Chloe Zhao won in 2021 for Nomadland, a character study about a woman traveling the US in a van. Still, it’s understandable that some are disappointed and maddened that Sarah Polley wasn’t included for Women Talking.

Best Director nominees

Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert for Everything Everywhere All at Once
Martin McDonagh for The Banshees of Inisherin
Ruben Östlund for Triangle of Sadness
Steven Spielberg for The Fabelmans
Todd Field for Tár 

***

Best Lead Actor

Academy favourite Brad Pitt’s performance in Babylon was overlooked for best actor, likely collateral damage of Damien Chazelle’s overzealous screenplay, and the result is that all five actors are first-time nominees. South Africans may notice that Bill Nighy’s nomination is for his performance in Living, (also nominated for best adapted screenplay) directed by brilliant director, Oliver Hermanus, who directed Moffie and Skoonheid.

A surprise nomination was Brendan Fraser, whose career as a leading man in action flicks was cut short by health issues. He has completely changed tact in his earnest performance as an estranged morbidly obese father trying to reconnect with his daughter in the A24 drama The Whale. 

Best Lead Actor nominees

Austin Butler in Elvis
Bill Nighy in Living
Brendan Fraser in The Whale
Colin Farrell in The Banshees of Inisherin
Paul Mescal in Aftersun

***

Best Lead Actress

Probably the most surprising inclusion of the nominations this year was that of Andrea Riseborough for her performance as a Texan alcoholic who wins the lottery in To Leslie, an indie film that flew largely under the radar. A group of A-list actors including Charlize Theron, Cate Blanchett, Edward Norton and Gwyneth Paltrow joined a social media push to get her the recognition she deserved. 

  
Less surprising but still unexpected was Ana de Armas’s nomination for her role in the Marilyn Monroe Netflix biopic Blonde, which bombed, in large part due to its overindulgent length. De Armas apparently squeaked in due to international support – industry folk do tend to have a soft spot for nostalgic pop culture.

The surprise nominations meant that there wasn’t room in the limelight for powerhouse actress Viola Davis, whose starring role in The Woman King was certainly worth some recognition.

Best Lead Actress nominees

Ana de Armas in Blonde
Andrea Riseborough in To Leslie
Cate Blanchett in Tár
Michelle Williams in The Fabelmans
Michelle Yeoh in Everything Everywhere All at Once

***

Best Supporting Actor

Ke Huy Quan’s nomination for his role in Everything Everywhere All at Once, was assured pretty much as soon as the film was released, but just a couple years earlier it would have seemed impossible, even to him. Quan was a child actor most famous for his role as Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Until Everything Everywhere All at Once, he was convinced that his career in film was over. 

Best Supporting Actor nominees

Barry Keoghan in The Banshees of Inisherin
Brendan Gleeson in The Banshees of Inisherin
Brian Tyree Henry in Causeway
Judd Hirsch in The Fabelmans
Ke Huy Quan in Everything Everywhere All at Once

***

Best Supporting Actress

Angela Bassett’s nomination for her powerful, show-stealing performance in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever makes her the first actor ever to be nominated for a role in a Marvel film. Many MCU films have been nominated in technical categories, and the first Black Panther film was nominated for Best Picture in 2019, but Bassett’s is the first nomination based on acting prowess.

Best Supporting Actress nominees

Angela Bassett in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Hong Chau in The Whale
Jamie Lee Curtis in Everything Everywhere All at Once
Kerry Condon in The Banshees of Inisherin
Stephanie Hsu in Everything Everywhere All at Once

***

Best International Feature Film 

All Quiet on the Western Front has done surprisingly well overall, particularly in the technical categories, and is the favourite of the international features. An unfortunate exclusion in this category is the phenomenal Danish crime-thriller, Holy Spider, directed by Ali Abbasi, about a fictional female journalist investigating a real serial killer who targeted sex workers.

Best International Feature Film nominees

All Quiet on the Western Front (Germany)
Argentina, 1985 (Argentina)
Close (Belgium)
EO (Poland)
The Quiet Girl (Ireland) 

***

Best Cinematography 

Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths was probably banking on being nominated for Best International Feature, but perceptions of the film as being over-indulgent and pretentious got in the way despite director Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s best efforts to preempt them. Luckily for him, Darius Khondji’s cinematography was utterly breathtaking from the first moments, putting the film in good stead to win in that category and save some face. 

Best Cinematography nominees

All Quiet on the Western Front for James Friend
Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths for Darius Khondji
Elvis for Mandy Walker
Empire of Light for Roger Deakins
Tár for Florian Hoffmeister

***

Best Original Song 

The Indian action drama RRR has developed a bit of a cult international following since its American debut, so it was probably a bit of a disappointment for director SS Rajamouli that it wasn’t selected as India’s official submission. Its only nomination has been for its vibey song, Naatu Naatu. 

Applause from Tell It Like a Woman, Music and Lyric by Diane Warren
Hold My Hand from Top Gun: Maverick, Music and Lyric by Lady Gaga and BloodPop
Lift Me Up from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Music by Tems, Rihanna, Ryan Coogler and Ludwig Goransson, Lyric by Tems and Ryan Coogler
Naatu Naatu from RRR, Music by MM Keeravaani; Lyric by Chandrabose
This Is a Life from Everything Everywhere All at Once, Music by Ryan Lott, David Byrne and Mitski, Lyric by Ryan Lott and David Byrne 

Best Original Screenplay

Everything Everywhere All at Once, written by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert
Tár, written by Todd Field
The Banshees of Inisherin, written by Martin McDonagh
The Fabelmans, written by Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner
Triangle of Sadness, written by Ruben Östlund

Best Adapted Screenplay

All Quiet on the Western Front by Edward Berger, Lesley Paterson and Ian Stokell
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery by Rian Johnson
Living, Written by Kazuo Ishiguro
Top Gun: Maverick by Ehren Kruger and Eric Warren Singer and Christopher McQuarrie; Story by Peter Craig and Justin Marks
Women Talking by Sarah Polley

Best Documentary Feature Film 

A House Made of Splinters, Simon Lereng Wilmont and Monica Hellström
All That Breathes, Shaunak Sen, Aman Mann and Teddy Leifer
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, Laura Poitras, Howard Gertler, John Lyons, Nan Goldin and Yoni Golijov
Fire of Love, Sara Dosa, Shane Boris and Ina Fichman
Navalny, Daniel Roher, Odessa Rae, Diane Becker, Melanie Miller and Shane Boris

Best Documentary Short Film 

Haulout, Evgenia Arbugaeva and Maxim Arbugaev
How Do You Measure a Year? Jay Rosenblatt
Stranger at the Gate, Joshua Seftel and Conall Jones
The Elephant Whisperers, Kartiki Gonsalves and Guneet Monga
The Martha Mitchell Effect, Anne Alvergue and Beth Levison

Best Film Editing

Elvis, Matt Villa and Jonathan Redmond
Everything Everywhere All at Once, Paul Rogers
Tár, Monika Willi
The Banshees of Inisherin, Mikkel EG Nielsen
Top Gun: Maverick, Eddie Hamilton

Best Production Design 

All Quiet on the Western Front, Production Design: Christian M Goldbeck; Set Decoration: Ernestine Hipper
Avatar: The Way of Water, Production Design: Dylan Cole and Ben Procter; Set Decoration: Vanessa Cole
Babylon, Production Design: Florencia Martin; Set Decoration: Anthony Carlino
Elvis, Production Design: Catherine Martin and Karen Murphy; Set Decoration: Bev Dunn
The Fabelmans, Production Design: Rick Carter; Set Decoration: Karen O’Hara

Best Visual Effects

All Quiet on the Western Front, Frank Petzold, Viktor Müller, Markus Frank and Kamil Jafar
Avatar: The Way of Water, Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon and Daniel Barrett
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Geoffrey Baumann, Craig Hammack, R Christopher White and Dan Sudick
The Batman, Dan Lemmon, Russell Earl, Anders Langlands and Dominic Tuohy
Top Gun: Maverick, Ryan Tudhope, Seth Hill, Bryan Litson and Scott R Fisher

Best Animated Feature Film 

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, Guillermo del Toro, Mark Gustafson, Gary Ungar and Alex Bulkley
Marcel the Shell With Shoes On, Dean Fleischer Camp, Elisabeth Holm, Andrew Goldman, Caroline Kaplan and Paul Mezey
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, Joel Crawford and Mark Swift
The Sea Beast, Chris Williams and Jed Schlanger
Turning Red, Domee Shi and Lindsey Collins

Best Animated Short Film

An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It, Lachlan Pendragon
Ice Merchants, João Gonzalez and Bruno Caetano
My Year of Dicks, Sara Gunnarsdóttir and Pamela Ribon
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, Charlie Mackesy and Matthew Freud
The Flying Sailor, Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby

Best Costume Design 

Babylon, Mary Zophres
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Ruth Carter
Elvis, Catherine Martin
Everything Everywhere All at Once, Shirley Kurata
Mrs Harris Goes to Paris, Jenny Beavan

Best Live Action Short

An Irish Goodbye, Tom Berkeley and Ross White
Ivalu, Anders Walter and Rebecca Pruzan
Le Pupille, Alice Rohrwacher and Alfonso Cuarón
Night Ride, Eirik Tveiten and Gaute Lid Larssen
The Red Suitcase, Cyrus Neshvad

Best Makeup and Hairstyling 

All Quiet on the Western Front, Heike Merker and Linda Eisenhamerová
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Camille Friend and Joel Harlow
Elvis, Mark Coulier, Jason Baird and Aldo Signoretti
The Batman, Naomi Donne, Mike Marino and Mike Fontaine
The Whale, Adrien Morot, Judy Chin and Anne Marie Bradley

Best Original Score 

All Quiet on the Western Front, Volker Bertelmann
Babylon, Justin Hurwitz
Everything Everywhere All at Once, Son Lux
The Banshees of Inisherin, Carter Burwell
The Fabelmans, John Williams

Best Sound

All Quiet on the Western Front, Viktor Prášil, Frank Kruse, Markus Stemler, Lars Ginzel and Stefan Korte
Avatar: The Way of Water, Julian Howarth, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, Dick Bernstein, Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers and Michael Hedges
Elvis, David Lee, Wayne Pashley, Andy Nelson and Michael Keller
The Batman, Stuart Wilson, William Files, Douglas Murray and Andy Nelson
Top Gun: Maverick, Mark Weingarten, James H. Mather, Al Nelson, Chris Burdon and Mark Taylor. DM/ML