The 2023 Academy Award Nominations were announced this week, and like several movies nominated this year, this list of nominees seems to desperately want to return to the past (or at least leave this present), for better or for worse.
For the first time in recent memory, streamers did not fare that well. Nearly all ten Best Picture nominees were principally theatrically released and not made available on streaming platforms.
Furthermore, since the academy increased its Best Picture nominations limit to ten in 2009, only four times have there been ten nominated films. Those years were 2009, 2010, 2022, and now 2023. Voters rank their favorite films of the year from 1-10. For a film to receive a best picture nomination, it must receive at least 5% of “first-place” votes from Academy voting members. When ten films are nominated, that means that ten different films received first place votes from at least 5% of the academy voting members, suggesting a more wide-open race than years where there are fewer than ten best picture nominees.
We also have a year of incredible box-office discrepancy. Three films nominated represent three of the highest grossing films of this year and any other in recent years: Avatar: The Way of the Water, Top Gun: Maverick, and Elvis. The other seven films’ box offices combined do not even match the total gross of the lowest of the top three (Elvis made $287.2 million, the seven other best picture box offices combine to around $185 million currently). This does not necessarily mean anything to the race, but it does indicate that popular films have established a stronghold on the race for top film of the year, ultimately a rare circumstance.
In the coming 45 days before the awards ceremony, which is being held Sunday March 12th on ABC hosted once again by Jimmy Kimmel, much speculation will be made on these films. For now, however, here is a complete list of all nominations in all 23 categories:
ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
AUSTIN BUTLER – Elvis
COLIN FARRELL – The Banshees of Inisherin
BRENDAN FRASER – The Whale
PAUL MESCAL – Aftersun
BILL NIGHY – Living
ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
BRENDAN GLEESON – The Banshees of Inisherin
BRIAN TYREE HENRY – Causeway
JUDD HIRSCH –The Fabelmans
BARRY KEOGHAN – The Banshees of Inisherin
KE HUY QUAN – Everything Everywhere All at Once
ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
CATE BLANCHETT – Tár
ANA DE ARMAS – Blonde
ANDREA RISEBOROUGH – To Leslie
MICHELLE WILLIAMS – The Fabelmans
MICHELLE YEOH – Everything Everywhere All at Once
ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
ANGELA BASSETT – Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
HONG CHAU – The Whale
KERRY CONDON – The Banshees of Inisherin
JAMIE LEE CURTIS – Everything Everywhere All at Once
STEPHANIE HSU – Everything Everywhere All at Once
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
CINEMATOGRAPHY
ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT – James Friend
BARDO, FALSE CHRONICLE OF A HANDFUL OF TRUTHS – Darius Khondji
ELVIS – Mandy Walker
EMPIRE OF LIGHT – Roger Deakins
TÁR – Florian Hoffmeister
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
DIRECTING
THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN -Martin McDonagh
EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE – Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert
THE FABELMANS – Steven Spielberg
TÁR – Todd Field
TRIANGLE OF SADNESS – Ruben Östlund
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE FILM
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
A HOUSE MADE OF SPLINTERS – Simon Lereng Wilmont and Monica Hellström
NAVALNY – Daniel Roher, Odessa Rae, Diane Becker, Melanie Miller and Shane Boris
DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILM
THE ELEPHANT WHISPERERS – Kartiki Gonsalves and Guneet Monga
HAULOUT – Evgenia Arbugaeva and Maxim Arbugaev
HOW DO YOU MEASURE A YEAR? – Jay Rosenblatt
THE MARTHA MITCHELL EFFECT -Anne Alvergue and Beth Levison
STRANGER AT THE GATE – Joshua Seftel and Conall Jones
FILM EDITING
THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN – Mikkel E.G. Nielsen
ELVIS – Matt Villa and Jonathan Redmond
EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE – Paul Rogers
TÁR – Monika Willi
TOP GUN: MAVERICK – Eddie Hamilton
INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM
ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT – Germany
ARGENTINA, 1985 – Argentina
CLOSE – Belgium
EO – Poland
THE QUIET GIRL – Ireland
MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT – Heike Merker and Linda Eisenhamerová
THE BATMAN – Naomi Donne, Mike Marino and Mike Fontaine
BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER – Camille Friend and Joel Harlow
ELVIS – Mark Coulier, Jason Baird and Aldo Signoretti
THE WHALE – Adrien Morot, Judy Chin and Anne Marie Bradley
MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)
ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT – Volker Bertelmann
BABYLON – Justin Hurwitz
THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN – Carter Burwell
EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE – Son Lux
THE FABELMANS – John Williams
MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)
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 M.M. 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 PICTURE
ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT – Malte Grunert, Producer
AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER – James Cameron and Jon Landau, Producers
THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN – Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin and Martin McDonagh, Producers
ELVIS – Baz Luhrmann, Catherine Martin, Gail Berman, Patrick McCormick and Schuyler Weiss, Producers
EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE – Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert and Jonathan Wang, Producers
THE FABELMANS – Kristie Macosko Krieger, Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner, Producers
TÁR – Todd Field, Alexandra Milchan and Scott Lambert, Producers
TOP GUN: MAVERICK – Tom Cruise, Christopher McQuarrie, David Ellison and Jerry Bruckheimer, Producers
TRIANGLE OF SADNESS – Erik Hemmendorff and Philippe Bober, Producers
WOMEN TALKING -Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner and Frances McDormand, Producers
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
SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)
THE BOY, THE MOLE, THE FOX AND THE HORSE – Charlie Mackesy and Matthew Freud
THE FLYING SAILOR – Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby
ICE MERCHANTS – João Gonzalez and Bruno Caetano
MY YEAR OF DICKS – Sara Gunnarsdóttir and Pamela Ribon
AN OSTRICH TOLD ME THE WORLD IS FAKE AND I THINK I BELIEVE IT – Lachlan Pendragon
SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)
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
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
THE BATMAN – Stuart Wilson, William Files, Douglas Murray and Andy Nelson
ELVIS – David Lee, Wayne Pashley, Andy Nelson and Michael Keller
TOP GUN: MAVERICK – Mark Weingarten, James H. Mather, Al Nelson, Chris Burdon and Mark Taylor
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
THE BATMAN – Dan Lemmon, Russell Earl, Anders Langlands and Dominic Tuohy
BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER – Geoffrey Baumann, Craig Hammack, R. Christopher White and Dan Sudick
TOP GUN: MAVERICK – Ryan Tudhope, Seth Hill, Bryan Litson and Scott R. Fisher
WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)
ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT – Screenplay – Edward Berger, Lesley Paterson & Ian Stokell
GLASS ONION: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY – Written by Rian Johnson
LIVING – Written by Kazuo Ishiguro
TOP GUN: MAVERICK – Screenplay by Ehren Kruger and Eric Warren Singer and Christopher McQuarrie; Story by Peter Craig and Justin Marks
WOMEN TALKING – Screenplay by Sarah Polley
WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)
THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN – Written by Martin McDonagh
EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE – Written by Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert
THE FABELMANS – Written by Steven Spielberg & Tony Kushner
TÁR – Written by Todd Field
TRIANGLE OF SADNESS – Written by Ruben Östlund
The Peoples Critic 