(Photo courtesy of: Variety ) Many of the years top movies made the but, but who will take home the trophy?
Troy Lafond
Connector Editor
The nominations for the annual Oscars ceremony were announced on Tuesday, January 24. Leading the pack in nominations was A24’s critically acclaimed and biggest commercial hit to date, “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” with a showstopping 11 nominations. Going into the ceremony, this will be the film to look out for. It has a strong chance to win many of its categories, being a potential frontrunner in Best Picture, Best Actress for Michelle Yeoh and Best Supporting Actor for Key Huy Quan.
The other nominations for Best Picture include “All Quiet on the Western Front,” “Avatar: The Way of Water,” “The Banshees of Inisherin,” “Elvis,” “The Fabelmans,” “Tár,” “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Triangle of Sadness” and “Women Talking.” Many of these films stand strong chances to win in this fairly broad category, but the other ones to anticipate potentially taking the statuette are “The Banshees of Inisherin,” “The Fabelmans” or “Top Gun: Maverick.”
These movies led the nominations in general, with “All Quiet on the Western Front” and “The Banshees of Inisherin” receiving nine nominations, “Elvis” receiving eight, “The Fabelmans” receiving seven and “Tár” and “Top Gun: Maverick” receiving six. The only other movie not nominated for Best Picture to receive five-plus nomination was “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” with five.
In the most noteworthy and surprising turns of events, Viola Davis and Danielle Deadwyler were snubbed of Best Actress nominations for “The Woman King” and “Till” respectively, in favor of Ana de Armas and Andrea Riseborough for “Blonde” and “To Leslie” respectively. These nominations have proven particularly controversial, as “Blonde” was an oft-fictional portrayal of the life of Marilyn Monroe, and Riseborough’s campaign for Best Actress has arisen suspicion of overt internal Oscars politics coming to play. The field is rounded out by Michelle Yeoh for “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” Michelle Williams for “The Fabelmans” and Cate Blanchett for “Tár.”
“The Woman King” was notably snubbed across the board. Once considered a potential contender for a Best Picture nomination, it ended up receiving no nominations in any category whatsoever.
“Top Gun: Maverick” performed stronger than expected across the board, but Tom Cruise did not receive a nomination for Best Actor. Instead, the field is filled by Austin Butler for “Elvis,” Colin Farrell for “The Banshees of Inisherin,” Brendan Fraser for “The Whale,” Paul Mescal for “Aftersun,” and Bill Nighy for “Living.”
While receiving a Best Picture nomination, “Avatar: The Way of Water” also underperformed in many of its other categories, including being majorly overlooked for nominations for Best Director and Best Cinematography. The Best Director field is instead rounded out by The Daniels for “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” Todd Field for “Tár”, Martin McDonagh for “The Banshees of Inisherin,” Ruben Östlund for “Triangle of Sadness” and Steven Spielberg for “The Fablemans.”
The Oscars ceremony will take place on March 12, 2023 at 8 pm EST in the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, and broadcast live on ABC. Jimmy Kimmel will be returning to host for the third year in a row.
