I know nobody cares much about these anymore, but several of these films and performances are quite good. I don't know if its the public's weariness of the self-congratulatory, pompous disconnect of the Academy, or the impact of Covid / Streaming platforms / lack of quality in film on the industry itself that has killed the television ratings of the ceremony. Yes it's too long and the hosts are bland, but it was always too long. I dunno. Anyway, the list: 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 Best Director Martin McDonagh (“The Banshees of Inisherin”) Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) Steven Spielberg (“The Fabelmans”) Todd Field (“Tár”) Ruben Östlund (“Triangle of Sadness”) Best Lead Actor Austin Butler (“Elvis”) Colin Farrell (“The Banshees of Inisherin”) Brendan Fraser (“The Whale”) Paul Mescal (“Aftersun”) Bill Nighy (“Living”) Best Lead Actress Cate Blanchett (“Tár”) Ana de Armas (“Blonde”) Andrea Riseborough (“To Leslie”) Michelle Williams (“The Fabelmans”) Michelle Yeoh (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) Best Supporting Actor 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”) Best Supporting Actress 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”) Best Adapted Screenplay “All Quiet on the Western Front,” Screenplay by 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 Best 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 Best 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 Best 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 Best 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 Best 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 Best International Feature Film “All Quiet on the Western Front” (Germany) “Argentina, 1985” (Argentina) “Close” (Belgium) “EO” (Poland) “The Quiet Girl” (Ireland) Best 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 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 “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 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 “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 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 “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 Best 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 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 “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
I was surprised Top Gun: Maverick was not nominated for cinematography. I was glad to see Mary Zophres nominated for costume design! I got to meet her on the set of Project Artemis. She is very cool and kind. I've only seen three of the Best Picture nominees at this point, but I hope to see all of them by the time the ceremony happens, March 27. If you want to watch any of them: "All Quiet on the Western Front” Netflix “Avatar: The Way of Water” Still in theatres, not streaming yet, but will be Disney+ (or possibly HBO Max first; the 20th Century agreement is confusing to me) “The Banshees of Inisherin” HBO Max “Elvis” HBO Max “Everything Everywhere All at Once” Showtime “The Fabelmans” Still in theatres, premium streaming available on AppleTV and Prime “Tár” Streaming available on AppleTV, Prime, etc “Top Gun: Maverick” Paramount+ “Triangle of Sadness” Streaming available on AppleTV, Prime, etc “Women Talking” Still in theatres, no clue about streaming options
Triple post, but this is the last one for now. If you want to watch some of the short films (animated, documentary, live action), this location has current links to ones that are available. https://www.shortoftheweek.com/news/oscar-short-films-2023-shortlists/
I’ve seen half of the Best Picture nominees. I have the same opinion of Avatar 2.0 as I did the first one- it’s pretty but it’s essentially one long video game. If you’ve gamed at all the last 20 years you’ve seen graphics just as good and the plot is meh. The Banshees is a seriously fucked up movie. Billed as a dark comedy, it has its humorous points but holy fuck is it dark. Based on what I’ve seen I’ll predict the winner is one I’ve haven’t seen.
It's bonkers. The performances are so good and the script, though twisted, is original and explores some interesting themes. I particularly liked that Siobhan Spoiler finally escaped the trap of Inisherin, and Padraic let her go - in the letter, he didn't tell her about Jenny or any other trouble. That is true love for his sister.
Working my way through a bunch of the nominated films and finally watched Elvis. The movie was just okay to me, but Austin Butler is fantastic. The concert scenes are very, very authentic and he nails it.
“An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It” is on Vimeo now. Fun, clever premise. https://vimeo.com/796231519
Welp. "Tár" is not good. Cate Blanchett gives a wonderful performance, but how Todd Field got nominated and that jumbled mess got a best picture nod, I have no idea. It was vague and lacked any cohesion between narrative bits to make it an enjoyable experience. It's about three hours too long. I do not recommend.
I finally watched "Navalny" Wow. I am woefully uninformed on geopolitical issues, but this continues to reinforce what a piece of shit Putin is. (Adding in books like Red Notice, I don't understand why the world isn't more proactive in removing him from power, but this should all be in the But Seriously thread.) How they got the chemist recorded Spoiler admitting to the plot is amazing .
Babylon is on Paramount+. It has some really great moments, some laugh-out-loud zingers, some surprises . . . and the usual spectacle things like lots of boobs, fantastic costumes, and midgets jumping on giant penis pogo sticks. But, good grief, Hollywood. Have y'all forgotten how to edit? That movie should have been 300 minutes shorter, instead of 3hrs 9min. Good score, very pretty visuals, solid performance from Margot Robbie. Easy to see why it got noms, since Hollywood loves movies about Hollywood.
I watched Triangle of Sadness the other day on HBO and it was hilarious. One of the funniest movies I have seen in a long time. Not sure it will win anything. But it was great.
Probably the best movie of the year. It’s director won the Palm D’or for his last movie (The Square) and this movie. The lead actress also died suddenly a month ago.
I either watched a different movie or have a completely different sense of humor. It definitely has some funny bits, most of them high-minded humor. I would say it's a fascinating deeper look at social constructs and class, like Parasite is, and it was well-done all around. But "hilarious" is not an adjective I would use.