The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: 95th Oscars Nominations

I say this every year, but the Academy really zigs when you expect them to zag. This year’s Oscar nominations are quite something. Everything Everywhere All at Once led the field with 11 but it is always fascinating to see which films, performances, and crafts resonated with the Academy.

The Good
It was a nice day for Asian actors with Hong Chau, Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, and Key Huy Quan making it into the lineup. Also, was lovely to see Bryan Tyree Henry make it in.

The Brendanassance is complete.

Andrea Riseborough, Part 1: This is genuinely shocking and it is nice that a movie had a late groundswell among the voters made it in. It IS a good thing that a performance that came out in 2022, regardless of if “anyone saw it” can make the Oscar lineup.

The following films being nominated: All Quiet on the Western Front, Argentina, 1985.

The Bad
No Decision to Leave in International FIlm (or in Editing or in Actor) is very nearly a crime punishable with jail time.

Best Actress is a mess. Descendant not making Documentary is ultra foolish.

This isn’t bad so much as weird but how did All Quiet on the Western Front get so many key nominations but the directors branch went for Ruben Ostund rather than Edward Berger?

While there are 6 POC acting nominees, the rest of these categories feel like a snowstorm in Buffalo in January.

The Ugly
RRR only making it into song IS a crime punishable by jail time. And I also think India was very foolish for not submitting this as their International Film choice.

Andrea Riseborough, Part 2: It’s so weird that this performance made it, many viewing this as it being at the expense of two Black women (I personally think the De Armas and Williams nods are much much worse). However, I think the issue really is that this type of campaign has never happened for a person of color in a film. It is wild that you can have a movie like Triangle of Sadness surprise in noms but not Dolly Leon nominated or be in every precursor like Deadwyler and Davis, but if you are a white/European actor with famous friends you can do this.

Full List of Nominees

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