Good morning to all! Here we go, accepting no substitutes and waiting for The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences to wake us up early and announce the nominees for the 95th Oscars! Announced by Oscar winner Riz Ahmed and star of the current hit movie M3GAN, Allison Williams, this is an interesting mix of the expected, curveball game changers and welcome surprises.
Take note of Andrea Riseborough’s nomination for To Leslie. A movie I saw back at SXSW and noted then the strength of the performance received a limited release without much push from its studio. Undeterred, the actress mounted her grassroots campaign and enlisted a bevy of the top (top!) Hollywood talent to host screenings of it and be vocal with their support …and it got her the Best Actress nomination. This shows that it is possible for actors to drive their campaigns, especially if they feel prestige critics aren’t pushing the film as much as they can. (And let’s be real, the critics for headlining magazines and other outlets rarely look past the end of their noses.)
Most of these categories are, I think, wrapped up, and I have a number of these left to see before they are handed out on March 12 — but what fun it will be to check them off my list as we go.
Here are the nominations in the top categories. A full list can be found here.
BEST PICTURE
All Quiet on the Western Front
Avatar: The Way of Water
The Banshees of Inisherin
Elvis
Everything Everywhere All at Once
The Fabelmans
Tár
Top Gun: Maverick
Triangle of Sadness
Women Talking
BEST DIRECTOR
Ruben Ostlund, Triangle of Sadness
Todd Field, Tár
Dan Kwan & Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin
Steven Spielberg, The Fabelmans
BEST ACTOR
Austin Butler, Elvis
Colin Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin
Brendan Fraser, The Whale
Paul Mescal, Aftersun
Bill Nighy, Living
BEST 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