By Seth Lukas Hynes
The 2023 Oscars are just under a month away, and should be a very interesting ceremony.
As with the South Korean film Parasite in 2019, the German film All Quiet on the Western Front was nominated for both Best International Feature and Best Picture. Everything Everywhere All At Once received a whopping eleven nominations, and with Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert nominated together for Best Director, this is a rare instance of more than one director nominated for the same film. Brendan Fraser was nominated for Best Actor for The Whale; even the nomination is a major triumph in his career resurgence. Several Asian actors were nominated, namely Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Stephanie Hsu for Everything Everywhere All At Once and Hong Chau for The Whale. Angela Bassett, who had a powerful supporting role in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, became the first actor nominated for a Marvel Cinematic Universe performance.
The little-known drama To Leslie saw an Academy investigation into a possible breach of lobbying rules. While the celebrity promotion of To Leslie was widely criticised, no formal complaints were made and the Academy found no wrongdoing on star Andrea Riseborough’s part, so her Best Actress nomination was retained.
There were some puzzling snubs this year. Scott Derrickson deserved a Best Director nomination for the compelling, taut, multi-layered The Black Phone. Nope was a fun, fascinating film with great performances from Keke Palmer and Daniel Kaluuya, eerie sound design and remarkable effects. The Menu’s dark wit deserved an Original Screenplay nomination. To me, the most baffling snub was Three Thousand Years of Longing: this poignant, entrancing film at the very least deserved a Production Design nomination.
I hope you enjoy watching the Oscars, and I hope you’re satisfied with the results.
– Seth Lukas Hynes
