Here’s Screen Rant’s complete guide to the biggest event on the movie Awards circuit, the 95th annual Academy Awards AKA The Oscars 2023.
Quick Links
As the biggest event of the movie Awards season approaches, Screen Rant has put together a complete guide for the 2023 Oscars. Beginning in 1929, the Oscars are now considered the most prestigious and impactful event in the entertainment industry, which sees industry members vote on the best movies, performances, and creative contributions of each year. The 95th annual Academy Award will celebrate the best and most influential films of 2022. The 2023 ceremony airs on March 12 at 8 p.m. ET, and will be hosted by Jimmy Kimmel.
Screen Rant’s comprehensive guide includes breakdowns of every Best Picture nominee and where to watch them, predictions for the winners of every category, the biggest talking points and moments of the 2023 Oscars season, and beyond. To better contextualize the ceremony and the true impacts of the nominees and winners, the guide also features examinations of notable aspects of Oscars history and the basic details needed to understand the event’s importance. As the ceremony nears, this extensive guide will serve as a hub directing you through every sector of the 2023 Oscars awards.
Oscars 2023 Predictions
This year’s Oscars includes a total of 23 categories, with between five and ten nominees for each award. Our lists of predictions for the 2023 Oscars look at every single category of nominees, from Best Picture to Best Production Design, and even assess betting odds for the biggest races. A few of the big category winner predictions already seem to be a lock, such as Best Supporting Actor, while others continue to be close races.
The predictions for the Oscars are primarily based on the preceding nominations and wins from other voting bodies throughout the 2023 Awards season, such as the Golden Globe Awards, Critics’ Choice Awards, the BAFTAs, and the upcoming PGAS and WGAs. Films like Everything Everywhere All at Once, The Banshees of Inisherin, and Top Gun: Maverick have scored countless accolades throughout the season, increasing their chances to win in their respective Oscars 2023 categories. As the major award ceremonies continue in the weeks leading up to the Oscars, the predictions naturally change with them.
All Oscar 2023 Movies
Over 50 films across 23 categories have received nominations at the 95th Academy Awards. From major blockbuster sequels like Avatar: The Way of Water and Top Gun: Maverick to live-action shorts like Disney Plus’ Le Pupille, a wide variety of movies from 2022 are represented at the Oscars.
Everything Everywhere All at Once leads the event with 11 total nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actress, followed by the black comedy The Banshees of Inisherin and the German-language film All Quiet on the Western Front with nine nominations each. The various actors, narratives, production history, and critical reception of each movie aren’t easy to navigate, so we’ve compiled the key details for all 2023 Oscars movies to help out.
All Quiet On The Western Front
Netflix’s German-language anti-war drama is up for nine awards at the 2023 Oscars. All Quiet on the Western Front is adapted from the 1929 novel of the same name by German author Erich Maria Remarque. The movie follows young soldier Paul Baumer and his comrades in the final days of World War I, with the glory-seeking recruits quickly having their hopes shattered as they face the horrors of war ahead of the armistice.
Best Picture and Best International Feature are among the awards that All Quiet on the Western Front is nominated for at the 95th Academy Awards. The 2022 film is the second adaptation of the story to be nominated for Best Picture, with the American movie winning the top award at the 1930 Oscars.
Avatar: The Way Of Water
Avatar: The Way of Water is the long-anticipated sequel to James Cameron’s 2009 sci-fi epic Avatar, which still holds the title of the highest-grossing movie of all time. The CGI-heavy film follows Jake and Neytiri’s family 15 years after the events of Avatar. The Sully family must leave their home and travel across Pandora as a familiar threat resurfaces and Jake prepares for another battle against the humans.
Just like its predecessor, Avatar: The Way of Water has simultaneously smashed box office records and achieved critical recognition throughout the awards season. While Avatar 2 lacks Oscar nominations in the acting sector, the visually striking sci-fi epic has received nods in four fitting categories: Best Picture, Best Sound, Best Production Design, and Best Visual Effects.
The Banshees Of Inisherin
The 2022 black tragicomedy The Banshees of Inisherin received a whopping nine nominations at the 2023 Oscars. From Academy Award-winning director Martin McDonagh, the film is set off the coast of Ireland and follows two men whose life-long friendship abruptly ends. When Pádraic (Colin Farrell) refuses to leave Colm (Brendan Gleeson) alone, the consequences become increasingly alarming.
In addition to Best Picture, The Banshees of Inisherin is up for major awards like Best Actor (Farrell), Best Supporting Actor (Gleeson and Barry Keoghan), and Best Supporting Actress (Kerry Condon). The film has a brilliant feel-bad ending with compelling performances and writing that are incredibly deserving of their Oscar nods.
Elvis
Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis tells the true story of iconic singer Elvis Presley (Austin Butler), documenting his complicated path to stardom, 20-year-long relationship with his manager Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks), and his marriage to Priscilla.
While much of the conversation around Elvis has been around Austin Butler’s inability to lose the accent of the title musician, the biopic has made waves throughout the awards season for its thrilling visuals, director Baz Luhrmann’s innovative and energetic style, and the lead actor’s outstanding performance. At the 2023 Oscars, Elvis is nominated for eight awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Film Editing, and Best Sound.
Everything Everywhere All At Once
The Daniels’ Everything Everywhere All at Once is a major front-runner for Best Picture at the 2023 Oscars. The absurdist comedy-drama story follows Chinese American laundromat owner Evelyn, her husband Waymond, and their daughter Joy. As they’re being audited by the IRS, Evelyn discovers that she must connect versions of herself from parallel universes to prevent a powerful figure from destroying the multiverse.
The near-universal acclaim for Everything Everywhere All at Once has highlighted its well-crafted writing and story, philosophical concepts of existentialism, absurdist humor, themes of Asain-American identity, and show-stopping performances by Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, and Stephanie Hsu. The movie leads the 2023 Oscars with 11 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actress (Yeoh), Best Supporting Actor (Quan), and Best Supporting Actress (Hsu and Jamie Lee Curtis).
The Fabelmans
Directed and written by Steven Spielberg, The Fabelmans is a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age dramedy loosely based on Spielberg’s childhood and adolescence. The movie follows Sammy Fabelman as he develops a love and talent for filmmaking, which helps him see the truth about his dysfunctional family and others around him.
Spielberg is a frontrunner for the Academy Award for Best Director, which could give him his third win in the category after Schindler’s List in 1994 and Saving Private Ryan in 1999. The Fabelmans is also up for Best Picture and two acting awards at the 2023 Oscars, including Best Actress for Michelle Williams and Best Supporting Actor for Judd Hirsch.
Tár
Best Picture nominee Tár tells the fictional story of Lydia Tár, a renowned and ruthless composer whose world falls apart as she prepares to record a career-changing symphony. The psychological drama is directed by Todd Field, who is nominated for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay, and stars Cate Blanchett in the title role, for which she is nominated for Best Actress.
Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett’s engrossing performance makes it highly probable that she’ll win her second Best Actress award after Blue Jasmine in 2014, with the gripping screenplay making Lydia Tár’s made-up story feel like a genuine biopic. In addition to Tár’s aforementioned nominations, the film has received nods at the 2023 Oscars for Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing.
Top Gun: Maverick
The action drama picks up over 30 years after Top Gun (1986), with its earnest, heartwarming, and wildly entertaining story seeing accomplished naval pilot Pete “Maverick” Mitchell confront his past as he trains a younger group of Top Gun graduates for a dangerous mission. Top Gun: Maverick kick-started the triumphant return to theaters in the pandemic era, earning nearly $1.5 billion at the box office. The critical acclaim and box office success of Top Gun: Maverick was unprecedented, partially because the cult classic original was neither a box office smash nor particularly popular with critics. Top Gun: Maverick picked up six nominations at the 95th Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
Triangle Of Sadness
Triangle of Sadness joins the growing slate of Hollywood’s class-conscious satires, with the black comedy following a wealthy young couple of fashion models embark on a luxury cruise. When a brutal storm hits the ship, the class hierarchy is forgone and the survivors are met with a new power dynamic. The movie stars Harris Dickinson, Woody Harrelson, Charlbi Dean, and Dolly de Leon, the latter of whom has received international acclaim for her performance. Directed and written by Ruben Östlund, Triangle of Sadness is nominated for three awards at the 2023 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay.
Women Talking
Adapted from the 2018 book of the same name, Best Picture nominee Women Talking is centered on a group of women in a Mennonite community who deliberate and vote on how to move forward after a string of sexual assaults: Do nothing, stay and fight, or leave. The drama comes from director Sarah Polley, who nabbed an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. Polley’s snub for Best Director has launched further conversation around the Oscars’ trend of only nominating male directors, with Jessie Buckley’s lack of a Best Supporting Actress nod also being a surprise.
Oscars 2023 Biggest Narratives
Fitting for a ceremony rewarding entertaining, shocking, and heartwarming stories, plenty of drama and incredible comeback trends are circulating the 2023 Oscars. From controversy over nomination campaigns to repeated criticisms of the Academy’s choices, this year’s Oscars has generated much discussion around the voting process. However, another overarching narrative for the 2023 Academy Awards is far more positive, as it includes inspirational comeback stories for many of the acting nominees. Considering how much controversy emerged from the 2022 Oscars ceremony itself, the night of March 12 will doubtlessly present new narratives defining this year’s awards.
Oscars Basics
To get a better idea of the Oscars’ impact, it’s best to understand the event’s history, which films have had the most significant success with the Academy, and how the awards are nominated and ultimately chosen as winners. Additionally, it’s beneficial to have background knowledge of major trends, big snubs, groundbreaking wins, significant changes to the process, and controversies over the Oscars’ 95-year history to contextualize the Academy Awards’ importance today.
Oscars 2024 Early Predictions
While it’s still incredibly early, some movies releasing in 2023 already seem to be locked for nominations at the 2024 Oscars. The predictions are based on the films’ genres, the critical acclaim of the movies’ directors, screenwriters, and stars, the backing production studios, as well as the premises of the movies themselves. Predictions for the 2024 Oscars will inevitably change as more of the films are released, but movies like Oppenheimer, Barbie, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part I, Killers of the Flower Moon, and The Little Mermaid already have good chances of being recognized at next year’s event.
