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THE FRIENDLY FILM FAN

The 7th Annual Friendly Film Fan Awards

4/3/2023

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The Friendly Film Fan Reveals the Winners for the 2022 Movie Season.
​Hello, all, and welcome back to The Friendly Film Fan and to the 7th Annual Friendly Film Fan Awards! As most of you are no doubt familiar with the nominees by now, it’s time to select our winners for this cinematic year of 2022. There was a lot to celebrate, from the return of audiences to theaters in a very big way, to the sheer amount and skill level of art in the movie world having come to bear to the discovery of new and exciting voices in the cinematic space ready to make their mark. Having deliberated on these winners for nearly a month now, it is time to reveal who actually takes home the trophies we don’t have so they can all brag to their friends about them. Here are you winners for the 2023 Friendly Film Fan Awards!
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​Best Sound Design:
  • All Quiet on the Western Front
  • The Batman
  • Nope
  • Prey
  • Top Gun: Maverick – WINNER
 
When it came to movie sound in 2022, there simply wasn’t a more exciting, adrenaline-pumping experience than Top Gun: Maverick. From the roars of the F-18 fighter jets to the sonic booms of the Darkstar, every last bit of audio was perfectly calibrated to get our collective need for speed as sky-high as it could be. I can still hear those flares in the final mission.
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​Best Visual Effects:
  • Avatar: The Way of Water – WINNER
  • The Batman
  • Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • Nope
  • Top Gun: Maverick
 
True, it may seem like a moot point to even have a Visual Effects award during a year where James Cameron released an Avatar sequel, but the work Cameron and his VFX crew are doing should not go uncelebrated, nor should the other stellar work this year in the rest of the nominee pool. Revolutionizing visual effects is just what Cameron does in his films, but the notion that there could be yet another VFX revolution at all is certainly notable. Plus, when fully CG creatures look this convincing, it’s hard not to watch in awe all the same.
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Best Screenplay:
  • Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin
  • Park Chan-wook and Chung Seo-kyung, Decision to Leave
  • Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • Todd Field, TÁR – WINNER
  • Sarah Polley, Women Talking
 
I’ve waxed ad nauseum about how Todd Field’s masterful script for TÁR had any number of people convinced that its lead character was a real person, but beyond that, it’s painfully well-balanced across a plethora of themes which are seldom this nuanced. Notions of power, abuses of it, who actually has it, how it’s wielded, whether it can actually ever be taken away from those who have it – these are all present here in any variety of ways, as well as many other themes like artistry vs. pretention. Plus, “U-Haul lesbian” Cate Blanchett. Need I say more?
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​Best Score:
  • Volker Bertelmann, All Quiet on the Western Front
  • Justin Hurwitz, Babylon – WINNER
  • Carter Burwell, The Banshees of Inisherin
  • Michael Giacchino, The Batman
  • Michael Abels, Nope
 
Yes, the Oscars got it wrong, as we expected they would, but here at The Friendly Film Fan Awards, justice shall prevail! Justin Hurwitz’ mammoth score for Babylon is one of the decade’s finest to date, and not only in motion pictures. One only needs to here “Welcome” and “Voodoo Mama” to be absolutely convinced that Hurwitz may be one of the most important composers of the modern era in any field of music, but the fact that so many other tracks are also certified bangers is what changes that “may” to “is.”
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​Best Character Design (Costumes + Makeup & Hairstyling):
  • The Batman
  • Elvis
  • Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery – WINNER
  • The Woman King
 
While period pieces, films about African tribes, comic book adaptations, and even wacky multiverse-jumping fare often all have fantastic costume design work within their frames, there is something to be said for the way contemporary costumes accentuate characters’ personalities, and there was no movie better at that particular thing in 2022 than Rian Johnson’s blast of a murder mystery, Glass Onion. In every scene, each character is wearing something that speaks to who they are as people, good and bad, including Benoit Blanc himself. Turning Janelle Monáe from a formalistic tech founder into a regular Alabaman and back again in the course of one feature really is a feat of its own, but the fact that this film also managed to give us Daniel Craig’s striped swimsuit is reason enough to hand it this award.
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​Best Production Design:
  • Dylan Cole and Ben Procter, Avatar: The Way of Water
  • Florencia Martin, Babylon – WINNER
  • Catherine Martin and Karen Murphy, Elvis
  • Jason Kisvarday, Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • Rick Heinrichs, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
 
One of the only Oscars Babylon was certain to win still managed to get snatched away by All Quiet on the Western Front’s dominant technical night at the Academy Awards, but we here at The Friendly Film Fan, we recognize just how difficult it is to pull off designing an entire film’s look around an era chock full of the thing you’re making: a movie. The set of sets alone could win its own Oscar, or the party sequence as elephants crash in below the balcony or even the descent into hell in the film’s third act, but what sets Babylon apart from everything else is that the design is the story. Babylon is about excess, evil, triumph, defeat, being part of something bigger, and it doesn’t get much bigger than making the set you’re on the most essential piece of the story you’re telling.
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Best Film Editing:
  • Blair McClendon, Aftersun
  • Kim Sang-beom, Decision to Leave – WINNER
  • Paul Rogers, Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • Monika Willi, TÁR
  • Eddie Hamilton, Top Gun: Maverick
 
There were moments in EEAAO where I truly felt that it had the best editing I’d seen all year. Then the same thing happened later with TÁR. Aftersun and TGM are made in the edit bay; you can’t tell those stories properly without the correct editor in the chair. Yet none of them – in my view at least – were able to pull off the astounding feat of editing in Park Chan-wook’s masterful Decision to Leave, weaving characters in and out of rooms at breakneck speed, changing from scene to scene in such creative fashion, match-cutting to some of the most heartbreaking shots of 2022 (mountains and seas, anyone?). To say that the editing in Decision to Leave is an achievement is as much of an understatement as one can make, but without doubt, it was the editing achievement of 2022.
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​Best Cinematography:
  • James Friend, All Quiet on the Western Front
  • Linus Sandgren, Babylon
  • Greig Fraser, The Batman
  • Hoyte van Hoytema, Nope – WINNER
  • Florian Hoffmeister, TÁR
 
The closest race at this year’s Friendly Film Fan Awards by far, The Batman and Nope were both neck and neck for a win in this category, a category so stacked in fact that there were at least three other films that could have also landed a nomination beyond the five chosen. However, if one is just edging out the other here, Hoyte van Hoytema’s stunning work on Jordan Peele’s Nope ultimately pulls through the stronger of both. Both of these films have excellent visual cohesion, incredible nighttime photography, and some of the year’s most striking single frames, like Batman walking towards an upside-down car or OJ’s run sequence; however, where The Batman tends to focus on the micro as a character piece (“what makes Batman who he is/what does being Batman mean”), Nope leans into the macro, and in a film dominated by the question of human beings’ relationship to spectacle, making the film itself a spectacle is a genius play.
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​Best Stunt Ensemble:
  • The Batman
  • Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • RRR
  • Top Gun: Maverick – WINNER
  • The Woman King
 
There were some amazing stunt sequences in 2022. The Batmobile chase in The Batman, the fanny pack fight from EEAAO, the rescue battle from Woman King, hell there were four or five stellar sequences in RRR alone. And yet, there were not stunt sequences more impressive or entertaining to watch in the theater as those in Top Gun: Maverick. Even for the actors not flying the planes, simply being in them as the arial maneuvers happened in real time counts as stunt work; you can’t fake those reaction shots, for which the cameras had to be set in the jets before they even went up into the sky. Add onto that the fact that every single action sequence in TGM is one of the finest ever put to film, with real planes flying real people, and you have the makings of one of the most iconic stunt ensembles ever put to screen.
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​Best Ensemble:
  • The Banshees of Inisherin – WINNER
  • Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
  • Top Gun: Maverick
  • Women Talking
 
A film’s true power lies in its ability to captivate an audience, and the greatest tool a filmmaker has at their disposal to captivate an audience – apart from the story itself – is the cast they employ to tell that very story. Great ensembles can be chock full of performers having a great time playing fanciful characters or discussing a complex issue with nuance and grace or even simply working their asses off to bring us the best entertainment they possibly can as they push their bodies to the absolute limit. Then there are the smaller ensembles, groups of three or four exceptional storytellers bringing characters to life in order to tell a story on a more intimate or personal scale, often with one or two leads to carry the thrust of the tale being told. It is in this space that we find what were our two lead contenders in The Banshees of Inisherin and Everything Everywhere All at Once, and while the ensemble in EEAAO is an exceptional one, we’re sticking with Banshees for the win here, as there’s not one average or weaker performance among the whole bunch when compared one to one with its rival. We’ll see more of this cast later down the list, but for now, we’re just proud to name them the Best Ensemble of 2022.
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​Best Supporting Actress:
  • Jessie Buckley, Women Talking
  • Kerry Condon, The Banshees of Inisherin – WINNER
  • Claire Foy, Women Talking
  • Stephanie Hsu, Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • Dolly de Leon, Triangle of Sadness
 
Every one of the nominated performers in this category is a stick of dynamite in their respective films, some on the verge of explosion, some whose fuses have only just been lit. For all of Jesse Buckley’s steely resolve to Claire Foy’s righteous rage, each of the women in Women Talking could have all been nominated here to fill up the category all by themselves, but then how would we celebrate Dolly de Leon’s show-stealing third act turn in Triangle of Sadness or Stephanie Hsu’s immediate “taking over the movie” entrance as Jobu Tupaki in EEAAO? Each of these nominees is as worthy as the next and any one of them winning the Oscar would have been more than fine with us (although we have some…different feelings about the end result). For our part, however, no one quite stole our hearts and our heartbreak as thoroughly as Kerry Condon in The Banshees of Inisherin. Condon embodies one side of Banshees’ quiet tragedy more than any other, the idea that even the good people on the island, the ones trying to stop a metaphorical war from reaching its inevitable conclusion, eventually must choose to save themselves because that’s all there is left to save. It’s a note-perfect performance in a film with few – if any – false notes, and we’re proud to hand Kerry Condon the Friendly Film Fan Award for Best Supporting Actress of 2022. I’m sure the bragging rights will look spectacular next to her BAFTA.
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Best Supporting Actor:
  • Zlatko Burić, Triangle of Sadness
  • Brendan Gleeson, The Banshees of Inisherin
  • Barry Keoghan, The Banshees of Inisherin
  • Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All at Once – WINNER
  • Mark Rylance, Bones and All
 
As my personal favorite movie of the year, I knew I couldn’t let Everything Everywhere All at Once go home empty handed, even if it couldn’t quite stack up in some other categories like it did on Oscars night; luckily, there was no question in our minds or the Academy’s about which supporting actor performance stole the show in 2022. Ke Huy Quan came back to movies like a force of nature, bringing Kung Fu skill, a wide range of emotionality, and some of the most beautifully heartbreaking lines in cinema history roaring to life. “In another life, I would have really liked just doing laundry and taxes with you” rings as true as it does solely because of Quan’s fantastic performance, and as happy as we all were to see him win his Oscar, we’re even more overjoyed to hand him the 2022 Friendly Film Fan award for Best Supporting Actor. Welcome back, Ke! We’ve missed you, buddy.
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Best Actress:
  • Cate Blanchett, TÁR – WINNER
  • Danielle Deadwyler, Till
  • Margot Robbie, Babylon
  • Tang Wei, Decision to Leave
  • Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All at Once
 
Perhaps the toughest category to decide in the whole of this awards race, Best Actress may be the most stacked that this category has ever been to date, from Danielle Deadwyler’s gut-wrenching work in Till (at least the second-worst nomination snub at this year’s Oscars) to Tang Wei’s calculated heartache in Decision to Leave to Margot Robbie’s powerhouse exploration of stardom and misery in Babylon. Michelle Yeoh did take home the Oscar in that night’s closest race as well (and we are so proud of her for it!), but for us, there’s just something so undeniable about Cate Blanchett once more reaching a career high with her not simply perfect but outright transcendent performance in TÁR that we have been entirely unable to shake. Blanchett is Lydia Tár in the same way that RDJ is Iron Man, that J.K. Simmons is J. Jonah Jameson, and she joins the pantheon of abusive composer/conductors which Simmons himself occupies (Whiplash) as yet another of the most powerful performances in music movie history. One really only needs to see TÁR once to fully understand just how impressive Blanchett’s performance really is, like someone pointed a camera at her and just filmed her real job, to the point where – again – people thought Lydia Tár was a real person until looking her up. Yes, part of that is in the writing, as mention earlier, but in order to bring that writing to life, you need a performer at the top of their game throwing a perfect fastball every single pitch, and that’s exactly what Cate Blanchett does here. Congratulations Cate, here’s a Friendly Film Fan award to go next to your two Oscars.
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​Best Actor:
  • Austin Butler, Elvis – WINNER
  • Colin Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin
  • Brendan Fraser, The Whale
  • Daniel Kaluuya, Nope
  • Paul Mescal, Aftersun
 
Sometimes superstardom comes after years or even decades in front of the camera and sometimes it comes almost overnight; you just have to make the right move, and that’s what Austin Butler did in Elvis, a film I do not like led by a performance as powerful as any biopic turn I’ve ever seen. Sure, Butler had a stint as a Disney Channel star, but for this particular film, he so embodied the legendary musician that he’s still getting made fun of for not having dropped the vocal intonations of the icon well after filming and promo has wrapped on the film. It’s an easy performance to underrate when attempting to spread some love to the other nominees in this category, but when you do watch the performance all the way through, it’s easy to see why Butler became one of the fastest rising stars working today in a matter of months. The guy just has it, and we here at The Friendly Film Fan would like to be some of the first to recognize and reward him for what’s sure to be one of his most iconic parts.
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Best Director:
  • Damien Chazelle, Babylon
  • Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin
  • Park Chan-wook, Decision to Leave – WINNER
  • Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • Todd Field, TÁR
 
All of the nominees in this category turned in phenomenal work in 2022, and this almost went to Todd Field for directing one of the finest character studies of the last decade, but ultimately, there was not one director who seemed to have the most innate sense of control over his film than Park Chan-wook crafting a heartbreaking noir in Decision to Leave. Every move in Decision to Leave must be precisely calculated not only so audiences will invest in its characters and story but also so that no note in a story this twisty feels too complex for an audience to understand, even as the film’s plot remains as intricate as anything Chan-wook has made over the last ten years. It’s a quiet miracle – the bad kind Daniel Kaluuya refers to in Nope – that Decision to Leave was shut out of the Oscar nomination entirely, but here, as people of integrity, we not only have the film nominated in multiple categories, we award Park Chan-wook the Friendly Film Fan award for Best Director of the year.
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​Best Picture:
  • Aftersun
  • All Quiet on the Western Front
  • Babylon
  • The Banshees of Inisherin – WINNER
  • Decision to Leave
  • Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • Nope
  • TÁR
  • Top Gun: Maverick
  • Women Talking
 
And here we are at the award for Best Picture. It certainly has been a journey getting here, and every nominee in this category is as worthy of the next of recognition and celebration for the achievements they are. For our part, however, there was no more well-balanced, brilliantly-told, or quietly tragic film made in 2022 than Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin. If this were any other kind of film, the impact would be lessened – drama, dark comedy, etc. But Banshees roots itself in the tragedy of the inevitable and the all-too-easily preventable. None of this had to happen, yet all of it – like the Irish civil war the story is juxtaposed against – will inevitably lead to a worse outcome for all involved. The most innocent will suffer needlessly (as with Barry Keoghan’s character), the good will be made to save themselves alone (as with Kerry Condon), and at the end of the day, as the two men stand on the beach at the end of a long journey – or the start of one – neither will have learned their lesson, because one was too full of himself to see the damage he was doing and one was so hurt by that damage that the only thing he can now do is fight back against it. It’s a deeply acidic and feel-bad ending to a story that feels more honest than most stories allow themselves to be, and that, along with everything else it brings to the table (a stellar look, haunting score, and brilliant script to boot), is why we have named it the Best Picture of 2022.
And so concludes this year’s Friendly Film Fan awards! What do you think of our winner selections? Are there any you disagree with? Anything you’re surprisingly happy to see walk with a victory? Let us know in the comments section below, and thanks for reading!
 
- The Friendly Film Fan
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2023 Oscars Recap

3/13/2023

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The Friendly Film Fan Recounts the 95th Academy Awards Winners.
Well, here we are the day after the 95th Academy Awards, and it has been a historic moment for Everything Everywhere All at Once as the night’s crowning feature, not only as the film with the most Oscar wins since 2014, securing 7 victories across 11 nominations, but also as the film with the most above-the-line Oscar wins ever and the most-awarded single film ever made across an awards season, raking in a whopping record of 165 total wins and decimating the previous record held by The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King at 101. The success of the Daniels’ second feature with A24 is unprecedented in the modern era, and it will surely go down (at least in our book) as one of the most deserving and all-time greatest Best Picture winners of its era.
 
Netflix and Edward Berger’s recent adaptation of All Quiet on the Western Front enjoyed a modicum of success as well, as the film took home 4 awards, including Best International Feature, Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, and one it was not widely expected to win, Best Production Design. The Whale brought Brendan Fraser his long-awaited comeback Oscar as well as winning the Best Makeup & Hairstyling award, leaving just 3 movies total with multi-category victories, although there were some unexpected surprises and close saves in other areas. Ruth Carter was victorious once again for her Costume Design work on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (a deserved win nonetheless) and Sarah Polley manages to pull off a sole win for Women Talking in Best Adapted Screenplay despite the dominance of All Quiet below-the-line.
 
There were a few losses that stung, such as Babylon going winless and no less than five of the Best Picture nominees going home empty handed, including The Banshees of Inisherin, The Fabelmans, and TÁR (Elvis and Triangle of Sadness losses don’t hurt as much), but apart from that, the night went largely as expected. The ceremony itself was lively, celebratory, and apart from an In Memoriam segment which feels more and more gross the more one considers that a lot of deceased creators were reduced to a QR code in the interest of keeping the show moving (including Best Picture nominee Triangle of Sadness star Charlbi Dean), it all went off largely without a hitch. Jimmy Kimmel had some solid moments of genuine support for the film industry, as well as appropriately told and timed jokes (even the “slap” ones were mostly all un-exhausting), and while the show did run a bit long, none of it felt as if anyone didn’t want to be there.
 
Overall, it was a successful night in many senses (we went 19 for 23 on our predicted winners), and it gives me hope that the future of the Academy is as bright as EEAAO’s star has been throughout the awards season. I’m very much looking forward to next year.
 
A full recap of 2023’s Oscar winners is below.
 
Best Picture: Everything Everywhere All at Once
Best Director: Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Best Actress: Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Best Actor: Brendan Fraser, The Whale
Best Supporting Actress: Jamie Lee Curtis, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Best Supporting Actor: Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Best Animated Feature: Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio
Best International Feature: All Quiet on the Western Front
Best Documentary Feature: Navalny
Best Cinematography: James Friend, All Quiet on the Western Front
Best Film Editing: Paul Rogers, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Best Production Design: Christian M. Goldbeck, All Quiet on the Western Front
Best Costume Design: Ruth E. Carter, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Best Makeup & Hairstyling: Adrien Morot, Judy Chin, and Annamarie Bradley, The Whale
Best Original Score: Volker Bertelmann, All Quiet on the Western Front
Best Original Song: “Naatu Naatu,” RRR
Best Adapted Screenplay: Sarah Polley, Women Talking
Best Original Screenplay: Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Best Visual Effects: Avatar: The Way of Water
Best Sound: Top Gun: Maverick
Best Live-Action Short: An Irish Goodbye
Best Animated Short: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse
Best Documentary Short: The Elephant Whisperers
 
What were your favorite Oscar wins of the night? Any particularly stinging losses? What’s your take on the overall ceremony? Leave us your thoughts in the comments below, and thanks for keeping up with The Friendly Film Fan through 2022. Keep an eye out for our awards victors, announced on March 31!
 
- The Friendly Film Fan
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2023 Oscar Winner Predictions – 95th Academy Awards

3/9/2023

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The Friendly Film Fan Makes Our FINAL Predictions for What Will Win on Oscar Sunday​.
​Well, here we finally are. After another long but largely fruitful year at the movies, the moment has arrived for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to crown who they believe were the true champions of moviemaking in 2022, and with all the guilds and pre-cursors – including SAG, DGA, PGA, WGA, BAFTA, and Indie Spirit Awards – now out of the way, it’s also time for The Friendly Film Fan to make out predictions as to who will be taking home those golden statues. As with every year, there are plenty of films and there is an immeasurable amount of work that went unrecognized by the Academy in regards to the nominations listed in this piece, such as Park Chan-wook’s stellar direction of Decision to Leave or the fabulous lead performance in Till by Danielle Deadwyler, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t infinitely valuable, nor does it lessen the value or presence of any nomination that is given to a film here either. Simply put, there will always be snubs, surprises, unexpected surges, and deflated campaigns to talk about for as long as there are Oscars ceremonies. But let’s not waste any more time on semantics. It’s time – category by category – to give you our FINAL predictions for the 2023 Academy Award winners.
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT:
  • The Elephant Whisperers
  • Haulout
  • How do You Measure a Year?
  • The Martha Mitchell Effect
  • Stranger at the Gate
Should Win: The Elephant Whisperers
Will Win: The Elephant Whisperers
Dark Horse: Haulout
Could Steal: Stranger at the Gate
Should Have Been Nominated: N/A
 
Admittedly, I haven’t gotten to see all of the Documentary Shorts this year, as the film How Do You Measure a Year? has eluded my eyes, and since Shorts TV doesn’t usually put this category into their programming for theaters during Oscar week, it’s unlikely the film will ever find them before Oscar night. That said, I have seen the other four, and The Elephant Whisperers is the most worthy candidate of those. Not enough people are paying attention to Haulout, however, which may not have the same kind of big studio backing Elephant Whisperers does, but could be every bit as engaging to Oscar voters. As long as Stranger at the Gate doesn’t win, I’ll be satisfied. 


BEST ANIMATED SHORT:
  • The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse
  • The Flying Sailor
  • Ice Merchants
  • My Year of Dicks
  • An Ostrich Told Me the World is Fake and I Think I Believe It
Should Win: Ice Merchants
Will Win: Ice Merchants
Dark Horse: An Ostrich Told Me the World is Fake and I Think I Believe It
Could Steal: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse
Should Have Been Nominated: N/A
 
Apple TV+’s The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse has the advantage going into the night, but this category has always been about underdogs at the Oscars, so I’m putting my chips on the gorgeously-animated Ice Merchants to take the win here. Plus, I ignored my instincts on The Windshield Wiper last year and that was the only category I got wrong, so I’ll go where they tell me to this time. That said, don’t underestimate Ostrich here, which simultaneously doubles as a cheeky meta-existentialist comedy and a demonstration of just how hard stop-motion animators work when bringing their films to life; that sounds like something that could appeal to the craftspeople in the Academy enough to surprise for a win to me.


BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT:
  • An Irish Goodbye
  • Ivalu
  • Le Pupille
  • Night Ride
  • The Red Suitcase
Should Win: N/A
Will Win: An Irish Goodbye
Dark Horse: Night Ride
Could Steal: Le Pupille
Should Have Been Nominated: N/A
 
Of the three of these I did get to see, Le Pupille is most poised for success, having multi-time Oscar winner Alfonso Cuarón in its corner as a producer, and the sway he holds with the Academy should not be underestimated. With that in mind though, this category seems to be pointing towards a win for An Irish Goodbye, which I have not managed to see, and I’m sure it’s plenty worthy as well. As far as the three I’ve seen, Ivalu is definitely the best-looking, but thematically doesn’t really even reveal what’s up with itself until the tail end, so it doesn’t seem to quite make its point hard enough for Oscar voters to really value it beyond the cinematography.


BEST SOUND:
  • All Quiet on the Western Front
  • Avatar: The Way of Water
  • The Batman
  • Elvis
  • Top Gun: Maverick
Should Win: Top Gun: Maverick
Will Win: Top Gun: Maverick
Dark Horse: Elvis
Could Steal: All Quiet on the Western Front
Should Have Been Nominated: Nope
 
If you were in a movie theater at any point in 2022, odds are you saw Avatar: The Way of Water or Top Gun: Maverick, or both, and most likely went back to see the latter of them again and again. You also would have experienced the stellar sound work present in both films, but as Avatar is poised to take a cakewalk with another category, and so much of Maverick’s movie magic hinges on the audience feeling the roars of the F-18s fighter engines as they use flares to dodge radar-guided SAMs, it’s safe to say that Top Gun takes a slice of gold home here.


BEST VISUAL EFFECTS:
  • All Quiet on the Western Front
  • Avatar: The Way of Water
  • The Batman
  • Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
  • Top Gun: Maverick
Should Win: Avatar: The Way of Water
Will Win: Avatar: The Way of Water
Dark Horse: All Quiet on the Western Front
Could Steal: N/A
Should Have Been Nominated: Nope
 
You don’t need me – or anyone else – to help you predict this category. Avatar walks.


BEST ORIGNAL SCREENPLAY:
  • Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin
  • Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • Tony Kushner and Steven Spielberg, The Fabelmans
  • Todd Field, TÁR
  • Ruben Östlund, Triangle of Sadness
Should Win: Todd Field, TÁR
Will Win: Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Dark Horse: Tony Kushner and Steven Spielberg, The Fabelmans
Could Steal: Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin
Should Have Been Nominated: Charlotte Wells, Aftersun or Park Chan-wook, Decision to Leave or Jordan Peele, Nope
 
While there are certainly plenty of other original screenplays like Aftersun or Decision to Leave that probably should have been nominated here, this is one of the most solid Original Screenplay lineups in some time, which makes picking a winner more difficult than predicting one. For a while it seemed like this win could go to Martin McDonagh’s great work on The Banshees of Inisherin, but as awards season has continued and the guilds have come and gone, another narrative has taken shape; given its prevalence in the nominations and the significant love the Academy clearly has for it, Everything Everywhere All at Once is most likely to win this category. That said, the award really should be going to Todd Field for his astounding work on TÁR. If your screenplay is so lived-in and knowledgeable that it manages to convince entire throngs of critics that your lead character must have been a real person, you should win something for it, at least in my view.


BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:
  • Edward Berger, Lesley Paterson, and Ian Stokell, All Quiet on the Western Front
  • Rian Johnson, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
  • Kazuo Ishiguro, Living
  • Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, and Christopher McQuarrie, Top Gun: Maverick
  • Sarah Polley, Women Talking
Should Win: Sarah Polley, Women Talking
Will Win: Sarah Polley, Women Talking
Dark Horse: Rian Johnson, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Could Steal: Edward Berger, Lesley Paterson, and Ian Stokell, All Quiet on the Western Front
Should Have Been Nominated: Rebecca Lenkiewicz, She Said
 
Adapted Screenplay may seem easy to predict considering how weak of a category it is this time around, but with All Quiet on the Western Front picking up nine nominations, it shouldn’t be underestimated as a potential upset winner in this race, even if the adaptation element of it is what everyone who’s read the book claims is the weakest of its many facets. With that in mind, of its two nominations, this is the only one that Women Talking is likely to win, and with Sarah Polley not appearing in Best Director, the Academy could be looking at this as a way to “make up” for not nominating her in that category.


BEST ORIGINAL SONG:
  • “Applause,” Tell It Like a Woman
  • “Hold My Hand,” Top Gun: Maverick
  • “Lift Me Up,” Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
  • “Naatu Naatu,” RRR
  • “This Is a Life,” Everything Everywhere All at Once
Should Win: “Naatu Naatu,” RRR
Will Win: “Naatu Naatu,” RRR
Dark Horse: “Applause,” Tell It Like a Woman
Could Steal: “Lift Me Up,” Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Should Have Been Nominated/Shortlisted: “The Songcord,” Avatar: The Way of Water
 
Original Song is a weird category. Here’s a collection of music written for movies, but only one of which is an essential piece of that film’s narrative momentum, and most of which don’t appear in the movies themselves. Remember what I said earlier about the two biggest movies of the year being Avatar and Top Gun? Well, in a manner of speaking, RRR is just as big as those two, just not financially. But pop into a screening of the Indian smash hit at any repertory theater in any major city, and you are sure to find a crowd just as into this movie as you’re likely to be, one of its key moments being the performance of “Naatu Naatu,” which is both my personal choice and my prediction for this category. There simply isn’t a better time musically to have at the movies, and it’s unlikely we’ll get a song that so takes the movie world by storm like this one has. 


BEST ORIGINAL SCORE:
  • Volker Bertelmann, All Quiet on the Western Front
  • Justin Hurwitz, Babylon
  • Carter Burwell, The Banshees of Inisherin
  • Son Lux, Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • John Williams, The Fabelmans
Should Win: Justin Hurwitz, Babylon
Will Win: Volker Bertelmann, All Quiet on the Western Front
Dark Horse: Son Lux, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Could Steal: Justin Hurwitz, Babylon
Should Have Been Nominated/Shortlisted: Michael Giacchino, The Batman
 
Babylon is the best score of the year, hands down, and should easily be winning this category…but something tells me that All Quiet on the Western Front had just enough momentum going into the voting rounds to edge out Justin Hurwitz’ phenomenal work, and with Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio and Women Talking absent the nominations in favor of a surprise inclusion for Everything Everywhere All at Once, there’s not a lot it has to compete with. The real question of this category is: how does anyone in their right mind leave Michael Giacchino’s fantastic score for The Batman off the shortlist? Unconscionable. 


BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING:
  • All Quiet on the Western Front
  • The Batman
  • Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
  • Elvis
  • The Whale
Should Win: The Whale
Will Win: Elvis
Dark Horse: All Quiet on the Western Front
Could Steal: The Whale
Should Have Been Nominated: Everything Everywhere All at Once or The Woman King
 
I may not have been the biggest fan of Elvis as a movie, but it does feature some phenomenal craftwork to help viewers stay engaged. The Academy loves a well-worn prosthetic, but while the one Brendan Fraser wears in The Whale might be harder to make, the ethics of fat suits in movies like it have come under heavy fire recently, and Tom Hanks’ neck is sitting right there anyway, so it’s less of a risk to give it to that film. (And it doesn’t hurt that they nailed Austin Butler’s hair looking a certain way as Elvis goes through the eras either.) 


BEST COSTUME DESIGN:
  • Babylon
  • Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
  • Elvis
  • Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris
Should Win: Everything Everywhere All at Once
Will Win: Elvis
Dark Horse: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Could Steal: Elvis
Should Have Been Nominated: The Woman King
 
This is one of the trickier categories to predict, not because so many things are in contention or because there’s a tight divide between two nominees; there just hasn’t been an out-and-out frontrunner here, even if Babylon and Elvis are the two most likely to take it. For my money, Elvis is where this will go, but I could easily see myself getting that one incorrect, and it’s not one I’d be upset about.


BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN:
  • All Quiet on the Western Front
  • Avatar: The Way of Water
  • Babylon
  • Elvis
  • The Fabelmans
Should Win: Babylon
Will Win: Babylon
Dark Horse: The Fabelmans
Could Steal: Elvis
Should Have Been Nominated: Everything Everywhere All at Once
 
The most-nominated movie this year missed out on Production Design, but since Hollywood loves when you can make them look like themselves, Babylon has the edge here by a decent stretch. Don’t underestimate Elvis, though. With all the craftwork in that movie being nominated, a win here could easily top off a design category win streak.


BEST FILM EDITING:
  • The Banshees of Inisherin
  • Elvis
  • Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • TÁR
  • Top Gun: Maverick
Should Win: Everything Everywhere All at Once
Will Win: Everything Everywhere All at Once
Dark Horse: TÁR
Could Steal: Top Gun: Maverick
Should Have Been Nominated: Decision to Leave
 
For the past two years, it’s been true that if you win Best Sound, you win Best Film Editing. It’s also been said that the Academy loves to reward the film with the most editing in this space, rather than the best, but two years doesn’t make a habit, and the momentum behind Everything Everywhere All at Once right now indicates that Top Gun will not be landing the plane here this time around. Plus, the editing in EEAAO is key to ensuring that the audience understands what’s going on at all amongst all the noise; the story is made by the editing, whereas with Top Gun, the editing is more about making sure the whole ride flows smoothly even though its frankly underrated script is doing most of the legwork in helping us understand its intense stakes. That said, it could still win here; my instincts are just saying otherwise.


BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY:
  • James Friend, All Quiet on the Western Front
  • Darius Khondji, Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths
  • Mandy Walker, Elvis
  • Roger Deakins, Empire of Light
  • Florian Hoffmeister, TÁR
Should Win: Florian Hoffmeister, TÁR
Will Win: James Friend, All Quiet on the Western Front
Dark Horse: Florian Hoffmeister, TÁR
Could Steal: N/A
Should Have Been Nominated: Greig Fraser, The Batman and Claudio Miranda, Top Gun: Maverick
 
One could feel the collective gasp in the air when TÁR was announced as the last of the Best Cinematography nominees and we all realized seconds later that Top Gun: Maverick, the favorite in the race since the beginning and the most winning film in the category up to that point, had missed out on a slot for these nominations entirely. Even more shocking was the fact that the film which took its place wasn’t expected to acquire a nomination here at all. Sure, The Batman wasn’t exactly a long shot and absolutely deserved to be there, but Bardo was always fighting tooth and nail with that film for a Cinematography nod and try as they might, the Academy just can’t resist the way Iñárritu’s movies look (even if it’s more distracting than inviting) and giving into genre bias. Top Gun wasn’t expected to have any such problem, but that then left open the most obvious second place finisher to walk with the gold in All Quiet on the Western Front. Everything else feels more like a formality. (TÁR was an inspired choice, though. I’ll give them props on that.)


BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE:
  • All That Breathes
  • All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
  • Fire of Love
  • A House Made of Splinters
  • Navalny
Should Win: All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Will Win: Navalny
Dark Horse: All That Breathes
Could Steal: All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Should Have Been Nominated: The Territory
 
For a minute, it seemed as if All the Beauty and the Bloodshed might take this category, but now that the guilds have largely given it to Navalny, there’s not much indication of that momentum changing. The film does contain one of the stand-out scenes in any movie last year with the phone call where Alexei Navalny manages to get one of Putin’s operatives to admit trying to kill him via poisoning, so it’s not hard to see why it went over well with so many voters during awards season, especially as the Ukraine/Russia war entered its second year mere days ago. It is a shame, though, that The Territory was so shut out of landing a nomination here, as it’s probably my favorite documentary of the year; of course Fire of Love was NatGeo’s best bid, but it wouldn’t have hurt to spread the love around a little.


BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM:
  • All Quiet on the Western Front (Germany)
  • Argentina, 1985 (Argentina)
  • Close (Belgium)
  • EO (Poland)
  • The Quiet Girl (Ireland)
Should Win: All Quiet on the Western Front (Germany)
Will Win: All Quiet on the Western Front (Germany)
Dark Horse: The Quiet Girl (Ireland)
Could Steal: N/A
Should Have Been Nominated: Decision to Leave (South Korea)
 
Easily the most egregious snub of the Oscar nominations, it is borderline criminal that Decision to Leave did not make the International Feature nominations despite its widespread acclaim, well-respected director, and powerhouse performances and writing. If that were nominated, another film could be in trouble here, but as happens in every instance in which this occurs, if you want to know what’s winning Best International Feature, look to see if any of them are nominated for Best Picture. All Quiet on the Western Front has this in the bag.


BEST ANIMATED FEATURE:
  • Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio
  • Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
  • Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
  • The Sea Beast
  • Turning Red
Should Win: Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
Will Win: Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio
Dark Horse: Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
Could Steal: N/A
Should Have Been Nominated: N/A

I didn’t get to see as many animated films this past year as the year before, at least not in theaters, but I am fairly satisfied with how the nominations turned out. Having not seen The Sea Beast, I can’t personally speak to whether or not it deserves to be there, but with Lightyear being a disappointment and Wendell & Wild frankly not being very good, there weren’t a ton of places for this category to go than towards the expected four (even if a Mad God nomination would have blown the doors off). For me, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On is the category’s best work this year, but it does contain some live-action elements that may ultimately disqualify it from many voters’ personal picks, whereas Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio – also a lovely film – actually is entirely animated through stunning stop-motion. The mere fact that Pinocchio was also gunning for some other nominations in different categories, and the fact that it’s won everywhere else, is nothing if not a guaranteed indicator that it wins here too.


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
Should Win: Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Will Win: Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Dark Horse: Barry Keoghan, The Banshees of Inisherin
Could Steal: N/A
Should Have Been Nominated: Paul Dano, The Fabelmans
 
Apart from perhaps Best Visual Effects, this should be the easiest award of the night to predict. Barry Keoghan BAFTA win aside, there’s not one guild or critics group that hasn’t fallen for Ke Huy Quan’s enormous heart and emotional speeches every time he wins for Everything Everywhere All at Once, a movie in which his comeback performance is as much the star of the show as Michelle Yeoh. There’s a reason lines like “In another life, I would have really liked just doing laundry and taxes with you” hit so close to home and it’s because of how Ke Huy Quan delivers them so expertly for maximum heartbreak and depth. And that’s BEFORE we get into all the stunt work he does in those fanny pack fight scenes. The Oscars love a comeback narrative, mostly to strike down, but this one they’ll be celebrating with all the rest of us.


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
Should Win: Kerry Condon, The Banshees of Inisherin
Will Win: Jamie Lee Curtis, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Dark Horse: Jamie Lee Curtis, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Could Steal: Angela Bassett, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Should Have Been Nominated: Jessie Buckley or Claire Foy, Women Talking
 
I’m definitely not the first to say this and surely won’t be the last, but it is odd that a film with performances as good as Women Talking – which is made up almost entirely of supporting performances – couldn’t land a single acting nomination in a category where they should have had at least two. In fact, due to that and a few other factors, there’s not really a front-runner in this category either. Angela Bassett (who did the thing) won the Globe, Condon has the BAFTA, and the SAG went to Jamie Lee Curtis, whose performance in Everything Everywhere All at Once most pundits agree is the lesser of the two nominated Supporting Actress performances. That said, I can’t see the Academy – with its genre bias and still largely old, white, and male voting body – wanting to reward an MCU performance even if it does figure into the legacy Oscar question, so any legacy votes will probably fall to the subtle but steady approach of Jamie Lee Curtis, and unfortunately, that legacy question is too powerful amongst Academy voters to underestimate, especially as EEAAO is poised to dominate the ceremony as it’s dominated the awards season wholesale. If Banshees is poised to win anything on Oscar night, this is the most likely spot for them to make it happen, but I have a sinking feeling that even here, McDonagh’s Irish fable goes winless.


BEST ACTOR:
  • Austin Butler, Elvis
  • Colin Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin
  • Brendan Fraser, The Whale
  • Paul Mescal, Aftersun
  • Bill Nighy, Living
Should Win: Colin Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin
Will Win: Brendan Fraser, The Whale
Dark Horse: N/A
Could Steal: Austin Butler, Elvis
Should Have Been Nominated: Daniel Kaluuya, Nope
 
I’ve gone back and forth on this category for months, but over time, the race has become crystal clear: it’s Butler vs. Fraser. Whichever of those two triumphs on Oscar night will be a worthy winner in my book, but with the actors branch of the Academy being its largest, and Fraser walking away with the SAG win, the path to victory is starting to look just clear enough for him to pull ahead. Then again, the Oscars do love to do the bare minimum with historical and comeback narratives (remember how Parasite got 0 acting nominations and Glenn Close lost a sure thing?), , and they clearly love Elvis, so I’m still trepidatious at best in this category.


BEST ACTRESS:
  • Cate Blanchett, TÁR
  • Ana de Armas, Blonde
  • Andrea Riseborough, To Leslie
  • Michelle Williams, The Fabelmans
  • Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Should Win: Cate Blanchett, TÁR
Will Win: Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Dark Horse: Ana de Armas, Blonde
Could Steal: Cate Blanchett, TÁR
Should Have Been Nominated: Danielle Deadwyler, Till and Tang Wei, Decision to Leave
 
As with Best Actor, this is most likely a case of the SAG win over Cate Blanchett indicating a path to victory for Michelle Yeoh in Everything Everywhere All at Once, but it’s even less of a sure thing because Cate Blanchett in TÁR is really that astounding. Part of what makes Lydia Tár feel like a real person that existed is in the screenplay, yes, but the other part of it is in how Blanchett delivers her dialogue with such ease and comfortability. Even now I’m doubting that Yeoh will have enough support to pull Blanchett away from a third win, but the EEAAO love is strong, and that SAG win has to count for something.


BEST DIRECTOR:
  • Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin
  • Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • Steven Spielberg, The Fabelmans
  • Todd Field, TÁR
  • Ruben Östlund, Triangle of Sadness
Should Win: Todd Field, TÁR
Will Win: Daniels, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Dark Horse: Ruben Östlund, Triangle of Sadness
Could Steal: Steven Spielberg, The Fabelmans
Should Have Been Nominated: Park Chan-wook, Decision to Leave
 
Ah, the old early frontrunner fallout. It happens every year to a film that’s pegged as the “awards favorite” until the tide starts to turn because people got tired of hearing that narrative being churned out too early. The Fabelmans fell victim to that in almost every category apart from Best Director for a while, until the Daniels began picking up wins and Spielberg’s chances vanished as they came. Imagine telling someone in 1996 that Steven Spielberg would lose Best Director to two guys who made a movie about a farting corpse and a multiversal nihilist bagel. Still, the Daniels have been racking up wins everywhere they go, and there’s no indication they’ll stop now.
​

​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
Should Win: The Banshees of Inisherin
Will Win: Everything Everywhere All at Once
Dark Horse: TÁR
Could Steal: The Banshees of Inisherin
Should Have Been Nominated: Babylon
 
When (not if) Everything Everywhere All at Once wins Best Picture, it will have been the earliest film released since The Silence of the Lambs to go the distance. That’s right, since 1991, no movie that’s released in the first quarter of the year has managed to win Best Picture, but with just how many guild awards EEAAO has picked up, it would be foolish to bet against it now. PGA, DGA, WGA, SAG all gave it their highest award, even when they didn’t have to as with PGA. That’s the kind of support that doesn’t come along very often, and unlike CODA’s surge last year, which managed to vault it over The Power of the Dog at the last minute, EEAAO has been enjoying that love for its entire run across theater runs, VOD, streaming, and a theatrical re-release. Even during its second time releasing in theaters as the Oscar nominations were announced, it was one of the highest-grossing re-releases of the year (not that anything was touching Top Gun: Maverick). People love this movie, they want to support it, and no other film on the list takes elements as disparate as these and creates a narrative that only moves but delights. The Oscars love a feel-good ending, but what they love the most is a feel-good ending that shouldn’t work when it does. And that is why Everything Everywhere All at Once will be your winner for Best Picture.
And those are our FINAL predictions for the winners at the 2023 Oscars! What/who do you think will be snagging statuettes at this year’s ceremony? Are you hoping for any upsets or surprises in particular? Let us know in the comments section below, and we’ll see you back here for our winners recap on March 13th!
 
- The Friendly Film Fan
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7th Annual Friendly Film Fan Awards Nominees (Full List)

3/9/2023

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The Friendly Film Fan Announces Its 7th Annual Awards Nominees​.
Boy, it has been a long road through awards season hasn’t it? All the guilds have come and gone, the Oscars are on Sunday, and we don’t even have our final Oscars predictions piece up yet (fear not, it’s coming). But take heart! A far more important (and shorter) awards season is just beginning. By now, those of you who follow us on Instagram or one of our other socials know what I’m talking about, but just in case, here is a formal announcement:
 
WELCOME TO THE 7TH ANNUAL FRIENDLY FILM FAN AWARDS NOMINATIONS!
 
2022 was a solid year for film, one that brought renewed interest back to theatrical exhibition, generated some of the most creative cinematic art ever, and had us all wondering: “when are we getting the Barbie trailer?” Last year was also the very first year that I went to the New York Film Festival (though I was representing Bitesize Breakdown in that instance), and I got to see a lot of great art and meet a lot of great people. Some of that great art even made its way into this list, while other pieces have yet to be released formally, but all of it was worth experiencing at least once. That said, you’re not here for New York nostalgia, so let’s not waste any more time on introductions. Here is the full list of your nominees for the 7th Annual Friendly Film Fan Awards!
Best Picture:
  • Aftersun
  • All Quiet on the Western Front
  • Babylon
  • The Banshees of Inisherin
  • Decision to Leave
  • Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • Nope
  • TÁR
  • Top Gun: Maverick
  • Women Talking
 
Best Director:
  • Damien Chazelle, Babylon
  • Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin
  • Park Chan-wook, Decision to Leave
  • Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • Todd Field, TÁR
 
Best Actor:
  • Austin Butler, Elvis
  • Colin Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin
  • Brendan Fraser, The Whale
  • Daniel Kaluuya, Nope
  • Paul Mescal, Aftersun
 
Best Actress:
  • Cate Blanchett, TÁR
  • Danielle Deadwyler, Till
  • Margot Robbie, Babylon
  • Tang Wei, Decision to Leave
  • Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All at Once
 
Best Supporting Actor:
  • Zlatko Burić, Triangle of Sadness
  • Brendan Gleeson, The Banshees of Inisherin
  • Barry Keoghan, The Banshees of Inisherin
  • Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • Mark Rylance, Bones and All
 
Best Supporting Actress:
  • Jessie Buckley, Women Talking
  • Kerry Condon, The Banshees of Inisherin
  • Claire Foy, Women Talking
  • Stephanie Hsu, Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • Dolly de Leon, Triangle of Sadness
 
Best Ensemble:
  • The Banshees of Inisherin
  • Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
  • Top Gun: Maverick
  • Women Talking
 
Best Stunt Ensemble:
  • The Batman
  • Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • RRR
  • Top Gun: Maverick
  • The Woman King
 
Best Cinematography:
  • James Friend, All Quiet on the Western Front
  • Linus Sandgren, Babylon
  • Greig Fraser, The Batman
  • Hoyte van Hoytema, Nope
  • Florian Hoffmeister, TÁR
 
Best Film Editing:
  • Blair McClendon, Aftersun
  • Kim Sang-beom, Decision to Leave
  • Paul Rogers, Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • Monika Willi, TÁR
  • Eddie Hamilton, Top Gun: Maverick
 
Best Production Design:
  • Dylan Cole and Ben Procter, Avatar: The Way of Water
  • Florencia Martin, Babylon
  • Catherine Martin and Karen Murphy, Elvis
  • Jason Kisvarday, Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • Rick Heinrichs, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
 
Best Character Design (Costumes + Makeup & Hairstyling):
  • The Batman
  • Elvis
  • Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
  • The Woman King
 
Best Score:
  • Volker Bertelmann, All Quiet on the Western Front
  • Justin Hurwitz, Babylon
  • Carter Burwell, The Banshees of Inisherin
  • Michael Giacchino, The Batman
  • Michael Abels, Nope
 
Best Screenplay:
  • Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin
  • Park Chan-wook and Chung Seo-kyung, Decision to Leave
  • Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • Todd Field, TÁR
  • Sarah Polley, Women Talking
 
Best Visual Effects:
  • Avatar: The Way of Water
  • The Batman
  • Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • Nope
  • Top Gun: Maverick
 
Best Sound Design:
  • All Quiet on the Western Front
  • The Batman
  • Nope
  • Prey
  • Top Gun: Maverick
​What do YOU think of these nominations? Who are you voting for to win? Let us know in the comments section below, and keep an eye out for the 7th Annual Friendly Film Fan Awards WINNERS list, coming March 31!
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2023 Oscar Nominations – Full List

1/25/2023

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The 95th Academy Award Nominees Are Unveiled​.
​And here they are! After being announced Tuesday morning by Allison Williams and Riz Ahmed, we finally have our full list of nominees for the 95th Annual Academy Awards, and I have to say, it’s largely a pretty solid field. Most of the expected nominees made it through, with Everything Everywhere All at Once leading the pack at 11 nominations, followed closely by All Quiet on the Western Front and The Banshees of Inisherin, which have 9 each. There were also, as always, some genuine surprises and shocking snubs. On the former side, Top Gun: Maverick landed an unexpected spot in the Adapted Screenplay category and the grassroots campaign to get Andrea Riseborough a Best Actress nomination for To Leslie seems to have yielded a victory, while on the latter, Decision to Leave was inexcusably left out of Best International Feature and Danielle Deadwyler was absent from the Best Actress lineup for her phenomenal work in Till.
 
I’ll be doing a winner predictions piece closer to the actual ceremony where I break down the nominations category-by-category, but for now, it’s enough just to have them all in one place. The full list of nominations for the 95th Academy Awards is below, as well as a breakdown of each Best Picture nominee’s total nomination count.
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:
  • Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin
  • Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • Steven Spielberg, The Fabelmans
  • Todd Field, TÁR
  • Ruben Östlund, Triangle of Sadness
 
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 ACTOR:
  • Austin Butler, Elvis
  • Colin Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin
  • Brendan Fraser, The Whale
  • Paul Mescal, Aftersun
  • Bill Nighy, Living
 
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 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 ANIMATED FEATURE:
  • Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio
  • Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
  • Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
  • The Sea Beast
  • Turning Red
 
BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM:
  • All Quiet on the Western Front (Germany)
  • Argentina, 1985 (Argentina)
  • Close (Belgium)
  • EO (Poland)
  • The Quiet Girl (Ireland)
 
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE:
  • All That Breathes
  • All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
  • Fire of Love
  • A House Made of Splinters
  • Navalny
 
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY:
  • James Friend, All Quiet on the Western Front
  • Darius Khondji, Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths
  • Mandy Walker, Elvis
  • Roger Deakins, Empire of Light
  • Florian Hoffmeister, TÁR
 
BEST FILM EDITING:
  • The Banshees of Inisherin
  • Elvis
  • Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • TÁR
  • Top Gun: Maverick
 
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN:
  • All Quiet on the Western Front
  • Avatar: The Way of Water
  • Babylon
  • Elvis
  • The Fabelmans
 
BEST COSTUME DESIGN:
  • Babylon
  • Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
  • Elvis
  • Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris
 
BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING:
  • All Quiet on the Western Front
  • The Batman
  • Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
  • Elvis
  • The Whale
 
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE:
  • Volker Bertelmann, All Quiet on the Western Front
  • Justin Hurwitz, Babylon
  • Carter Burwell, The Banshees of Inisherin
  • Son Lux, Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • John Williams, The Fabelmans
 
BEST ORIGINAL SONG:
  • “Applause,” Tell It Like a Woman
  • “Hold My Hand,” Top Gun: Maverick
  • “Lift Me Up,” Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
  • “Naatu Naatu,” RRR
  • “This Is a Life,” Everything Everywhere All at Once
 
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:
  • Edward Berger, Lesley Paterson, and Ian Stokell, All Quiet on the Western Front
  • Rian Johnson, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
  • Kazuo Ishiguro, Living
  • Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, and Christopher McQuarrie, Top Gun: Maverick
  • Sarah Polley, Women Talking
 
BEST ORIGNAL SCREENPLAY:
  • Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin
  • Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • Tony Kushner and Steven Spielberg, The Fabelmans
  • Todd Field, TÁR
  • Ruben Östlund, Triangle of Sadness
 
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS:
  • All Quiet on the Western Front
  • Avatar: The Way of Water
  • The Batman
  • Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
  • Top Gun: Maverick
 
BEST SOUND:
  • All Quiet on the Western Front
  • Avatar: The Way of Water
  • The Batman
  • Elvis
  • Top Gun: Maverick
 
BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT:
  • An Irish Goodbye
  • Ivalu
  • Le Pupille
  • Night Ride
  • The Red Suitcase
 
BEST ANIMATED SHORT:
  • The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse
  • The Flying Sailor
  • Ice Merchants
  • My Year of Dicks
  • An Ostrich Told Me the World is Fake and I Think I Believe It
 
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT:
  • The Elephant Whisperers
  • Haulout
  • How do You Measure a Year?
  • The Martha Mitchell Effect
  • Stranger at the Gate
So, what do you all think of these nominations? Are there any snubs that upset you? Any surprises that delighted you? Let me know in the comments section below, and thanks for reading!
 
- The Friendly Film Fan
Best Picture Nominee Total Nomination Tallies Across All Categories:
Everything Everywhere All at Once – 11
All Quiet on the Western Front – 9
The Banshees of Inisherin – 9
Elvis – 8
The Fabelmans – 7
TÁR – 6
Top Gun: Maverick – 6
Avatar: The Way of Water – 4
Triangle of Sadness – 3
Women Talking – 2
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2022 Oscars Review: “CODA” Sweeps for Best Picture, and That Will Smith Moment (Full Winners List)

3/28/2022

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The Friendly Film Fan recaps the 94th Academy Awards.
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​The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences held their 94th Annual Awards ceremony on Sunday night, honoring the best in film from the year 2021, and what a night it was. Before diving into the winners list, as well as the ceremony itself, let’s start with the one thing everyone is talking about, because it can’t not be addressed, the most infamous Oscars moment since the La La Land/Moonlight switcheroo: Will Smith slapping Chris Rock across the face after Rock made a poor-taste jab at Jada Pinkett-Smith’s health condition, a moment which stunned audiences and spawned every conceivable form of meme. Was this justified? Did Chris Rock deserve it? Did Will Smith go too far? My answer to all of this is that I have no definitive answer. I can condemn Smith for reacting in a violent manner towards words that I also recognize were deeply insensitive, but Black men have always been condemned for even the smallest of violent altercations when white men have been making movies about and celebrating those things for as long as the Academy has been around. Then again, far worse “jokes” have been made at the expense of Academy members and Oscars attendees (largely by white men), and none of the people who made those got slapped at all, even if they deserved to be (we don’t need to go into the Ricky Gervais or Seth McFarlane conversations here though). Unprofessional though it may have been, the Will Smith moment was seemingly fueled by a need to “protect” and “stand up for the honor” of someone who didn’t need defending (even as, in many ways, the Black woman in the United States is often the one most denied defense or protection), and many victims of domestic violence hear the same justifications for the heinous things that happen to them. The truth is, it’s not for me to say whether it should have happened or not. It did. And there’s nothing that can change the fact that it happened, live, and now it overshadows everything that the night was supposed to be about. Smith himself has apologized for the incident to Chris Rock and the Academy, as one can read about in this IndieWire article, and noted that it soiled the journey of the evening, but the damage is done and there is no changing the fact that what could have been a night about the Oscars turned into a night about a beef between attendees.
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​Now, I’d like to take a (brief) moment to discuss the Academy’s insinuation that they may ask Will Smith for his Oscar back, given what transpired, as well as its condemnation of “violence in any form”: this is bullshit. No, it’s not bullshit that the Academy has opened a review into an incident of assault on their stage, or that they condemned Smith’s actions – that makes sense for them to do, given the circumstances. What’s bullshit is the “in any form” part; how often did this body celebrate and recognize films which promoted violent racists in heroic fashion? American Sniper was nominated for six Oscars and nearly won some of them. And it's not as if the Academy genuinely has much of a problem with scandal tarnishing a film industry worker’s brand; Harvey Weinstein, Roman Polanski, Casey Affleck, and Mel Gibson all still have their Oscars, and some of those were won quite recently, Polanski’s (who drugged and raped a 13-year-old girl) as recently as 2002 (Polanski won Best Director for The Pianist). If the Academy is genuinely attempting to get better at recognizing unprofessionalism at inopportune moments, then fine, but it is ridiculous to claim that the Will Smith moment was the awards’ darkest – as many online have been doing – when Native American Sacheen Littlefeather was publicly booed by Academy members in 1973 (as John Wayne was attempting to assault her with six security guards holding him back) after deigning to ask that the film industry not portray her people in brutalist fashions and the publicly mocked at the same ceremony and the following year by Clint Eastwood on the same stage. If the Will Smith moment is truly the Academy’s darkest, they must take a good look at why they’re considering that, and not the bevvy of darker moments staining their history, as their top choice. And Smith, unprofessional behavior or not, should not have to give his Oscar back. Now, let’s all please move on.
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​Several months ago, the Academy made the decision to cut eight of their categories for time, deciding instead to present them during the red carpet segment of the night, record the footage, and stitch them into the broadcast later on, edited for time. (Those categories were: Best Production Design, Best Original Score, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Sound, Best Live-Action Short, Best Animated Short, and Best Documentary Short.) This, for many reasons, didn’t work at all, and was a terrible move by Academy President David Rubin in a bid to get the show to end by 11 p.m., which we all know did not happen. Compounding the issue further was the fact that this Oscars attempted to bring a more populist audience to its viewership and boost its record-low ratings by including things like Fan Favorite Twitter campaigns which immediately became jokes in and of themselves, a frankly bizarre performance of “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” – which was not nominated for Best Original Song nor submitted by Lin Manuel-Miranda, who wrote the music for eventual Best Animated Feature winner Encanto – and some three-host bit segments that became even less successful as the night wore on. This move was supposedly brought on by pressure from ABC (which Disney owns), a move I’ve already talked about the ickiness of, which feels even ickier when one considers the only real movie-related advertisement viewers got – beyond James Bond and Godfather tributes and a second awkward In Memoriam segment – was for Lightyear, which Chris Evans was asked to present. Lightyear, notably, is Disney and Pixar’s next release. (Side note: the ad was just the second trailer for the film, which had already been released.)
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​More importantly, however, the move meant that viewers were robbed of seeing Dune win the first four of its eventual six Oscar victories (Best Film Editing, Best Production Design, Best Original Score, and Best Sound) during this time, and the most unnecessary category in the whole affair – Best Original Song – took up most of the ceremony’s time again, even if seeing Billi Eilish be excited about winning was one of the night’s more adorable moments. We waited decades to see Hans Zimmer win a second Oscar, and he had to accept it in a bathrobe from across the ocean because it didn’t matter if he was there or not! Searchlight’s The Eyes of Tammy Faye also won in the Makeup & Hairstyling category, during which ABC bizarrely tried to convince people that she was being interviewed on the red carpet live, despite the fact that Chastain herself said she would be in the Dolby theater as her team was being celebrated. And of course, the shorts were presented during this time, the winners of which were The Long Goodbye for Live-Action Short, The Queen of Basketball for Documentary Short, and The Windshield Wiper for Animated Short, the only shortfall on my Oscars ballot. (Humble brag, I went 22 for 23. But it was also one of the most predictable years ever, so maybe it’s not that impressive.)
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​Moving on to the live portion of the show, some bits worked and some definitely did not. The opener of Beyonce singing her great song “Be Alive” live from Compton with all the costuming involved was great, and the show was going well for the first ten minutes or so…until it wasn’t. Amy Schumer, Wanda Sykes, and Regina Hall didn’t seem to work very well together as Oscar hosts, although it was also by no means a disaster when they presented as a group, even if the movie costumes bit started strong but just got worse as it went on (the Spider-Man Schumer moment was amusing but didn’t make much sense). In all truth, Schumer ended up being the funniest and most successful of the hosts in her individual bits relative to the laughs she got and the lightness of her comedy (the ridiculous Kirsten Dunst bit and needless disrespect of animated films notwithstanding). I mean, come on, the movie flops joke? The “Melissa McCarthy said no” moment? The “Being the Ricardos wasn’t funny” material? Hilarious! Then the night turned straight-up weird when Regina Hall wouldn’t stop talking about how horny she was, even for men as young as Jacob Elordi and John David Washington, even going so far as to ask Denzel where his son was, which was gross and uncomfortable. Wanda Sykes had a few zingers like The Last Duel flop joke and her pretty good Academy Museum bit, but largely seemed there only for bits after a while, which wore thin about halfway through. West Side Story star Rachel Zegler’s joke about not having been invited to the Oscars initially was great, though, so you win some, you lose some. And, as noted, the cutting in of the pre-taped awards wasn’t a total disaster, but didn’t help the show in any meaningful way either (apparently the transcribed nominees’ speeches on the Academy’s website are, in fact, the edited versions cut together for broadcast and not the full thing).
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​As far as the winners are concerned, the night went largely as expected, with the safest and occasionally most boring choices winning the night. Dune added Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects to its total of six wins for the night (all of which it deserved and all the recipients of which made sure to single out Denis Villeneuve’s iconic direction of the film), and the two least interesting winners in both Screenplay categories took home their Oscars too, those being Belfast in Original Screenplay – its only win of the night – and CODA in Adapted Screenplay. Will Smith and Jessica Chastain won their first Oscars for Best Actor and Best Actress respectively, and Ariana DeBose finished her clean sweep in Best Supporting Actress by winning for playing Anita in West Side Story, making her the first openly queer Black woman to win an Oscar and the third person to win an Oscar for playing an updated version of a character which had won an Oscar before (those being Don Vito in The Godfather/The Godfather Part II and the Joker in The Dark Knight/Joker). Troy Kotsur became the first deaf man to win an acting Oscar by taking home the award for Best Supporting Actor, and the film for which he won – CODA – succeeded in a clean sweep, going three for three on winning all its nominations to be crowned Best Picture at the end of the night, which it achieved without a Best Director or Best Editing nomination, breaking decades worth of tried-and-true Oscars stats (no film has done this since Grand Hotel in 1933). Unfortunately, The Power of the Dog­ – my #1 film of the year and the more deserving Best Picture winner – went one for twelve on its nomination-to-win translations, with its only win going to Best Director victor Jane Campion, making it the second-worst win streak in Oscars history. That said, I did really love CODA, so its win here is more of an underdog’s tale I’m happy to root for than a genuinely bad choice (it’s no Green Book over Roma, that’s for sure).
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​To wrap things up on the recap, Questlove won an Oscar for his great documentary Summer of Soul (that’s the moment the whole Will Smith thing overshadowed), Encanto won for Best Animated Feature (a good movie, but not better than Flee or The Mitchells vs. the Machines), “No Time to Die” won Best Original Song (Billi Eilish is an Oscar winner y’all!), and Jenny Beavan won her third Costume Design Oscar for her stellar work on Cruella (Beavan had previously won for A Room with a View and Mad Max: Fury Road), with The Eyes of Tammy Faye taking home the award for Makeup and Hairstyling. 
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​It certainly was a night to remember, but given everything that transpired, how it was all put together, and frankly how dull the whole affair was in retrospect (minus that one moment), it probably should be one of the most forgettable. To cap it all off, I’m afraid the Academy will learn all the wrong lessons from their miniscule ratings uptick and try to do the dumb Fan Favorite Twitter polls again (which themselves got hilariously and embarrassingly gamed by the chronically online Snyder-Heads), thinking that’s the cause of increased viewership instead of the fact that people just saw way more movies in 2021 – with available vaccinations, moderately increased theater attendance, more streaming options for viewers at home, and mask mandates/revamped cleaning protocols – than they did in 2020 when the pandemic era was still just getting started and theaters were shut down for several months at a time. Hopefully, that doesn’t happen, and movies are in a better spot next year, but the next time I see Ryan Reynolds at the Academy Awards, it better not be for Free Guy 2’s Fan Favorite Awards campaign.
​A full list of the night’s winners (and nominees) is below.
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Best Picture:
  • Belfast
  • CODA – WINNER
  • Don’t Look Up
  • Drive My Car
  • Dune
  • King Richard
  • Licorice Pizza
  • Nightmare Alley
  • The Power of the Dog
  • West Side Story
Best Director:
  • Kenneth Branagh, Belfast
  • Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Drive My Car
  • Paul Thomas Anderson, Licorice Pizza
  • Jane Campion, The Power of the Dog – WINNER
  • Steven Spielberg, West Side Story
Best Actress:
  • Jessica Chastain, The Eyes of Tammy Faye – WINNER
  • Penélope Cruz, Parallel Mothers
  • Olivia Colman, The Lost Daughter
  • Nicole Kidman, Being the Ricardos
  • Kristen Stewart, Spencer
Best Actor:
  • Javier Bardem, Being the Ricardos
  • Benedict Cumberbatch, The Power of the Dog
  • Andrew Garfield, tick, tick…Boom!
  • Will Smith, King Richard – WINNER
  • Denzel Washington, The Tragedy of Macbeth
Best Supporting Actress:
  • Jessie Buckley, The Lost Daughter
  • Ariana DeBose, West Side Story – WINNER
  • Judi Dench, Belfast
  • Kirsten Dunst, The Power of the Dog
  • Aunjanue Ellis, King Richard
Best Supporting Actor:
  • Ciarán Hinds, Belfast
  • Troy Kotsur, CODA – WINNER
  • J.K. Simmons, Being the Ricardos
  • Jesse Plemons, The Power of the Dog
  • Kodi Smit-McPhee, The Power of the Dog
Best Animated Feature:
  • Encanto – WINNER
  • Flee
  • Luca
  • The Mitchells vs. the Machines
  • Raya and the Last Dragon
Best International Feature Film:
  • Drive My Car (Japan) – WINNER
  • Flee (Denmark)
  • The Hand of God (Italy)
  • Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom (Bhutan)
  • The Worst Person in the World (Norway)
Best Documentary Feature:
  • Ascension
  • Attica
  • Flee
  • Summer of Soul (…or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) – WINNER
  • Writing With Fire
Best Cinematography:
  • Greig Fraser, Dune – WINNER
  • Dan Laustsen, Nightmare Alley
  • Ari Wegner, The Power of the Dog
  • Bruno Delbonnel, The Tragedy of Macbeth
  • Janusz Kaminski, West Side Story
Best Film Editing:
  • Hank Corwin, Don’t Look Up
  • Joe Walker, Dune – WINNER
  • Pamela Martin, King Richard
  • Peter Sciberras, The Power of the Dog
  • Myron Kerstein and Andrew Weisblum, tick, tick...Boom!
Best Production Design:
  • Patrice Vermette, Dune – WINNER
  • Tamara Deverell, Nightmare Alley
  • Stefan Dechant, The Tragedy of Macbeth
  • Grant Major, The Power of the Dog
  • Adam Stockhausen, West Side Story
Best Costume Design:
  • Jenny Beavan, Cruella – WINNER
  • Massimo Cantini Parrini, Cyrano
  • Jacqueline West and Bob Morgan, Dune
  • Luis Sequeira, Nightmare Alley
  • Paul Tazewell, West Side Story
Best Makeup & Hairstyling:
  • Coming 2 America
  • Cruella
  • Dune
  • The Eyes of Tammy Faye – WINNER
  • House of Gucci
Best Original Score:
  • Nicholas Britell, Don’t Look Up
  • Hans Zimmer, Dune – WINNER
  • Germaine Franco, Encanto
  • Alberto Iglesias, Parallel Mothers
  • Jonny Greenwood, The Power of the Dog
Best Original Song:
  • “Be Alive,” King Richard
  • “Dos Orguitas,” Encanto
  • “Down to Joy,” Belfast
  • “No Time to Die,” No Time to Die – WINNER
  • “Somehow You Do,” Four Good Days
Best Adapted Screenplay:
  • Siân Heder, CODA – WINNER
  • Denis Villeneuve, Dune
  • Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Drive My Car
  • Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Lost Daughter
  • Jane Campion, The Power of the Dog
Best Original Screenplay:
  • Kenneth Branagh, Belfast – WINNER
  • Adam McKay, Don’t Look Up
  • Zach Baylin, King Richard
  • Paul Thomas Anderson, Licorice Pizza
  • Joachim Trier, The Worst Person in the World
Best Visual Effects:
  • Dune – WINNER
  • Free Guy
  • No Time to Die
  • Spider-Man: No Way Home
  • Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Best Sound:
  • Belfast
  • Dune – WINNER
  • No Time to Die
  • The Power of the Dog
  • West Side Story
Best Live-Action Short:
  • Ala Kachuu – Take and Run
  • The Dress
  • The Long Goodbye – WINNER
  • On My Mind
  • Please Hold
Best Animated Short:
  • Affairs of the Art
  • Beast
  • Boxballet
  • Robin Robin
  • The Windshield Wiper – WINNER
Best Documentary Short:
  • Audible
  • Lead Me Home
  • The Queen of Basketball – WINNER
  • Three Songs for Benazir
  • When We Were Bullies
So, what did you think of the Oscars this past weekend? Are you excited by any of these wins? How well did you do on your ballot? Let me know in the comments section below, and thanks for reading!
 
- The Friendly Film Fan
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    Film critic in my free time. Film enthusiast in my down time. Writer for Bitesize Breakdown.

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