Nominees: American Fiction, Anatomy of a Fall, Barbie, The Holdovers, Killers of the Flower Moon, Maestro, Oppenheimer, Past Lives, Poor Things, The Zone of Interest

The Oscar nominations every year map out some sort of vision for the future of filmmaking and this year’s roster seems like a promising template for what can come next. I’ve been watching as many as I could in preparation for today and I think it’s been a great year for films overall; not only did the Barbenheimer double-bill, cultural touchstone moment collectively blow up the box office by giving people a fun opportunity to return to the cinemas again, but the 2023 nominees in general have embraced a wide variety of genres, directions, and substance.

We’ve got big-budget names like Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese, and Greta Gerwig at the top of the list, making star-studded commercial (literally, in the case of Barbie) films with enormous budgets, but even within those picks, there are spotlights on new faces and groups of people whom have historically been excluded from representation in cinema, much less critical recognition by award shows like the Oscars. Lily Gladstone, for example, is the first Native American actress to be nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role, for her performance in Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon. And despite my personal opinions on Barbie‘s place on the Best Picture list (I would quite happily strike it and Maestro out for Spider-man: Across the Spider-verse, Asteroid City, or Society of the Snow), I think its billion-dollar box office success is a good reminder to filmmakers not to overlook the needs of female audiences or the power of the female dollar.

At a fraction of the budget and from across the globe, there’s also Celine Song’s Past Lives, a Korean-American romance drama without a happy ending; Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall, a French legal drama about a woman suspected of murder after her husband’s death; and Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest, co-produced between the UK and Poland, about the Holocaust and the banality of evil. The Academy has typically, intentionally or unintentionally, framed itself as a very exclusive, very American, boys’ club, so it’s nice that this year’s nominees depict a broader picture of cinematic achievement from around the world, given that the films that are critically recognised inevitably end up having an impact on the kinds of projects in the future which can be given funding. I think it’s clear to most that the film industry is declining, but by continuing to embrace diversity and find balance between franchise films and original, more creatively ambitious content, I’m optimistic that it’s not the death of cinema—yet.

With all that said, if I had to make a prediction, I think that this year’s Best Picture award is Oppenheimer‘s to lose. Nolan’s films tend to be wildly popular with audiences and overlooked by critics, but his biopic received nods from all of the main categories and also won five Golden Globes and eight Critics Choice Movie Awards. It was at the top of my list for months and I was even inspired to pick up American Prometheus afterwards, the 2005 biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer written by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin. Nolan still can’t write women, but he can evidently write one man really well.

My personal pick though is Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall. Unfortunately, I think it’s an underdog in the category and Oppenheimer‘s nearest rival is probably the polarising Poor Things, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos. I’m not impressed by Poor Things, and although I did appreciate the absurdism and the strange experimentation with optics and cinematography, I found it hard to connect with, ultimately, and thematically confusing—whereas I loved Anatomy of a Fall so completely. It’s the perfect movie, in my opinion, a courtroom drama that attempts to scrutinise the ugly details of a relationship, after a man’s death leaves his wife on trial for murder and his son as a sole witness. The film is so full of ambiguity, the truth sitting in free fall for the entire duration, left hanging and prevented from hitting the ground and being split open and revealed. It’s a legal drama that doesn’t focus on evidence. Much like love itself, there is no evidence; there’s only what you know and what you decide to believe about someone, and what you don’t. It’s so perfect, but I’m not expecting a shock win; I’ll just be saccharine and say that it’s a winner to me, in my heart.

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In total, there are thirty-eight feature film and fifteen short film nominees. My friend Isobel and I prioritised, did our best, she made a really impressive spreadsheet, and you can read my reviews of everything I did manage to catch on Letterboxd. I’m hoping to keep chipping away at the list as the year goes on and as more films are made available in cinemas and on streaming in Australia, but out of all the categories where I managed to watch everything/almost everything, here are my personal favourites:

BEST PICTURE: Anatomy Of A Fall
DIRECTING: Jonathan Glazer
ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE: Cillian Murphy
ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE: Robert Downey Jr. (but really, Messi)
ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE: Sandra Hüller
ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE: Danielle Brooks
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Poor Things
COSTUME DESIGN: Poor Things
FILM EDITING: Oppenheimer
MAKE-UP AND HAIRSTYLING: Barbie
MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG): What Was I Made For?
PRODUCTION DESIGN: Barbie
ANIMATED SHORT FILM: Ninety-five Senses
LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY): Anatomy of a Fall
WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY): Oppenheimer