Hollywood's biggest night is returning with the 95th Academy Awards. The Oscars 2023 will air on ABC on Sunday March 12, 2023, with Jimmy Kimmel set to return as host. The ceremony will be held at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood. Predictions are circulating for the 2023 Oscars for the Best Picture category. The year has brought forth so many films that have already picked up critical acclaim and festival accolades. Some of these features have accumulated so much positive attention, even after initially being dismissed and overlooked. The nominees will be announced on Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2023.
Will the Oscars for best picture go to a crowd-favorite blockbuster, a smaller critical favorite, or a more artier fare film? According to The Hollywood Reporter this season has a load of blockbuster contenders including the year’s top grosser, Top Gun: Maverick, Warner Bros. Elvis and Universal's Nope. Disney even has some worthy contenders with the upcoming Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and December's Avatar: The Way of Water. Director Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans which earned the the people’s choice award at the 2022 Toronto Film Festival is another leading contender. More artier fare films like Tár and Women Talking are hopeful that critical acclaim will help them in the fight for the Academy's top honor.
According to Variety, “there seems to be an “agreed-upon” top six that critics and pundits feel strongly will make the Academy cut (with the order varying) — “The Banshees of Inisherin” from Searchlight Pictures, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” from A24, “The Fablemans” from Universal Pictures, “Tár” from Todd Field, “Top Gun: Maverick” from Paramount Pictures and “Women Talking” from MGM/UAR.” Variety also breaks down the rarity of sequels being embraced when “only seven sequels have been nominated for best picture: nominees in Oscar history.” There are numerous sequels in the running this year, in addition to Maverick, "Avatar: The Way of Water," Marvel Studios’ "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" and Netflix’s “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.”
Here’s a look at 10 of the leading contenders for Best Picture
1. The Banshees of Inisherin
Searchlight Pictures, Oct. 21
From Oscar-winning writer-director, Martin McDonagh comes the drama comedy set on an island off the coast of Ireland. The film stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, as two lifelong friends find themselves at an impasse when one abruptly ends their relationship, with alarming consequences for both of them.
Directed by: Martin McDonagh
Screenplay by: Martin McDonagh
Produced by: Graham Broadbent, Peter Czernin, Martin McDonagh
Starring: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Barry Keoghan, Kerry Condon
2. Everything Everywhere All at Once
A24, March 25
From A24, The company behind, Uncut Gems, Midsommar, Lady Bird, Moonlight, HBO's Euphoria comes Everything Everywhere All At Once. The adventure/sci-fi stars Michelle Yeoh who plays an unlikely hero who discovers that can she connect with parallel versions of herself. The film also stars Ke Huy Quan, Stephanie Hsu and Jamie Lee Curtis.
An aging Chinese immigrant is swept up in an insane adventure, where she alone can save the world by exploring other universes connecting with the lives she could have led.
Director: Dan Kwan, Daniel Scheinert.
Starring: Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, James Hong
3. The Fabelmans
Universal Pictures, Nov. 11
The Fabelmans, which earned the People’s Choice Award at the 2022 Toronto Film Festival, is a a semi-autobiography based on Steven Spielberg’s own childhood growing up in post-war Arizona, from age seven to eighteen. The film is Steven Spielberg’s first feature to premiere in competition at a festival, and is inspired by his childhood love of film and his complex family history. The drama is co-written with Tony Kushner, and stars Gabriel LaBelle, Paul Dano and Michelle Williams.
Director: Steven Spielberg
Producers: Steven Spielberg, Tony Kushner, Kristie Macosko Krieger
Starring: Michelle Williams, Gabriel LaBelle, Paul Dano, Judd Hirsch, Seth Rogen
4. TÁR
Focus Features, Oct. 7
From producer-writer-director Todd Field comes the drama TÁR, starring Cate Blanchett. TÁR examines the changing nature of power, its impact and durability in our modern world. Blanchett plays the fictional maestro Lydia Tár, as one of the greatest living composers and the chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic.
Director/Writer: Todd Field
Producers: Todd Field, Alexandra Milchan, Scott Lambert
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Noémie Merlant, Nina Hoss, Sophie Kauer, Julian Glover, Allan Corduner, Mark Strong
5. Top Gun: Maverick
Paramount Pictures, May 27
Top Gun: Maverick is the sequel to the 1986 film Top Gun and the second installment in the Top Gun film series. Tom Cruise makes his return as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in Top Gun: Maverick, the highest grossing film of the year. After thirty years, Maverick is still pushing the envelope as a top naval aviator, but must confront ghosts of his past when he leads Top Gun’s elite graduates on a mission that demands the ultimate sacrifice from those chosen to fly it. “Maverick” returns to train the latest elite pilots of the Navy’s Top Gun program, where me meets Lieutenant Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw, a combative young pilot (Miles Teller), who happens to be the son of Maverick’s late wingman, Goose.
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Screenplay: Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, Christopher McQuarrie
Story: Peter Craig, Justin Marks
Based on Characters by: Jim Cash, Jack Epps Jr.
Producers: Jerry Bruckheimer, Tom Cruise, Christopher McQuarrie, David Ellison
Starring: Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman, Ed Harris, Val Kilmer
6. Women Talking
MGM/United Artists, Dec. 2
Writer-director Sarah Polley adapted the 2018 novel Women Talking by Miriam Toews. The drama stars Jessie Buckley, Claire Foy and Rooney Mara, as a group of women in an isolated religious colony struggle to reconcile their faith with a string of sexual assaults committed by the colony’s men. The women hold a secret meeting to discuss a plan of action, do they stay and fight for themselves or leave behind the only world they’ve ever known.
Writer/Director: Sarah Polley
Starring: Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, with Ben Whishaw and Frances McDormand.
7. Elvis
Warner Bros., June 24
Austin Butler plays the American musical icon Elvis Presley in the musical drama biopic. The latest film from Baz Luhrmann follows the life and career of the pop culture king from his early childhood to becoming a rock star in the 1950s. The movie also stars Tom Hanks as Presley’s infamous manager, Colonel Tom Parker. The film delves into their complex relationship as Parker manipulated and controlled Presley throughout his career.
Director: Baz Luhrmann
Screenplay: Baz Luhrmann, Sam Bromell, Craig Pearce, Jeremy Doner
Story: Baz Luhrmann, Jeremy Doner
Producers: Baz Luhrmann, Catherine Martin, Gail Berman, Patrick McCormick, Schuyler Weiss
Starring: Austin Butler, Tom Hanks, Olivia DeJonge, Helen Thomson, Richard Roxburgh, Kelvin Harrison Jr., David Wenham, Kodi Smit-McPhee
8. The Woman King
Sony Pictures, Sept. 16
The historical epic drama stars Oscar winner Viola Davis as Naninsca, the general of an all-female warrior unit (Agojie) in the Kingdom of Dahomey. Davis also produced the film inspired by true events of the remarkable story of the Agojie, who protected the African Kingdom in the 1800s. Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, the historical drama also stars Thuso Mbedu, Lashana Lynch, Sheila Atim, and John Boyega.
Director: Gina Prince-Bythewood
Screenplay: Dana Stevens
Story: Maria Bello, Dana Stevens
Producers: Cathy Schulman, Viola Davis, Julius Tennon. Maria Bello
Starring: Viola Davis, Thuso Mbedu, Lashana Lynch, Sheila Atim, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, John Boyega
9. Living
Sony Pictures Classics, Dec. 23
From Sony Pictures Classics comes Living an English-language adaptation of the script of “Ikiru” (1952), set in London in the 1950s. Director Oliver Hermanus and screenwriter Kazuo Ishiguro adaptation of Akira Kurosawa’s 1952 drama Ikiru (itself adapted from Leo Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich) stars Bill Nighy as Mr. Williams, a widowed bureaucrat who lives a joyless existence in 1950s London and receives news of a terminal cancer diagnosis.
Director: Oliver Hermanus
Writer: Kazuo Ishiguro
Starring: Bill Nighy, Aimee Lou Wood, Alex Sharp, Tom Burke
10. Triangle of Sadness
Neon, Oct. 7
Triangle of Sadness (or Sans filtre in French) is a 2022 internationally co-produced satirical black comedy and is The 2022 Palme d’Or winner — the second film from director Ruben Östlund to take the prize. The dark comedy features a story about a cruise for the super-rich that sinks leaving survivors, including a fashion model celebrity couple, trapped on an island. Triangle of Sadness had its world premiere at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival on May 5, 2022, where it received an eight-minute standing ovation and won the Palme d'Or.
French title: Sans filtre
Writer and Director: Ruben Östlund
Producer: Erik Hemmendorff, Philippe Bober
Starring: Harris Dickinson, Charlbi Dean, Dolly de Leon, Zlatko Burić, Henrik Dorsin, Vicki Berlin, Woody Harrelson
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