The nominees for the 95th Academy Awards have been announced, and there’s a lot to discuss! The Oscars Ceremony will be held on Sunday, March 12th and honor the past year’s greatest film performers, artists, and writers. Let’s unpack some of the biggest award categories, deserving nominations, and surprising snubs of this year’s Academy Awards:
One of the most notable awards of the night is going to be the coveted Best Picture, of which the following films are nominated: All Quiet on the Western Front, Avatar: The Way of Water, The Banshees of Inisherin, Elvis, Everything Everywhere All at Once, The Fablemans, Tár, Top Gun: Maverick, Triangle of Sadness, and Women Talking.
Special shoutout to the women-led films that made the cut this year! Everything Everywhere All At Once receiving some much-deserved recognition is great to see. And both Women Talking and Tár feature female protagonists, as well. Some names missing from the list: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Nope, and Babylon. All seem to have been skipped over for Best Picture noms this year despite box office success for both Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Nope, while Babylon was textbook Oscars-bait that ended up flopping with audiences.
Next notable category is Best Actress in a Leading Role! You already know we have to talk about this one. Cate Blanchett (Tár) was nominated along with Ana de Armas (Blonde), Andrea Riseborough (To Leslie), Michelle Williams (The Fablemans), and Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All at Once). It’s a bit disappointing to see Viola Davis missing from this list despite her spectacular performance in The Woman King.
Some nominations that were a pleasant surprise were Tems’ nomination for Best Original Song (Lift Me Up from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), Turning Red being nominated for Best Animated Feature Film, and All the Beauty and the Bloodshed‘s nomination for Best Documentary Feature Film.
The category for Best Actress in a Supporting Role is stacked this year–unsurprising given the plethora of amazing performances to choose from. The nominees are Angela Bassett (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), Hong Chau (The Whale), Kerry Condon (The Banshees of Inisherin), Jamie Lee Curtis (Everything Everywhere All at Once), and Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All at Once). Though, it’s still such a bummer to see Keke Palmer (Nope) missing from this category.
And the final notable category we need to talk about today is for Best Director, of which zero—you read that right–zero women were nominated. But, to be fair women have won in that category the past two years so maybe The Academy thought they had hit their woman-quota and were off the hook? Who knows. What we do know is, there were definitely some notable directorial performances by women this year, including, but not limited to, Sarah Polley (Women Talking), Chinonye Chukwu (Till), Maria Schrader (She Said), Marie Kreutzer (Corsage), Domee Shi (Turning Red), and Gina Prince-Bythewood (The Woman King).
While it is disappointing to see women directors snubbed in their category this year, we still get to celebrate some well-placed recognition for talented women in film. Tune into the Oscars Ceremony on Sunday, March 12th to see if your favorite films, directors, artists, and actors take home any wins!
Cover Photo from Pexels by Engin Akyurt
