Following the January 24th announcement of this year’s Oscar nominations, Vogue Magazine released an article detailing what we know so far about “the biggest night in Hollywood.” This year’s awards ceremony will be hosted by Jimmy Kimmel once again on March 12th, 2023, and will feature performances from Billie Eilish, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, and more. Last year’s Oscars ceremony was the most-watched entertainment program; with stacked categories across the board, this year will likely be even bigger. Here’s some information to prepare you for the biggest award show of the year:
A few of the most anticipated awards for the 95th Oscars are Best Director, which features Steven Spielberg for The Fabelmans, Best Actor and Austin Butler’s infamous Elvis accent, and of course, Best Picture. According to Variety, this year’s front runners for Best Picture are Everything Everywhere All at Once, Top Gun: Maverick, The Fabelmans, and The Banshees of Inisherin. So far, A24’s Everything Everywhere All at Once has been sweeping other award shows, winning awards for Ke Huy Quan’s supporting actor performance, as well as Paul Rogers for Best Editing and Best Picture. I personally saw the movie the week it was released in theaters, and I can attest that it is a must-watch to prepare for its inevitable takeover at this year’s Academy Awards.
Although the Oscars is an ever-changing and expanding show, there is a lot of work and diversification that needs to be done to make it more inclusive. Only four black men in its nearly century-long history have won Best Actor, and only two women have ever won the Oscar for Best Director. Small steps are being taken every year to bring the Oscars up with the times. This year, Everything Everywhere All at Once received the most Oscar nominations of any other film, with the majority of its cast being Asian American. In recent years, several other films won Best Picture that cast predominantly non-white actors in leading roles, such as Moonlight, which infamously took home the Oscar for Best Picture over La La Land in 2017. And in 2020, Parasite made history as the first non-English film to win Best Picture. There are so many incredibly diverse and distinctive films nominated this awards season, from Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (another surprising must-see) to The Whale, to RRR, an Indian action film that, despite its Best Original Song nomination, deserved far more love at the Oscars this year. This year’s Academy Awards feature some of the best stories and widest range of genres in recent history, and I encourage you to watch as many of the nominees as you can to get a good glimpse into the future of filmmaking and storytelling.