Awards Season 2023: The 95th Academy Awards

So the curtain has come down on awards season 2023 with tonight's 95th Academy Awards. No slaps, no f-bombs, no awards accidentally given to other films, and no massively major shocks. Overall, a joyous evening. 

Returning to host for a third time, Jimmy Kimmel did pretty well in his opening monologue, starting by being parachuted in by Tom Cruise's Maverick. Yes, there were mentions of the slap a few time but didn't overdo it, and also a sly dig at the traditional (over)length of the telecast [although the broadcast took about 3hrs 30m which is average], and one of two little barbs slung at Matt Damon (Kimmel's nemesis, or so he would have us believe). Kimmel was an affable presence, even if him asking Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai if she thought Harry Styles did spit on Chris Pine was one of the more WTF moments of the night. 

Musical numbers were a mixed bag - whilst the production of "Naatu Naatu" from RRR was an absolute riot, and the stripped-back version of "Hold My Hand" was sublime, I can only describe the performance of "This Is A Life" from Everything Everywhere All At Once as a sixth-form drama student's fever-dream (complete with David Byrne wearing hot-dog fingers). 

The set design for this year's even was beautifully done, very art deco (well, we are technically back in the Roaring Twenties). There was also an interesting use of technology with QR codes shown onscreen which would give more information about nominees in an upcoming category. 

Onto the awards themselves.

Five out of six ain't bad, although I expected the category I would struggle to get right was Best Actress. The audience reaction to Ke Huy Quan's win was just wonderful; he had a lot of goodwill in that room, and he was clearly very moved by it all. Jamie Lee Curtis' lovely acceptance speech highlighted the people around her, by saying "we won an Oscar". Ruth Carter very touchingly dedicated her award for Costume Design for her work on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever to her 101-year old mother who sadly passed away this week. Another particularly lovely bit was the cast and crew of An Irish Goodbye using part of their acceptance speech time to get the assembled audience to sing "happy birthday" to cast member James Martin.  

 

The biggest winner of the evening was Everything Everywhere All At Once, taking home seven awards. All Quiet On The Western Front won four Oscars, whilst the only other film to win multiple awards was The Whale (winning two of its three nominations)

Despite multiple nominations, The Banshees of Inisherin, Elvis, The Fabelmans, Tár, Babylon, The Batman, and Triangle Of Sadness all went away empty-handed. 

Below is the full list of winners at the 95th Academy Awards:

Best Motion Picture of the Year: Everything Everywhere All At Once

Best Actor: Brendan Fraser (The Whale)

Best Actress: Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

Best Supporting Actor: Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

Best Supporting Actress: Jamie Lee Curtis (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

Best Director: Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

Best Original Screenplay: Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

Best Adapted Screenplay: Sarah Polley (Women Talking)

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year: Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio

Best International Feature Film of the Year: All Quiet On The Western Front

Best Cinematography: All Quiet On The Western Front

Best Film Editing: Everything Everywhere All At Once

Best Production Design: All Quiet On The Western Front

Best Costume Design: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Best Makeup and Hairstyling: The Whale

Best Original Score: All Quiet On The Western Front

Best Original Song: "Naatu Naatu" (RRR)

Best Sound: Top Gun: Maverick

Best Visual Effects: Avatar: The Way Of Water

Best Documentary (Feature): Navalny

Best Documentary (Short Subject): The Elephant Whisperers

Best Animated Short Film: The Boy, The Mole, The Fox, And The Horse

Best Live Action Short Film: An Irish Goodbye

Congratulations to all winners!

And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to bed. It's very nearly 5:30am here. Time to pack this nonsense away until the end of the year. 

Awards Season 2023: Directors' Guild Awards (DGA) Winners and BAFTA Film Awards Winners

After a quiet couple of weeks, we are back on the awards trail with both the Directors Guild Awards and the BAFTA Film Awards being handed out this weekend. So who were the big winners? Let's find out together, shall we?

DIRECTORS GUILD AWARDS

On Saturday (18th February), the Directors' Guild Awards (DGA) were handed out. The film winners are:

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Films: Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement of a First-Time Feature Film Director: Charlotte Wells (Aftersun)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary: Sara Dosa (Fire Of Love)

The Daniels' win is a bit of a surprise, as I felt the high-concept what-the-everloving-fuck-is-going-on-now vibe of Everything Everywhere All At Once might have been too rich for the blood of the DGA voters, with Spielberg's thoughtful elegy to cinema The Fabelmans a much more likely candidate. Worth saying that- whilst the DGA is a fairly reliable precursor to the Best Director Oscar- it's not got a 100% conversion record, so Spielberg might still nab the Oscar, although this has put the Daniels very much in contention.  

BAFTA

This evening (19th February 2022), the 76th British Academy Film Awards were given out in a star-studded ceremony, hosted for the first time by Richard E. Grant. 

Jamie Lee Curtis, Julianne Moore, Florence Pugh, Eddie Redmayne, Ke Huy Quan. Michelle Yeoh, Angela Bassett, Cate Blanchett. Bill Nighy, Sir Patrick Stewart, Emma Thompson, Anya Taylor-Joy, Paul Mescal, Barry Keoghan and Viola Davis were among some of the stars in attendance to celebrate the best in film for 2022. 

Usually, the event is broadcast on the BBC with a time delay but for this year, there's a weird kind of hybrid thing going on where the final four awards of the evening (EE Rising Star, Leading Actor, Leading Actress, and Best Film) were broadcast live, whilst the rest of the ceremony was shown on a delay. 

Here's a full list of BAFTA winners.

Best Film: All Quiet On The Western Front

Outstanding British Film: The Banshees Of Inisherin

Leading Actor: Austin Butler (Elvis)

Leading Actress: Cate Blanchett (Tár)

Supporting Actor: Barry Keoghan (The Banshees Of Inisherin)

Supporting Actress: Kerry Condon (The Banshees Of Inisherin)

Director: Edward Berger (All Quiet On The Western Front)

Original Screenplay: The Banshees Of Inisherin

Adapted Screenplay: All Quiet On The Western Front

Outstanding Debut By A British Writer, Director Or Producer: Charlotte Wells (writer/director) (Aftersun) 

Animated Film: Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio

Documentary: Navalny

Film Not In The English Language: All Quiet On The Western Front

Cinematography: All Quiet On The Western Front

Costume Design: Elvis

Editing: Everything Everywhere All At Once

Make Up And Hair: Elvis

Original Music: All Quiet On The Western Front

Production Design: Babylon

Sound: All Quiet On The Western Front

Special Visual Effects: Avatar: The Way Of Water

Casting: Elvis

Short Animation: The Boy, The Mole, The Fox And The Horse

Short Film: An Irish Goodbye

Rising Star: Emma Mackey

BAFTA Fellowship: Sandy Powell

The big winner of the night was All Quiet On The Western Front with seven awards (including, somewhat surprisingly, Best Picture), with The Banshees Of Inisherin and Elvis taking home four apiece. 

I'm happy to see The Banshees Of Inisherin doing well (especially with the two Supporting acting wins), although it's been reported that there was a bit of a La La Land moment with Best Supporting Actress. Last year's Best Supporting Actor winner Troy Kotsur (CODA) presented the award using sign language... and his interpreter mistakenly said Carey Mulligan (who had been nominated in the same category for She Said) instead of Kerry Condon. This didn't make the TV broadcast, but a lot of news outlets picked it up nonetheless.

Congratulations to all winners!

There's more awards news coming up next weekend (25th/26th February 2023) with Producers Guild Awards (PGA) and the Screen Actors Guild Awards (SAG) being handed out. 

Awards Season 2023: Academy Award Nominations

As announced earlier this afternoon, here are some of the official nominations for the 95th Academy Awards:

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

Todd Field (Tár)

Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

Martin McDonagh (The Banshees Of Inisherin)

Ruben Östlund (Triangle Of Sadness)

Steven Spielberg (The Fabelmans)

BEST ACTOR

Austin Butler (Elvis)

Colin Farrell (The Banshees Of Inisherin)

Brendan Fraser (The Whale)

Paul Mescal (Aftersun)

Bill Nighy (Living)

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 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 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)

A full list of nominees can be found here. 

If I've done my maths right, we are looking at 29/35 (83%). Better than last year, so that's a plus. 

A couple of big surprises, namely the Best Picture/Director nods for Triangle Of Sadness, and British actress Andrea Riseborough's shock (in the best possible way) Best Actress nomination for To Leslie. She was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for her performance, but the film has had increased awareness over the last few weeks, as it's being signal boosted by several high-profile actresses. 

A couple of interesting little facts: all five of the Best Actor nominees are first-time nominees. The German-language version of All Quiet On The Western Front has nine nods, as opposed to the four given to the 1930 English-language version (which won Best Picture and Best Director). Angela Bassett's nod is the first acting nomination for any Marvel film, and Judd Hirsch receives his second Oscar nomination after a whoppping 42 years (he was previously nominated for Ordinary People in 1981).

Everything Everywhere All At Once has 11 nominations to lead the field, with All Quiet On The Western Front and The Banshees Of Inisherin tying for second place with nine apiece. 

Congratulations to all nominees!

The 95th Academy Awards will be held on Sunday 12th March 2023, at the Dolby Theatre at the Hollywood & Highland Center. Jimmy Kimmel will be returning to host for the third time, after his consecutive appearances MCing the 89th and 90th Oscars.

For those not interested in the awards season circus, you'll be glad to know there's going to be a brief hiatus in the proceedings; our next awards season stop on the road to the 95th Academy Awards will be the weekend of 18th/19th February. 

Awards Season 2023: BAFTA Film Awards Nominations

The nominations for the 76th British Academy (BAFTA) Film Awards were announced this afternoon, by Hayley Atwell (Captain America: The First Avenger, Christopher Robin) and Toheeb Jimoh (Ted Lasso, The French Dispatch). Here's a selection of the nominees:

BEST FILM

All Quiet On The Western Front

The Banshees Of Inisherin

Elvis

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Tár

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM

Aftersun

The Banshees Of Inisherin

Brian And Charles

Empire Of Light

Good Luck To You, Leo Grande

Living

Roald Dahl's Matilda The Musical

See How They Run

The Swimmers

The Wonder

LEADING ACTOR

Austin Butler (Elvis)

Colin Farrell (The Banshees Of Inisherin)

Brendan Fraser (The Whale)

Daryl McCormack (Good Luck To You, Leo Grande)

Paul Mescal (Aftersun)

Bill Nighy (Living)

LEADING ACTRESS 

Cate Blanchett (Tár)

Viola Davis (The Woman King)

Danielle Deadwyler (Till)

Ana de Armas (Blonde)

Emma Thompson (Good Luck To You, Leo Grande)

Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Brendan Gleeson (The Banshees Of Inisherin)

Barry Keoghan (The Banshees Of Inisherin)

Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

Eddie Redmayne (The Good Nurse)

Albrecht Schuch (All Quiet On The Western Front)

Micheal Ward (Empire Of Light)

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)

Dolly de Leon (Triangle Of Sadness)

Carey Mulligan (She Said)

DIRECTOR

Edward Berger (All Quiet On The Western Front)

Todd Field (Tár)

Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

Martin McDonagh (The Banshees Of Inisherin)

Park Chan-wook (Decision To Leave)

Gina Prince-Bythewood (The Woman King)

A full list of nominees in all categories can be found here.

BAFTA previously announced longlists for all categories, so you can see what was in contention for nominations here.

All Quiet On The Western Front received a record-equalling 14 nominations across the board (it ties with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), whilst The Banshees of Inisherin and Everything Everywhere All At Once got ten apiece. 

Very interesting to note that, whilst The Fabelmans was longlisted in several categories (including Best Film, and Best Actress [although not for Best Director]), it only received one nomination: Best Original Screenplay. I think it may fare better when the Oscar nominations are announced next week. I was also surprised not to see Olivia Colman's name in the Best Actress category for Empire Of Light - BAFTA always tend to skew towards British talent, so I thought she may be included. There was also nothing for Sarah Polley's Women Talking.

The nominees for the 2023 Rising Star award - the only BAFTA awarded by public vote- have also been announced: this year's nominees are Naomi Ackie, Sheila Atim, Emma Mackey, Daryl McCormack, and Aimee Lou Wood. Find out more about them, and cast your vote here.

The 76th BAFTA Film Awards will be handed out in just a month's time (on Sunday 19th February) in a ceremony at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall. The Oscar- and BAFTA-nominated actor Richard E. Grant (Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Withnail & I) will be hosting. 

Congratulations to all nominees!

We are getting to the sharp end of the awards nominations now, with the Razzies due to announce theirs on Monday (23rd January) and the Oscars on Tuesday (24th January). As has become tradition, my Oscar nomination predictions will follow sometime on Monday.