Best Picture
All Quiet on the Western Front (2022, Germ.) (aka Im Westen nichts Neues)	Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)	The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)	Elvis (2022)	Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)
The Fabelmans (2022)	Tár (2022)	Top Gun: Maverick (2022)	Triangle of Sadness (2022)	Women Talking (2022)

Best Animated Feature Film
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (2022)	Marcel the Shell With Shoes On (2022)	Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022)	The Sea Beast (2022)	Turning Red (2022)

Actor: Austin Butler in "Elvis," Colin Farrell in "The Banshees of Inisherin," Brendan Fraser in "The Whale," Paul Mescal in "Aftersun," Bill Nighy in "Living"
Actress: Cate Blanchett in "Tár," Ana de Armas in "Blonde," Andrea Riseborough in "To Leslie," Michelle Williams in "The Fabelmans," Michelle Yeoh in "Everything Everywhere All at Once"
Supporting Actor: Brendan Gleeson in "The Banshees of Inisherin," Brian Tyree Henry in "Causeway," Judd Hirsch in "The Fabelmans," Barry Keoghan in "The Banshees of Inisherin," Ke Huy Quan in "Everything Everywhere All at Once"
Supporting Actress: Angela Bassett in "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever," Hong Chau in "The Whale," Kerry Condon in "The Banshees of Inisherin," Jamie Lee Curtis in "Everything Everywhere All at Once," Stephanie Hsu in "Everything Everywhere All at Once"
Director: Martin McDonagh for "The Banshees of Inisherin," Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert for "Everything Everywhere All at Once," Steven Spielberg for "The Fabelmans," Todd Field for "Tár," Ruben Ostlund for "Triangle of Sadness"

The 95th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), announced its official Oscar nominations on January 24, 2023, in 23 categories of awards. In terms of a scorecard for studio accolades after the nominations were made public, Netflix (the previous year's front-runner) sat in 2nd place behind A24:

• A24 - 17 nominations (most of them due to Everything Everywhere All at Once (eleven), plus Aftersun (one) and The Whale (three))
• Netflix - 16 nominations (the majority attributed to All Quiet on the Western Front)
• Warner Bros - 11 nominations (for two films, Elvis (eight) and The Batman (three))
• Disney/20th Century Studios - 10 nominations (for three films, Black Panther: Wanda Forever (five), Avatar: The Way of Water (four), and Turning Red (one))
• Paramount Pictures - 9 nominations (for two films, Top Gun: Maverick (six), Babylon (three))
• Universal Pictures - 8 nominations (for two films, The Fabelmans (7), Puss n Boots: The Last Wish (1))
• Focus Features - 7 nominations (mostly for Tár (6))

There were 10 nominees for Best Picture. It was an unusual achievement that two of the films were not only critically-acclaimed, but also were blockbusters that stood at the top of the box-office for the year:

• Top Gun: Maverick
• Avatar: The Way of Water

And remarkably, both of them were sequels. In fact, only seven sequels have ever received a Best Picture nomination up until now, and only two won the top prize: (i.e., The Bells of St. Mary's (1945), The Godfather Part II (1974) (win), The Godfather Part III (1990), The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) (win), Toy Story 3 (2010), and Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)).

[Note: The last year in which the top two films in terms of domestic box-office revenue were also nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award was in 1982, when Spielberg's E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) was competing with Tootsie (1982). It also occurred in 1975 when Spielberg's Jaws (1975) was competing against One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and in 1973 when The Sting (1973) was up against The Exorcist (1973).]

Also, some of the other contenders this year were also populist choices with strong box-office, including Everything Everywhere All at Once and Elvis.

This year's 10 nominated Best Picture films - listed in descending number of nominations:

• Everything Everywhere All at Once (11 nominations) - the front-runner from A24 and the studio's highest-grossing film of all time - a free-wheeling, weird domestic drama and comedy (with sci-fi and fantasy elements) co-written and co-directed by Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert; with numerous nominations: Best Original Screenplay, Best Director, Best Original Score, Best Song ("This is a Life"), Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing, and 4 acting nods for its mostly Asian-American cast: Best Actress (Michelle Yeoh), Best Supporting Actress (Jamie Lee Curtis and Stephanie Hsu), and Best Supporting Actor (Ke Huy Quan)
• The Banshees of Inisherin (9 nominations), Searchlight Pictures' and writer/director Martin McDonagh's R-rated Irish drama and black tragi-comedy told about two lifelong friends and drinking buddies - Padraic Súilleabháin (Colin Farrell) and folk musician, wannabe composer Colm Doherty (Brendan Gleeson) who lived in a remote island town (Inishmore) on Ireland's Aran Islands; its nominations included Best Original Screenplay and Best Director (for McDonagh), Best Actor (Colin Farrell), two Best Supporting Actor nominations (Brendan Gleeson and Barry Keoghan), a Best Supporting Actress nomination (Kerry Condon), Best Original Score, and Best Film Editing
  [Note: There are only about 30 films that have achieved the honor of receiving 4 acting nominations in all of Oscar history.]
• All Quiet on the Western Front (9 nominations), from German director Edward Berger about the devastating effects of war through the eyes of a young idealistic German soldier sent to the front's trench warfare during WWI; Netflix's lengthy adaptation and remake of the 92 year-old Oscar-winning war film from director Lewis Milestone titled All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) was based upon Erich Maria Remarque’s 1929 classic World War I novel; its nominations included Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Original Score, Best Sound, Best Visual Effects, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, and Best Production Design; it was devoid of acting nominations; it was also nominated as Best International Feature Film (from Germany)
  [Note: It was the first German-language movie to be nominated for Best Picture, and the first Best Picture nominee to be spoken almost entirely in German. It became the 9th non-English-language film ever to be nominated for both categories: Best International Feature Film and Best Picture. Only two other foreign language films have earned more Oscar nominations: Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) (with 10 noms and 4 Oscar wins), and director Alfonso Cuaron's Roma (2018) (with 10 noms and 3 Oscar wins). The double-nominee Parasite (2019) (with 6 noms and 4 Oscar wins) was the first and only foreign language film to win both prizes - Int'l Feature and Best Picture.]
• Elvis (8 nominations), Warner Bros.' and director and co-scripter Baz Luhrmann's dramatized, glitzy musical biopic of Elvis Presley charted the life of the rock 'n' roll singer and movie star icon; its many nominations included Best Actor (Austin Butler as the title character), and other technical categories - Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Sound, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing, and Best Production Design
• The Fabelmans (7 nominations), a semi-autobiographic, sentimental coming-of-age family drama based upon director Spielberg's own upbringing; with nominations for Best Director (Spielberg), Best Actress (Michelle Williams), Best Supporting Actor (Judd Hirsch), Best Original Score, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Production Design
  [Note: At the age of 90, John Williams was nominated for Best Original Score, making him the oldest person ever to be nominated for a competitive Oscar. Williams’ nomination was his 53rd — 48 for Score and five for Original Song. He has won 5 Oscars.]
• Tár (6 nominations), from Focus Features and writer/director Todd Field, a provocative, meticulously-created R-rated classical musical drama about the rise and fall of the toxic, imperious title character - Lydia Tár (Best Actress-nominated Cate Blanchett); with nominations for Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, and Best Film Editing
• Top Gun: Maverick (6 nominations), the crowd-pleasing # 1 picture of the year at the box office, with Tom Cruise reprising his role as top Naval aviator Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell; it received a number of technical achievement nominations, including Best Film Editing, Best Sound, Best Visual Effects, and Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Song (Lady Gaga's "Hold My Hand")
• Avatar: The Way of Water (4 nominations); the visually-astounding, CGI sci-fi action-epic sequel to the 2009 original film, had three technical nominations including Best Visual Effects, Best Sound, and Best Production Design besides Best Picture; with his 7th overall career Oscar nomination, director James Cameron (as producer) shared the Best Picture nomination with co-producer Jon Landau
• Triangle of Sadness (3 nominations), Swedish writer/director Ruben Östlund's satirical tale of the uber-wealthy, the year's Palme d'Or winner, was told in three acts. It told about a luxury yacht cruise for the privileged super-rich, with a hapless Captain (Woody Harrelson) that ended disastrously with a shipwreck and 'Lord of the Flies' struggles to survive on a desert island; its nominations included Best Director (Ruben Östlund) and Best Original Screenplay
• Women Talking (2 nominations), co-writer/director Sarah Polley's powerful religious drama was about serial rapes conducted from 2005 to 2009 against drugged women in a conservative, Bolivian Mennonite religious community; its nominations included Best Adapted Screenplay

The five nominees for Best Animated Feature Film included:

• Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio - from Netflix, a dark and scary version of the familiar Carlo Collodi classic tale (in stop-motion animation) set in 1930s Fascist Italy, about a disobedient wooden boy-puppet/marionette who became ethically-challenged and was brought to life as a real boy, pleasing grieving woodcarver Geppetto
• Marcel the Shell With Shoes On - from A24, based on the 2010 shorts about a tiny shell named Marcel who wore shoes; the feature-length stop-motion mockumentary chronicled the coming-of-age adventures and travails of a tiny, one-inch mollusk named Marcel - the victim of a broken home, with two companions: grandma Connie (Isabella Rossellini) and a pet piece of lint named Alan
• Puss in Boots: The Last Wish - from DreamWorks Animation, a re-boot of DreamWorks’ Puss franchise and the 6th film in the Shrek series, with storybook-stylized CG animation, about the charismatic cat Puss (with his last 9th life) on a mythical mission to restore his eight previous lives
• The Sea Beast - from Netflix, a thrilling, swashbuckling animated adventure about an orphan girl who joined a crew of deep-sea monster hunters to capture a huge, legendary sea creature (the 'Red Bluster') in the ocean
• Turning Red - from Walt Disney Pictures/Pixar Animation, Pixar’s 25th feature film - with a female director Domee Shi, a coming-of-age tale of a 13-year-old Chinese-Canadian girl whose extreme upset and emotions transformed her into a giant red panda

The five Best Directors nominated this year included an all-male slate of candidates whose films were all included amongst the Best Picture nominees. In the last two years of Oscars with back-to-back wins, both Chloé Zhao (for Nomadland (2020)) and Jane Campion (for The Power of the Dog (2021)) became the second and third females to win the directoral prize:

[Note: This marked the fourth consecutive year with Asian talent nominated for both producing and directing. Parasite (2019), Minari/Nomadland (2020), Drive My Car (2021), and Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022).]

• 76 year-old Steven Spielberg (with many previous nominations (22) and Oscar wins (3) to date) for The Fabelmans
  [Note: Spielberg became a nine-time Oscar nominee in the Best Director category with this nomination. The record of 12 Best Director nominations remains with William Wyler. Spielberg and Wyler were now tied at 13 films nominated for Best Picture - a record number. In Spielberg's career, he has won three Academy Awards, two for Best Director (Schindler's List (1993) and Saving Private Ryan (1998)), and one for Best Picture (Schindler's List (1993).]
• 58 year-old Todd Field (with three previous Oscar nominations) for Tár
  [Note: In addition to three nominations this year for Tar, Todd Field has been nominated previously three times for: Little Children (2006) (Best Adapted Screenplay), and In the Bedroom (2001) (Best Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published and Best Picture).]
• 52 year-old Martin McDonagh (with three previous nominations and no Oscar wins), a British-Irish playwright, screenwriter, producer, and director, for The Banshees of Inisherin
  [Note: McDonagh was also nominated for Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture for the same film. He also has two nominations for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) - Best Original Screenplay and Best Director, and a Best Original Screenplay nomination for In Bruges (2008).]
• 48 year-old Ruben Ostlund, a Swedish film director (with no previous Oscar nominations) for Triangle of Sadness
  [Note: This was Ostlund's English-language debut film. Ostlund received two noms for this film, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.]
• 34 year-old Daniel Kwan and 35 year-old Daniel Scheinert (known as the two 'Daniels') (with no previous Oscar nominations) for Everything Everywhere All at Once
  [Note: Kwan and Scheinert were also nominated for Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture for the same film. They were the fourth duo in Oscar history nominated for Best Director, with two of the duos ultimately winning the award. Previous duos were nominated for West Side Story (1961) (Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise - win), No Country For Old Men (2007) (Joel and Ethan Coen - win), True Grit (2010) (Joel and Ethan Coen), and Heaven Can Wait (1978) (Warren Beatty and Buck Henry). Also, Asian-American director Daniel Kwan's nomination marked the fourth year in a row that an Asian director was nominated.]

In the four acting categories with 20 Oscars up for grabs, an amazing 16 of the contenders were first-time nominees. Four of the 20 performers were Asian-American (three were nominated for Everything Everywhere All at Once, and one for The Whale). This marked the most Asian acting nominees in a single year. And both The Banshees of Inisherin and Everything Everywhere All at Once had four nominees in the four acting categories.

The five Best Actor nominees this year - all were first-time nominees (of varying ages and nationalities), but as some noted, without ethnic diversity: [Note: The last time there were all first-timer Best Actor nominees was for films in 1934, 88 years earlier.]

• 73 year-old British actor Bill Nighy, for his role as Mr. Rodney Williams - a 1950s London civil servant-bureaucrat working in the county's Public Works Department who received a diagnosis of a terminal illness, in director Oliver Hermanus' UK drama about the meaning of life titled Living (also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay by Kazuo Ishiguro that was adapted from Akira Kurosawa's classic Ikiru (1952, Jp.))
• 54 year-old American-Canadian actor Brendan Fraser for his characterization of Charlie - a morbidly-obese English professor who made attempts to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter Ellie Sarsfield (Sadie Sink), in The Whale (with a total of 3 nominations)
• 46 year-old Irish actor Colin Farrell, for his role as stunned villager Pádraic Súilleabháin who was suddenly ignored by his life-long friend and drinking buddy Colm Doherty (co-star Brendan Gleeson), in The Banshees of Inisherin
• 31 year-old Austin Butler, for his role as the title character - hip-gyrating rock 'n' roll singer and actor - seen from the flashbacked point of view of his former manager Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks), in Baz Luhrmann's musical biopic Elvis
• 26 year-old Irish-born Paul Mescal for his role as 30 year-old Scottisher Calum Paterson, the father of 11 year old daughter Sophie Paterson (Frankie Corio/Celia Rowlson-Hall), on a vacation trip with her to Turkey, in writer/director Charlotte Wells' nostalgic drama (and feature film debut) Aftersun

The five Best Actress nominees this year were in a highly-competitive category. The inclusion of unexpected nominee Andrea Riseborough was due to a last-minute viral celebrity campaign. Nine of the 10 Best Actor and Best Actress nominees were white:

• 53 year-old Australian actress Cate Blanchett (with two Oscar wins), for her role as toxic classical music conductor Lydia Tár, in Tár (2022)
  [Note: Blanchett has a total of 8 Oscar nominations, with a Best Supporting Actress win for The Aviator (2004), and another win as Best Actress for Blue Jasmine (2013). Other Oscar-nominated films for Best Supporting Actress include Notes on a Scandal (2006) and I'm Not There (2007), and for Best Actress include Elizabeth (1998), Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007), and Carol (2015).]
• 60 year-old Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh (with her first nomination), for her role as Evelyn Quan - a middle-aged, overwhelmed laundromat owner who traversed parallel and alternate universes (the multiverse), in the dramatic sci-fi fantasy Everything Everywhere All at Once
• 42 year-old Michelle Williams (with her fifth nomination after four previous Oscar noms with no wins), for her portrayal of Mitzi Fabelman (the Jewish mother of Steven Spielberg's film-making alter-ego Sammy Fabelman), in director Spielberg's autobiographical tale The Fabelmans
  [Note: Williams has two previous Best Actress noms, for Blue Valentine (2010) and My Week with Marilyn (2011), and two previous Best Supporting Actress noms, for Brokeback Mountain (2005) and Manchester by the Sea (2016).]
• 41 year-old British actress Andrea Riseborough (with her first nomination), for her role as the title character Leslie Rowlands, a troubled alcoholic who lived in West Texas and won the state lottery of $190,000 before her life went into a downhill spiral, in director Michael Morris' directorial debut film - the indie drama To Leslie
• 34 year-old Cuban/Spanish actress Ana de Armas (with her first nomination), for her role as the often-naked Marilyn Monroe/Norma Jeane Mortenson in the fictionalized, NC-17 rated biopic and psychodrama Blonde

Eight of the 10 Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress nominees were first-timers. The five Best Supporting Actor nominees this year:
[Note: This marked the fourth consecutive year that a film had double-nominees in this category.]

• 67 year-old Irish-actor Brendan Gleeson (with his first nomination) in his role as folk musician Colm Doherty who came into conflict with his long-standing best friend and drinking buddy Pádraic Súilleabháin (Colin Farrell), in the Irish dark tragi-comedy The Banshees of Inisherin
• 87 year-old Judd Hirsch (with his second Oscar nomination), in his role as Boris Schildkraut - Sammy Fabelman's grand-uncle and a former film worker and circus lion tamer, in the autobiographical coming-of-age drama The Fabelmans
  [Note: Hirsch was only on-screen for 8 minutes and 3 seconds. Hirsch's nomination broke a long-standing record held by Henry Fonda of 41 years, for the longest time period between his First and Last Nomination/Win. Hirsch received his first Supporting Actor nod for Ordinary People (1980) in 1981, and now received a second similar nomination 42 years later. The record of 41 years was long-held by actor Henry Fonda. Hirsch also became the 2nd oldest Best Supporting Actor nominee at 87 years, 315 days.]
• 30 year-old Irish actor Barry Keoghan (with his first nomination) for his role as troubled Dominic Kearney, in The Banshees of Inisherin
• 40 year-old African-American Brian Tyree Henry (with his first nomination) for his portrayal of New Orleans auto-mechanic James Aucoin, who was physically and emotionally traumatized in the past by a deadly and tragic car accident that killed his nephew, and was befriended by brain-injured, rehabilitating Afghanistan war veteran Lynsey (Jennifer Lawrence), in director Lila Neugebauer's debut feature film and Apple TV+'s R-rated drama Causeway (the film's sole nomination)
• 51 year-old Vietnamese-American Ke Huy Quan (with his first nomination) in the role of Evelyn's naive and meek husband Waymond Wang, in Everything Everywhere All at Once

The five Best Supporting Actress nominees this year:

• 64 year-old African-American Angela Bassett (with her second Oscar nomination), for her role as the grieving Queen Ramonda of the kingdom of Wakanda after the death of her son King T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman in the original film), in Marvel Studios' and director Ryan Coogler's superhero sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
  [Note: Bassett's previous nomination was for Best Actress, for What's Love Got to Do with It (1993).]
• 43 year-old Vietnam-born American actress Hong Chau (with her first nomination) for her role as best friend and nurse Liz, who was caring for a severely-obese male named Charlie (Brendan Fraser), an English professor teaching online, in Darren Aronofsky's drama The Whale
• 40 year-old Irish actress Kerry Condon (with her first nomination), for her portrayal of Siobhán Súilleabháin - the long-suffering sister of Pádraic (co-star Colin Farrell), in the Irish drama The Banshees on Inisherin
• 64 year-old Jamie Lee Curtis (with her first nomination), for her characterization of cruel bureaucratic IRS inspector Deirdre Beaubeirdra, in Everything Everywhere All at Once
• 32 year-old Chinese-American Stephanie Hsu (with her first nomination) for her role as two iterations: Joy Wang, the lesbian daughter of Evelyn Quan Wang (co-star Michelle Yeoh), and as her multiverse manifestation known as Jobu Tupaki, in Everything Everywhere All at Once

Snubs or Overlooked Films or Nominees:

• popular actor Tom Cruise and director Joseph Kosinski were both overlooked for nominations in the Top Gun: Maverick sequel, although the film acquired six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture; the action-film also missed obtaining an expected Best Cinematography nomination
• although director Baz Luhrmann's biopic Elvis received 8 nominations including Best Picture and Best Actor, the director was devoid of recognition
• Ryan Coogler's sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was unable to match the performance of its Best Picture-nominated superhero predecessor Black Panther (2018) (with three Oscar wins from its seven nominations); it only received five nominations including Best Visual Effects, Best Original Song ("Lift Me Up"), Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Costume Design, and Best Supporting Actress (Angela Bassett)
• Brad Pitt was denied a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his role as aging, hedonistic, recently-divorced silent film matinee idol Jack Conrad in Damien Chazelle's epic Babylon (with only three nominations, Best Costume and Best Production Design, and Best Original Score); it was a frenzied, uneven, fast-paced, and extravagant historical drama with an ensemble cast that chronicled the madcap magic and the excesses of Hollywood and Tinseltown showbiz in the late "Roaring" 1920s; in addition, Margot Robbie was denied a Best Actress nomination for her role as Nellie LaRoy - an ambitious, wannabe NJ starlet and hedonistic "It-Girl" inspired by Clara Bow
• James Cameron - the producer, director, and co-writer of the blockbuster sequel Avatar: The Way of Water, was overlooked as Best Director; in his acclaimed career, his wins included Best Picture and Best Director for Titanic (1997)
• the historical epic The Woman King lacked a single nomination - a complete shut-out - it could easily have obtained a nod for Viola Davis as the title character General Nanisca in The Kingdom of Dahomey, West Africa in 1823, who was reunited with her daughter Nawi (Thuso Mbedu); Lashana Lynch was also ignored for her role as Izogie, and female director Gina Prince-Bythewood was also unnominated
• co-writer/director Sarah Polley's acclaimed drama Women Talking received two nominations (Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture), but Polley was left without a Best Director nomination
• Eddie Redmayne's acting performance as the infamous serial-killing title character Charlie Cullen was passed over, in director Tobias Lindholm's chilling crime drama The Good Nurse
• Living, adapted from Akira Kurosawa's classic Ikiru (1952, Jp.) received only a Best Adapted Screenplay for Kazuo Ishiguro; the film's only other Oscar nomination was Bill Nighy's Best Actor nomination
• Paul Dano was snubbed for his role as Steven Spielberg's gentle-minded father Burt in The Fabelmans, although his two co-stars received noms for Best Actress (Michelle Williams) and Best Supporting Actor (Judd Hirsch)
• Indian filmmaker-director S.S. Rajamouli's rousing and spectacular Telugu film, the crime epic RRR managed only one nomination: Best Original Song ("Naatu Naatu"), although was considered a dark-horse Best Picture nominee
• rising star Danielle Deadwyler was ignored for her portrayal of Mamie Till in the biographical drama Till (with no nominations) - as the grieving mother of lynched 14 year-old schoolboy son Emmett Till in Mississippi in 1955, she became a strong and determined civil rights activist
• director Rian Johnson's who-dun-it mystery sequel to Knives Out (2019) -- Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, with an ensemble cast and Daniel Craig reprising his role as master detective Benoit Blanc, received only one nomination for Johnson's own Best Adapted Screenplay
• in the wealth satire Triangle of Sadness, Filipina actress Dolly De Leon was denied a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her role as housekeeper-toilet cleaner Abigail
• Adam Sandler was denied a Best Actor nomination for his role as Stanley Sugerman in director Jeremiah Zagar's basketball drama Hustle