Oscars 2023: The Academy still loves nominating straight actors for … – LGBTQ Nation
After months of speculation, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the nominees for the 95th annual Academy Awards.
This year’s list of nominees includes few surprises. The critically acclaimed and much beloved Everything Everywhere All at Once leads the pack with 11 nominations in total, and many of the A-listers and rising stars whose names have been bandied about as possible contenders scored nods. Austin Butler, Colin Farrell, Paul Mescal, Ana de Armas, Michelle Williams, and of course Everything Everywhere All at Once star Michelle Yeoh are all nominated for lead roles. Ke Huy Quan, Brendan Gleeson, Angela Basset, Jamie Lee Curtis, Hong Chau, and Stephanie Hsu are among the nominees for supporting roles.
The Best Picture category, unsurprisingly, reads like a list of the biggest, most buzzed-about films of this awards season. Avatar: The Way of Water, The Banshees of Inisherin, Elvis, Everything Everywhere All at Once, The Fabelmans, Tár, and Top Gun: Maverick, are all up for Best Picture Oscars alongside lesser-seen and late-breaking films Triangle of Sadness, Women Talking, and All Quiet on the Western Front.
As for LGBTQ+ representation amongst the nominees, well, you really have to search for it this year. Coming off of 2022, when Fire Island and Bros were significant parts of the cultural conversation, it’s a bit of a letdown. Not that either of those films were ever considered Oscar contenders, but still. Among the nominees for the acting awards, there is only one out performer: Everything Everywhere All at Once’s Stephanie Hsu. Her nomination makes Hsu the first queer actor to be nominated for playing a queer character since Ian McKellen’s 1999 nomination for Best Supporting Actor in Gods and Monsters.
As for Best Picture, Tár and Everything Everywhere All at Once are, of course, about queer characters, but those admittedly excellent films were not made by out filmmakers.
And as is so frequently the case, the Academy has once again bestowed nominations on several straight actors for playing LGBTQ+ roles. Cate Blanchette is all but guaranteed to win Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance as Lydia Tár in Tár, and Brendan Fraser is a favorite to take home the Oscar for lead actor for his highly regarded though controversial role in the notoriously problematic The Whale.
Besides Hsu, the only really notable out nominees appear to be Pulitzer Prize-winning Angels in America writer Tony Kushner, who is up for best original screenplay for The Fabelmans alongside co-writer Steven Spielberg, and Belgian director Lukas Dhont, whose film Close is nominated for International Feature.
Check out the full list of Oscar nominees below.
Presenting the 95th Academy Award #OscarNoms. #Oscars95 https://t.co/zg3r2MXmqX
— The Academy (@TheAcademy) January 24, 2023
Actor in a Leading Role
Austin Butler, Elvis
Colin Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin
Brendan Fraser, The Whale
Paul Mescal, Aftersun
Bill Nighy, Living
Actor in a Supporting Role
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
Actress in a Leading Role
Cate Blanchett, Tár
Ana de Armas, Blonde
Andrea Riseborough, To Leslie
Michelle Williams, The Fabelmans
Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Actress in a Supporting Role
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
Animated Feature Film
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
The Sea Beast
Turning Red
Cinematography
All Quiet on the Western Front, James Friend
Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths, Darius Khondji
Elvis, Mandy Walker
Empire of Light, Roger Deakins
Tár, Florian Hoffmeister
Costume Design
Babylon, Mary Zophres
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Ruth Carter
Elvis, Catherine Martin
Everything Everywhere All at Once, Shirley Kurata
Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, Jenny Beavan
Directing
The Banshees of Inisherin, Martin McDonagh
Everything Everywhere All at Once, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert
The Fabelmans, Steven Spielberg
Tár, Todd Field
Triangle of Sadness, Ruben Östlund
Documentary Feature Film
All That Breathes
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Fire of Love
A House Made of Splinters
Navalny
Documentary Short Film
The Elephant Whisperers
Haulout
How Do You Measure a Year?
The Martha Mitchell Effect
Stranger at the Gate
Film Editing
The Banshees of Inisherin, Mikkel E.G. Nielsen
Elvis, Matt Villa and Jonathan Redmond
Everything Everywhere All at Once, Paul Rogers
Tár, Monika Willi
Top Gun: Maverick, Eddie Hamilton
International Feature Film
All Quiet on the Western Front, Germany
Argentina, 1985, Argentina
Close, Belgium
EO, Poland
The Quiet Girl, Ireland
Makeup and Hairstyling
All Quiet on the Western Front, Heike Merker and Linda Eisenhamerová
The Batman, Naomi Donne, Mike Marino and Mike Fontaine
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Camille Friend and Joel Harlow
Elvis, Mark Coulier, Jason Baird and Aldo Signoretti
The Whale, Adrien Morot, Judy Chin and Anne Marie Bradley
Music (Original Score)
All Quiet on the Western Front, Volker Bertelmann
Babylon, Justin Hurwitz
The Banshees of Inisherin, Carter Burwell
Everything Everywhere All at Once, Son Lux
The Fabelmans, John Williams
Music (Original Song)
“Applause” from Tell It like a Woman; Music and Lyric by Diane Warren
“Hold My Hand” from Top Gun: Maverick; Music and Lyric by Lady Gaga and BloodPop
“Lift Me Up” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever; Music by Tems, Rihanna, Ryan Coogler and Ludwig Goransson; Lyric by Tems and Ryan Coogler
“Naatu Naatu” from RRR; Music by M.M. Keeravaani; Lyric by Chandrabose
“This Is A Life” from Everything Everywhere All at Once; Music by Ryan Lott, David Byrne and Mitski; Lyric by Ryan Lott and David Byrne
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
Production Design
All Quiet on the Western Front
Avatar: The Way of Water
Babylon
Elvis
The Fabelmans
Short Film (Animated)
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse
The Flying Sailor
Ice Merchants
My Year of Dicks
An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It
Short Film (Live Action)
An Irish Goodbye
Ivalu
Le Pupille
Night Ride
The Red Suitcase
Sound
All Quiet on the Western Front
Avatar: The Way of Water
The Batman
Elvis
Top Gun: Maverick
Visual Effects
All Quiet on the Western Front
Avatar: The Way of Water
The Batman
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Top Gun: Maverick
Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
All Quiet on the Western Front, Screenplay – Edward Berger, Lesley Paterson & Ian Stokell
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Written by Rian Johnson
Living, Written by Kazuo Ishiguro
Top Gun: Maverick, Screenplay by Ehren Kruger and Eric Warren Singer and Christopher McQuarrie; Story by Peter Craig and Justin Marks
Women Talking, Screenplay by Sarah Polley
Writing (Original Screenplay)
The Banshees of Inisherin, Written by Martin McDonagh
Everything Everywhere All at Once, Written by Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert
The Fabelmans, Written by Steven Spielberg & Tony Kushner
Tár, Written by Todd Field
Triangle of Sadness, Written by Ruben Östlund