A disappointing day in Hollywood with no votes for ‘Nope’ or ‘Till.’
By Soraya Nadia McDonald
This year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences glanced at an outstanding harvest of Black women’s film accomplishments and said, “No thanks.” Nope or The Woman King were strangely excluded from the academy’s commemoration of high-flying, big-budget maximalism (See: Elvis, Top Gun: Maverick, and Avatar: The Way of Water).
Everything Everywhere All at Once earned a leading total of 11 nominations for the 95th Academy Awards; All Quiet on the Western Front, The Fabelmans, and The Banshees of Inisherin also did well; however, the nominations’ glaring omissions as they were announced hurt. The 10,000-member organization that bestows the Oscars announced its nominees on Tuesday morning.
The Woman King, a historical action epic starring and directed by actor Viola Davis, went completely unnoticed, a logical omission. Danielle Deadwyler, the heroine of Till, was not nominated for best actress despite a moving portrayal of Mamie Till’s goal to ensure that the barbarism of her son’s murder was never forgotten.
Deadwyler is one of the most promising actors of her age, as evidenced not only by Till, but also by her widely varied parts before it, such as her cautious, realistic 2019 portrayal of Lemon Cassidy in The Devil To Pay, a small independent presently streaming on Netflix. Only once in Oscar history has a Black woman received best actress: Halle Berry for the melodramatic cringe-fest Monster’s Ball. (2002).
The directing wing’s failure to recognize The Woman King director Gina Prince-Bythewood’s talent only serves to weaken the organization’s legitimacy. (no Black woman has ever won the Oscar for best director). Even the British Academy Film Awards, which aren’t precisely a model of racial and female equality, nominated Prince-Bythewood for best director. And Sarah Polley, the writer-director of Women Talking, was left out of the director title despite receiving a writing nod and the film being nominated for best picture.
It’s also disheartening that The Woman King went unnoticed in technical areas where it should have been a lock: production design, hair and makeup, costuming, editing, and photography.
The barbs spread to foreign cinema as well, with no mention of Alice Diop’s riveting Saint Omer. While the most flagrant omissions were of films by and about Black women, there was no affection for Jordan Peele’s jaw-dropping allegory about his own industry’s soul-sucking nature. Nope deserved an award at the very least for photography, and possibly also for production design, direction, and makeup.
Those omissions make the few victories in this year’s nominations even more difficult to enjoy, though I was happy to see the always-dependable Brian Tyree Henry recognized with a best supporting actor nod for his performance in Causeway. Stephanie Hsu has been eclipsed by her more renowned Everything Everywhere All at Once co-stars, Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan, who lead the effervescent romp through the universe.
With her nomination for best supporting actor for her performance as Queen Ramonda in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Angela Bassett received her second mention of her acting career. Her depiction of Tina Turner in What’s Love Got To Do With It garnered her a nomination for best actor in 1994. Hannah Beachler, the movie’s production designer (and the first Black woman to win an Oscar for production design, which she took for the first Black Panther film), was also left out of the nominations. Ruth E. Carter, the first Black woman to win an Oscar for costume design, has been nominated again for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
Every year, I tell myself that the Academy Awards are not a democracy, and 2023 will be no exception. But, despite a year chock-full of outstanding, fascinating, challenging, and diverse work in Black film, the academy decided to undermine its own significance once again. Here is the complete list of Oscar candidates for 2023. The event will be broadcast live on March 12.
Best Picture
All Quiet on the Western Front, Malte Grunert, producer
Avatar: The Way of Water, James Cameron and Jon Landau, producers
The Banshees of Inisherin, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin and Martin McDonagh, producers
Elvis, Baz Luhrmann, Catherine Martin, Gail Berman, Patrick McCormick and Schuyler Weiss, producers
Everything Everywhere All at Once, Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert and Jonathan Wang, producers
The Fabelmans, Kristie Macosko Krieger, Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner, producers
Tár, Todd Field, Alexandra Milchan and Scott Lambert, producers
Top Gun: Maverick, Tom Cruise, Christopher McQuarrie, David Ellison and Jerry Bruckheimer, producers
Triangle of Sadness, Erik Hemmendorff and Philippe Bober, producers
Women Talking, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner and Frances McDormand, producers
Best Director
Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin
Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Steven Spielberg, The Fabelmans
Todd Field, Tár
Ruben Östlund, Triangle of Sadness
Best Lead Actor
Austin Butler, Elvis
Colin Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin
Brendan Fraser, The Whale
Paul Mescal, Aftersun
Bill Nighy, Living
Best Lead 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
Best Adapted Screenplay
All Quiet on the Western Front by Edward Berger, Lesley Paterson and Ian Stokell
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery by Rian Johnson
Living by Kazuo Ishiguro
Top Gun: Maverick by Ehren Kruger and Eric Warren Singer and Christopher McQuarrie; story by Peter Craig and Justin Marks
Women Talking, by Sarah Polley
Best Original Screenplay
The Banshees of Inisherin by Martin McDonagh
Everything Everywhere All at Once by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert
The Fabelmans, by Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner
Tár by Todd Field
Triangle of Sadness by Ruben Östlund
Best 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
Best Documentary Feature Film
All That Breathes, Shaunak Sen, Aman Mann and Teddy Leifer
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, Laura Poitras, Howard Gertler, John Lyons, Nan Goldin and Yoni Golijov
Fire of Love, Sara Dosa, Shane Boris and Ina Fichman
A House Made of Splinters, Simon Lereng Wilmont and Monica Hellström
Navalny, Daniel Roher, Odessa Rae, Diane Becker, Melanie Miller and Shane Boris
Best Documentary Short Film
The Elephant Whisperers, Kartiki Gonsalves and Guneet Monga
Haulout, Evgenia Arbugaeva and Maxim Arbugaev
How Do You Measure a Year? Jay Rosenblatt
The Martha Mitchell Effect, Anne Alvergue and Beth Levison
Stranger at the Gate, Joshua Seftel and Conall Jones
Best 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
Best International Feature Film
All Quiet on the Western Front, Germany
Argentina, 1985 Argentina
Close, Belgium
EO, Poland
The Quiet Girl, Ireland
Best 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 Production Design
All Quiet on the Western Front, production design: Christian M. Goldbeck; Set Decoration: Ernestine Hipper
Avatar: The Way of Water, production design: Dylan Cole and Ben Procter; set decoration: Vanessa Cole
Babylon, production design: Florencia Martin; set decoration: Anthony Carlino
Elvis, production Design: Catherine Martin and Karen Murphy; set decoration: Bev Dunn
The Fabelmans, production design: Rick Carter; set Decoration: Karen O’Hara
Best Visual Effects
All Quiet on the Western Front, Frank Petzold, Viktor Müller, Markus Frank and Kamil Jafar
Avatar: The Way of Water, Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon and Daniel Barrett
The Batman, Dan Lemmon, Russell Earl, Anders Langlands and Dominic Tuohy
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Geoffrey Baumann, Craig Hammack, R. Christopher White and Dan Sudick
Top Gun: Maverick, Ryan Tudhope, Seth Hill, Bryan Litson and Scott R. Fisher
Best Animated Feature Film
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, Guillermo del Toro, Mark Gustafson, Gary Ungar and Alex Bulkley
Marcel the Shell With Shoes On, Dean Fleischer Camp, Elisabeth Holm, Andrew Goldman, Caroline Kaplan and Paul Mezey
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, Joel Crawford and Mark Swift
The Sea Beast, Chris Williams and Jed Schlanger
Turning Red, Domee Shi and Lindsey Collins
Best Animated Short Film
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, Charlie Mackesy and Matthew Freud
The Flying Sailor, Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby
Ice Merchants, João Gonzalez and Bruno Caetano
My Year of Dicks, Sara Gunnarsdóttir and Pamela Ribon
An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It, Lachlan Pendragon
Best 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
Best Live Action Short
An Irish Goodbye, Tom Berkeley and Ross White
Ivalu, Anders Walter and Rebecca Pruzan
Le Pupille, Alice Rohrwacher and Alfonso Cuarón
Night Ride, Eirik Tveiten and Gaute Lid Larssen
The Red Suitcase, Cyrus Neshvad
Best 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
Best 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
Best Sound
All Quiet on the Western Front, Viktor Prášil, Frank Kruse, Markus Stemler, Lars Ginzel and Stefan Korte
Avatar: The Way of Water, Julian Howarth, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, Dick Bernstein, Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers and Michael Hedges
The Batman, Stuart Wilson, William Files, Douglas Murray and Andy Nelson
Elvis, David Lee, Wayne Pashley, Andy Nelson and Michael Keller
Top Gun: Maverick, Mark Weingarten, James H. Mather, Al Nelson, Chris Burdon and Mark Taylor
Andscape’s chief culture reporter is Soraya Nadia McDonald. She covers topics such as contemporary culture, fashion, the arts, and books. She won the George Jean Nathan award for dramatic criticism in 2020, was a candidate for the Pulitzer award in criticism in 2020, and finished second in the 2019 Vernon Jarrett Medal for excellent reporting on Black life.