95th Academy Awards

95th Academy Awards
The 95th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), took place on March 12, 2023, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. During the gala, the AMPAS presented Academy Awards (commonly referred to as Oscars) in 23 categories honoring films released in 2022. The ceremony, televised in the United States by ABC, was produced by Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner, with Weiss also serving as director. Comedian Jimmy Kimmel hosted the show for the third time, following the 89th ceremony in 2017 and the 90th ceremony in 2018.
In related events, the Academy held its 13th annual Governors Awards ceremony at the Fairmont Century Plaza Hotel in Century City, California, on November 19, 2022. The Academy Scientific and Technical Awards were presented by host Simu Liu on February 24, 2023, in a ceremony at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles.
Everything Everywhere All at Once won seven awards, including Best Picture. Other winners included All Quiet on the Western Front with four awards, The Whale with two, and Avatar: The Way of Water, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, The Elephant Whisperers, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, An Irish Goodbye, Navalny, RRR, Top Gun: Maverick, and Women Talking with one. The telecast drew 18.75 million viewers in the United States.
Winners and nominees
The nominees for the 95th Academy Awards were announced on January 24, 2023, at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, by actors Riz Ahmed and Allison Williams. Everything Everywhere All at Once led all nominees with eleven nominations; All Quiet on the Western Front and The Banshees of Inisherin tied for second with nine nominations each.
The winners were announced during the awards ceremony on March 12, 2023. Everything Everywhere All at Once became the first science fiction film to win Best Picture, and became the third film, alongside A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) and Network (1976), to win three acting awards. Best Director winners Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert became the third pair of directors to win for the same film. For the first time since the 7th ceremony in 1935, all five Best Actor nominees were first time nominees. Michelle Yeoh became the first Asian winner for Best Actress and the second woman of color overall after Halle Berry, who won for her performance in Monster's Ball (2001). Furthermore, she became the first woman to identify as Asian to be nominated in that category. Ke Huy Quan became the first Vietnamese person to win an Oscar and the second Asian winner for Best Supporting Actor after Haing S. Ngor, who won for his role in The Killing Fields (1984). The 42-year span between Judd Hirsch's first nomination, for his supporting role in Ordinary People (1980), and his second, for The Fabelmans, set the record for the longest gap between Oscar nominations. At age 90, Best Original Score nominee John Williams became the oldest person nominated competitively in Oscars history. Best Costume Design winner Ruth E. Carter became the first Black woman to win two Oscars.
Awards
Winners are listed first, highlighted in boldface, and indicated with a double dagger (‡).
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Everything Everywhere All at Once – Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert, and Jonathan Wang, producers 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, Peter Czernin, and Martin McDonagh, producers
Elvis – Baz Luhrmann, Catherine Martin, Gail Berman, Patrick McCormick, and Schuyler Weiss, 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
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Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert – Everything Everywhere All at Once
Martin McDonagh – The Banshees of Inisherin
Steven Spielberg – The Fabelmans
Todd Field – Tár
Ruben Östlund – Triangle of Sadness
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Brendan Fraser – The Whale as Charlie
Austin Butler – Elvis as Elvis Presley
Colin Farrell – The Banshees of Inisherin as Pádraic Súilleabháin
Paul Mescal – Aftersun as Calum Paterson
Bill Nighy – Living as Mr. Rodney Williams
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Michelle Yeoh – Everything Everywhere All at Once as Evelyn Quan Wang
Cate Blanchett – Tár as Lydia Tár
Ana de Armas – Blonde as Norma Jeane
Andrea Riseborough – To Leslie as Leslie Rowlands
Michelle Williams – The Fabelmans as Mitzi Fabelman
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Ke Huy Quan – Everything Everywhere All at Once as Waymond Wang
Brendan Gleeson – The Banshees of Inisherin as Colm Doherty
Brian Tyree Henry – Causeway as James Aucoin
Judd Hirsch – The Fabelmans as Uncle Boris
Barry Keoghan – The Banshees of Inisherin as Dominic Kearney
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Jamie Lee Curtis – Everything Everywhere All at Once as Deirdre Beaubeirdre
Angela Bassett – Black Panther: Wakanda Forever as Queen Ramonda
Hong Chau – The Whale as Liz
Kerry Condon – The Banshees of Inisherin as Siobhán Súilleabháin
Stephanie Hsu – Everything Everywhere All at Once as Joy Wang / Jobu Tupaki
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Everything Everywhere All at Once – Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert The Banshees of Inisherin – Martin McDonagh
The Fabelmans – Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner
Tár – Todd Field
Triangle of Sadness – Ruben Östlund
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Women Talking – Sarah Polley; based on the novel by Miriam Toews All Quiet on the Western Front – Edward Berger, Lesley Paterson, and Ian Stokell; based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery – Rian Johnson; based on characters created by Johnson and the film Knives Out
Living – Kazuo Ishiguro; based on the original motion picture screenplay Ikiru by Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto, and Hideo Oguni
Top Gun: Maverick – Screenplay by Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, and Christopher McQuarrie; Story by Peter Craig and Justin Marks; based on the film Top Gun written by Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr.
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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
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All Quiet on the Western Front (Germany) – directed by Edward Berger Argentina, 1985 (Argentina) – directed by Santiago Mitre
Close (Belgium) – directed by Lukas Dhont
EO (Poland) – directed by Jerzy Skolimowski
The Quiet Girl (Ireland) – directed by Colm Bairéad
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Navalny – Daniel Roher, Odessa Rae, Diane Becker, Melanie Miller, and Shane Boris 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
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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
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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
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The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse – Charlie Mackesy and Matthew Freud The Flying Sailor – Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis
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
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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
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"Naatu Naatu" from RRR – Music by M. M. Keeravani; Lyrics by Chandrabose "Applause" from Tell It Like a Woman – Music and lyrics by Diane Warren
"Hold My Hand" from Top Gun: Maverick – Music and lyrics by Lady Gaga and BloodPop
"Lift Me Up" from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – Music by Tems, Rihanna, Ryan Coogler, and Ludwig Göransson; Lyrics by Tems and Ryan Coogler
"This Is a Life" from Everything Everywhere All at Once – Music by Ryan Lott, David Byrne, and Mitski; Lyrics by Ryan Lott and David Byrne
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Top Gun: Maverick – Mark Weingarten, James H. Mather, Al Nelson, Chris Burdon, and Mark Taylor 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
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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
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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
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The Whale – Adrien Morot, Judy Chin, and Annemarie Bradley 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
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Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – Ruth E. Carter Babylon – Mary Zophres
Elvis – Catherine Martin
Everything Everywhere All at Once – Shirley Kurata
Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris – Jenny Beavan
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Everything Everywhere All at Once – Paul Rogers The Banshees of Inisherin – Mikkel E. G. Nielsen
Elvis – Matt Villa and Jonathan Redmond
Tár – Monika Willi
Top Gun: Maverick – Eddie Hamilton
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Avatar: The Way of Water – Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon, and Daniel Barrett'''
All Quiet on the Western Front – Frank Petzold, Viktor Müller, Markus Frank, and Kamil Jafar
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
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Governors Awards
The Academy held its 13th annual Governors Awards ceremony on November 19, 2022, during which the following awards were presented:
Academy Honorary Awards
Euzhan Palcy"A masterful filmmaker who broke ground for Black women directors and inspired storytellers of all kinds across the globe."
Diane Warren"For her genius, generosity and passionate commitment to the power of song in film."
Peter Weir"A fearless and consummate filmmaker who has illuminated the human experience with his unique and expansive body of work."
Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award
Michael J. Fox"For his tireless advocacy of research on Parkinson's disease alongside his boundless optimism exemplifies the impact of one person in changing the future for millions."
Films with multiple nominations and awards
Presenters and performers
The following presented awards and performed musical numbers.
Ceremony information
In September 2022, the Academy hired television producers Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner to oversee production of the 2023 ceremony. AMPAS president Janet Yang and CEO Bill Kramer remarked that they looked "to deliver an exciting and energized show" with Weiss and Kirshner. Two months later, comedian and talk show host Jimmy Kimmel was announced as host of the gala. "Being invited to host the Oscars for a third time is either a great honor or a trap," Kimmel stated in a press release regarding his selection. "Either way, I am grateful to the Academy for asking me so quickly after everyone good said no," he concluded. Furthermore, AMPAS announced that all 23 categories would be presented live during the gala. The announcement came in response to an internal survey which indicated negative feedback regarding the previous year's decision to present eight below-the-line categories prior to the live portion of last year's gala.
In light of the Chris Rock–Will Smith slapping incident during the previous year's telecast, AMPAS announced that the organization hired a "crisis team" in the event a similar altercation or if an unexpected fiasco arose. In an interview published by Time magazine, Kramer explained: "We have a whole crisis team, something we've never had before, and many plans in place. We've run many scenarios. So it is our hope that we will be prepared for anything that we may not anticipate right now but that we're planning for just in case it does happen."
Several others participated in the production of the ceremony and related events. Rickey Minor served as musical director for the ceremony. Production designers Misty Buckley and Alana Billingsley, who were the first women-led design team for an Oscars telecast, designed a new stage for the show. According to Buckley and Billingsley, the stage was designed to resemble Art Deco movie places from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Additionally, the set utilized several LED panels that were used to display the category names, winners' names, or images from the nominated films. Notably, the arrivals area along Hollywood Boulevard outside the Dolby Theatre was lined with a champagne-colored carpet, marking the first time since the 32nd ceremony in 1960 that a non-red colored carpet was utilized for the gala. According to red carpet consultant Lisa Love, the production team chose a lighter shade of carpet color in order to not clash with a sienna-colored tent erected to shield attendees from the sun or potential rain. She also added that the shades of color for both the carpet and tent were inspired by "watching the sunset on a white-sand beach at the 'golden hour' with a glass of champagne in hand, evoking calm and peacefulness".
Lady Gaga was initially not scheduled to perform her nominated song "Hold My Hand" from Top Gun: Maverick due to prior commitments involving her role in Joker: Folie à Deux. On the morning of the ceremony, however, it was reported that Gaga would perform at the ceremony. Meanwhile, actress Glenn Close, who was originally scheduled as a presenter during the gala, canceled her appearance due to a positive COVID-19 test.
Box office performance of Best Picture nominees
When the nominations were announced, nine of the ten films nominated for Best Picture had earned a combined gross of $1.57 billion at the American and Canadian box offices at the time. Top Gun: Maverick was the highest-grossing film among the Best Picture nominees with $718.7 million in domestic box office receipts. Avatar: The Way of Water came in second with $598.4 million; this was followed by Elvis ($151 million), Everything Everywhere All at Once ($70 million), The Fabelmans ($15 million), The Banshees of Inisherin ($9 million), Tar ($5.6 million), Triangle of Sadness ($4.2 million), and Women Talking ($1.1 million). The box office figures for All Quiet on the Western Front were unavailable due to their distributor Netflix's policy of refusing to release such figures. Furthermore, by virtue of Avatar: The Way of Water and Top Gun: Mavericks Best Picture nominations, it marked the first time since the 55th ceremony in 1983 that the two highest grossing films of the year were both nominated in the aforementioned category.
Andrea Riseborough's nomination and controversy
Andrea Riseborough's Best Actress nomination for To Leslie was controversial amongst critics and pundits, as Momentum Pictures, the film's distributor, did not fund a conventional advertising-driven awards campaign for the film. Instead, director Michael Morris and his wife, actress Mary McCormack, organized a "celeb-backed campaign" to get Riseborough nominated. They contacted friends and colleagues in the entertainment industry, asking them to view the film and share it with others if they enjoyed it. Morris and Riseborough also hired publicists to coordinate the efforts. While not initially regarded as a serious contender, the campaign raised Riseborough's profile; dozens of celebrities praised her performance on social media, and some hosted screenings of the film during voting for the Academy Award nominations in January 2023. Riseborough's nomination was announced on January 24, which the Los Angeles Times called "one of the most shocking nominations in Oscar history".
After her nomination was announced, speculation arose that the tactics might have violated AMPAS rules against directly lobbying voters. A post on the film's Instagram account was noted by several AMPAS members for possibly violating a rule prohibiting "[singling] out 'the competition' by name" by featuring a quote from film critic Richard Roeper, who praised Riseborough's performance as better than Cate Blanchett's in Tár, a fellow nominee for Best Actress. On January 27, the Academy announced a review of the year's campaigns "to ensure that no guidelines were violated, and to inform us whether changes to the guidelines may be needed in a new era of social media and digital communication".
The Academy has rescinded nominations for nominees that participated in unsanctioned campaigning. However, there were no reports that Riseborough had been involved in such, or that any Academy members had lodged formal complaints about the campaign's behavior. On January 31, the Academy concluded its review by pledging to address "social media and outreach campaigning tactics" which they said caused "concern", but confirming that Riseborough's nomination would be retained. Following the controversy, the Academy introduced new campaigning rules and clarifications in May 2023.
Critical reviewsVariety columnist Owen Gleiberman wrote: "It didn't rock the boat, it didn't overstay its welcome, and it left you feeling that the world's preeminent awards show, all doom-saying punditry to the contrary, is still, on balance, a very good thing." He also added that the wins received by Everything Everywhere All at Once "lent the evening a rare emotional unity". Television critic Daniel Fienberg of The Hollywood Reporter similarly praised the show's emotional beats and found its flaws "were mitigated more gracefully than just about any Oscars telecast" he could recall. Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle commended Kimmel's stint as host stating: "He was establishing that 2023 would not be a repeat of 2022 — and it wasn't. It was such a relief to see something, anything, actually get better."
Mike Hale of The New York Times remarked on "the ordinariness and sameness of the ABC broadcast" compared to the prior year, while USA Today''s Kelly Lawler criticized it as "terribly fake" and felt that Kimmel's role "felt phoned in, or at least maybe monitored by corporate overlords looking to avoid controversy" despite some of his jokes tackling controversial subjects such as the January 6 United States Capitol attack and Tom Cruise's Scientology advocacy. Hale added that "the modern Oscars have become something more to be endured than enjoyed".
Ratings and reception
The American telecast on ABC drew in an average of 18.75 million people over its length, which was a 13% increase from the previous year's ceremony and marked the first time that the Academy Awards experienced consecutive years of viewership increase since the 86th Academy Awards in 2014. The show also earned higher Nielsen ratings compared to the previous ceremony with 9.9% of households watching the ceremony. In addition, it garnered a higher 18–49 demo rating with a 4.03 rating among viewers in that demographic. In July 2023, the broadcast was nominated for three awards at the 75th Primetime Creative Arts Emmys.
"In Memoriam"
The annual "In Memoriam" segment was introduced by John Travolta. Singer Lenny Kravitz performed his song "Calling All Angels" during the tribute.
Olivia Newton-John – singer, actress
John Korty – director, producer
May Routh – costume designer
Louise Fletcher – actress
John Zaritsky – cinematographer
Albert Brenner – production designer
Irene Papas – actress
Mitchell Goldman – executive
Bob Rafelson – director, writer, producer
Albert Saiki – design engineer
Ian Whittaker – set decorator
Robbie Coltrane – actor
Kirstie Alley – actress
Ray Liotta – actor
Vicky Eguia – publicity executive
Angelo Badalamenti – composer
Greg Jein – visual effects artist, model maker
Neal Jimenez – writer, director
Mike Hill – film editor
Tom Luddy – producer, film festival co-founder
Marina Goldovskaya – director, cinematographer, educator
Christopher Tucker – special effects makeup artist
Irene Cara – actress, singer, songwriter
Gregory Allen Howard – writer, producer
Owen Roizman – cinematographer
Luster Bayless – costume designer
Gray Frederickson – producer
Robert Dalva – film editor
Nichelle Nichols – actress
Edward R. Pressman – producer
Douglas McGrath – writer, director, actor
Julia Reichert – producer, director
Edie Landau – producer, executive
Mike Moder – assistant director, producer
Jean-Luc Godard – director, writer
Ralph Eggleston – animator, production designer
Marvin March – set decorator
Burt Bacharach – composer
Nick Bosustow – producer
Clayton Pinney – special effects artist
Simone Bär – casting director
Donn Cambern – film editor
Tom Whitlock – songwriter
Amanda Mackey – casting director
Angela Lansbury – actress
Wolfgang Petersen – director, writer, producer
John Dartigue – publicity executive
Burny Mattinson – animator
Maurizio Silvi – makeup artist
Jacques Perrin – actor, producer, director
Mary Alice – actress
Gina Lollobrigida – actress
Carl Bell – animator
Douglas Kirkland – photographer
Vangelis – composer, musician
James Caan – actor, producer
Raquel Welch – actress
Walter Mirisch – producer, former President of the Academy
See also
List of submissions to the 95th Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film
Notes
References
External links
Oscars Channel at YouTube (run by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences)
Other resources
2022 film awards
2023 in Los Angeles
Academy Awards ceremonies
2023 awards in the United States
March 2023 events in the United States
Television shows directed by Glenn Weiss