Since the 2022 film season concluded, it has since sparked ahead a highly-anticipated Oscars season. The 95th Academy Awards nominees were revealed on Jan. 24, sparking traction for both record-breaking nominations and overlooked audience favorites.
The Most Nominated films are as follows:
- “Everything, Everywhere, All at Once,” with eleven nominations
- “All Quiet on the Western Front,” with nine nominations
- “The Banshees of Inisherin,” with nine nominations
- “Elvis,” with eight nominations
- “The Fabelmans,” with seven nominations
- “Top Gun: Maverick,” with six nominations
The Daniels’ “Everything, Everywhere, All at Once” leads with the most nominations, including Best Picture, first-time nominee Michelle Yeoh for Best Leading Actress, first-time nominee Ke Huay Kuan for Best Supporting Actor, as well as first-time nominees Jamie Lee Curtis and Stephanie Hsu for Best Supporting Actress. Michelle Yeoh broke the record for being the second woman of Asian descent in Academy history in receiving a Best Leading Actress nomination, the last being Merle Oberon in 1936.
Other record-breaking nominations include John Williams, who beat his own record of being the most Oscar-nominated person alive (with 53 nominations), for Best Original Score for “The Fabelmans.” Angela Bassett received her second Oscar nomination, for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Ryan Coogler’s “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” She became the first actress to be nominated for an Oscar for a performance in a Marvel movie.
There was, however, a major controversy that sprouted from the Best Leading Actress nominations. Many people expressed confusion over Andrea Riseborough’s nomination for the film “To Leslie.” While other films had massive campaigns for Oscar consideration, “To Leslie” earned neither huge gross nor high viewership. Furthermore, “To Leslie” did not contract huge award buzz, and was not nominated for what are considered precursor awards to the Oscars, such as the BAFTAs or the Golden Globes. Buzz for Riseborough in “To Leslie,” according to Time, “came almost entirely by word-of-mouth, with incredibly influential figures in Hollywood praising her performance on social media ahead of the Oscar nominations.” Time mentions notably “Titanic” actor, Frances Fisher having, “posted nine times on her Instagram page advocating for her fellow Academy members to include Riseborough in their Best Actress nominations and rankings.” The Academy investigated whether this was permitted under current guidelines, and have since stated that though they would not revoke her nomination, the guidelines for such social media tactics will be reviewed.
With this controversy in mind, the Oscars also received backlash for once again nominating a majority of white actors and crew, snubbing particularly BIPOC-diverse films such as Jordan Peele’s “Nope,” while nominating controversial films such as Andrew Dominik’s “Blonde.” In my personal opinion, I believe Viola Davis’ performance in “The Woman King” and Danielle Deadwyer’s performance in “Till” as well as Chinonye Chukwu’s directing for the film were particularly snubbed for Best Leading Actress and Best Director nominations. Regardless of those snubs, I hope “Everything, Everywhere, All at Once” wins all their possible awards, as well as “The Whale” star Brendan Fraser for Best Leading Actor (I’m, however, biased as I’ve loved him ever since 1999’s “The Mummy”).
