The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Tuesday unveiled its shortlists for the 2023 Oscars in 10 categories, including documentary and international features as well as documentary short subject, makeup and hairstyling, original score, original song, animated short, live-action short, sound and visual effects.
Fifteen international features advanced, out of the films from 92 countries and regions that were eligible. The list includes Close (Belgium), Decision to Leave (South Korea), All Quiet on the Western Front (Germany), Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Bardo (Mexico) and Joyland, which gives Pakistan its first shortlisted film in the category.
India’s international entry, Last Film Show, also made that list, while another Indian film, RRR, made the shortlist for its energetic song “Naatu Naatu.” All Quiet on the Western Front was additionally shortlisted for makeup and hairstyling, score, sound and VFX.
This year, 144 documentary features were eligible, and 15 advanced, including All That Breathes, Fire of Love and Moonage Daydream (which additionally made the shortlist in the sound category). Among the more surprising omissions was Mars Rover doc Good Night Oppy. Members of the Documentary Branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees for documentary feature and well as documentary short (15 films were shortlisted from 98 qualified shorts).
Fifteen scores advanced out of 147 eligible titles; members of the music branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees. The list includes several past Oscar winners, including five-time Oscar winner John Williams for The Fablemans (with 53 nominations, Williams is the most-nominated living individual), Ludwig Göransson for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever; Hildur Gudnadóttir for Sarah Polley’s Women Talking (her second film, Todd Field’s Tár, didn’t make it through this round); and Alexandre Desplat for Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (Pinocchio was additionally shortlisted for its song “Ciao Papa” and its sound.)
Meanwhile, 15 songs will advance among the 81 eligible tunes, with members of the Music Branch also selecting these nominees. The shortlist includes star power from the likes of Rihanna, for “Lift Me Up” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever; Lady Gaga, for “Hold My Hand” from Top Gun: Maverick; and Taylor Swift, for “Carolina” from Where the Crawdads Sing.
The Sound Branch, which selects the shortlisted movies and nominees in the sound category, reinstated its bake-off and shortlist a year ago. Branch members will be able to view excerpts from each of the 10 shortlisted films beginning Jan. 12 in the San Francisco Bay area, followed by New York, London and Los Angeles.
Among the individuals to watch is two-time Oscar winner Andy Nelson, who with 22 Academy Award nominations holds the record for the most noms in the sound category and is currently tied with Randy Newman for the third-most noms among living persons. This year, his sound work is shortlisted in three movies: Babylon, The Batman and Elvis.
The VFX shortlist, selected by the VFX branch executive committee, includes presumed frontrunner Avatar: The Way of Water and nine additional movies, including Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Top Gun: Maverick. The 10 shortlisted titles will be featured in the VFX branches’ Jan. 14 bake-off, involving excerpts from the movies and interviews with the contenders, before branch members vote on the five nominees.
The Academy’s Makeup Artists and Hairstylists Branch will additionally participate in a bake-off, slated for Jan. 15, during which branch members are invited to view excerpts and interviews with the artists from each of the 10 shortlisted films.
The shortlists also include 15 live-action shorts (out of the 200 that qualified for consideration) and 15 animated shorts (81 qualified). Members of the Short Films and Feature Animation, Directors, Producers and Writers Branches vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees.
Nominations voting runs from Jan. 12-17, and nominations will be announced Jan. 24. The 95th Oscars are slated to be held March 12 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.
The complete shortlists follow. (Read The Hollywood Reporter awards expert Scott Feinberg’s analysis here.)
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE FILM
All That Breathes
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Bad Axe
Children of the Mist
Descendant
Fire of Love
Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song
Hidden Letters
A House Made of Splinters
The Janes
Last Flight Home
Moonage Daydream
Navalny
Retrograde
The Territory
DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILM
American Justice on Trial: People v. Newton
Anastasia
Angola Do You Hear Us? Voices from a Plantation Prison
As Far as They Can Run
The Elephant Whisperers
The Flagmakers
Happiness Is £4 Million
Haulout
Holding Moses
How Do You Measure a Year?
The Martha Mitchell Effect
Nuisance Bear
Shut Up and Paint
Stranger at the Gate
38 at the Garden
INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM
Argentina, Argentina, 1985
Austria, Corsage
Belgium, Close
Cambodia, Return to Seoul
Denmark, Holy Spider
France, Saint Omer
Germany, All Quiet on the Western Front
India, Last Film Show
Ireland, The Quiet Girl
Mexico, Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths
Morocco, The Blue Caftan
Pakistan, Joyland
Poland, EO
South Korea, Decision to Leave
Sweden, Cairo Conspiracy
MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
All Quiet on the Western Front
Amsterdam
Babylon
The Batman
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Blonde
Crimes of the Future
Elvis
Emancipation
The Whale
MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)
All Quiet on the Western Front
Avatar: The Way of Water
Babylon
The Banshees of Inisherin
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Devotion
Don’t Worry Darling
Everything Everywhere All at Once
The Fabelmans
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
Nope
She Said
The Woman King
Women Talking
MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)
“Time” from Amsterdam
“Nothing Is Lost (You Give Me Strength)” from Avatar: The Way of Water
“Lift Me Up” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
“This Is A Life” from Everything Everywhere All at Once
“Ciao Papa” from Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
“Til You’re Home” from A Man Called Otto
“Naatu Naatu” from RRR
“My Mind & Me” from Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me
“Good Afternoon” from Spirited
“Applause” from Tell It like a Woman
“Stand Up” from Till
“Hold My Hand” from Top Gun: Maverick
“Dust & Ash” from The Voice of Dust and Ash
“Carolina” from Where the Crawdads Sing
“New Body Rhumba” from White Noise
ANIMATED SHORT FILM
Black Slide
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse
The Debutante
The Flying Sailor
The Garbage Man
Ice Merchants
It’s Nice in Here
More than I Want to Remember
My Year of Dicks
New Moon
An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It
Passenger
Save Ralph
Sierra
Steakhouse
LIVE-ACTION SHORT FILM
Fifteen films will advance in the Live Action Short Film category for the 95th Academy Awards. Two hundred films qualified in the category. Members of the Short Films and Feature Animation, Directors, Producers and Writers Branches vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees.
The films, listed in alphabetical order by title, are:
All in Favor
Almost Home
An Irish Goodbye
Ivalu
Le Pupille
The Lone Wolf
Nakam
Night Ride
Plastic Killer
The Red Suitcase
The Right Words
Sideral
The Treatment
Tula
Warsha
SOUND
All Quiet on the Western Front
Avatar: The Way of Water
Babylon
The Batman
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Elvis
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
Moonage Daydream
Top Gun: Maverick
VISUAL EFFECTS
All Quiet on the Western Front
Avatar: The Way of Water
The Batman
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore
Jurassic World Dominion
Nope
Thirteen Lives
Top Gun: Maverick
