Oscars 2023

Scott Hardie | January 24, 2023
Our annual contest returns! I can't wait to find out who wins on Oscar night, both on TV and in this game.

Any thoughts on the nominees, or on the major films that didn't get nominated?

Erik Bates | February 5, 2023
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Erik Bates | February 5, 2023
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Erik Bates | February 5, 2023
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Scott Hardie | February 8, 2023
Interesting! I think I agree with your assessments. I'm open to seeing all of the Best Picture winners, though I'd rather see the Golden Age classic All Quiet on the Western Front than the new-fangled Netflix remake if I'm going to see one of them. I'm sure that Top Gun: Maverick is fun, but I have doubts that it's anywhere near the best picture of the year. Avatar: The Way of Water is a huge technical achievement and a laudable risk at a time when studios are too cautious, but it's just not that good of a movie; Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers was better, for crying out loud.

I don't understand why Andrea Riseborough has been accused of robbing Viola Davis and Danielle Deadwyler of their deserved Best Lead Actress nominations when Ana de Armas is right there, in a movie that was poorly received. Yes, it's a shame that two good Black actresses were passed over, but Davis won an Oscar just a few years ago, and there's a Latina actress and an Asian actress in the running this year, so it doesn't seem so wildly lopsided to me as it was in the #OscarsSoWhite days. (And just to clarify, I know that Riseborough's nomination is primarily controversial for the way the campaigning happened; I'm deliberately ignoring that part.)

The Academy keeps waffling on the number of films to nominate for Best Picture. Personally, I'd be interested to see what it would look like if all categories were handled algorithmically: Every category would have to contain at least 3 nominees and no more than 10, and the cutoff for nomination would be wherever the largest drop-off in votes occurred between #3 and #11. This way, you'd know that the nominees were really good and truly respected by their peers, and it would make for a more interesting competition. But it would also probably result in fewer nominations overall, and the whole point of the Oscars is to bring attention to the film industry and to give studios something to promote, so it would never really happen.

The Tony Awards are grappling with how to recognize non-binary actors, and the Academy had better figure out a plan for that before it embarrasses them too.

Samir Mehta | February 9, 2023
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Scott Hardie | February 10, 2023
I assume that the Academy's frequent snubbing of genre films has at least something to do with those movies not benefiting financially from an Oscar nomination the way that smaller dramas do, but still, the complete lack of any nomination for Nope was a surprise, given its near-universal praise by critics and audiences. And yeah, I too would have preferred for Wakanda Forever (has a title ever had so little need to name its main character?) to be nominated for Best Picture, though I'm pleased that it got so much recognition elsewhere. I want to quibble over Everything Everywhere All at Once not being eligible for a special effects nomination, given how its team accomplished so much with so little, but it racked up so many other nominations that this would feel too ungrateful.

Scott Hardie | March 12, 2023
My favorite Oscars trivia that I've seen online this year: "If Everything Everywhere All at Once wins the top prize, it will be the first Best Picture winner since 1989's Driving Miss Daisy to have a scene where pantsless characters leap onto butt plugs that give them magical powers."

Scott Hardie | March 13, 2023
I've been outspoken about my love for Everything Everywhere All at Once and Michelle Yeoh (who has had to grit her teeth through a lot of terrible movies waiting for really good roles to come her way), so no surprise, I am overjoyed at the outcome of this year's Oscars. Plus, Brendan Fraser! And those amazing costumes! Wow, what a night.

This was our biggest contest ever with 86 entrants, and that's after I deleted the ones that appeared to be duplicates. If we're going to keep growing at this rate (the last few years have had 50, 66, and 71), then the page is going to need a visual overhaul to accommodate such long lists of names, and I'm going to have to do something to automate the manual cleanup of bad data, because right now neither is able to keep up. I'm grateful to everyone who played and supported the ongoing fun that is this annual nonsense. :-)

Any thoughts on the Oscar winners?

Evie Totty | March 13, 2023
Overjoyed for EEAAO! I need to catch up on some of the movies - I didn't see many in the theater last year.

No surprise for Avatar getting sfx and EEAAO getting editing.

I suppose I'll check out All's Quiet... and RRR (which has been on my list for quite some time) and finish a few others.

I watched Marcel... last week and oh gosh - so adorable.
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Matthew Preston | March 15, 2023
@Evie: RRR is amazing! I started it late one night on a whim and couldn't stop watching it. Very pleasantly surprised.

Evie Totty | March 15, 2023
Good to know, Matthew, thanks!