Another award-season comes to an end, highlighting the changes in the film-industry were seeing more and more off lately.
Photo: Samuel Ramos / Unsplash

Tuesday, January 24th marked the announcement of the 95th Academy Award nominations, with A24 sleeper hit and critical darling Everything Everywhere All At Once leading with 11 nominations. After The Banshees of Inisherin won Best Comedy and several other top awards at the Golden Globes and EEAAO clinched two of the acting categories, 2023 is proving to be a year that is arguably rewarding movies that traditionally would have been nowhere close to a podium in previous years.

Once the long summer months of the main festival circuit are over (Cannes, Venice, TIFF), the films that garner enough buzz and/or acclaim are slowly released in theaters and begin their “awards season” campaigning. The aforementioned “awards season” stretches during the long, profitable winter months, as the holidays prove to be a potent time to get audiences into cinema seats (better to watch a movie than attempt holiday dinner conversation with family during your annual regression, right?). This is the period when “Oscar bait”, a somewhat derogatory and dismissive term for films that check off certain tropes and characteristics commonly rewarded by the Academy, burst out onto the scene just weeks ahead of nomination announcements. These release dates are strategic, but a solid strategy doesn’t guarantee institutional recognition. In fact, many of this year’s fan-favourites were not released during the “awards season” rush as Everything Everywhere All At Once came out in the spring while Top Gun: Maverick and Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis roared into theaters in the May and June, profiting off the summer blockbuster clamour.

This year is chock-full of comeback tales as the stars of yester-decades and international cinema throw punches against the Tinseltown that previously shut them out. Brendan Fraser, much lauded for his performance in Darren Aronofsky’s drama The Whale, experienced a major hiccup in his career during the 2000s and 10s after a sexual assault by the then-president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Despite being nominated for his role, Fraser declined to attend this year’s show in an act of protest against the HFPA. Ke Huy Quan and Michelle Yeoh have both been on the receiving end of Hollywood’s lack of roles for Asian actors, the former going as far as nixing acting altogether after his success as a child star in the 1980s dried up in the 1990s. Quan and Yeoh, along with Stephanie Hsu in her feature film debut, all secured acting noms at the 2023 Oscars. In fact, more than half of this year’s acting nominees are first time recipients, an incredible feat for all those involved. Aftersun, the heart wrenching debut feature from Charlotte Wells, swept the British Independent Film Awards and has been dominating many end of the year critics’ lists. This is a major milestone for a female director so early in her career. Paul Mescal, previously most known for his role as Connell in Normal People, even secured a Best Actor nomination at the Oscars.

This winter’s award season has proven once and for all the there’s cinematic profit to scoop up at the end of the Hollywood-risk-rainbow.
Photo: Alessia C_jpg / Unsplash

The usual suspects (The Fabelmans, Babylon, Glass Onion) secured a few nominations each, but not as many as they were definitely expecting to amass (Babylon especially has been a total box office bomb). I believe this points to a shift in the age-old idea that movies about Hollywood and/or casting major A-list ensembles will secure the Academy’s utmost appreciation (has anyone checked on former wunderkind Damien Chazelle? Is he okay?). However, the expensive and popcorn-munching-made theatrics of Top Gun and Elvis are indicative that even the mainstream blockbuster film has the chance of Academy recognition. Once seen as fluffy schlock for the easy to please masses, there’s now a sense of artistic credibility being designated to these works. Luhrmann, whose last few films (The Great Gatsby, Australia) only received Oscar noms for the incredible costuming and production design work, garnered critical acclaim for Elvis without compromising his modern dizzying auteur style. Whether featuring Miles Teller’s moustache or Austin Butler’s frenetically edited gyrating hips, these crowd-pleasers throw away the dismissive attitude once shown to multi-million megahits.

Now more than ever it is becoming very possible and even incredibly profitable to take risks in Hollywood and be rewarded for them. It’s go big or go home as these films are all critically exceeding beyond the expectations set for them. Foregoing genre restrictions, “marketable” release dates, name recognition, and acceptable star profiles, or opting to fully commit to over-the-top spectacles, more films are taking chances and having them pay off. Word of mouth is strong, production companies like A24 have a chokehold on Gen Z’s pockets, and alternative/art house streaming services such as MUBI bring niche fare to international audiences. All this to say, I’m excited for more films that push the envelope and make us question what is “good” filmmaking or a “superior” performance in the future. Who would have thought the Academy would fall for a film with butt plug fight scenes and sausage hands? For 2023, my to-watch list includes Ari Astor’s Beau is Afraid, Greta Gerwig’s very much anticipated Barbie, Sharper, MaXXXine, and Showing Up. Maybe I’m just a Letterboxd girlie partial to Ryan Gosling’s bleached Ken tips, but I have a feeling this is going to be a stacked year for top notch movies. Who knows, maybe this year Mia Goth finally wins some awards for her scream queen antics!

Dark horses no more