‘The Woman King’, ‘Decision to Leave’, ‘Till’, ‘Nope’, ‘White Noise’ and more critically acclaimed films excluded from the 95th Academy Awards.
(Clockwise from bottom left): “Return to Seoul”, “She Said”, “Till”, “Bones and All” and “Nope”.
Courtesy of the Everett Collection
With huge acclaim and as many (if not more) snubs in the mix, the nominations for the 95th Academy Awards are finally here.
Artists excited for the Oscars to record fan-favorite blockbusters got their wish granted Tuesday when Joseph Kosinski’s Top Gun: Maverick and James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water, both sequels, released it made it into a close race for best film. Her competitors include Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin, Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis, Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans, Todd Field’s TÁR, Ruben Ostlund’s Triangle of Sadness, Sarah Polley’s Women Talking, Edward Berger’s Alles”. Quiet on the Western Front” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once” by Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, who is leading the bigger race with 11 total Oscar nominations.
The films that weren’t nominated are just as interesting as the ones that were nominated. Although Polley’s Amish drama was eligible for the top prize, women were once again excluded from the Best Director category. Worse, Gina Prince-Bythewood saw her box office success and critical hit completely iced over.
“It’s shocking to see audience favorites ‘The Woman King’ come up empty-handed and even Oscar-winner Viola Davis not making the Best Actress shortlist,” writes IndieWire’s Marcus Jones of Prince-Bythewood’s acclaimed historical Drama. “Many factors may have contributed to his snub, from Best Picture’s anti-action bias to Andrea Riseborough’s last-minute grassroots campaign potentially knocking out perennial nominee Viola Davis.” are Jordan Peele’s “Nope” and Chinonye Chukwu’s “Till”.
In the Best International Feature Film race, both Park Chan-wook’s “Decision to Leave” (Korea’s entry) and Davy Chou’s “Return to Seoul” (Cambodia’s entry) were disregarded. This puts All Quiet on the Western Front (Germany’s entry) in position to snag two grand prizes should it win Best Picture.
This is, of course, only a small fraction of what emerges from Tuesday’s nominations. Here are 26 great films that were flatly rejected by the 2023 Oscars – chosen from a combination of IndieWire favorites and previous predictions ahead of the Academy’s announcement.
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