by Rory Baker
Ricky Kirshner and Glenn Weiss are producing and directing the 2023 Oscars, with late-night talk show host extraordinaire Jimmy Kimmel hosting the lavish show for the third time.
Movie fans around the world will have their fingers crossed that their favourite film, actors, actresses, and directors receive the credit they deserve for producing and starring in some incredibly entertaining and moving films. For the first time in 88 years, the Best Actor nominees are all first-timers, so let us start our look at the 2023 Oscars with that coveted category.
Best Actor
Brendan Fraser is the overwhelming favourite to win the Best Actor title with the best sites for sports betting California has to offer. The 54-year-old American is the leading actor in director Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale. Fraser portrays Charlie, a reclusive English professor who is morbidly obese and who teaches college writing courses online. Deeply ashamed of his weight and appearance, Charlie always turns his webcam off. Charlie has not seen his estranged daughter, Ellie, for eight years and dreams of reconciling with her.
We do not want to spoil the movie for anyone that is yet to see it, but Fraser’s performance is outstanding. The Whale premiered at the 79th Venice International Film Festival in September 2022, where it received a six-minute standing ovation, with Fraser’s performance highly praised.
The only actor that will come close to stopping Fraser from winning his first Oscar is Austin Butler for his portrayal of Elvis Presley in the biographical drama Elvis.
Best Actress
While the Best Actor category looks clear-cut, the battle to be crowned Best Actress is much closer. There is little separating Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All At Once) and Cate Blanchett (TAR) in this category.
Sixty-year-old Yeoh is the first-ever woman who identifies as Asian to be nominated for the Best Actress award. Yeoh, who has starred in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, the martial arts hit Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, is a narrow favourite for this year’s best actress award.
In the science fiction surreal comedy Everything Everywhere All at Once, Yeoh plays a struggling laundromat owner in what is a bizarre film but a highly entertaining one. IndieWire’s David Ehrlich said of the film that it “is the greatest performance that Michelle Yeoh has ever given.” High praise indeed.
Blanchett hopes to get her hands on a third Academy Award, having won Best Supporting Actress in 2004 for The Aviator and the Best Actress award in 2013 for Blue Jasmine. Blanchett is up for Best Actress again for her role as Lydia Tar, a renowned conductor accused of sexual abuse. Blanchett won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the 79th Venice International Film Festival, giving her every chance to win another Oscar.
Oscars Best Picture
Everything Everywhere All at Once will win the Oscars Best Picture, and it will not even be a closely run race if the bookmakers are to be believed. The film has received critical acclaim and taken over $107 million at the worldwide box office despite working to a budget of no more than $25 million. The absurdist comedy-drama is highly original, while the acting of the aforementioned Yeoh is nothing short of superb.
Although Everything Everywhere All at Once is a shoo-in for the Best Picture award, a couple of other nominations deserve your time. All Quiet on the Western Front would likely have become Best Picture if it had not been released in 2022. Also, The Banshees of Inisherin is ridiculously good, but the black tragicomedy is not to everyone’s tastes.
