The 95th Oscars Shortlists Are Here!

by Cláudio Alves

"All Quiet on the Western Front" | © Netflix

Like in the last few seasons, the Academy has announced shortlists in 10 Oscar categories – Documentary Feature, International Film, Original Score, Song, Sound, Visual Effects, and the three Shorts races. As always, there are surprises along with expected honors and the domination of certain frontrunners. One imagines this is an especially sweet batch of finalists for fans of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and All Quiet on the Western Front, who rule over all other contenders with mentions in five different categories. Not far behind, we find Avatar: The Way of Water with four categories.

Expect more commentary at a later time, but for now, let's look over the complete lists and fire off some instant reactions…

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 

 I'm sad that Alcarràs and Mars One missed the list and most surprised by Klondike's snub. But, overall, I didn't do that lousy predictions-wise – a rare occasion worth celebrating.

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE 

• 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

This category has the potential to be one of the very best lineups of the year. So please don't disappoint, AMPAS. Regarding surprises, I'm shocked at Good Night Oppy's failure to secure a spot on this shortlist. The same goes for Three Minutes: A Lengthening, which many were predicting.

"Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" | © Disney

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

Though Tár was deemed ineligible, Hildur Gudnadottir is still on track for a second nomination thanks to her work in Women Talking. Good to know Nope wasn't completely forgotten and that Don't Worry Darling can get recognition for one of its few worthy elements.

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

 Justice for "Nobody Like U" and "(You Made It Feel Like) Home" from Turning Red and Bones & All, respectively. Also, am I the only one surprised at Amsterdam's success here?

"Moonage Daydream" | © Neon

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

Moonage Daydream is a delightful inclusion, though it's sad that Tár's sound design didn't impress Academy voters. Pinocchio is another surprise addition, while The Fabelmans' absence may indicate less widespread support than many have assumed. We'll have to wait and see.

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

 What a boring list overall. Sad, too, since Everything Everywhere All At Once's absence is a shock. Also, how on Earth did The Secrets of Dumbledore make it here?

MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING 

• All Quiet on the Western Front
• Amsterdam
• Babylon
• The Batman
• Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
• Blonde
• Crimes of the Future
• Elvis
• Emancipation
• The Whale

A Man Called Otto won't follow in the path of its Swedish original, which scored one of those weird Makeup nods for European flicks. It seems The Northman was utterly forgotten by voters. Furthermore, Crimes of the Future aside, this branch remains vexingly anti-horror.

"Ice Merchants" | © COLA - Colectivo Audiovisual

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

I can't begin to explain how overjoyed I am at Ice Merchants' success. Please, let this materialize in a nomination.

LIVE-ACTION SHORT FILM 

• 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

DOCUMENTARY SHORT

• 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

What are your thoughts on the Oscars shortlists? What surprised and delighted you the most? What made you seethe?

Comments

[Dan H]

ALL'S QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT sure seems to have support in the tech branches. Could it come out on top in terms of number of nominations? Maybe not, with TOP GUN and AVATAR in the mix, but it suddenly looks formidable.

[eurocheese]

EEAAO's snub for VFX and Nope missing in Sound make no sense to me. Not bad overall, I suppose, but those are frustrating. (EEAAO in Makeup/Hair, RRR in Score and Good Night Oppy in Doc would have been nice too.)

[Wae Mest]

I hate that they do these, darling! It reveals too many mind-boggling oversights, like somehow not including NOPE and EO in Best Sound? Come again!?

[jules]

Does anyone know why they publish shortlists in some craft-specific categories but not others (I understand the rationale for Documentary and International Film)? And why some have 10 finalists but others have 15?

It feels as though the pundits may have exagerrated the potential Academy support for EEAAO and RRR. I am really glad to see the support for Moonage Daydream, though.

[Mr Ripley79]

I am surprised at The Woman King's omission in Make up and Hair.

[Glenn Dunks]

I correctly predicted 13 or the 15 documentary titles, and I really should've known better about GOOD NIGHT OPPY. I'd love MOONAGE DAYDREAM to come through with that sound nomination even if it won't make the doc nominations (i don't think it will, anyway).

VFX is so weird. For a branch full of people seemingly with a lot of imagination, they don't really like to venture too far afield do they? Sheesh.

[Ryan Steinke]

TÁR missing in Sound is frustrating. But happy NOPE got some deserved mentions. And I'm not thrilled about it, but looks like the overrated All Quiet on the Western Front is a major threat to make the Best Picture lineup.

[Paranoid Android]

I fear this is the beginning of the realization that EEAAO just isn’t the Academy’s cup of tea and will miss in a bunch of the categories that everyone thinks it should place in. Fingers crossed.

Did I watch a different NOPE? It was ok, had some good concepts, but hardly a success on the level of Us and Get Out.

[Travis C]

Sad: as well as KLONDIKE, the two magnificent Down Under films - YOU WON'T BE ALONE, MURU - didn't make it (although, given they could both be seen as "genre", I am not surprised). Happy: THE QUIET GIRL and JOYLAND

Surprised: given the Academy's adoration of MY OCTOPUS TEACHER, I would've though their love for soppiness would've extended to GOOD NIGHT,OPPY. Happy: FIRE OF LOVE (but, then again, if that hadn't made it, it would've been a huge upset)

Worried: I am an Oscar nomination completist each year so, please Academy, don't force me to watch the Selena Gomez movie (Best Song always has me watching movies I had never considered before). Hoping: "Ciao Papa" and "New Body Rhumba" make it to the nomination stage, given that they are definitely not just credit songs (yes, I know NBR technically is, but anyone who has seen the movie will know why it deserves a nomination). Also wondering: if any others are not credit songs (I have seen AMSTERDAM, THE WAY OF WATER, WAKANDA FOREVER, EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE, MAVERICK and WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING, and I believe they are all credit songs, but please correct me if I am wrong. I also know that "Naatu Naatu" isn't but, given my personal distaste for Bollywood numbers, I am not keen on it)

Question: what's the deal with the BOY FROM HEAVEN to CAIRO CONSPIRACY name change?

[Antônio]

It’s hard to understand All Quiet on the Western Front making it on VFX and score. To me is just another washed away Hollywood-type war spectacle where all its “achievements” sound like a copy of better movies made before. Nothing is new, nothing seems original or especially creative. I’m confused. Did I saw the same movie as everybody?

[ScottC]

Very happy the LCD Soundsystem song is moving on to the next round.

[Richter Scale]

Antonio: While not groundbreaking in any way, I do think All Quiet on the Western Front is impeccably done, and the battle scenes are sublinmely crafted, so even if it does seem like a version of something we've seen before, it's very good at it (I got a chance to see it on the big screen and it was quite stirring). I also think it's significant that Germany is the one telling this particular story this time (I do wonder if this may make it a new frontrunner for International Feature).

Paranoid: I've always been skeptical of the Academy's embrace of EEAAO, and yet, it still made it into three shortlists, so while it may be shown to be weaker than we thought, I still think it will have a healthy Oscar nomination morning. And if on the end it gets few nominations, well, remember how many nominations last year's Best Picture winner had?

[Peggy Sue]

Shortlists are tacky.

Sad for Alcarràs. Very good movie. Deserved a spot in the final 5.

I don't even love the movie but you have to be very square to exclude Everything Everywhere in visual effects.

The Blonde inclusion in makeup gave me hope for a best actress/best makeup combo. This is an actressexual site, Ana de Armas is phenomenal in the movie and it needs to be said more often.

[jules]

Travis - Hold My Hand from Maverick is played during the movie twice, I believe (in the background in the bar and when Tom Cruise and Jennifer Connelly are riding on the motorcycle), so not just a credit song.

[Peggy Sue]

I will be forever grateful if anyone posts a spotify list with the shortlisted songs and scores.

[Cláudio Alves]

Peggy Sue_ Here you go with a playlist for Best Song: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1mTBCoi3mgQLgfVki0BADL?si=0fa84cff6b1e4c55

It doesn't include "Dust & Ash" because I can't find it on Spotify. I'll do one for Best Original Score right away, too.

[Cláudio Alves]

And here's a link to the Best Original Score playlist:https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4CxBzZwakpGJEYQugvl7Ey?si=566478700c3242ad

[Dan H]

Considering much of the discourse around EEAAO, perpetuated by critics and some of the people involved in the film (I'm looking at you Jamie Lee Curtis), was, essentially, "it's like a Marvel movie, but actually good, with a heart," it's possible that a backlash against it by people in the crafts occurred. If you're in the special effects branch and you spend all your time working on Marvel movies, you could well be annoyed at this upstart film, with people bragging that their SFX cost less than a Marvel film's craft services budget for a single week.

Also, let's face it, the best thing about the film was the script and the performances. Nobody came away from a screening thinking the editing or SFX for EEAAO were actually really good (maybe good for the amount of $ spent, but that's not the same thing.)

I, frankly found it overrated and headache inducing, and I'm probably part of the demographics of the crafts voters: White guy in his mid 50s.

I do hope it gets acting nods for Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, and Jamie Lee Curtis, and wouldn't mind Stephanie Hsu and James Hong getting in, either, but that's it. Those hotdog fingers were just NOT Oscar worthy prosthetics, even if they were supposed to look fake.

[Robert G]

Dear Santa,

All I want for Christmas is support for Nope to keep growing into the nominations. Let the film be stronger than anticipated with the Academy. Academy Award nominee Keke Palmer just sounds right, you know?

Thank you,
-Robert

[TomG]

I'm not surprised EEAAO didn't get a VFX nod. Like Dan H said, they didn't really have an effects team, but did it all by looking at videos online. If the story behind that is, anyone can make great effects, then why do we need all these professionals to make them? There was no way most of the VFX department was going to get behind that. EEAAO needs support of bigger branches (actors particularly) to get support and nominations at the Oscars. How much SAG supports it will be telling.

International feature is going to be a bloodbath. There are 10 likely nominees and I can't pick which ones are not making the cut. All Quiet on the Western Front seems like the most likely and the best bet for Netflix to get in best picture.

[Finbar McBride]

Disappointments

Critics’ prizes had me hoping’ that RRR was gaining momentum for a Best Picture nod. Today’s short lists seem to say, “There goes that dream.”

Another opportunity to hang a best song nomination on Diane Warren’s IMDB Awards page. Sigh.

The Hair and Make Up short list appears that voters marked 14 films on the first page of the ballot and then flipped to the end to check off The Whale.

I know pundits scoffed, but I am still taken aback that Oprah Winfrey’s love letter to Sidney Poitier didn’t land on the Best Documentary short list. Is O losing her clout? Does this mean the upcoming musical version of The Color Purple may not be the awards magnet I am expecting?

[Gallavich]

At least after the snub of NOPE in sound nothing will hurt me when the nomination will arrive.

Choose 15 titles for best international feature was hard. Now that the there is a shortlist it looks even more difficult!

[Arnaud Trouvé]

Sad for "Nope" missing in Sound.

The 3 Amigos are here ! Del Toro with Pinocchio, Iñárritu with Bardo, and Cuarón as a producer of Alice Rohrwacher's short "Le Pupille" (it's streaming on Disney+).

[Arnaud Trouvé]

oh and thank you Cláudio for the Spotify playlists !

[Peggy Sue]

Muito obrigado

[Arnaud Trouvé]

I also forgot to add that "Warsha" is a superb short film, starring the Lebanese belly dancer Khansa. You can watch it here : https://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/092084-000-A/warsha/

[trados]

Where is The Batman score??

[trados]

Links:

Oscars Shortlist for Best Score: https://youtu.be/9iiAnpwshUw

Oscars Shortlist for Best Song: https://youtu.be/dwNmw1oFT58

[Brittani Burnham]

There's a lot of puzzling omissions here but I'm so happy The Quiet Girl made it to the next round of international films!

[Michael R]

Peggy Sue : completely agree with you on de Armas in Blonde. The performance of the year in my opinion. Talk about an actor throwing their entire body and soul into a role. She was mesmerizing. If she can get enough #1 and #2 votes on ballots you never know...

[Richter Scale]

Sort of OT, but in all the conversation around India not submitting RRR, there's something I haven't seen mentioned anywhere. I was reading the Wikipedia page of the International Feature category and this showed up: "Foreign films where most of the dialogue is in English cannot qualify for the International Feature Film Award, and the academy has usually applied this requirement very seriously by disqualifying films containing too much English dialogue..."

Given that all the villains in the film are British and there's so much dialogue in English, I wonder if India was aware of this rule and didn't submit RRR because so much of it is in English and they wanted to avoid the embarassment of being disqualified.

[Kris]

Being a completest, have been watching all these shorts after the announcement.
From Short animation missing just 2, that I can't find anywhere over the internet - New moon and one of the coolest titles: An ostrich told me the world is fake and I think i believe it

But the TOP13 that I have seen:
Frontrunner - It's nice in here - powerful stuff about police violence... not just in this category, but important over any.

The second - Save Ralph - another socially important little film, that says so much with it's ironic lense in a very short time. Important and thoughtprovoking but yeah - ironic glory on a sad matter - the animal testings.

Bronze - The boy, the mole, the fox, and the horse - just a lovely classical fairytale and we need one nomination like that every year. Friendship is love.

4. My year of dicks - 5 stories about a 15year old trying to loose her virginity to all sorts of dicks
5. More than I want to remember - sad, but ultimately not so sad story about a young refugee girl from Congo, ending up in US
6. Black slide - boys and the slides - some have the courage, some don't...
7. Steakhouse - ewww, that one thing happening there makes you feel sick!
8. Sierra - rally, father and son...surreal...but that is art, eh?
9. The debutante - stylish, would even place this higher, if it weren't over so fast.
10. Passenger/Pasajero - this is crafty stuff, about a trainride with a bubch of strangers when you start feeling that you're a stranger to the whole world.
11. Ice breakers - maybe the best drawn film, but the story is kinda, not that good, but it can get nominated for the art.
12. The flying sailor - not for me... not even nice to look at the art side of it, but it's the taste, of course.
13. The garbage man - artsy, handdrawn I guess, and lots to see, but the story was just meh...

I guess i'm more after the storyline, than for the art. But the academy always has a mixture of these as nominations. But I really hope, that at least the first 2 on my list end up nominated.

[Joe Stemme]

I honestly don't understand why the Academy hasn't expanded the International Film category to 10 films. If the U.S. dominated Best Picture category can have 10 nominees why does The Entire Rest Of The World only get 5 slots?

You could also expand the shortlist to 20 films.

Lastly, I think the Oscars should consider allowing at least one "at large" nomination in the category for films that played theatrically in the U.S. but were not selected by their home country.

[Michael R]

Joe Stemme : excellent idea!