Screenshot: Everything Everywhere All at Once/A24
If the nominations for the 2023 Academy Awards tell us anything, it’s that the movies are back, baby: After two years of pandemic disruption, and following last year’s ceremony, during which a film released by Apple on its streaming service took home Best Picture, the vast majority of this year’s Oscar nominees played first in theaters. Also telling: For the first time in two years, you actually have to venture out to theaters if you want to see all of the Best Picture nominees in advance of the ceremony on March 12.
A handful of Best Picture nominees—Top Gun: Maverick; Avatar: The Way of Water; Elvia; Everything Everywhere All at Once—were even box office hits, which is more than you can say for the likes of many recent contenders, even before COVID threatened to kill moviegoing forever. It’s anyone’s guess if the excitement over populist favorites will result in stronger ratings for the Oscar ceremony itself, which is coming off of two years of historic lows. If the recent Golden Globes viewership numbers are any indication, I wouldn’t put money on it.
But good ratings or no, I’m personally pretty happy with this year’s slate of nominees—or the ones I’ve seen, anyway. I’ve got some catching up to do before the awards are handed out—if you do too, here’s the skinny on where you can stream all of the major awards contenders (I’ll continue to update this post as more become available).
