Our film critics have shared their personal shortlists for the Oscars, and the winner will be announced soon.

Wendy Ide

Best picture

The list of my top choices (with my first choice as the winner)

• The Zone of Interest

• The structure of a fall

  Explanation: The components of a fall

• Past Lives

• Poor Things

• Priscilla

Consider a parallel universe where the Academy recognized and praised bold creativity and daring in art. Instead of the typical safe and predictable choices, we could have seen edgy films like Anatomy of a Fall, a gripping courtroom drama, or the wildly unconventional Poor Things, with a genuine shot at winning. However, my top choice would be Jonathan Glazer’s haunting and masterful work, The Zone of Interest, which has stayed with me since I first viewed it eight months ago.

Best director

• I’m sorry, I am not sure what you are asking me to reword. “Justine Triet – Anatomy of a Fall” appears to be the title of a film or book. Please provide more context or information.

• Jonathan Glazer – The Zone of Interest

• Yorgos Lanthimos – Poor Things

• Christopher Nolan – Oppenheimer

• Sofia Coppola – Priscilla

Christopher Nolan is a top contender for his intense style in depicting Oppenheimer. And it’s understandable why – there is a great deal of forceful direction in the film. However, I would choose to honor a director who doesn’t constantly hit the audience: Sofia Coppola’s delicate approach to Priscilla or Justine Triet’s skillful storytelling in Anatomy of a Fall.

Best actor

• Andrew Scott – All of Us Strangers

• Actor

  Jeffrey Wright is an actor known for his work in American fiction.

• Nicolas Cage – Dream Scenario

• Cillian Murphy – Oppenheimer

• Colman Domingo – Rustin

Comic performances tend to be undervalued by awards voters, which is why I would be thrilled to see Nicolas Cage’s hilarious, vanity-free turn in Dream Scenario in contention, or a reward for Jeffrey Wright’s impeccably crisp and acidic line readings in American Fiction. But my pick in this category is Andrew Scott, who broke my heart in practically every frame of All of Us Strangers.

Best actress

• The film “Poor Things” features Emma Stone.

• Days

  Teyana Taylor’s song “A Thousand and One Days”

• Sandra Hüller – Anatomy of a Fall

• Natalie Portman – May December

• Greta Lee – Past Lives

The category for best actress is highly competitive once again. Emerging talents such as Greta Lee, who shines in Past Lives, and the exceptional Teyana Taylor in A Thousand and One, are up against well-known names like the brilliantly wicked Natalie Portman in May December and the outstanding Sandra Hüller. However, Emma Stone claims the win with her fearless portrayal in Poor Things.

Supporting actor

• Charles Melton – May December

• Dominic Sessa – The Holdovers

• Glenn Howerton – BlackBerry

• Mark Ruffalo – Poor Things

• Reworded: The title “All of Us Strangers” is associated with Paul Mescal.

The categories for supporting actors are where we uncover new talent – newcomer Dominic Sessa’s breakout performance in The Holdovers showcases his impressive abilities – and rediscover familiar faces: Glenn Howerton from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is nearly unrecognizable in BlackBerry. My top choice, however, is Charles Melton from Riverdale, who delivers a poignant performance as a grown man haunted by childhood trauma in May December.

Supporting actress

• Da’Vine Joy Randolph – The Holdovers

• Sandra Hüller stars in “The Zone of Interest.”

• Julianne Moore – May December

• Claire Foy – All of Us Strangers

• Eva Green stars in the film “The Three Musketeers”.

Sandra Hüller and Julianne Moore both give standout performances as despicable individuals – a Nazi wife and a child abuser, respectively. Eva Green is captivatingly deceitful as Milady in both incarnations of last year’s Three Musketeers. However, my top pick for this category is the superb Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who brings heart and soul to Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers.

Best documentary

• Four Daughters

• Beyond Utopia

• Apolonia, Apolonia

• 20 Days in Mariupol

• The Eternal Memory

This year’s selection for best documentary is proving to be a challenging decision with the pre-announced shortlist. One standout for me is Kaouther Ben Hania’s Four Daughters, a daring and unique hybrid documentary that explores the effects of radicalization on a Tunisian mother and her daughters. However, I also thoroughly enjoyed Madeleine Gavin’s Beyond Utopia, a gripping real-life thriller that follows North Korean defectors, and was captivated by the intimate bond between filmmaker Lea Glob and her painter subject in Apolonia, Apolonia.

Mark Kermode

Best picture

• Past Lives

• The structure of a descent

  The makeup of a tumble

• Enys Men

• Poor Things

• Infinity Pool

During the Oscar ceremony, there may be a competition for the top title between three films: Oppenheimer, Poor Things, and Killers of the Flower Moon. I personally hope that my favorite film, Past Lives, will be among the 10 nominees, which would be very satisfying. Unfortunately, Enys Men has no chance of being nominated (unfortunately!), and other beloved British films like Rye Lane and How to Have Sex are not eligible this year.

Director

• Celine Song – Past Lives

• Justine Triet – Anatomy of a Fall

• Mark Jenkin – Enys Men

• Christopher Nolan – Oppenheimer

• Greta Gerwig – Barbie

Following his success at the Golden Globes, it appears that Chistopher Nolan is finally poised to win the well-deserved best director Oscar. While French director Justine Triet deserves praise for her Palme d’Or winning film Anatomy of a Fall, my personal vote goes to Celine Song, a first-time Korean-Canadian filmmaker whose debut feature Past Lives exudes the unwavering assurance of an experienced director. A new talent has emerged!

Best actor

• Cillian Murphy – Oppenheimer

• Teo Yoo’s Previous Incarnations

• Barry Keoghan – Saltburn

• Jeffrey Wright – American Fiction

• Andrew Scott’s work, “All of Us Strangers.”

Cillian Murphy is currently the top choice of bookmakers for his exceptional portrayal of Oppenheimer in the film, capturing his character’s intricacies through close-up shots that showcase a vast range of subtle expressions. Similarly, Teo Yoo, a German-South Korean actor, deserves recognition for his understated yet powerful performance in Past Lives, exemplifying the idea that great acting involves effective reactions.

Best actress

• Lily Gladstone – Killers of the Flower Moon

• Sandra Hüller – Anatomy of a Fall

• Emma Stone – Poor Things

• Mary Woodvine – Enys Men

• Greta Lee – Past Lives

Lily Gladstone stands out in her role in Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon and has garnered significant support from both Academy voters and international audiences. Sandra Hüller delivers a brilliant performance in multiple languages in Anatomy of a Fall, showcasing her exceptional talent. Emma Stone gives a standout performance in Poor Things, putting her all into the role. Special recognition also goes to Mia Goth for her uniquely captivating performance in Infinity Pool.

Best supporting actor

• Charles Melton’s relationship with his partner has a significant age gap.

• Ryan Gosling – Barbie

• Mark Ruffalo – Poor Things

• John Magaro stars in the film “Past Lives”.

• Sterling K Brown – American Fiction

Following his successful win at the Golden Globes, Robert Downey Jr (playing Oppenheimer) is currently the top contender to receive the trophy at the Oscars. However, I personally believe that Alaska-native Charles Melton deserves the award for his understated performance alongside Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman, both exceptional screen actors at the peak of their careers, in Todd Haynes’s hauntingly subdued drama May December.

Best supporting actress

• Da’Vine Joy Randolph – The Holdovers

• Sandra Hüller stars in “The Zone of Interest.”

• Penélope Cruz – Ferrari

• Viola Davis – Air

• Danielle Brooks – The Color Purple

Another vote for Sandra Hüller, for a very different performance in Jonathan Glazer’s icily disturbing The Zone of Interest. But it’s Golden Globe winner Da’Vine Joy Randolph who deserves Oscar success for the warmth and depth she brings to Alexander Payne’s bittersweet retro charmer The Holdovers. Also, hooray for Penélope Cruz, who really fires the engines of Ferrari.

Best original score

• Jerskin Fendrix – Poor Things

• Mica Levi’s work titled “The Zone of Interest”

• Daniel Pemberton – Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

• Robbie Robertson – Killers of the Flower Moon

• Composer

  Laura Karpman is an American composer known for her contributions to fiction.

My most listened-to score of 2023 was Christopher Bear and Daniel Rossen’s ambient accompaniment to Past Lives, reminiscent of Eiko Ishibashi’s Drive My Car soundtrack from 2021. Like Icelandic maestro Hildur Guðnadóttir’s score for A Haunting in Venice, Past Lives was eligible but not in the shortlist announced last month. Luckily, British musician Jerskin Fendrix has made the shortlist for Poor Things – his music unlocks the emotive power of Lanthimos’s strange gem.

Guy Lodge

Best picture

• The Zone of Interest

• We are all strangers.

• Anselm

• Beau Is Afraid

• Showing Up

Selecting only five candidates was challenging, but determining a victor was simple. Ever since the Cannes Film Festival, The Zone of Interest has remained in my thoughts and affected me deeply: Jonathan Glazer’s flawlessly crafted portrayal of a Nazi family residing on the opposite side of the Auschwitz barrier depicts the Holocaust in a way that has not been captured before, with immense horrors that are even more overpowering for being concealed, hidden behind flower beds.

Best director

• Jonathan Glazer – The Zone of Interest

• Ari Aster – Beau Is Afraid

• Rewritten: The director of “Poor Things” is Yorgos Lanthimos.

• Hlynur Pálmasson – Godland

• Alice Rohrwacher – La Chimera

I will not protest if Christopher Nolan wins his highly anticipated Oscar for the film “Oppenheimer”. It showcases his exceptional scientific approach to filmmaking and his fascination with destructive masculinity. However, Glazer surpassed him in precise formal execution and striking historical perspective. Additionally, I was captivated by other imaginative directorial styles from last year, including Rohrwacher’s grounded magical realism, Lanthimos’s ornate Frankenstein-inspired fantasy, and Aster’s surreal and unsettling absurdism.

Best actor

• Franz Rogowski – Passages

• Riz Ahmed – Fingernails

• Josh O’Connor – La Chimera

• Thomas Schubert – Afire

• Andrew Scott – All of Us Strangers

This was a banner year for queer lives on film, normalised without being shorn of complexity and pathos. For me, best actor is a virtual coin-toss between two extraordinary versions of this brief. Playing a gay man isolating himself in the past, Scott’s is an aching study in solitude, whereas Rogowski is both incandescent and infuriating as a polysexual artist who either loves too much or not all.

Best actress

• Cannot reword.

• Julianne Moore – Older woman, younger man

• Emma Stone – Poor Things

• Tia Nomore – Earth Mama

• Michelle Williams is consistently present and engaged.

The distinction between lead and supporting roles is often up for debate. Many consider Lily Gladstone, who gives a powerful performance in Killers of the Flower Moon, to be a frontrunner for Best Actress, but she is not present throughout the entire film. Julianne Moore may be listed as a supporting actress for her role in May December, but she plays a prominent role opposite Natalie Portman. I personally believe she should be considered a lead actress. However, there is no question that Sandra Hüller’s performance in her film is a tour de force and owns the screen.

Best supporting actor

• The artist Jamie Bell’s work is titled “All of Us Strangers”.

• Jacob Elordi – Saltburn

• David Krumholtz – Oppenheimer

• Daniel Henshall – The Royal Hotel

• The title is “Beau Is Afraid” and the person is Nathan Lane.

It can be unpredictable which actors are recognized individually from a group. Robert Downey Jr received a Golden Globe for his excellent performance as the villain in Oppenheimer, but I would also be happy to give the same recognition to his co-stars Matt Damon, Jason Clarke, or the highly underrated Krumholtz. Paul Mescal was awarded the British Independent Film Award for All of Us Strangers, but it was Jamie Bell’s finely detailed portrayal of a father coming to terms with his emotional detachment that truly moved me.

Best supporting actress

• Merve Dizdar – About Dry Grasses

• Hong Chau – Showing Up

• Kerrie Hayes is wearing blue jeans.

• Marin Ireland – Eileen

• The title of the performance is “Beau Is Afraid” by Patti LuPone.

It’s pleasing how much more global the Academy’s choices have become of late, thanks to the expansion of its membership. Though Hollywood still dominates, non-English-language films and performances get a fairer shake than they used to. But much depends on the profile and pockets of the distributor: with little promotion, Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s peak-form moral panorama About Dry Grasses never entered the conversation, even for Dizdar’s subtly scorching, Cannes-laurelled work.

Best international feature

• Godland

• Perfect Days

• The flavor of objects.

• Tótem

• The Area of Interest

A lot of people might think that the award-winning films “Anatomy of a Fall” (winner of the Palme d’Or and Golden Globe) is the top contender – but it’s actually not eligible because the French Oscar committee has chosen “The Taste of Things”, a lavish romantic film, as their entry. This creates an opportunity for other films to compete. “The Zone of Interest” has a good chance, but I personally hope for an unlikely winner in Iceland’s haunting and striking colonial tale, “Godland”.

Ellen E Jones

Best picture

• Occupied City

• All of Us Strangers

• Barbie

• Poor Things

• The area of focus.

The Academy, despite its newfound daringness after Parasite, probably won’t choose a four-and-a-half hour documentary about the Holocaust as the best film. However, Steve McQueen’s Occupied City truly stands out as one of the year’s top films. Along with Glazer’s emotionally impactful The Zone of Interest, it addresses both our past and present with a compelling urgency, setting it apart from the other strong contenders. However, I wouldn’t be disappointed if Barbie ended up winning as well.

Best director

• Andrew Haigh’s “All of Us Strangers”

• Jonathan Glazer – The Zone of Interest

• Greta Gerwig – Barbie

• Yorgos Lanthimos – Poor Things

• Celine Song – Past Lives

This is an exciting time to be watching movies, with the talented directors Glazer, Lanthimos, and Gerwig all at the top of their game. I am also impressed by Song’s confident debut and Haigh’s bold decision to film his family drama in his childhood home, showing vulnerability for the sake of creating cinema. This is why I believe “All of Us Strangers” should be the winner.

Best actor

• The actor Leonardo DiCaprio stars in the film “Killers of the Flower Moon.”

• Jussi Vatanen – Fallen Leaves

• Colman Domingo – Rustin

• Jeffrey Wright – American Fiction

• Cillian Murphy – Oppenheimer

Murphy’s atomic death stare would be an acceptable winner, Bradley Cooper’s onanistic Maestro performance would not. Ideally, though, I’d like to see a second Oscar for DiCaprio. He’s deployed his fading teen idol looks to killer effect here, embodying not just one rumpled Romeo character, but white America as a whole. It’s Scorsese’s most effective actor collaboration since Taxi Driver.

Best actress

• The film “Poor Things” stars Emma Stone.

• Sandra Hüller – Anatomy of a Fall

• Natalie Portman – May December

• :

  The author of “Killers of the Flower Moon” is Lily Gladstone.

• Greta Lee – Past Lives

Stone is the likely winner for her self-made steampunk siren, showcasing both impressive technical skill and a celebratory outlook on life. If not, a victory for Gladstone would serve as a positive note in the Academy’s past of disregarding Native American accomplishments (as seen with Sacheen Littlefeather in 73), particularly if it leads to a distribution deal for Gladstone’s other film from last year, Fancy Dance, created by Native Americans.

Supporting actor

• Ryan Gosling – Barbie

• Paul Mescal – All of Us Strangers

• Robert Downey Jr – Oppenheimer

• The actor Mark Ruffalo stars in the film “Poor Things.”

• Zoe Terakes’ latest project is titled “Talk to Me.”

  The most recent undertaking of Zoe Terakes is called “Talk to Me.”

Gosling’s portrayal serves as a satirical commentary on the role of the “supporting male,” but this may not be enough when compared to Robert Downey Jr’s excellent performance and the gender-defying acting of Australian non-binary actor Terakes, causing a reconsideration of the traditional gender categories within the category. Additionally, who could resist feeling a fondness for Mark Ruffalo’s mustachioed misogynist character in Poor Things? If only Terry-Thomas were still alive to present the award.

Supporting actress

• Sandra Hüller stars in “The Zone of Interest”.

• Katherine Waterston – The End We Start From

• Danielle Brooks – The Color Purple

• Rosamund Pike – Saltburn

• Da’Vine Joy Randolph – The Holdovers

Reworded: The standout in Emerald Fennell’s overhyped pseudo class satire is Rosamund Pike, who gives an awards-worthy performance. She deserves an Oscar for her stellar portrayal, particularly in her Britpop banter. Katherine Waterston is perfect as a friend in a time of climate crisis, but lacks the industry momentum. Hüller, on the other hand, may have a chance to win with two brilliantly cold performances in one year.

Best costume design

• Jacqueline Durran – Barbie

• David Crossman and Janty Yates – Napoleon

• Holly Waddington’s artistic project is titled “Poor Things.”

• Eunice Jera Lee explains the process of causing a pipeline to explode.

• Eunice Jera Lee – Bottoms

Barbie carries the patent pink bag. Jacqueline Durran transformed the dress-up doll into a fashion icon in the real world, and even influenced movie-goers to wear their own flirty fuchsia outfits to the cinema. Credit should also be given to Eunice Jera Lee, a young costume designer whose work in various independent films embodies the organic style of Generation Z.

Source: theguardian.com