Everything Everywhere All At Once leads Oscar nominations with 11
CBC
The nominees for this year's Oscars ceremony were announced this morning, with breakout absurdist comedy-drama Everything Everywhere All At Once leading with 11 nominations.
The film will have a shot at best picture, actress in a leading role (for Michelle Yeoh), actress in a supporting role (for both Jamie Lee Curtis and Stephanie Hsu) and actor in a supporting role (for Ke Huy Quan), among others.
Irish drama The Banshees of Inisherin and German war epic All Quiet on the Western Front tied with nine nominations, while Elvis and The Fabelmans also pulled in an armful of nods.
Actor-producer Riz Ahmed, an Oscar winner for producing the short film The Long Goodbye, and actor Allison Williams, who stars in the current hit M3gan, revealed the nominees during a live telecast on Tuesday morning.
WATCH | CBC's Eli Glasner breaks down the 2023 Oscar nominations:
While Canadians didn't necessarily lead in numbers this year, more than a few creatives and their productions were represented in top categories. Canadian director Sarah Polley's Women Talking, a tense drama based on Miriam Toews's novel, scored both a best adapted screenplay and best picture nomination — a coup even Denis Villeneuve's Dune couldn't pull off last year, despite nabbing 10 total nominations.
Meanwhile, Domee Shi's Toronto love letter Turning Red is representing Pixar in the best animated feature category. The film, about a 13-year-old girl with the magical ability to turn into a giant red panda, is up against stiff competition, including Guillermo del Toro's Pinnochio, Universal Pictures' surprising hit Puss in Boots: The Last Wish and the heartfelt Marcel the Shell with Shoes On.
James Cameron's Avatar: The Way of Water scooped up four nominations largely based on its impressive technological feats — including for best sound, production design and visual effects — but also managed to pick up a best picture nod.
Elsewhere, American Canadian actor Brendan Fraser completed his "Brenaissance" by snagging a best actor nomination for his performance in The Whale. The film by Darren Aronofsky features Fraser as a 600-pound man struggling with both family and personal issues. It is Fraser's first Academy Award nomination, though he has already won best actor for the role at the Critics Choice Awards.
Toronto's Daniel Roher made it to the short list with Navalny, an explosive documentary that saw the young director track down and profile Russian political dissident Alexey Navalny. The doc, which made its surprise world premiere at Sundance in January of last year before moving to Toronto's Hot Docs festival, was one of the last pieces of media to include Navalny before he was imprisoned after returning to Russia.
The film, which is up for best documentary feature, required serious security protocols to protect both Roher and Navalny's location, while the film itself includes a jaw-dropping moment where they manage to speak with the team that attempted to poison Navalny in late 2020.
Canadians Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby received their third career joint nomination, as their film The Flying Sailor was nominated for best animated short.
The 95th Academy Awards will be hosted by comedian Jimmy Kimmel on March 12, 2023.
Here are the nominees: