The 2023 Oscars: 10 Canadian nominees to look out for at this year's ceremony

The Oscars are less than two weeks away, and it's been an awards season of tight races and controversial nominations.

If you're rooting for anyone and everyone Canadian, there are plenty of directors, actors, makeup artists, writers, animators and producers to look out for at the 95th Academy Awards on March 12.

Here are 10 Canadians competing for Hollywood's top prizes at this year's Oscars ceremony.

Director, Turning Red

A previous Oscar winner for her 2018 short animated film Bao, Shi wanted her debut feature to show the world what being Canadian means to her — "diversity, good food, colourful and fun people." The result is Turning Red, a Pixar joint about a spunky 13-year-old Chinese-Canadian girl who unwillingly transforms into a giant red panda whenever the blunders of adolescence become too much to bear. The Toronto director's film will compete for best animated feature at this year's ceremony. If only there was also an Oscar for bringing the vibrance of Toronto's East Chinatown neighbourhood to life.

WATCH | The trailer for Turning Red:

Writer-director, The Sea Beast

The writer-director of The Sea Beast caught the filmmaking bug as a kid in Kitchener, Ont., where he made stop-motion films with his father from his childhood bedroom. After studying animation at Sheridan College, Williams went on to direct 2008's Oscar-nominated Bolt, won an Academy Award for 2015's Big Hero 6 and co-directed 2016's Moana, which was also nominated. His most recent release, about an orphaned girl who pairs up with a legendary sea monster hunter, will compete for best animated feature — the same category that he won eight years ago.

WATCH | The trailer for The Sea Beast:

Animators, The Flying Sailor

The Calgary animator duo have been working together for almost 28 years, and they wouldn't have it any other way. After meeting at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver, Tilby and Forbis collaborated on the Oscar-nominated shorts When The Day Breaks (2000) and Wild Life (2012). Their eight-minute film The Flying Sailor, about a seaman profoundly changed by the real-life 1917 Halifax ship explosion, marks their third nomination together in the best animated short film category.

WATCH | The trailer for The Flying Sailor:

Actor, The Whale

Just a few years ago, Fraser was dealing with a raft of health issues and opening up for the first time about the sexual assault he says he experienced at the peak of his 2000s Hollywood fame. Director Darren Aronofsky saw Fraser in a low-budget Brazilian film, and called on the George of the Jungle and The Mummy star to play what would become the most important role of his career in 2022's The Whale. The actor — who grew up in Ottawa and Toronto during a nomadic childhood — is nominated in the best actor category for his performance as an obese English professor trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter.