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The official trailer for Disney’s live-action The Little Mermaid, starring Halle Bailey, has arrived. It was introduced by Bailey and co-star Melissa McCarthy during the 2023 Oscars on Sunday night (March 12).
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Bailey stars as Ariel in the reimagining of the Disney animated classic, with an ensemble including McCarthy as Ursula, Javier Bardem as King Triton and Jonah Hauer-King as Eric.
Following a recent 30-second teaser and a clip focused on Bailey’s beautiful rendition of “Part of Your World” from D23, this extended preview — with a runtime of two minutes and twenty seconds — gives viewers a cinematic look at Ariel’s world and the characters that surround her, from life under the sea to life newly on land.
The Little Mermaid hits theaters on May 26.
Watch the trailer for the The Little Mermaid below.
If “Lift Me Up” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever wins the Oscar for best original song on Sunday March 12, Ryan Coogler will become just the second person in Oscar history, and the first in 45 years, to win an Oscar for writing or co-writing a song from a film he directed. The first was Joe Brooks, who wrote “You Light Up My Life,” the 1977 winner.
Just by being nominated in this category, Coogler has joined an exclusive (and rather eclectic) club. Fourteen people have received Oscar nominations for writing or co-writing songs for films that they directed. Coogler is the first person of color to achieve the feat. Other club members include Barbra Streisand, Mel Brooks, Spike Jonze, Seth MacFarlane and Trey Parker.
Most of these people wrote the lyrics, not the melody. This suggests that the directors know what their film is trying to say, and can help put that message across in a song. Only four of the 14 – Coogler, Parker, Streisand and Brooks – contributed both music and lyrics. None solely wrote the music.
“Lift Me Up” is viewed as one of three front-runners in this year’s Oscar race for best original song, along with “Hold My Hand” from Top Gun: Maverick (music and lyric by Lady Gaga and BloodPop) and “Naatu Naatu” from RRR (music by M.M. Keeravaani; lyric by Chandrabose). The other nominees are “Applause” from Tell It like a Woman (music and lyric by Diane Warren) and “This Is a Life” from Everything Everywhere All at Once (music by Ryan Lott, David Byrne and Mitski; lyric by Ryan Lott and David Byrne).
Here’s a complete list of everyone who has been nominated for best original song for writing or co-writing a song from a film they directed. The list is in reverse chronological order.
Ryan Coogler
Film: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)
Nominated Song: “Lift Me Up”
Notes: Coogler directed and co-wrote the film, which stars Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong’o and Oscar nominee Angela Bassett, among others. He co-wrote the melody with Rihanna, Tems and Ludwig Göransson; he co-wrote the lyrics with Tems. Rihanna’s single debuted and peaked at No. 2. The superstar, fresh off her halftime performance at the Super Bowl, is set to perform the song on the Oscar telecast.
Spike Jonze
Film: Her (2013)
Nominated Song: “The Moon Song”
Notes: Jonze directed, wrote and co-produced the film, which starred Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, Rooney Mara, Olivia Wilde and Scarlett Johansson. In addition to best original song, Jonze was nominated for best picture (as a producer of the film) and won for writing. He co-wrote the lyric with Karen O, who also composed the melody. She and Ezra Koenig performed the song on the telecast.
Seth MacFarlane
Image Credit: Mark Davis/WireImage
Film: Ted (2012)
Nominated Song: “Everybody Needs a Best Friend”
Notes: MacFarlane directed and co-wrote the comedy, in which he starred alongside Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis. He wrote the “Best Friend” lyric, while Walter Murphy composed the melody. Murphy topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 1976 as an artist with the disco instrumental “A Fifth of Beethoven.” Norah Jones performed “Best Friend” on the telecast, which MacFarlane hosted.
Christophe Barratier
Film: The Chorus (2004)
Nominated song: “Look to Your Path” (“Vois Sur Ton Chemin”)
Notes: The Frenchman directed the musical drama, known as Les Choristes in French. He wrote the lyric. The composer was Bruno Coulais. Beyoncé performed the song on the telecast, in tandem with American Boychoir. Beyoncé performed three of the five nominated songs that year. She also did the honors on “Learn to Be Lonely” from The Phantom of the Opera and “Believe” from The Polar Express – the latter in tandem with Josh Groban.
Sylvain Chomet
Film: The Triplets of Belleville (2003)
Nominated Song: “Belleville Rendez-vous”
Notes: The multi-platform French artist wrote and produced the animated comedy film. In addition to best original song, he was nominated for animated feature film. He wrote the lyric. Benoît Charest composed the melody. Charest also performed the song on the telecast, in tandem with Béatrice Bonifassi.
Julie Taymor
Film: Frida (2002)
Nominated Song: “Burn It Blue”
Notes: Taymor directed the film, which starred Salma Hayak. Taymor wrote the lyric. Elliot Goldenthal composed the melody. Lila Downs and Caetano Veloso performed the song on the telecast.
Lars von Trier
Film: Dancer in the Dark (2000)
Nominated Song: “I’ve Seen It All”
Notes: The Danish multi-hyphenate directed and wrote the film, which starred Björk, Catherine Deneuve and Joel Grey, among others. He co-wrote the lyric with Sjon Sigurdsson. Björk composed the melody and performed the song on the telecast.
Trey Parker
Film: South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999)
Nominated Song: “Blame Canada”
Notes: Parker directed, co-wrote and co-produced this film and was one of the voice actors. He co-wrote the music and lyric with Marc Shaiman. Robin Williams, who had won an Oscar two years previously for his role in Good Will Hunting, performed the song the telecast.
Barbra Streisand
Image Credit: TriStar/courtesy Everett Collection
Film: The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996)
Nominated Song: “I Finally Found Someone”
Notes: Streisand directed, co-produced and starred in the film alongside Jeff Bridges and Oscar nominee Lauren Bacall. She co-wrote the music and lyrics to this song with Bryan Adams, Marvin Hamlisch and Robert John “Mutt” Lange. She was the first female director to receive an Oscar nomination for a song she wrote or co-wrote for her film. The single by Streisand and Adams reached No. 8 on the Hot 100, but Streisand declined to perform the song on the telecast. Her future duet partner Celine Dion filled in for her, joined by Arturo Sandoval.
Arne Glimcher
Film: The Mambo Kings (1992)
Nominated Song: “Beautiful Maria of My Soul”
Notes: Glimcher directed and co-produced the film, which starred Armand Assante, Antonio Banderas and Cathy Moriaty. Glimcher wrote the lyrics. Robert Kraft was the composer. Plácido Domingo and Sheila E performed the song on the telecast.
Joe Brooks
Image Credit: Frank Edwards/Fotos International/Hulton Archive/GI
Film: You Light Up My Life (1977)
Nominated Song: “You Light Up My Life”
Notes: Brooks single-handedly wrote, directed and produced You Light Up My Life, which starred Didi Conn. He also wrote both music and lyrics for its title song, which Debby Boone turned into a megahit. Her recording was the first to log 10 weeks at No. 1 in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 (which dates to 1958). Kacey Cisyk, who sang the song on the soundtrack, reached No. 80 with her original version. Boone was chosen to sing the song on the telecast — a rare instance of the Oscars booking an artist who performed a cover version over the artist who performed the film version. The song won a Grammy for song of the year. In 1997, LeAnn Rimes cracked the top 40 with her interpretation. While Brooks’ song has brought hope and inspiration to millions, his own life was troubled. He took his own life in 2011.
Mel Brooks
Film: Blazing Saddles (1974)
Nominated Song: “Blazing Saddles”
Notes: The EGOT recipient directed, co-wrote and appeared in the film, which also starred Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Slim Pickens, Alex Karras, Harvey Korman and Madeline Kahn. In addition to best original song, Brooks was nominated for best adapted screenplay that year – but for another picture, Young Frankenstein, on which he collaborated with Gene Wilder. Brooks wrote the lyrics to “Blazing Saddles.” John Morris was the composer. To sing the song, Brooks advertised in the trade papers for a “Frankie Laine–type” singer; to his surprise, Laine himself offered his services. Laine, who had a series of hits in the 1940s and ’50s including “High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me” and “I Believe,” got the job — and also sang the song on the Oscar telecast.
Jacques Demy
Film: The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1965)
Nominated Song: “I Will Wait for You”
Notes: The Frenchman directed and wrote the film, which starred Catherine Deneuve. In addition to best original song, Demy was nominated for best original screenplay and best music score – substantially original, for collaborating with Legrand. Demy wrote the original French lyrics. Norman Gimbel wrote the English lyrics. Legrand composed the song, which also received a Grammy nod for song of the year. Steve Lawrence’s version “bubbled under” the Hot 100 in 1965. Legrand and Jane Morgan (the wife of Jerry Weintraub, a top manager and producer) performed the song on the Oscar telecast.
Leo McCarey
Film: An Affair to Remember (1957)
Nominated song: “An Affair to Remember”
Notes: McCarey directed, co-wrote and co-produced the film, which starred Cary Grantand Deborah Kerr. (The film is referenced in 1993’s Sleepless in Seattle.) McCarey teamed with Harold Adamson to write the lyrics. Harry Warren composed the melody. Vic Damone had a big hit with the song in 1957, the year before the introduction of the Hot 100. The crooner also sang the song on the Oscar telecast. McCarey won three Oscars over the course of his career – for directing The Awful Truth (1937) and writing and directing Going My Way (1944).
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Ben Stiller publicly defended his Tropic Thunder movie recently, which garnered controversy over Robert Downey Jr. appearing in blackface in the film among other issues.
The actor and writer was mentioned in a tweet about the film last Tuesday by a Trump supporter who goes by “Benny Sings.” The individual wrote: “Please stop apologizing for doing this movie. It was and still is funny AF… Even funnier now with cancel culture the way it is. It’s a MOVIE. Ya’ll can just get over it. I was DYING laughing when I first saw it back in the day and so was everyone else.”
In an included text statement, the user noted that the Wayans Bros didn’t apologize for White Chicks in which they appeared as two white women. Stiller would respond afterward, writing: “I make no apologies for ‘Tropic Thunder.’ Don’t know who told you that. It’s always been a controversial movie since when we opened. Proud of it and the work everyone did on it.”
The 2008 comedy movie, which features Stiller and Downey Jr. along with Jack Black, drew a swarm of backlash on its release mainly for Stiller’s role as Tugg Speedman, who played a character in the fictional film-within-the-film Simple Jack that disability advocates felt mocked them. They pointed to the usage of the R-slur in particular in their criticisms.
Downey Jr. would also face some backlash for his role as Australian method actor Kirk Lazarus, who opts to darken his skin to play a Black soldier. The Iron Man actor did express his reservations about taking the role while appearing on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast in 2019, which would wind up earning him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor the following year. “Sometimes, you just have to go, ‘Yeah I effed up,’” he said.
Stiller appeared to apologize for that or claimed to in another tweet in 2018 prompted by Olympic medalist Shaun White appearing as Simple Jack for a Halloween costume. “Actually Tropic Thunder was boycotted 10 years ago when it came out, and I apologized then. It was always meant to make fun of actors trying to do anything to win awards. I stand by my apology, the movie, Shaun White, And the great people and work of the @SpecialOlympics,” he wrote.
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Volker Bertelmann’s score for All Quiet on the Western Front and Carter Burwell’s score for The Banshees of Inisherin are among the nominees for 2023 ASCAP Composers’ Choice Awards.
They are also among the Oscar nominees for best original score, and were among the BAFTA nominees in that category (which Bertelmann won on Feb. 19).
Established as a first-of-its-kind program among U.S. performing rights organizations, the ASCAP Composers’ Choice Awards enable composers to recognize the artistic accomplishments of their peers. The nominations committee includes composers and film, television and video game industry leaders. Voting is open to eligible ASCAP writer members through March 10 at www.ascap.com/composerschoice. Winners will be announced as part of the 2023 ASCAP Screen Music Awards the week of May 15.
Amanda Jones, Bear McCreary, Siddhartha Khosla, Dan Romer and Cristobal Tapia de Veer were each nominated in two categories.
More information about the 2023 ASCAP Composers’ Choice Awards, including excerpts of the nominated music, is available at www.ascap.com/composerschoice.
Categories with six or more nominees reflect ties.
**Indicates a work co-written by non-ASCAP composer(s).
Film score of the year
All Quiet on the Western Front – Volker Bertelmann
Avatar: The Way of Water – Simon Franglen
The Banshees of Inisherin – Carter Burwell
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery – Nathan Johnson
The Menu – Colin Stetson
Nope – Michael Abels
Documentary score of the year
Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power – Sharon Farber
Conversion – Paul Leonard-Morgan
Prehistoric Planet – Hans Zimmer & Anže Rozman**
Super/Natural – Amanda Jones
Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Fall Off – Jeff Cardoni
Television score of the year
Cobra Kai – Leo Birenberg & Zach Robinson
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power – Bear McCreary
Only Murders in the Building – Siddhartha Khosla
Slow Horses – Daniel Pemberton
Station Eleven – Dan Romer
The White Lotus – Cristobal Tapia de Veer & Kim Neundorf
Television theme of the year
Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities – Holly Amber Church
Only Murders in the Building – Siddhartha Khosla
Somebody Somewhere – Amanda Jones
Station Eleven – Dan Romer
The White Lotus – Cristobal Tapia de Veer
Video game score of the year
Destiny 2: The Witch Queen – Skye Lewin, Michael Salvatori, Michael Sechrist**
God of War Ragnarök – Bear McCreary
Immortality – Nainita Desai
Minecraft: The Wild Update – Lena Raine**
MultiVersus – Gordy Haab
Composing the score for a war film can be, apologies for the metaphor, a minefield. Go too heavy on the orchestral oomph — all soaring strings and booming base — and you can quickly swing into schmaltz. Go too small and minimalist, and the onscreen explosions can overpower your music. Plus, there’s the danger of familiarity, of echoing the grand and epic scores of war films past.
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So, when director Edward Berger asked his regular composer, Volker Bertelmann, to write a score for his antiwar drama All Quiet on the Western Front, he told him to break all the rules.
“I said, ‘I want something different, something we’ve never heard before,’ ” says Berger, “then, and this is almost the most important thing: I said, ‘I want you to destroy the images onscreen. Don’t beautify or sentimentalize.’ [I wanted] a sound that feels like it’s coming from inside [lead character] Paul Bäumer’s stomach. I want the sound of fear, of hatred, of rage, of what a soldier feels when he has to kill in order to survive.”
“Something different” is pretty much Bertelmann’s M.O. The German pianist, who records and performs under the name Hauschka, is part of a cadre of experimental musicians who came up in the Berlin indie electronics scene and have quietly started to change the sound of Hollywood movies. Others from that milieu include Oscar-winning composer Hildur Gudnadóttir (Joker, Tár) and the late Jóhann Jóhannsson (Arrival, Sicario, The Theory of Everything), a two-time Oscar nominee.
Bertelmann is best known for his Oscar-nominated work on Garth Davis’ Lion and his score for Francis Lee’s Ammonite, which received an ASCAP nom for score of the year (both were co-written with Dustin O’Halloran). In Lion, the composers stripped out horns and strings to deliver a piano-driven sound that managed to be emotional while never being predictable. For Ammonite, a small, sparingly used chamber orchestra forms the film’s emotional core.
“Coming from the independent scene, I have a different approach to composing,” says Bertelmann. “It’s very intuition-driven, just trying something out and seeing what happens. Like, if I want a bass drum sound, instead of getting an orchestra to record it, or going through all the recorded bass drum loops to find just the right one, I’ll put contact mics on the wall and bang on them to see if that works.”
Bertelmann created the signature three-tone motif that echoes through All Quiet — a thundering dom-dom-DOM! sounding like a trumpet of doom — by picking up his grandmother’s old harmonium.
“When I played it, pressing the paddles and using these old panels on the side with my knees, it created this weird wooden sound,” he recalls. “You could hear all the technical bits from the materials of the machine creating the music. Normally, in a classical recording, you’d work to take those out. I amplified them. I stuck microphones inside the harmonium, underneath it, on the wood, everywhere, to capture that sound.”
The result is both old and modern, like a wooden turn-of-the-last-century synthesizer, and — as it plays over post-battle scenes, as boots and uniforms are stripped off corpses, thrown in piles and then trucked off to be washed, repaired and handed out to a new crop of cannon-fodder recruits — perfectly evokes the horrifying machinery of war.
But when intimate emotion is called for, as in a late wrenching scene when Bäumer (Felix Kammerer) lies next to a French soldier he has brutally stabbed, listening to him slowly die, Bertelmann’s score can go quiet.
“For that scene, I used this really fragile string motif, recording them in a clear pure way,” he says. “When Edward heard it, he said it was too emotional and overpowering the scene. But I thought we needed that feel, so I put a filter on the whole instrumentation, just cut off the high end. It made it sound a bit like the music is coming from underneath a blanket. It’s muffled, but the emotion still comes through.”
For the battle scenes, Bertelmann worked closely with the film’s sound designer, Frank Kruse, to harmonize his score with the rat-a-tat-tat of the machine guns and the monstrous thumps of the exploding shells.
“With fights and battle scenes, the music can very easily get swamped by all the war sounds,” he says, “so we tried to find the frequencies for each other’s instruments and complement, not compete. Say there were explosions. That could be the bass drums. So I wouldn’t use bass on that section, or I’d go even lower, deeper in tone, below the explosions. Or for an ambush scene, in place of the main rhythm portion, I use the specific metal sounds of the gunfire.”
Bertelmann’s favorite piece of music in the All Quiet score, he says, comes in the final scene, as Bäumer, mortally wounded, climbs out from underground to see the sky one last time. For the piece, called “Making Sense of War,” the composer returns to his three-tone motif, but this time classically orchestrated.
“It sounds a little bit like an opera,” he says. “It gives this moment of clarity and pause, where we question everything that we’ve seen, and what the whole point [of war is].”
This story first appeared in a Feb. stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
Volker Bertelmann’s score for All Quiet on the Western Front won a BAFTA Award for best original score on Sunday (Feb. 19). The awards were presented at Royal Festival Hall in London. The score is also nominated for an Academy Award in that category.
This was Bertelmann’s second BAFTA nomination, but his first on his own and his first under his own name. He was nominated six years ago for Lion, on which he teamed with Dustin O’Halloran. Bertelmann went by the name Hauschka at the time. He and O’Halloran were also nominated for an Oscar for that film, but lost both awards to Justin Hurwitz for La La Land.
The other scores nominated for a BAFTA Award this year were Babylon (Hurwitz), The Banshees of Inisherin (Carter Burwell), Everything Everywhere All at Once (Son Lux) and Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (Alexandre Desplat).
All of those scores except Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio are also nominated for Oscars. John Williams’ score for The Fabelmans is nominated instead at the Oscars. Oscar voting will conducted from March 2-7. The awards will be presented on March 12.
Unlike the Oscars, the BAFTAs don’t present an award for best original song.
All Quiet on the Western Front won in six other categories at the BAFTAs – best picture, best director (Edward Berger), best adapted screenplay, best film not in the English language, best cinematography and best sound.
Austin Butler won best actor in a leading role for his portrayal of Elvis Presley in Elvis. Cate Blanchett won best actress in a leading role for Tár. The awards for best actor and actress in a supporting role went to Barry Keoghan and Kerry Condon, both for The Banshees Inisherin.
With the 2023 Oscars just weeks away, Son Lux is in rarified company. They are the first band to receive a scoring nomination, credited as a band, since The Beatles won best original song score in 1971 for Let It Be.
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Son Lux, which consists of Ryan Lott, Rafiq Bhatia and Ian Chang, is nominated for best original score for Everything Everywhere All at Once. This is their first film score as a band.
Son Lux originated as a solo project of Lott’s, but became a three-piece band with the addition of Bhatia and Chang. It was as a band that they released the studio albums Bones (2015) and Brighter Wounds (2018) and the Everything Everywhere All at Once soundtrack.
The Beatles, who had broken up a year earlier, weren’t present at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles on April 15, 1971 when they won the Oscar. The award was accepted on their behalf by Quincy Jones, who was the music director for that year’s Oscar telecast.
In addition, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, the two current members of Nine Inch Nails, have been nominated three times for best original score, but under their own names, not as NIN. They won in 2011 for The Social Network and again in 2021 for Soul (shared with Jon Batiste). They were also nominated for Mank in 2021.
Several other band members have been nominated for – and in some cases have won – scoring Oscars, but not in collaboration with other members of their bands. These include Pete Townshend of The Who (Tommy, 1976), Prince of Prince and the Revolution (Purple Rain, 1985), David Byrne of Talking Heads (The Last Emperor, 1988), Will Butler of Arcade Fire (Her, 2014) and Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead (Phantom Thread, 2018 and The Power of the Dog, 2022).
Lott shares a second Oscar nomination for best original song with David Byrne and Mitski for “This Is a Life.” It is performed in the film by Son Lux, Byrne and Mitski.
The director of Leaving Neverland, the documentary that chronicled two accusers’ sexual abuse claims against Michael Jackson, is criticizing a planned biopic about the late singer.
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In a guest column for The Guardian published Sunday (Feb. 5), Dan Reed criticized the decision to release a biopic about the music icon, questioning why “no one is talking about ‘canceling’ this movie, which will glorify a man who raped children.”
“It seems that the press, his fans and the vast older demographic who grew up loving Jackson are willing to set aside his unhealthy relationship with children and just go along with the music,” Reed wrote.
He went on to directly address the filmmaking team, which includes director Antoine Fuqua, writer John Logan, as well as producers Graham King, John Branca and John McClain, the latter of whom are co-executors of the Michael Jackson estate. Reed challenged whether the film would be able to represent alleged moments of abuse.
“How will you represent the moment when Jackson, a grown man in his 30s, takes a child by the hand and leads him into that bedroom?” the Emmy-winning Leaving Neverland helmer asked. “How will you depict what happens next?”
He adds that the film “sidestepping the question of Jackson’s predilection for sleeping with young boys” is broadcasting a specific message to survivors of child sexual abuse. “That message is: if a [pedophile] is rich and popular enough, society will forgive him,” he said.
The biopic about the Grammy-winning, record-setting artist was announced last week and will address all aspects of Jackson’s life, according to Lionsgate, though it remains unclear how the film will tackle the various controversies around the late musician.
“For me, there is no artist with the power, the charisma, and the sheer musical genius of Michael Jackson,” Fuqua said in a statement. “I was influenced to make music videos by watching his work — the first Black artist to play in heavy rotation on MTV. His music and those images are part of my worldview, and the chance to tell his story on the screen alongside his music was irresistible.”
The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to the Jackson estate and Fuqua for comment.
Reed said making Leaving Neverland, which features Jackson accusers Wade Robson and James Safechuck, “was not just the opportunity to expose Jackson by having his victims speak on camera for the first time. Here was an opportunity to bring to the widest possible audience an insight into how children fall victim to any sexual abuser, the psychology of the predator and, above all, the grooming process.”
This article originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter.
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Renowned actress Angela Bassett secured an anticipated Oscar nomination for Wakanda Forever, one of a few for the blockbuster film.
On Tuesday morning (Jan. 24), the Academy announced the list of nominees for the 95th Academy Awards. Angela Bassett was nominated for her role of Queen Ramonda in the Black Panther sequel film Wakanda Forever, making history in a three-fold fashion. She’s the first person of color, the first woman, and the first Marvel Studios actor to obtain an Oscar nomination for a role in a film adapted from a comic book.
Her nomination stands out among the few nominations that the 2022 blockbuster received from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. The Rihanna & Tems single “Lift Me Up” (written with composer Ludwig Göransson and Ryan Coogler) was nominated for Best Original Song. Geoffrey Baumann, Craig Hammack, R. Christopher White and Dan Sudick were nominated for Best Visual Effects. Legendary industry designer Ruth E. Carter received a nomination for Best Costume Design, and Camille Friend and Joel Harlow were nominated for Best Makeup and Hairstyling.
For the 64-year-old veteran actress, this is her second Oscar nomination. She had been nominated for Best Actress in 1993 for her portrayal of Tina Turner in What’s Love Got to Do with It. Bassett is considered to be the favorite to win this go-round even as critics’ favorite Everything Everywhere All At Once (which dominated the 2023 Oscars nomination list) has two actresses in the category in Stephanie Hsu and Jamie Lee Curtis.
Her riveting work recently won the Critics Choice Award and most recently the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress. During her acceptance speech for the Globes award, she spoke of how the cast and crew banded together to honor the late Chadwick Boseman in filming Wakanda Forever.
“We have joy in knowing that with this historic Black Panther series, it is a part of his legacy that he helped to lead us to we showed the world what Black unity, leadership, and love looks like beyond, behind, and in front of the camera.”
The 95th Academy Awards will be held at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, California Sunday, March 12, and will be aired live on ABC.
The 2023 Academy Award nominations were revealed on Tuesday (Jan. 24) morning by Riz Ahmed and Allison Williams, and it looks like music will play a starring role in the March 12 Oscars ceremony.
Baz Luhrmann’s biopic on 20th century icon Elvis Presley, Elvis, was nominated for eight Oscars, including best picture; it also earned a best actor nomination for Austin Butler, who portrayed the King of Rock & Roll.
In the best original song category, two major pop stars are nominated: Lady Gaga for “Hold My Hand” (Top Gun: Maverick) and Rihanna for “Lift Me Up (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever). This is Rihanna’s first and Gaga’s fourth Oscar nom; in that same category, Diane Warren receives her 14th Oscar nomination for “Applause” (Tell It Like a Woman). Warren has yet to win an Academy Award, while Gaga won for co-writing “Shallow” from A Star Is Born. Talking Heads co-founder David Byrne, Sox Lux founder Ryan Lott and indie darling Mitski are also Oscar nominees in the best original song category thanks to their song “This Is A Life” from Everything Everywhere All At Once, which is the most-nominated film this year, earning 11 nods.
Head here for our full analysis of the music nominees at the 2023 Oscars.
The 95th Oscars will take place on Sunday, March 12 at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood and air live on ABC.
Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Angela Bassett in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”Hong Chau in “The Whale”Kerry Condon in “The Banshees of Inisherin”Jamie Lee Curtis in “Everything Everywhere All at Once”Stephanie Hsu in “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
Best Costume Design
“Babylon” Mary Zophres“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” Ruth Carter“Elvis” Catherine Martin“Everything Everywhere All at Once” Shirley Kurata“Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris” Jenny Beavan
Best Sound
“All Quiet on the Western Front” Viktor Prášil, Frank Kruse, Markus Stemler, Lars Ginzel and Stefan Korte“Avatar: The Way of Water” Julian Howarth, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, Dick Bernstein, Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers and Michael Hedges“The Batman” Stuart Wilson, William Files, Douglas Murray and Andy Nelson“Elvis” David Lee, Wayne Pashley, Andy Nelson and Michael Keller“Top Gun: Maverick” Mark Weingarten, James H. Mather, Al Nelson, Chris Burdon and Mark Taylor
Best Original Score
“All Quiet on the Western Front” Volker Bertelmann“Babylon” Justin Hurwitz“The Banshees of Inisherin” Carter Burwell“Everything Everywhere All at Once” Son Lux“The Fabelmans” John Williams
Best Adapted Screenplay
“All Quiet on the Western Front” Screenplay by Edward Berger, Lesley Paterson & Ian Stokell“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” Written by Rian Johnson“Living” Written by Kazuo Ishiguro“Top Gun: Maverick” Screenplay by Ehren Kruger and Eric Warren Singer and Christopher McQuarrie; Story by Peter Craig and Justin Marks“Women Talking” Screenplay by Sarah Polley
Best Original Screenplay
“The Banshees of Inisherin” Written by Martin McDonagh“Everything Everywhere All at Once” Written by Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert“The Fabelmans” Written by Steven Spielberg & Tony Kushner“Tár” Written by Todd Field“Triangle of Sadness” Written by Ruben Östlund
Best Live-Action Short Film
“An Irish Goodbye” Tom Berkeley and Ross White“Ivalu” Anders Walter and Rebecca Pruzan“Le Pupille” Alice Rohrwacher and Alfonso Cuarón“Night Ride” Eirik Tveiten and Gaute Lid Larssen“The Red Suitcase” Cyrus Neshvad
Best Animated Short Film
“The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse” Charlie Mackesy and Matthew Freud“The Flying Sailor” Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby“Ice Merchants” João Gonzalez and Bruno Caetano“My Year of Dicks” Sara Gunnarsdóttir and Pamela Ribon“An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It” Lachlan Pendragon
Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Brendan Gleeson in “The Banshees of Inisherin”Brian Tyree Henry in “Causeway”Judd Hirsch in “The Fabelmans”Barry Keoghan in “The Banshees of Inisherin”Ke Huy Quan in “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
Best Animated Film
“Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” Guillermo del Toro, Mark Gustafson, Gary Ungar and Alex Bulkley“Marcel the Shell with Shoes On” Dean Fleischer Camp, Elisabeth Holm, Andrew Goldman, Caroline Kaplan and Paul Mezey“Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” Joel Crawford and Mark Swift“The Sea Beast” Chris Williams and Jed Schlanger“Turning Red” Domee Shi and Lindsey Collins
Best Original Song
“Applause” from “Tell It like a Woman”; Music and Lyric by Diane Warren“Hold My Hand” from “Top Gun: Maverick”; Music and Lyric by Lady Gaga and BloodPop“Lift Me Up” from “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”; Music by Tems, Rihanna, Ryan Coogler and Ludwig Goransson; Lyric by Tems and Ryan Coogler“Naatu Naatu” from “RRR”; Music by M.M. Keeravaani; Lyric by Chandrabose“This Is A Life” from “Everything Everywhere All at Once”; Music by Ryan Lott, David Byrne and Mitski; Lyric by Ryan Lott and David Byrne
Best International Feature Film
“All Quiet on the Western Front” Germany“Argentina, 1985” Argentina“Close” Belgium“EO” Poland“The Quiet Girl” Ireland
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
“All Quiet on the Western Front” Heike Merker and Linda Eisenhamerová“The Batman” Naomi Donne, Mike Marino and Mike Fontaine“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” Camille Friend and Joel Harlow“Elvis” Mark Coulier, Jason Baird and Aldo Signoretti“The Whale” Adrien Morot, Judy Chin and Anne Marie Bradley
Best Production Design
“All Quiet on the Western Front” Production Design: Christian M. Goldbeck; Set Decoration: Ernestine Hipper“Avatar: The Way of Water” Production Design: Dylan Cole and Ben Procter; Set Decoration: Vanessa Cole“Babylon” Production Design: Florencia Martin; Set Decoration: Anthony Carlino“Elvis” Production Design: Catherine Martin and Karen Murphy; Set Decoration: Bev Dunn“The Fabelmans” Production Design: Rick Carter; Set Decoration: Karen O’Hara
Best Cinematography
“All Quiet on the Western Front” James Friend“Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths” Darius Khondji“Elvis” Mandy Walker“Empire of Light” Roger Deakins“Tár” Florian Hoffmeister
Best Visual Effects
“All Quiet on the Western Front” Frank Petzold, Viktor Müller, Markus Frank and Kamil Jafar“Avatar: The Way of Water” Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon and Daniel Barrett“The Batman” Dan Lemmon, Russell Earl, Anders Langlands and Dominic Tuohy“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” Geoffrey Baumann, Craig Hammack, R. Christopher White and Dan Sudick“Top Gun: Maverick” Ryan Tudhope, Seth Hill, Bryan Litson and Scott R. Fisher
Best Film Editing
“The Banshees of Inisherin” Mikkel E.G. Nielsen“Elvis” Matt Villa and Jonathan Redmond“Everything Everywhere All at Once” Paul Rogers“Tár” Monika Willi“Top Gun: Maverick” Eddie Hamilton
Best Documentary Feature
“All That Breathes” Shaunak Sen, Aman Mann and Teddy Leifer“All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” Laura Poitras, Howard Gertler, John Lyons, Nan Goldin and Yoni Golijov“Fire of Love” Sara Dosa, Shane Boris and Ina Fichman“A House Made of Splinters” Simon Lereng Wilmont and Monica Hellström“Navalny” Daniel Roher, Odessa Rae, Diane Becker, Melanie Miller and Shane Boris
Best Documentary Short Subject
“The Elephant Whisperers” Kartiki Gonsalves and Guneet Monga“Haulout” Evgenia Arbugaeva and Maxim Arbugaev“How Do You Measure a Year?” Jay Rosenblatt“The Martha Mitchell Effect” Anne Alvergue and Beth Levison“Stranger at the Gate” Joshua Seftel and Conall Jones
Best Actor in a Leading Role
Austin Butler in “Elvis”Colin Farrell in “The Banshees of Inisherin”Brendan Fraser in “The Whale”Paul Mescal in “Aftersun”Bill Nighy in “Living”
Best Actress in a Leading Role
Cate Blanchett in “Tár”Ana de Armas in “Blonde”Andrea Riseborough in “To Leslie”Michelle Williams in “The Fabelmans”Michelle Yeoh in “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
Best Directing
“The Banshees of Inisherin” Martin McDonagh“Everything Everywhere All at Once” Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert“The Fabelmans” Steven Spielberg“Tár” Todd Field“Triangle of Sadness” Ruben Östlund
Best Picture
“All Quiet on the Western Front” Malte Grunert, Producer“Avatar: The Way of Water” James Cameron and Jon Landau, Producers“The Banshees of Inisherin” Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin and Martin McDonagh, Producers“Elvis” Baz Luhrmann, Catherine Martin, Gail Berman, Patrick McCormick and Schuyler Weiss, Producers“Everything Everywhere All at Once” Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert and Jonathan Wang, Producers“The Fabelmans” Kristie Macosko Krieger, Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner, Producers“Tá”r Todd Field, Alexandra Milchan and Scott Lambert, Producers“Top Gun: Maverick” Tom Cruise, Christopher McQuarrie, David Ellison and Jerry Bruckheimer, Producers“Triangle of Sadness” Erik Hemmendorff and Philippe Bober, Producers“Women Talking” Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner and Frances McDormand, Producers