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Ranking 2023 Best Picture Nominees

Unlike the previous year that featured one of the worst Best Picture slates in quite some time, 2023 was one of the stronger years for cinema recently, so that also reflected well on the Oscars slate. Some great films were snubbed as always happens, but there are this time around four films on my personal top ten of the year that are on this list, which is a rare high. Of the ten nominees, there are the usual biopics, but also a couple of foreign gems and even a couple of comedies. It’s a very diverse slate that represents its year surprisingly well.

My Ranking of the Nominees:

10. Oppenheimer

This was an incredible year for the Academy Awards, especially the Best Picture slate, but unfortunately the film that is going to win this award is by far the worst of these ten nominees. Oppenheimer has strong acting performances and a respectable third act with a solid message, but it came a little bit too late as the rest of the film is devoid of any purpose or point of view. It’s a long, tedious exercise in numerous cameos that somehow constitutes filmmaking. Nolan ruined the strong material that he had with dozens of terrible choices from poor characterization to muddled storytelling to simplistic dialogue. Oppenheimer is regarded as the best film of the year by the masses, but in this exceptionally strong year for cinema, it fares as one of the most overrated and weakest big films, so it gets the last spot on this list.

9. Maestro

The same vagueness that plagued the above film also applies to Maestro, which could have explored how homosexuality affected women through unhappy marriages back in this time period, but Bradley Cooper chose not to explore any of these topics, instead making a typical Oscar-bait movie that was supposed to bring him an acting Oscar, but it never materialized. He was pretty good here, but it is actually Carrie Mulligan who stole the movie from him in such a powerful performance. The overly harsh criticism of this movie isn’t warranted given that it looks gorgeous and it’s so well made across the board, featuring a moving third act as well, but again these can only take you so far when you don’t have a legitimate point of view.

8. Barbie

The biggest movie of the year in terms of box office, Barbie also ended up receiving eight Oscar nominations, but it still remains a problematic flick that functions more as a political sermon from Hollywood than vibrant blockbuster fare. While the production design is truly astonishing, the soundtrack excellent and the acting performances phenomenal across the board, the movie’s dialogue is so devoid of realism and/or subtlety that it seemed to be coming from Twitter activists and not real writers. It’s a fun popcorn flick that is also quite funny at times, but as a feminist film it fared much worse, especially when compared to another BP nominee that is going to come up much higher in this ranking.

7. The Holdovers

The Holdovers is a charmingly old-fashioned dramedy inspired by early seventies cinema. This is the type of film that usually goes on to actually win Best Picture, but when compared to the biggest masterpieces of the year, it simply cannot compete. It’s a wonderfully performed film that also features solid character development and a couple of heartwarming sequences. It’s a crowd-pleaser that is impossible not to like. But it’s also a movie that is so sweet and simple that it failed to properly explore any of its deeper themes.

6. American Fiction

American Fiction is a dramedy that has a lot to say about white liberals’ guilt and prejudices while its satirization of media was especially cutting. Jeffrey Wright and Sterling K. Brown were both excellent in such well-written roles. This is one of the funniest movies on a surprisingly comedy-heavy slate this year, a film that is highly entertaining and even sophisticated, though also a bit too silly at times. It would have truly been great had its writer-director stuck with one instead of two very different storylines, leading to a tonally and structurally messy movie.

5. Poor Things

This is the most surprising placement in this ranked list. I actually quite dislike Yorgos Lanthimos’ work as most of his movies are insufferably pretentious and weird for the sake of being weird. But Poor Things is not like that. This is by far his best movie to date and the only one that I genuinely enjoyed. Yes, it has a weak, uninteresting first act and often overly contemporary dialogue, but the second half fired on all cylinders, delivering a genre-defying feast for the eyes and ears. Its unique cinematography, sets, costumes and score made it almost fantastical while Emma Stone’s central performance was incredible to witness. Bella Baxter is an instantly iconic movie character and this film did for feminism what Barbie simply failed to do. It’s also an admirably sexual film during a frustratingly conservative era of Hollywood.

4. Killers of the Flower Moon

Offering an all too crucial glimpse into the horrible history of this country that was started on stolen land and through greed, Killers of the Flower Moon serves as an important history lesson and a pretty great epic movie in its own right. A lot has been said about its skewed perspective on the villains of the story, but this approach ultimately mostly worked as it led to a much more insidious film that can make you feel angry as only the best movies can do. It’s an epic, but also intimate exercise in period piece filmmaking that benefits from tremendous performances from Lily Gladstone, Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro.

3. Past Lives

Celine Song emerged as a filmmaker to watch in Past Lives, a film where she showcased tremendous cinematic flair and storytelling power for a debuting director. While technically superb, Past Lives’ major strength remains the story itself, which is simple but so immensely powerful. It offers a tragic and introspective take on a romantic drama, probing deeper themes ranging from the power of first love to immigration issues to relationship insecurities. It’s a strong cautionary tale about trusting your gut instead of settling in a relationship, a story that leaves a big mark with its unusually pensive and wistful tone. These top four films are all excellent, but when it comes to independent cinema, Past Lives was at the top for this year.

2. Anatomy of a Fall

European cinema shined this year and the Academy thankfully took notice by nominating two of the best movies hailing from that continent. Anatomy of a Fall is a great showcase of the power of courtroom dramas and how thrilling they can be when done right. This is a complex and layered story where each new revelation becomes more confounding, leading to an ending that was effectively ambiguous and powerful. Justine Triet directed the film with so much style and gravitas, which led to her very much deserved Oscar nomination, but the highlight of the movie is Sandra Huller whose powerhouse performance ranks among the year’s finest. This is the type of sophisticated drama that both critics and audiences can appreciate and it would have been the best nominee this year had it not been for…

1. The Zone of Interest

Yes, a WWII drama takes the number one spot on this list, which is no easy feat as we’ve had numerous movies dealing with this subject matter nominated before. But what Jonathan Glazer did here was to shy away from depicting any violence, but invite us as the audience to just observe this family living nearby the concentration camp. Through its clinical, slice-of-life approach at storytelling and a minimalist script that is admirably devoid of any unnecessary conflict, the film invites us not just to acknowledge the complicity of the people that we are observing, but also to recognize our very own tendencies to avoid these unpleasant truths and focus on our own lives and the lives of our closest families, who are effectively just the extension of ourselves. It’s a thematically impressive film, but one that is also visually powerful while featuring strong acting, tremendous sound design and incredible directing from Glazer. It’s a true work of art and an important message film that is nowadays sadly too relatable. It’s not only the best nominee this year, but the greatest 2023 movie overall.

Films That Should Have Been Nominated:

All of Us Strangers – Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers is one of my favorite films on this list, an underrated gem that was disrespected not just by the Academy, but by the BAFTA as well. This is not just a gay story, but a story about the difficulty of moving on after the loss of a loved one. It’s a touching film that features a truly incredible central turn from Andrew Scott.

Society of the Snow – Society of the Snow is one of the best movies of the year, a film that was nominated in the foreign category, but not for Best Picture. This is one of the most optimistic, beautiful and inspirational films that is also technically arresting and impossible not to love due to everything that J. A. Bayona did right here.

Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. – This is by far the most Oscar-like movie released this year that sadly wasn’t nominated. It is a wonderful, timeless coming-of-age flick. It’s the kind of movie that could have been made decades ago as it’s so heartwarming and effective. It’s overall better than The Holdovers, so it really shouldn’t have been snubbed.