The 2023 Oscars have come and gone – and, as with any big awards ceremony, there were deserving winners and unfortunate losers on the night.
Big things were expected of multiversal adventure film Everything Everywhere All At Once (EEAAO), which landed 11 nominations ahead of this year’s ceremony, including Best Picture (find out where you can watch every 2023 Oscar Best Picture nominee).
However, other critically-acclaimed films, such as Netflix‘s All Quiet on the Western Front and Searchlight Pictures’ The Banshees of Inisherin were also expected to do well, so EEAAO wasn’t expected to perform a clean sweep.
With the dust settling on the biggest night in the movie industry’s calendar, we’ve taken a look at the biggest winners and losers from the 2023 Oscars.
WINNER: Everything Everywhere All at Once
As we mentioned above, nobody expected Everything Everywhere All At Once to be crowned the biggest winner on the night. Yes, many thought it would land a couple of Academy Awards, but seven? Mark that down as unlikely.
And yet that’s what the A24-published film did. EEAAO was the undisputed victor at this year’s Oscars ceremony, racking up seven gongs including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actor. Not bad for a movie that debuted almost one year ago and only cost circa $15 million to make.
If you somehow missed EEAAO in theaters, don’t worry – you can stream it for free on Prime Video now.
LOSER: The Banshees of Inisherin
There’s always one big loser at the Oscars – and, unfortunately for The Banshees of Inisherin, it was the movie that was snubbed time and again at this year’s ceremony.
It might have landed nine nominations in February, but the Martin McDonagh-directed dark comedy didn’t win a single award. Considering it was up for some of the biggest prizes on the night, including Best Picture, its performance at the Oscars will be seen as a huge disappointment for everyone involved.
Still, The Banshees of Inisherin is well worth watching. If you’re interested in seeing what all the fuss is about (despite its lack of Oscar wins), you can stream it on HBO Max in the US and Disney Plus in the UK.
WINNER: Netflix
Ahead of the 2023 BAFTAs, we said Netflix needed to start converting its increasingly regular award nominations into actual victories. The same has been true of the world’s best streaming service‘s performance at the Oscars, with Netflix routinely struggling to turn nominations into prizes.
This year, though, Netflix seems to have finally turned a corner. The streaming giant scooped up six Academy Awards at this year’s event, including Best Cinematography and Best International Feature Film for All Quiet on the Western Front, and Best Animated Feature Film for Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio.
With no other streamer coming close to matching its total, Netflix has cemented itself as the king of the streamers (from an awards perspective, anyway) for the next 12 months.
LOSER: Netflix
After it won six Oscars at the 2023 ceremony, you might be wondering why we’ve also labeled Netflix as one of the event’s biggest losers.
Well, that’s because it failed to win the Best Picture award. Again. Last year, Netflix suffered the ignominy of losing out to Apple TV Plus movie CODA, which stunned the world with its unexpected Oscar triumph.
This year, Netflix looked on as EEAAO beat All Quiet on the Western Front (one of the best Netflix movies) to the ceremony’s biggest prize, meaning its wait for a Best Picture win stretches into a sixth year. Ouch.
WINNER: Comeback kings and queens
This year’s Oscars was devoid of the controversy that’s marred recent ceremonies (we’re looking at you, Will Smith and La La Land). Instead, we were treated to some of the most wholesome award wins for many years – especially in the acting categories.
Brendan Fraser and Ke Huy Quan scored wins in the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor categories, for their roles in The Whale and EEAAO. Meanwhile, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress went to Michelle Yeoh and Jamie Lee Curtis (both for EEAAO).
What makes these victories so heart-warming is that each of the above quartet have, at some point in their careers, fallen out of favor in the movie industry. Fraser and Quan were lost in the acting wilderness for many years before making soul-stirring returns to the mainstream recently. Curtis, too, was treading water until 2018’s Halloween (now available on Peacock) reignited her career. As for Yeoh, she’s repeatedly hit out at casting directors for passing up on her for roles due to her age.
Subsequently, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house when each actor gave their victory speeches at last night’s ceremony. And, based on their outstanding performances in their respective movies, they’re more than deserving of their long overdue wins.
LOSER: Every other Best Supporting Actress nominee
Jamie Lee Curtis’ Best Supporting Actress win was richly deserved for one of the world’s most prolific and talented performers.
That said, it’s hard not to feel for the four other nominees in that category. The Banshees of Inisherin‘s Kerry Condon and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever‘s Angela Basset were the frontrunners for the gong, and both can feel hard done by after missing out on this year’s prize.
Stephanie Hsu and Hong Chau, who played supporting roles in EEAAO and The Whale, though, were also overlooked. The Asian actors delivered breathtakingly brilliant performances in their respective movies, and on another day either one of them could have snapped up the award. That’ll come as little comfort, however, in the aftermath of the 2023 Academy Awards.
WINNER: The theatrical experience
Much has been written about the theater-going experience since the Covid-19 pandemic hit in early 2020. Would the film industry ever recover? Is streaming movies becoming more popular than seeing them in cinemas? Is the theater-going experience dead?
If the 2023 Oscars are anything to go by, rumors of the cinemagoing experience’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. Of this year’s 24 winners, 15 went to movies that originally debuted in cinemas worldwide, including Avatar: The Way of Water and Top Gun: Maverick. Add in epic Indian Telugu-language action drama RRR, which debuted in theaters in India before landing on Netflix in western nations, and that number jumps to 16.
That means 67% of 2023 Oscar winners were released in theaters before coming to streaming services such as Paramount Plus (in Top Gun: Maverick‘s case, anyway). In an era where some industry analysts believe streaming has surpassed the theater-going experience as our main source of entertainment, this year’s Academy Awards have proven that’s not the case.
LOSER: 2022’s highest-grossing movies
If the 2023 Oscars have proved another thing, it’s that some of the best movies of 2022 – especially those that grossed over $1 billion worldwide – couldn’t replicate their box office success at the world’s most prestigious movie awards ceremony.
Avatar: The Way of Water and Top Gun: Maverick made $2.293 billion and $1.483 billion globally during their theatrical runs, cementing them as the two biggest moneymaking films of the past 12 months. However, the duo only landed a single award each at this year’s Academy Awards – Avatar 2 unsurprisingly scooping the prize for Best Visual Effects, while Top Gun 2 won the Best Sound category.
In fact, of the 10 highest-grossing movies of 2022, Marvel‘s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was the only other film to win an award, for Best Costume Design. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish was nominated for Best Animated Feature, but lost out to Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio.
In short: your movie might rake in the cash at the box office, but that won’t necessarily translate into Oscar wins
