Arts and Entertainment

Who’s Taking Home an Oscar?

Mara Duque Ruiz|March 10, 2023

The Oscars is an award show that rewards achievements in film, such as the best actor, director, film, etc. The Oscars was first established in 1929 and is known as the most prestigious award you can get for a film.

This year’s Best Actress category is anything but ordinary, with the surprise nominations of Andrea Riseborough and Ana de Armas, but who deserves to win? Who had a groundbreaking performance? Well, Michelle Willams had a decent performance, but her role is more in the supporting category than in the leading category. Andrea Riseborough might have been able to get a nomination for a movie nobody watched, but the movie isn’t groundbreaking. It’s a small, independent film. Then you have Ana de Armas, who had an incredible performance that most actresses wouldn’t dare to do; the only issue is that the movie is garbage. It’s a depressing 3-hour movie, and it’s honestly really tiresome. Despite this, it’s a performance that often gets ignored and assumed to be bad because the film is terrible. This then leaves the two prominent women of this year’s award season who have been competing head to head for Best Actress: Michelle Yeoh and Cate Blanchett. Cate Blanchett’s role is much more challenging than Michelle Yeoh’s. Blanchett had to learn how to conduct, speak German, and more. Her character is complex, and while you wouldn’t think it at first, her character has power and abuses it. Now, this does not mean that Michelle Yeoh’s performance was bad; quite the opposite. It just means that Cate Blanchett’s character is much harder to play on a scale of difficulty. Even though I believe this, that doesn’t mean she’ll win. Cate Blanchett has already won 2 Oscars and been nominated numerous times, while this is Michelle Yeoh’s first time being nominated. Also, Everything Everywhere All At Once is a much more popular movie than Tar. All in all, Michelle Yeoh will probably make history at this Sunday’s Oscars.

Moving on to the Best Actor category, we have Austin Butler for the awful and boring movie that is Elvis, Brendan Fraser for The Whale, Bill Nighly for Living, Paul Mescal for Aftersun, and finally Colin Farrell for The Banshees of Inisherin. Sadly, this is the category in which I’ve only seen two of the five actors nominated- Austin Butler and Colin Farrell. The real competition in this category is Brendan Fraser vs. Austin Butler. Now I can’t honestly say who will win this category. It wouldn’t be fair, seeing as I haven’t seen The Whale, but I can say this: the Oscars love biopics. Last year, Will Smith won Best Actor for playing the father of Serena and Venus Williams, and Jessica Chastain Won Best Actress for playing Tammy Faye. In recent years, more actors such as Rami Malek and Renée Zellweger have won for their performances in biopics. This means Austin Butler will likely win Best Actor, and I say this with no pleasure. I would like to add that Colin Farrell used to be in the running, but as the award season has progressed, he’s slowly been forgotten, but his performance is pretty solid, and The Banshees of Inisherin is a very different movie compared to others that have been nominated.

And last but certainly not least, we have the Best Picture category. You already know what I think of Elvis, this year’s worst movie. Then you have the two action movies: Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way of Water. Neither of these movies is going to win Best Picture. The academy is known for hating action movies because they don’t see them as having a true story; for these two movies, that is somewhat true. The first hour of the Avatar sequel is just a copy of what happens in the first Avatar movie. Top Gun: Maverick is just a more modern and slightly edited version of Top Gun. They are very advanced in special effects, but their stories are lacking in certain areas. Then we have Women Talking and All Quiet On The Western Front. Women Talking is an independent movie based on the book of the same name. I recently got the chance to watch the movie, and I found it fascinating. At times, independent films can be pretty dull, but this film was intriguing, and the cast really brought the script to life. Sadly this film won’t win Best Picture due to its lack of popularity in mainstream media. The film stars mainly women and talks about rape and abuse, which tends to be ignored in the media. Next, we have All Quiet On The Western Front, which will also not win Best Picture but will win Best Foreign Film. The movie is very well-made, but I’m just so tired of movies about war. After that, we have Tar and Triangle of Sadness. Triangle of Sadness is like The White Lotus but much darker. It had some strange parts, but it was very entertaining as it comments on our society, and I like how the ending was slightly open. Tar is also not going to win. The movie starts off really strong but loses itself somewhere in the middle. It is also unnecessarily long; it could have easily been shortened by 10 or 15 minutes. Even though the story could be better, Cate Blanchett kills it. Finally, we have the trio of movies with the best chance of winning Best Picture: The Banshees of Inisherin, The Fabelmens, and Everything Everywhere All At Once. The Banshees of Inisherin is very different and can be relatable, but it’s too weird to win Best Picture and a little too simple. Then we have The Fabelmens, which is also very good, but compared to Steven Spielberg’s other films, this one is near the bottom. This leaves Everything Everywhere All At Once as the film that will win Best Picture. It is a mix of everything: action, humor, and drama. It is both humorously entertaining and devastating, and its costume design is just incredible.