I posted my Best Films of 2022 list a couple of week back, here, and have been updating it as I’ve whittled down my “need to see” list. When I posted it, I also included some Oscar-linked lists based on the categories that I care the most about. I’ve been updating that list as well, but it’s long enough that it felt like it might need its own post. Which you’re now reading.

I don’t know why I still care about the Oscars, but I do. That show’s broadcast and the Super Bowl are about the only two “must-see TV” events for me anymore. The Tony’s were never my bag, as my exposure to Broadway-level theater is minimal. Since I’ve not been much of a television watcher until COVID times, as discussed here, I’ve also not been much engaged with the Emmy’s. And in the realm of my greatest cultural love, music, the Grammy’s have long been a negligible-to-laughable misguided embarrassment in my mind, much as are nominations to the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame.

But the Oscars still seem to matter to me, as does the Cannes Film Festival, despite the myriad problematic aspects of both of those events and the organizations that produce them. Call me blinkered or blinded or Kool Aid-poisoned or whatever, but I am happy to see the films I love win awards at those venues, and annoyed when truly worthy films are shunned. There’s still some emotional and intellectual investment, at bottom line, though I cannot explain why in any particularly lucid fashion.

That said, if I were allowed to be Film Emperor for a Day and to be able to prescribe the nominees for the 2023 Oscars, here’s what I’d pick among the major (to me) categories. I wish that the Academy did not allow up to ten best film nominees each year, but since they do, I’ll go along with that rubric and fill that bucket.

Best Film:

• Aftersun
• Babylon
• The Banshees of Inisherin
• Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths
• EO
• Everything Everywhere All at Once
• The Good Boss
• Official Competition
• The Outfit
• Triangle of Sadness

Best Director:

• Damien Chazelle, Babylon
• Gastón Duprat and Mariano Cohn, Official Competition
• Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All At Once
• Alejandro González Iñárritu, Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths
• Ruben Östlund, Triangle of Sadness

Best Actor:

• Antonio Banderas, Official Competition
• Javier Bardem, The Good Boss
• Austin Butler, Elvis
• Mark Rylance, The Outfit
• Ralph Fiennes, The Menu
  

Best Actress:

• Penélope Cruz, Official Competition
• Rebecca Hall, Resurrection
• Regina Hall, Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul
• Margot Robbie, Babylon
  
• Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All at Once

Best Supporting Actor:

• Mentor Ba, Saloum
• Brendan Gleeson, The Banshees of Inisherin
• Tom Hanks, Elvis
• Woody Harrelson, Triangle of Sadness
  
• Pedro Pascal, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

Best Supporting Actress:

• Hong Chau, The Menu
• Kerry Condon, The Banshees of Inisherin
• Jamie Lee Curtis, Everything Everywhere All at Once
• Dolly De Leon, Triangle of Sadness
  
• Jean Smart, Babylon

Best Animated Feature:

• Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood
• Beavis and Butthead Do The Universe
• Mad God
• Marcel the Shell With Shoes On
• Minions: The Rise of Gru

Best International Feature:

• Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths
• EO
• The Good Boss
• Official Competition
• You Won’t Be Alone

Best Cinematography:

• Darius Khondji, Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths
• Sophie Winqvist, Clara Sola
• Linus Sandgrin, Babylon
• Larkin Seiple, Everything Everywhere All at Once
• Fredrik Wenzel, Triangle of Sadness

Best Original Screenplay:

• Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin
• Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All At Once
• Seth Reiss and Will Tracy, The Menu
• Mariano Cohn, Andrés Duprat and Gastón Duprat, Official Competition
• Ruben Östlund, Triangle of Sadness

Best Adapted Screenplay:

• K.D. Dávila, Emergency
• Rian Johnson, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
• Simon Farnaby, The Phantom of the Open
• Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis, The Tale of King Crab
• Emma Donoghue, Sebastián Lelio and Alice Birch, The Wonder