There were other surprises: Disney’s “Raya and the Last Dragon” triumphed in animation over the studio’s Oscar-frontrunner, “Encanto,” which has won a slew of guild awards, and “The Rescue” (Disney+) took feature documentary over Oscar-frontrunner “Summer of Soul” (Searchlight Pictures). Additionally, “Cliff Walkers” (Viki) earned foreign language honors, and “Infinite” (Paramount +) grabbed non-theatrical feature. In terms of the Oscar race, both “Dune” and “West Side Story” were given a boost, with the 58th annual Cinema Audio Society Awards for sound mixing coming March 19 (at the InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown)....

Last year’s NYFCC winner for Best Film was Kelly Reichardt’s “First Cow.” Zhao was named Best Director for “Nomadland” and repeated her win in this category at the Academy Awards. The acting winners included Flanigan, Delroy Lindo for “Da 5 Bloods,” Chadwick Boseman for “Da 5 Bloods,” and Maria Bakalova for “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm.” Only Bakalova went on to earn an Oscar nomination, although Boseman was Oscar nominated for “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom....

This was no ordinary film premiere — or even an ordinary Bond movie premiere. Yes, it was a lavish, star-studded black-tie gala in one of the capital’s grandest and most beloved buildings. But the event’s sense of occasion had its roots in March 2020, when Covid-19 cases were spiraling, and Broccoli and Wilson announced that they were postponing the release of “No Time To Die” from April to November. In retrospect, it was a sensible and even inevitable move, but at the time it was momentous....

In “Old Henry,” Patsy Ponciroli has written and directed a western which contains all the mechanisms for strong storytelling — but never digs past the superficial realm of old genre tropes. Tim Blake Nelson, the Henry of the title, is here grizzled and grey and mutton-chopped. He looks every bit the whip-thin farmer who toils in tedious labor and who has probably seen better days. He has a modest ranch in the Oklahoma Territory circa 1906, the year in which the movie begins....

Nominations voting is from January 12-17, 2023, with official Oscar nominations announced January 24, 2023. Final voting is March 2-7, 2023. And finally, the 95th Oscars telecast will be broadcast on Sunday, March 12 and air live on ABC at 8:00 p.m. ET/ 5:00 p.m. PT. We update predictions through awards season, so keep checking IndieWire for all our 2023 Oscar picks. In this year’s Supporting Actor field, several veteran Oscar-winners vie against a crop of newbies....

Of course, there are only five slots to Best Picture’s ten this year. Given this tony branch’s penchant for naming international directors (see Mike Leigh, Michael Haneke, Pawel Pawlikowski, Bong Joon Ho, Alfonso Cuaron), instead of Villeneuve the directors gave the nod to Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, for Best Picture and Adapted Screenplay nominee and Japanese Oscar entry “Drive My Car.” Many voters will assume that Hamaguchi will take the Oscar for International Feature Film....

This certainly shakes up the Oscar race, with “Cruella” now the favorite and “Coming 2 America” suddenly a stronger contender. However, period pieces tend to get greater recognition than contemporary films. Makeup and hair designer Nadia Stacey did a bit of reverse engineering for creating Emma Stone’s ’70s punk look in the “Cruella” origin story. The idea was to work toward the eventual iconic two-toned black-and-white hairdo, black eyeshadow, liner, and red lips....