As winter approaches, the annual awards season is upon us again. Before the awards season battle is in full swing, many films are beginning to appear frequently in people’s view.
What will be the biggest hits of the 2023 awards season? And will your favorite actor reach new heights in his career?
Now that the Northern America awards are not yet available, this article has compiled a list of 10 top films that are likely to make a splash during the awards season. If you haven’t had time to pay attention, you can add them to your to-watch list with one click.
Everything Everywhere All At Once
Director/Screenwriter: Dan Kwan / Daniel Scheinert
Starring: Michelle Yeoh
MTC Score: 81 | Rotten Tomatoes: 95% Fresh | IMDb Score: 8.1
Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh), a 55-year-old Chinese-American immigrant, is having a family and career breakdown. On her father’s birthday, she has to stop her daughter (Stephanie Hsu) from coming out of the closet, wipe her useless husband’s (Jonathan Ke Quan) ass, and go to the tax office to explain to her old lady (Jamie Lee Curtis) about a not-so-good tax problem.
Before stepping into the building elevator, the soft husband even transformed into ‘The Matrix’, claiming that he is a version of another universe, and Xiulian is also one of the millions of universes.
It is too late to understand, the forces of evil have spread in the multiverse, the world is about to be destroyed, only in this universe, “useless” Evelyn can save the world ……
Awards Performance: Gotham Independent Film Awards “Best Film” nomination; South by Southwest Film Festival “Best Audience Award” nomination
‘TÁR’
Director/Screenwriter: Todd Field
Starring: Cate Blanchett
Rotten Tomatoes: 93% Fresh｜IMDb Score: 8.2
The film tells the story of world-renowned musician Lydia Tár (Cate Blanchett), just days away from recording the symphony that will take her to the pinnacle of her career.
Tár’s very bright and charming six-year-old adopted daughter plays a key role here. When the odds seem to be stacked against Tár, the daughter becomes an important moral support for her struggling mother.
Awards performance: Gotham Independent Film Awards “Best Film / Best Actress / Best Screenplay / Best Supporting Actress” nomination; Venice International Film Festival Award for Best Actress, “Golden Lion Award” nomination
‘The Fabelmans’
Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Michelle Williams
MTC Score: 84 | Rotten Tomatoes: 94% Fresh | IMDb Score: 8.3
Spielberg has created a new coming-of-age film based on himself, with Michelle Williams playing the main character’s mother.
The film is based in part on Spielberg’s life story, focusing on the hero’s formative years and his relationship with his parents, whose names are not Steven, but who live in Phoenix, Arizona, as Steven does.
Spielberg lived in Phoenix in the late 1950s and early 1960s, making home movies and adventure films with his father’s 8mm camera while confronting anti-Semitism.
The Spielberg family moved to California during high school, and later his parents divorced and he lived with his father, with whom he had a strained relationship that also became his inspiration for creating ‘E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,’ ‘Hook,’ ‘Jurassic Park,’ Lincoln’ ‘Catch Me If You Can’ and other films.
Awards category performance: Toronto International Film Festival “People’s Choice Award”
‘Decision To Leave’
Director: Park Chan-wook
Starring: Wei Tang
MTC Score: 84 | Rotten Tomatoes: 94% Fresh | IMDb Score: 7.3
Hae-joon (Hae-il Park), who is investigating a murder case in the mountains, meets Seo-rae (Wei Tang), the wife of the deceased.
“I was worried that he hadn’t come back from the mountain, thinking he might end up dead.” Seo-rae showed no signs of agitation over her husband’s death and behaved so differently from her grieving relatives that police believe she is the suspect.
When Hae-joon interrogates and spies on Seo-rae, he realizes that he is becoming interested in her.
Meanwhile, Seo-rae starts to take bold action against Hae-joon despite being accused of the crime. A suspect who hides the truth, and a detective who wants to suspect the suspect, they have a decision to break up.
Award category performance: Busan International Film Festival “Best Film/Best Actor/Best Actress” award, “Best Director” nomination; Cannes International Film Festival “Best Director” award, “Golden Palm Award” Best Film Nomination; Gotham Independent Film Awards “Best International Film” Nomination
‘Triangle of Sadness’
Director/Screenwriter: Ruben Östlund
Starring: Woody Harrelson
MTC Score: 63 | Rotten Tomatoes: 70% Fresh | IMDb Score: 7.9
Carl and Yaya are a very influential model couple. After fashion week, they were invited to a luxury trans-oceanic trip on a yacht, where the crew was very dedicated to serving the vacationers.
The big-name dinner party is about to take place, but the captain refuses to leave his cabin. When a storm hits and jeopardizes the comfort of the passengers, things take an unexpected turn and the balance is upset ……
Awards Performance: Cannes International Film Festival ‘Golden Palm Award’ for Best Film; San Sebastian International Film Festival ‘Film of the Year’ nomination
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Director: Laura Poitras
Starring: Nan Goldin
MTC Score: 89｜Rotten Tomatoes: 97% Fresh｜IMDb Score: 7.8
The film is a sneak peek documentary about the groundbreaking American photographer, with director Laura Poitras interviewing the life and drive of artist Nan Goldin.
Poitras illustrates her personal narrative with photographs and videos of protests organized by Goldin, who left home at an early age and made her breakthrough as a photographer with ‘The Ballad of Sexual Dependency’.
Today, she devotes all of her energy to her activist organization PAIN (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now), which stands up for people addicted to painkillers and fights the Sackler Family, the manufacturer of these drugs.
The family made billions of dollars selling OxyContin, exacerbating the opioid crisis in the United States.
Awards: Gotham Independent Film Awards ‘Best Documentary’ nomination; BFI London Film Festival ‘Best Documentary’ nomination, Venice International Film Festival ‘Golden Lion Award’ for Best Film
The Banshees of Inisherin
Director/Screenwriter: Martin McDonagh
Starring: Colin Farrell
MTC Score: 87｜Rotten Tomatoes: 97% Fresh｜IMDb Score: 8.2
Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson again, playing a pair of Irish Inisherin seaside island of good brothers, but facing a crisis of severance, this time broken not only friendship, but also fingers!
Martin McDonagh again to show the best black satirical comedy, when the end of friendship heartbreak and hurt pushed to the extreme, the resulting anger and revenge, but also out of control than love, the time and space background and the Irish Civil War remote contrast, more of its bad taste.
Awards Performance: Gotham Independent Film Awards ‘Best International Film’ nomination; Venice International Film Festival ‘Best Screenplay’ & Best Actor Award, ‘Golden Lion Award’ Best Film Nomination
‘Women Talking’
Director: Sarah Polley
Starring: Rooney Mara
MTC Score: 80 | Rotten Tomatoes: 89% Fresh | IMDb Score: 7.7
Telling the story of a remote religious colony where hundreds of women have been sexually assaulted for years, some women learn that they were drugged and attacked by a group of men from their own community. To protect themselves and their daughters from further harm, they decide to take action.
These women try to raise enough money, but they are illiterate, know nothing about the world outside their communities, and don’t even speak the language of their countries. They have little time to make a choice: stay in the only world they know, or dare to flee.
Awards category performance: Gotham Independent Film Awards “Best Screenplay/Best Supporting Actor/Best Supporting Actress”
‘Elvis’
Director: Baz Luhrmann
Starring Austin Butler
TC Score: 64 | Rotten Tomatoes: 77% Fresh | IMDb Score: 7.4
The late rock legend “Elvis Presley” Elvis Presley’s life, shocking and moving to reappear on the big screen. The life of the late Elvis Presley, a country boy who became the king of rock and roll, has been astonishing and moving since the moment he stepped on stage.
Elvis Presley is promoted by his manager, Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks), who helps him on his way to international stardom. But the unprecedented fame and fortune, coupled with social and cultural changes, caused Elvis Presley to lose himself for a time, and the two developed a complex relationship full of contradictions over 20 years.
During his journey to stardom, Elvis Presley met his most influential woman, Priscilla Presley (Olivia DeJonge). He has a number of classic songs and dance moves that have captivated fans.
Awards category performance: People’s Choice Award nomination for “Best Picture/Drama”
‘The Whale’
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Starring: Brendan Fraser
MTC Score: 65 | Rotten Tomatoes: 71% Fresh
It’s about Charlie, a six-hundred-pound recluse in a run-down apartment in rural Idaho, who is stubborn and determined to eat himself to death.
As Charlie gets closer to his inevitable fate, his friends Liz (a cynical atheists nurse) and Thomas (a young and promising Mormon missionary), both try to find in Charlie the will to be saved, both physically and spiritually.
Ellie is sarcastic, hateful, and full of thorns, but Charlie finds in her one last chance at redemption, perhaps even a glimmer of hope.
Awards performance: Gotham Independent Film Awards “Best Actor/Best Supporting Actress” nomination; Venice International Film Festival “Best Foreign Language Film” nomination, Golden Lion Award “Best Film” nomination
