The first Oscars 2023 shortlist is here – and it includes Avatar 2, Wakanda Forever, and Top Gun: Maverick

Avatar: The Way of Water, Top Gun: Maverick, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forver
(Image credit: 20th Century Studios/Paramount/Marvel Studios)

The Academy has revealed the shortlists for 10 Oscar categories, including International Feature Film, Documentary Feature and Short Films, and technical awards like Sound and Visual Effects. 

A surprising exclusion was The Batman from the Best Score category – the movie's music was composed by director Matt Reeves' frequent collaborator Michael Giacchino. However, the movie is included in the shortlists for Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Sound, and Best Visual Effects. Another superhero movie that received plenty of recognition was Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which also received nods in those three categories, along with Best Original Score and Best Original Song. 

Other movies with multiple nods include Avatar: The Way of Water, Top Gun: Maverick, Elvis, and Netflix's All Quiet on the Western Front. These aren't the final nominations, though – those are still to come on January 24. We've got the full shortlist for the 10 categories announced so far below.

Oscars 2023 shortlist

Best Documentary Feature Film

  • All That Breathes
  • All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
  • Bad Axe
  • Children of the Mist
  • Descendant
  • Fire of Love
  • Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song
  • Hidden Letters
  • A House Made of Splinters
  • The Janes
  • Last Flight Home
  • Moonage Daydream
  • Navalny
  • Retrograde
  • The Territory

Best Documentary Short Film

  • American Justice on Trial: People v. Newton
  • Anastasia
  • Angola Do You Hear Us? Voices from a Plantation Prison
  • As Far as They Can Run
  • The Elephant Whisperers
  • The Flagmakers
  • Happiness Is £4 Million
  • Haulout
  • Holding Moses
  • How Do You Measure a Year?
  • The Martha Mitchell Effect
  • Nuisance Bear
  • Shut Up and Paint
  • Stranger at the Gate
  • 38 at the Garden

Best International Feature Film

  • All Quiet on the Western Front (Germany)
  • Argentina, 1985 (Argentina)
  • Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths (Mexico)
  • The Blue Caftan (Morocco)
  • Cairo Conspiracy (Sweden)
  • Close (Belgium)
  • Corsage (Austria)
  • Decision to Leave (South Korea)
  • EO (Poland)
  • Holy Spider (Denmark)
  • Joyland (Pakistan)
  • Last Film Show (India)
  • The Quiet Girl (Ireland)
  • Return to Seoul (Cambodia)
  • Saint Omer (France)

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

  • All Quiet on the Western Front
  • Amsterdam
  • Babylon
  • The Batman
  • Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
  • Blonde
  • Crimes of the Future
  • Elvis
  • Emancipation
  • The Whale

Best Original Score

  • All Quiet on the Western Front
  • Avatar: The Way of Water
  • Babylon
  • The Banshees of Inisherin
  • Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
  • Devotion
  • Don’t Worry Darling
  • Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • The Fabelmans
  • Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
  • Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
  • Nope
  • She Said
  • The Woman King
  • Women Talking

Best Original Song

  • 'Time' – Amsterdam
  • 'Nothing Is Lost (You Give Me Strength)' – Avatar: The Way of Water
  • 'Lift Me Up' – Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
  • 'This Is A Life' –  Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • 'Ciao Papa' – Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
  • 'Til You’re Home' – A Man Called Otto
  • 'Naatu Naatu' – RRR
  • 'My Mind & Me' – Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me
  • 'Good Afternoon' – Spirited
  • 'Applause' – Tell It like a Woman
  • 'Stand Up' – Till
  • 'Hold My Hand' – Top Gun: Maverick
  • 'Dust & Ash' – The Voice of Dust and Ash
  • 'Carolina' – Where the Crawdads Sing
  • 'New Body Rhumba' – White Noise

Best Animated Short Film

  • Black Slide
  • The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse
  • The Debutante
  • The Flying Sailor
  • The Garbage Man
  • Ice Merchants
  • It’s Nice in Here
  • More than I Want to Remember
  • My Year of Dicks
  • New Moon
  • An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It
  • Passenger
  • Save Ralph
  • Sierra
  • Steakhouse

Best Live-Action Short Film

  • All in Favor
  • Almost Home
  • An Irish Goodbye
  • Ivalu
  • Le Pupille
  • The Lone Wolf
  • Nakam
  • Night Ride
  • Plastic Killer
  • The Red Suitcase
  • The Right Words
  • Sideral
  • The Treatment
  • Tula
  • Warsha

Best Sound

  • All Quiet on the Western Front
  • Avatar: The Way of Water
  • Babylon
  • The Batman
  • Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
  • Elvis
  • Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
  • Moonage Daydream
  • Top Gun: Maverick

Best Visual Effects

  • All Quiet on the Western Front
  • Avatar: The Way of Water
  • The Batman
  • Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
  • Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
  • Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore
  • Jurassic World Dominion
  • Nope
  • Thirteen Lives
  • Top Gun: Maverick

Fore more, check out our list of the best movies of 2022.

Entertainment Writer

I’m an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering everything film and TV-related across the Total Film and SFX sections. I help bring you all the latest news and also the occasional feature too. I’ve previously written for publications like HuffPost and i-D after getting my NCTJ Diploma in Multimedia Journalism. 

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