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The 2023 Academy Awards nominations (Oscar nominations) have been announced and, as expected, there’s no horror in sight (unless you count being subjected to Ruben Östlund’s lame social commentary as horror, which I do), not even in the shorts categories. Nothing. Zero.
As it’s been proven repeatedly throughout the years, the Academy, and the industry at large, doesn’t respect horror as a genre. Film critics and industry professionals create contemptuous labels, such as “elevated horror,” to refer to some of its most popular examples; they refuse to acknowledge brilliant performances and artistry at the same level as other genres —I mean, how dumb is it that horror movies are never nominated in Sound and Hair & Makeup categories in any award (not just 2023 Oscars nominations)? There’s an unfortunate and arrogant bias against horror that seems to keep growing every year. And guess what? All of these people are missing out.
So, given the complete absence of horror at the 2023 Oscar nominations, the But Why Tho? team decided to create its own list of “awards” categories to shine a light on some of our favorite horror movies of the past season. We have movies from Senegal, Brazil, Norway, Denmark, Estonia, Taiwan, Spain, and even some animated horror outings. Yes, horror is awesome and can come at us in many forms, and we are proud to celebrate all of them in our own spin on Oscar nominations.
Before we start, just a little apology to fans of Rebecca Hall as we were unable to watch the highly praised Resurrection (the movie hasn’t even arrived in my country!). But rest assured, there are more astonishing horror performances we celebrate on this list.
Best Picture
Best Director
- Mariama Diallo – Master
- Anita Rocha da Silveira – Medusa
- Rob Jabbaz – The Sadness
- Jean Luc Herbulot – Saloum
- Chloe Okuno – Watcher
Best Actress
- Taylor Russell – Bones and All
- Georgina Campbell – Barbarian
- Rakel Lenora Fløttum – The Innocents
- Mari Lill – Kratt
- Regina Hall – Master
- Lara Tremoroux – Medusa
- Anna Diop – Nanny
- Mia Goth – Pearl
- Laura Galán – Piggy
- Aisha Dee – Sissy
Best Actor
- Justin Long – Barbarian
- Joseph Winter – Deadstream
- Ryan Kwantan – Glorious
- Sam Ashraf – The Innocents
- Daniel Kaluuya – Nope
- Berant Zhu – The Sadness
- Tzu-Chiang Wang – The Sadness
- Roger Sallah – Saloum
- Yann Gael – Saloum
- Morten Burian – Speak No Evil
Best Screenplay
- Barbarian – Zach Cregger
- The Innocents – Eskil Vogt
- Medusa – Anita Rocha da Silveira
- Nope – Jordan Peele
- Piggy – Carlota Pereda
Best Cinematography
- Incantation – Bernardo Uzeda
- Medusa – João Atala
- Nope – Hoyte van Hoytema
- Nanny – Rina Yang
- Saloum – Gregory Corandi
Best Original Score
- Mad God – Dan Wool
- Medusa – Bernardo Uzeda
- Nope – Michael Abels
- Studio 666 – Ray Mayorga
- Wendell & Wild – Bruno Coulais
Best Makeup & Hairstyling
- Barbarian
- Bones and All
- Hellraiser
- Medusa
- The Sadness
Best Production Design
- Barbarian
- The House
- Nope
- Pearl
- Saloum
What do your genre 2023 Oscar Nominations look like? Which films sweep? Which ones surprise? Let us know your take on a genre 2023 Oscar Nomination slate on social media @butwhythopc.
Ricardo is a Mexico City-based bilingual writer, Certified Rotten Tomatoes film critic and Digital Animation graduate. He loves cats, Mass Effect, Paddington and is the founder of the film website “La Estatuilla.