The Oscars are considered one of the most prestigious awards in the film industry. Each year, the Academy honors exceptional achievements in filmmaking by nominating and rewarding a chosen few from a wide range of categories. Many great individuals were nominated for their work in 2023, and some of them won an Oscar as a sign of their incredible work being loved and accepted globally.
This year, India had several reasons to celebrate the Oscars, as the country received three nominations: ‘RRR,’ ‘All That Breathes,’ and ‘The Elephant Whisperer.’ Take a look at some notable nominations and wins at the Oscars in 2023.
- RRR
The epic historical drama “RRR” by SS Rajamouli not only received an Oscar nomination for “Naatu Naatu” in the Best Original Song category but also won the award. The song made history when it won the Best Original Song award at the 80th Golden Globes, being the first Indian song to do so. RRR competed alongside songs like ‘Applause’ from ‘Tell It Like a Woman,’ ‘Hold My Hand’ from ‘Top Gun: Maverick,’ ‘Lift Me Up’ from ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,’ and ‘This Is a Life’ from the film ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once.’
- Everything Everywhere All At Once
Everything Everywhere All at Once is a sci-fi indie hit by A24. The multiverse-hopping tale of Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan is an odd story of a Chinese immigrant family mingled with science fiction and alternate realities. The movie won the award for best picture at the 95th Academy Awards, along with awards for Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, and Jamie Lee Curtis for their acting prowess.
- All That Breathes
Shaunak Sen and Kartiki Gonsalves are the directors of the documentary All That Breathes. It was nominated for Best Documentary Short Film and Best Documentary Feature Film. The film is set in Delhi and revolves around two siblings, Mohammad Saud and Nadeem Shehzad, who spend their time collecting and treating injured birds, particularly black kites. Moreover, the film also received a BAFTA Award nomination. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, Fire of Love, A House Built of Splinters, and Navalny were the other films up for the award.
- All Quiet on the Western Front
Edward Berger’s film All Quiet on the Western Front bagged nine nominations, out of which it received four Oscars. The awards won were under the categories of Best International Feature, Best Cinematography (James Friend), Best Original Score (Volker Bertelmann), and Best Production Design (Christian M. Goldbeck, Ernestine Hipper). The movie, a sombre, unsettling version of the well-known World War I novel, topped U.K.’s BAFTA Awards with a record-breaking seven prizes, including Best Film, Director (Berger), Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Sound, Original Soundtrack, and Non-English Language Film categories.
- The Elephant Whisperer
Just like ‘All That Breathes,’ ‘The Elephant Whisperer’ is another Indian film that earned an Oscar nomination. The story takes place in the Mudumalai National Park, where an indigenous couple named Bomman and Belli look after an orphan elephant baby named Raghu. The documentary highlights both the surrounding natural beauty and the relationship that develops between these three. Kartiki Gonsalves and Guneet Monga’s Netflix documentary short won Best Documentary Short at the 95th Academy Awards. The film competed with ‘Stranger At The Gate,’ ‘Haulout,’ and ‘How Do You Measure a Year?’