Reading the 2023 Oscar Nominations

The nominees for the 95th Academy Awards were released this morning with the usual fanfare and putting to rest all the speculation leading up to the big announcement. The winners will be revealed in a broadcast ceremony on March 12, 2023. That gives you plenty of time to read some of the books related to the nominated films including the gripping 1929 antiwar classic All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque and the 2010 novella Foster by Claire Keegan on which The Quiet Girl is based. Discover more below.

Based on All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

The testament of Paul Baumer, who enlists with his classmates in the German army of World War I, illuminates the savagery and futility of war.

Nominated for: Best Picture, Best International Feature Film, Best Cinematography, Writing (Adapted Screenplay), Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Original Score, Best Production Design, Best Sound, Best Visual Effects

Directed and co-written by Baz Luhrman, the movie draws from Alanna Nash's meticulously researched 2001 book The Colonel: The Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley.

Chronicles the life of Colonel Tom Parker, born Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk, from his childhood in Holland, through his early life in the United States, to his handling of Presley's career.

Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Actor (Austin Butler), Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Production Design, Best Sound 

Based on the play The Whale by Samuel D. Hunter

The Whale tells the story of a six hundred-pound shut-in's last chance at redemption and of discovering beauty in the most unexpected places when he reaches out to his long-estranged—and severely unhappy—daughter.

Nominated for: Best Actor (Brendan Fraser), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Hong Chau), Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Based on Women Talking by Miriam Toews

After learning the men in the community have been drugging and attacking more than a hundred women, eight Mennonite women meet in secret to decide whether they should escape to a place outside the colony or stay in the only world they've ever known. Based on real events.

Nominated for: Best Picture, Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

Based on Foster by Claire Keegan

An Irish child taken by her father to live with relatives on a farm finds the love and affection she never knew before and begins to thrive.

Nominated for: Best International Feature Film

Based on Blonde: A Novel by Joyce Carol Oates

One of America’s most acclaimed novelists boldly re-imagines one of America’s most enduring icons in Blonde—the National Book Award-nominated bestseller by Joyce Carol Oates. The legend of Marilyn Monroe—aka Norma Jeane Baker—comes provocatively alive in this powerful tale of Hollywood myth and heartbreaking reality. Marilyn Monroe lives—reborn to tell her untold history; her story of a star created to shine brightest in the Hollywood firmament before her fall to earth.

Nominated for: Best Actress (Ana de Armas)

Based on the Japanese film Ikiru (1952) which was inspired by the novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy

Ivan Ilyich is a middle-aged man who has spent his life focused on his career as a bureaucrat and emotionally detached from his wife and children. After an accident, he finds himself on the brink of an untimely death, which he sees as a terrible injustice. Face to face with his mortality, Ivan begins to question everything he has believed about the meaning of life. 

Nominated for: Best Actor (Bill Nighy), Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

Based on the Marvel Comics character the Black Panther

The Black Panther is not just a superhero; as King T’Challa, he is also the monarch of the hidden African nation of Wakanda. Combining the strength and stealth of his namesake with a creative scientific intelligence, the Black Panther is an icon of Afrofuturist fantasy.

Nominated for: Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Angela Bassett), Best Costume Design, Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Original Song ("Lift Me Up"), Best Visual Effects

Based on the novel Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris by Paul Gallico

This treasure from the 1950s introduces the irrepressible Mrs Harris, part charlady, part fairy-godmother, whose adventures take her from her humble London roots to the heights of glamour.

Nominated for: Best Costume Design

Summaries provided via NYPL’s catalog, which draws from multiple sources. Click through to each book’s title for more.