95th Academy Awards

Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan, Best Picture co-winners, and Best Director and Best Original Screenplay winners

Brendan Fraser, Best Actor winner

Michelle Yeoh, Best Actress winner

Ke Huy Quan, Best Supporting Actor winner

Jamie Lee Curtis, Best Supporting Actress winner

Sarah Polley, Best Adapted Screenplay winner

Guillermo del Toro, Best Animated Feature co-winner

Edward Berger, director of the Best International Feature Film winner

Daniel Roher, Best Documentary Feature co-winner

Kartiki Gonsalves, Best Documentary Short Subject co-winner

Volker Bertelmann, Best Original Score winner

M. M. Keeravani, Best Original Song co-winner

Ruth E. Carter, Best Costume Design winner

Winners are listed first, highlighted in boldface, and indicated with a double dagger (‡).[19]

The Academy held its 13th annual Governors Awards ceremony on November 19, 2022, during which the following awards were presented:[20]

• Euzhan Palcy – "A masterful filmmaker who broke ground for Black women directors and inspired storytellers of all kinds across the globe."[21]
• Diane Warren – "For her genius, generosity and passionate commitment to the power of song in film."[21]
• Peter Weir – "A fearless and consummate filmmaker who has illuminated the human experience with his unique and expansive body of work."[21]

• Michael J. Fox – "For his tireless advocacy of research on Parkinson's disease alongside his boundless optimism exemplifies the impact of one person in changing the future for millions."[22]

When the nominations were announced, nine of the ten films nominated for Best Picture had earned a combined gross of $1.57 billion at the American and Canadian box offices at the time. Top Gun: Maverick was the highest-grossing film among the Best Picture nominees with $718.7 million in domestic box office receipts.[39] Avatar: The Way of Water came in second with $598.4 million; this was followed by Elvis ($151 million), Everything Everywhere All at Once ($70 million), The Fabelmans ($15 million), The Banshees of Inisherin ($9 million), Tar ($5.6 million), Triangle of Sadness ($4.2 million), and Women Talking ($1.1 million). The box office figures for All Quiet on the Western Front were unavailable due to their distributor Netflix's policy of refusing to release such figures.[40] Furthermore, by virtue of Avatar: The Way of Water and Top Gun: Maverick's Best Picture nominations, it marked the first time since the 55th ceremony in 1983 that the two highest grossing films of the year were both nominated in the aforementioned category.[41]

Andrea Riseborough's Best Actress nomination for To Leslie was controversial amongst critics and pundits, as Momentum Pictures, the film's distributor, did not fund a conventional advertising-driven awards campaign for the film. Instead, director Michael Morris and his wife, actress Mary McCormack, organized a "celeb-backed campaign" to get Riseborough nominated.[42][43] They contacted friends and colleagues in the entertainment industry, asking them to view the film and share it with others if they enjoyed it.[44] Morris and Riseborough also hired publicists to coordinate the efforts. While not initially regarded as a serious contender, the campaign raised Riseborough's profile; dozens of celebrities praised her performance on social media, and some hosted screenings of the film during voting for the Academy Award nominations in January 2023.[45][46] Riseborough's nomination was announced on January 24, which the Los Angeles Times called "one of the most shocking nominations in Oscar history".[44]

After her nomination was announced, speculation arose that the tactics might have violated AMPAS rules against directly lobbying voters.[47] A post on the film's Instagram account was noted by several AMPAS members for possibly violating a rule prohibiting "[singling] out 'the competition' by name" by featuring a quote from film critic Richard Roeper, who praised Riseborough's performance as better than Cate Blanchett's in Tár, a fellow nominee for Best Actress.[48] On January 27, the Academy announced a review of the year's campaigns "to ensure that no guidelines were violated, and to inform us whether changes to the guidelines may be needed in a new era of social media and digital communication".[49]

The Academy has rescinded nominations for nominees that participated in unsanctioned campaigning. However, there were no reports that Riseborough had been involved in such, or that any Academy members had lodged formal complaints about the campaign's behavior.[49] On January 31, the Academy concluded its review by pledging to address "social media and outreach campaigning tactics" which they said caused "concern", but confirming that Riseborough's nomination would be retained.[50] Following the controversy, the Academy introduced new campaigning rules and clarifications in May 2023.[51]

Variety columnist Owen Gleiberman wrote: "It didn't rock the boat, it didn't overstay its welcome, and it left you feeling that the world's preeminent awards show, all doom-saying punditry to the contrary, is still, on balance, a very good thing." He also added that the wins received by Everything Everywhere All at Once "lent the evening a rare emotional unity".[52] Television critic Daniel Fienberg of The Hollywood Reporter similarly praised the show's emotional beats and found its flaws "were mitigated more gracefully than just about any Oscars telecast" he could recall.[53] Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle commended Kimmel's stint as host stating: "He was establishing that 2023 would not be a repeat of 2022 — and it wasn't. It was such a relief to see something, anything, actually get better."[54]

Mike Hale of The New York Times remarked on "the ordinariness and sameness of the ABC broadcast" compared to the prior year,[55] while USA Today's Kelly Lawler criticized it as "terribly fake" and felt that Kimmel's role "felt phoned in, or at least maybe monitored by corporate overlords looking to avoid controversy" despite some of his jokes tackling controversial subjects such as the January 6 United States Capitol attack and Tom Cruise's Scientology advocacy.[56] Hale added that "the modern Oscars have become something more to be endured than enjoyed".[55]

The American telecast on ABC drew in an average of 18.75 million people over its length, which was a 13% increase from the previous year's ceremony and marked the first time that the Academy Awards experienced consecutive years of viewership increase since the 86th Academy Awards in 2014.[3] The show also earned higher Nielsen ratings compared to the previous ceremony with 9.9% of households watching the ceremony.[57] In addition, it garnered a higher 18–49 demo rating with a 4.03 rating among viewers in that demographic.[58] In July 2023, the broadcast was nominated for three awards at the 75th Primetime Creative Arts Emmys.[59]