The Best Picture category at the 2023 Oscars is filled with audience favorites, multiple film sequels, family dramas, and character studies, which makes the race far more exciting and difficult to predict. Following the 2022 Oscars shake-up of CODA winning Best Picture, this year’s winner may follow suit by shifting the perception about which types of films are deserving of the top award. The ten nominees for Best Picture at the 95th Academy Awards are All Quiet on the Western Front, Avatar: The Way of Water, The Banshees of Inisherin, Elvis, Everything Everywhere All at Once, The Fabelmans, Tár, Top Gun: Maverick, Triangle of Sadness, and Women Talking.A24’s absurdist comedy-drama Everything Everywhere All at Once leads the 2023 Oscars with 11 nominations, followed by All Quiet on the Western Front and The Banshees of Inisherin with nine nominations each. The Best Picture nominees this year come from breakout newcomers like the Daniels and Hollywood staples like Steven Spielberg, with each movie varying in critical and audience popularity. However, the front-runners in the category have notably appealed to both, so 2023 has an incredible lineup for the Academy Awards’ top prize. Still, one movie’s impressive performance throughout the awards season, critical acclaim, and industry importance make it the favorite to win Best Picture at the 2023 Oscars.Related: Where To Watch Every Oscars 2023 Best Picture Nominee Online

Oscars 2023 Best Picture Favorites & Betting Odds

An image of 3 of the Oscars 2023 Best Pictures Nominees - Top Gun Maverick, Everything Everywhere all at Once, Avatar the Way Of Water

While the Oscars are known for throwing curve-balls last minute, such as how CODA wasn’t expected to be a top contender for Best Picture until shortly before the 2022 ceremony, the favorites at the 95th Academy Awards have continued to have great odds throughout the entire awards season. With the most nominations at this year’s awards, Everything Everywhere All at Once is the favorite to win Best Picture at the 2023 Oscars. The next front-runner with the second-best odds to win Best Picture is the black tragicomedy The Banshees of Inisherin, which also has four nominations in key acting categories.

Everything Everywhere All at Once has remained superior in the lead-up to the 2023 Oscars, with The Banshees of Inisherin increasingly closing the gap for second place. These two films being the favorites to win Best Picture also continue the trend of comedies receiving more prestigious recognition at the Oscars. Also breaking the typical Oscars formula is Top Gun: Maverick, the Tom Cruise-starring sequel to the 1986 cult classic Top Gun. The action drama has the third-best odds of winning Best Picture at the 2023 Oscars, with Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical film The Fabelmans close behind.

The films that have the worst odds to win the 2023 Oscars’ Best Picture award are Elvis and Triangle of Sadness, so it would be a shocking upset if these two movies pulled ahead. The box office smash Avatar: The Way of Water has slightly better odds, but is likely to follow in the footsteps of James Cameron’s original 2009 Avatar movie by losing to a more critically-adored movie. The 2023 Best Picture nominees that can’t be completely counted out of the race are Tár, All Quiet on the Western Front, and Women Talking, all three of which are acclaimed by critics but may not have enough of a push behind them to take home the Oscars’ top award.

Which Movies Have Been Winning During Awards Season

oscars 2023 best picture nominations everything everywhere all at once the banshees of inisherin all quiet on the western front

While several key award ceremonies like the BAFTAs, PGAs, SAG Awards, and Directors Guild of America have yet to announce winners, the top front-runners for Best Picture at the 2023 Oscars have been cleaning up throughout the awards season. Unsurprisingly, the movies that have been winning crucial awards typically associated with Best Picture Oscar winners are Everything Everywhere All at Once, The Banshees of Inisherin, and Top Gun: Maverick. The top two Best Picture front-runners have been cleaning up in acting, screenplay, director, and editing awards, while Top Gun: Maverick has been performing well in technical categories.

Related: The 2023 Best Picture Oscar Nominations Set New Sequel Record

Everything Everywhere all at Once has won Best Picture equivalents from the Austins Film Critics Association, Critics’ Choice Movie Awards, Gotham Awards, LAFCA, Saturn Awards, Seattle Film Critics Society, and Vancouver Film Critics Circle. The Banshees of Inisherin has won similar awards from the Alliance of Women Film Journalists, Boston Society of Film Critics, Chicago Film Critics Association, Golden Globes, and the San Diego Film Critics Society. Top Gun: Maverick won an award similar to the Oscars’ Best Picture category from the National Board of Review as well several 2022 Best Action Movie awards.

The Fabelmans has been nominated for numerous prestigious awards, but hasn’t taken home nearly as many as the three front-runners for the 2023 Oscars’ Best Picture category. Similarly, Tár has been nominated throughout the Awards season, but many of its wins were in the acting category for star Cate Blanchett. Avatar: The Way of Water’s biggest win this season has been its success at the box office with over $2.2 billion and counting, with the movie also taking home technical and voice-acting awards.

Why Everything Everywhere All At Once Is The Best Picture Frontrunner

Joy, Evelyn, and Waymond in Everything Everywhere All at Once.

The primary reason why Everything Everywhere All at Once is the 2023 Oscars Best Picture front-runner is that it has been nominated for and won the most crucial awards across the board ahead of the Academy Awards. While this is extremely important, Everything Everywhere All at Once’s chances of winning Best Picture are also higher because of the overwhelmingly positive buzz around the movie, its clever ability to take popular genres and trends and turn them into a brilliant story, the beautiful and complex family drama at the center of its plot, and the Oscar-nominated performances of Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, and Stephanie Hsu.

Everything Everywhere All at Once is also a front-runner because of the importance its win would have on the industry. A24's box office hit movie would be a big step in the sci-fi and absurdist comedy genres being able to take home prestigious awards, with its potential Best Picture win also marking an important recognition of Asian-American culture and the life of immigrants in the United States. In addition to the movie’s technical achievements, one of the biggest driving factors behind Everything Everywhere All at Once being favored to win Best Picture is the lead actors and their Hollywood stories.

Related: Why Everything Everywhere All At Once Has Great Reviews & So Much Hype

Michelle Yeoh leads the film in a dramatic, comic, and action-packed role after a long career in Hollywood, with a Best Picture win deservingly rewarding her performance. Actor Ke Huy Quan also stopped acting for several decades because of a lack of variety in roles for Asian-American actors, and he didn’t think he could beat his accomplishments as a child actor. Considering how incredible his performance is in Everything Everywhere All at Once, the film is undeniably Quan’s triumphant comeback to the big screen. Ultimately, Everything Everywhere All at Once is a deserving Best Picture winner because it includes outstanding representations in each category at the Oscars and embodies many of the best aspects of what films have to offer.

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