Oscars 2023: 'A slap in the face for Hollywood'

"The absence of so many of Hollywood's biggest names, Tom Cruise and James Cameron among them, hinted that the US film industry's certainties are crumbling. The major, historic studios had to content themselves with a sound design award for Top Gun: Maverick, a visual effects award for Avatar: The Way of Water, and a costume design award for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. It was an independent studio, A24, that was behind Everything Everywhere All at Once, a heady science-fiction martial-arts comedy that wouldn't even have been nominated for an Oscar a decade ago. A24 was also behind The Whale. The evening's other big winner, All Quiet on the Western Front, was a German production that was funded by Netflix, and that same streaming service bankrolled the winner of the animated feature Oscar, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio. The whole evening could be read as Hollywood's confession that it doesn't make the best films any more – or, at least, the kind of films that win Oscars. So maybe Kimmel was wrong to joke that the telecast had passed without incident. It was a smooth, happy affair, but it was a slap in the face for Hollywood."

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Oscars 2023: 'A slap in the face for Hollywood' - BBC Culture