LOS ANGELES — Surreal sci-fi "Everything Everywhere All At Once" topped the Oscar nominations Tuesday with 11, as Hollywood formally kicked off the race to the all-important Academy Awards.

It was followed by German anti-war movie "All Quiet on the Western Front" and Irish black comedy "The Banshees of Inisherin," which each received nine nominations from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

As expected, Academy voters also rewarded blockbusters such as Tom Cruise's "Top Gun: Maverick" and "Avatar: The Way of Water" for helping to bring audiences back to movie theaters after the pandemic.

Both were nominated for best picture, Tinseltown's most coveted prize, although another crowd-pleaser -- "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" -- missed out.

The remaining best picture slots went to rock-and-roll biopic "Elvis," Steven Spielberg's quasi-memoir "The Fabelmans," Cate Blanchett's latest tour-de-force "Tar," Cannes festival winner "Triangle of Sadness" and literary adaptation "Women Talking."

• Oscars 2023: 'Triangle of Sadness' up for Best Picture

Absurdist indie film "Everything Everywhere All At Once" portrays a Chinese-American immigrant family undergoing a tax audit, who are quickly drawn into an inter-dimensional battle to save the multiverse from a powerful villain.

It became a huge word of mouth hit and has grossed over $100 million worldwide.

The film earned four acting nominations for its cast, including best supporting actor for Ke Huy Quan -- who appeared as a child in "Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom" almost four decades ago -- and best lead actress for Michelle Yeoh.

Yeoh becomes just the second Asian woman ever nominated for lead actress in 95 years of Oscars history, and will compete with double Oscar-winner Blanchett for the prize.

But there was controversy elsewhere in the lead actress category, as no Black women were nominated, despite Viola Davis ("The Woman King") and Danielle Deadwyler ("Till") having been seen as frontrunners.

Instead the remaining slots went to Ana de Armas ("Blonde"), Michelle Williams ("The Fabelmans") and Andrea Riseborough for tiny indie film "To Leslie," which mounted an unusual, late celebrity-backed campaign for its star.

International voters

In the other individual categories, Brendan Fraser ("The Whale"), Colin Farrell ("The Banshees of Inisherin") and Austin Butler ("Elvis") are clear favorites for best actor.

The remaining nominations went to Paul Mescal in "Aftersun" and Bill Nighy in "Living."

In the best supporting actress category, Angela Bassett became the first star in a Marvel superhero movie to ever earn an Oscar acting nomination with "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever."

Spielberg made the best director shortlist, but no women were nominated in the category, sparking quick social media backlash.

Speaking before the nominations, Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis told AFP this was one of the more unpredictable Oscars races, in part due to the recent massive growth in the number of international Academy voters.

Those members have been credited with surprises such as South Korea's "Parasite" winning best picture in 2020.

This year they got behind "All Quiet on the Western Front," which is distributed by Netflix.

The World War I drama "All Quiet on the Western Front" has built major momentum, scooping a massive 14 nods last week for Britain's BAFTAs.

'Saved movies'

Actors Riz Ahmed ("Sound of Metal") and Allison Williams ("Girls") unveiled the Oscar nominations early on Tuesday morning from Los Angeles.

Television ratings for award shows including the Oscars have trended downwards, as Academy voters in recent years have veered toward honoring lesser-known indie hits like "Nomadland" and "CODA."

Many in the industry were hoping for a healthy spread of nominations among 2022's crowd-pleasing sequels, which were sorely needed as giants such as Cineworld, the world's second biggest cinema chain, filed for bankruptcy protection.

James Cameron's sci-fi epic "Avatar: The Way of Water," which sailed past the $2 billion mark globally last weekend, earned four nominations including best picture, production design, sound and visual effects.

"Top Gun: Maverick," Cruise's long-awaited sequel to his huge 1986 hit which came out in May during highly uncertain times for movie theaters and earned around $1.5 billion, received six -- best picture, editing, song, sound, visual effects and adapted screenplay.

"That's the one that feels like it could actually win best picture," said Davis, before the announcement.

"What better story the day after the Oscars air, than that the movie that saved movies was named the best movie? That's a good story to tell."

See the full list of nominees below:

BEST PICTURE

• “All Quiet on the Western Front,” Malte Grunert, Producer
• “Avatar: The Way of Water,” James Cameron and Jon Landau, Producers
• “The Banshees of Inisherin,” Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin and Martin McDonagh, Producers
• “Elvis,” Baz Luhrmann, Catherine Martin, Gail Berman, Patrick McCormick and Schuyler Weiss, Producers
• “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert and Jonathan Wang, Producers
• “The Fabelmans,” Kristie Macosko Krieger, Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner, Producers
• “Tár,” Todd Field, Alexandra Milchan and Scott Lambert, Producers
• “Top Gun: Maverick,” Tom Cruise, Christopher McQuarrie, David Ellison and Jerry Bruckheimer, Producers
• “Triangle of Sadness,” Erik Hemmendorff and Philippe Bober, Producers
• “Women Talking,” Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner and Frances McDormand, Producers

BEST DIRECTOR

• Martin McDonagh (“The Banshees of Inisherin”)
• Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”)
• Steven Spielberg (“The Fabelmans”)
• Todd Field (“Tár”)
• Ruben Östlund (“Triangle of Sadness”)

BEST LEAD ACTOR

• Austin Butler (“Elvis”)
• Colin Farrell (“The Banshees of Inisherin”)
• Brendan Fraser (“The Whale”)
• Paul Mescal (“Aftersun”)
• Bill Nighy (“Living”)

BEST LEAD ACTRESS

• Cate Blanchett (“Tár”)
• Ana de Armas (“Blonde”)
• Andrea Riseborough (“To Leslie”)
• Michelle Williams (“The Fabelmans”)
• Michelle Yeoh (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

• Brendan Gleeson (“The Banshees of Inisherin”)
• Brian Tyree Henry (“Causeway”)
• Judd Hirsch (“The Fabelmans”)
• Barry Keoghan (“The Banshees of Inisherin”)
• Ke Huy Quan (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

• Angela Bassett (“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”)
• Hong Chau (“The Whale”)
• Kerry Condon (“The Banshees of Inisherin”)
• Jamie Lee Curtis (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”)
• Stephanie Hsu (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”)

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

• “All Quiet on the Western Front,” Screenplay by Edward Berger, Lesley Paterson & Ian Stokell
• “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” Written by Rian Johnson
• “Living,” Written by Kazuo Ishiguro
• “Top Gun: Maverick,” Screenplay by Ehren Kruger and Eric Warren Singer and Christopher McQuarrie; Story by Peter Craig and Justin Marks
• “Women Talking,” Screenplay by Sarah Polley

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

• “The Banshees of Inisherin,” Written by Martin McDonagh
• “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” Written by Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert
• “The Fabelmans,” Written by Steven Spielberg & Tony Kushner
• “Tár,” Written by Todd Field
• “Triangle of Sadness,” Written by Ruben Östlund

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

• “All Quiet on the Western Front”, James Friend
• “Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths,” Darius Khondji
• “Elvis,” Mandy Walker
• “Empire of Light,” Roger Deakins
• “Tár,” Florian Hoffmeister

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE FILM

• “All That Breathes,” Shaunak Sen, Aman Mann and Teddy Leifer
• “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” Laura Poitras, Howard Gertler, John Lyons, Nan Goldin and Yoni Golijov
• “Fire of Love,” Sara Dosa, Shane Boris and Ina Fichman
• “A House Made of Splinters,” Simon Lereng Wilmont and Monica Hellström
• “Navalny,” Daniel Roher, Odessa Rae, Diane Becker, Melanie Miller and Shane Boris

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILM

• “The Elephant Whisperers,” Kartiki Gonsalves and Guneet Monga
• “Haulout,” Evgenia Arbugaeva and Maxim Arbugaev
• “How Do You Measure a Year?” Jay Rosenblatt
• “The Martha Mitchell Effect,” Anne Alvergue and Beth Levison
• “Stranger at the Gate,” Joshua Seftel and Conall Jones

BEST FILM EDITING

• “The Banshees of Inisherin,” Mikkel E.G. Nielsen
• “Elvis,” Matt Villa and Jonathan Redmond
• “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” Paul Rogers
• “Tár,” Monika Willi
• “Top Gun: Maverick,” Eddie Hamilton

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM

• “All Quiet on the Western Front” (Germany)
• “Argentina, 1985” (Argentina)
• “Close” (Belgium)
• “EO” (Poland)
• “The Quiet Girl” (Ireland)

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

• “Applause” from “Tell It Like a Woman,” Music and Lyric by Diane Warren
• “Hold My Hand” from “Top Gun: Maverick,” Music and Lyric by Lady Gaga and BloodPop
• “Lift Me Up” from “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” Music by Tems, Rihanna, Ryan Coogler and Ludwig Goransson; Lyric by Tems and Ryan Coogler
• “Naatu Naatu” from “RRR,” Music by M.M. Keeravaani; Lyric by Chandrabose
• “This Is a Life” from “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” Music by Ryan Lott, David Byrne and Mitski; Lyric by Ryan Lott and David Byrne

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

• “All Quiet on the Western Front,” Production Design: Christian M. Goldbeck; Set Decoration: Ernestine Hipper
• “Avatar: The Way of Water,” Production Design: Dylan Cole and Ben Procter; Set Decoration: Vanessa Cole
• “Babylon,” Production Design: Florencia Martin; Set Decoration: Anthony Carlino
• “Elvis,” Production Design: Catherine Martin and Karen Murphy; Set Decoration: Bev Dunn
• “The Fabelmans,” Production Design: Rick Carter; Set Decoration: Karen O’Hara

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

• “All Quiet on the Western Front,” Frank Petzold, Viktor Müller, Markus Frank and Kamil Jafar
• “Avatar: The Way of Water,” Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon and Daniel Barrett
• “The Batman,” Dan Lemmon, Russell Earl, Anders Langlands and Dominic Tuohy
• “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” Geoffrey Baumann, Craig Hammack, R. Christopher White and Dan Sudick
• “Top Gun: Maverick,” Ryan Tudhope, Seth Hill, Bryan Litson and Scott R. Fisher

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

• “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio,” Guillermo del Toro, Mark Gustafson, Gary Ungar and Alex Bulkley
• “Marcel the Shell With Shoes On,” Dean Fleischer Camp, Elisabeth Holm, Andrew Goldman, Caroline Kaplan and Paul Mezey
• “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish,” Joel Crawford and Mark Swift
• “The Sea Beast,” Chris Williams and Jed Schlanger
• “Turning Red,” Domee Shi and Lindsey Collins

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM

• “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse,” Charlie Mackesy and Matthew Freud
• “The Flying Sailor,” Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby
• “Ice Merchants,” João Gonzalez and Bruno Caetano
• “My Year of Dicks,” Sara Gunnarsdóttir and Pamela Ribon
• “An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It,” Lachlan Pendragon

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

• “Babylon,” Mary Zophres
• “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” Ruth Carter
• “Elvis,” Catherine Martin
• “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” Shirley Kurata
• “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris,” Jenny Beavan

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT

• “An Irish Goodbye,” Tom Berkeley and Ross White
• “Ivalu,” Anders Walter and Rebecca Pruzan
• “Le Pupille,” Alice Rohrwacher and Alfonso Cuarón
• “Night Ride,” Eirik Tveiten and Gaute Lid Larssen
• “The Red Suitcase,” Cyrus Neshvad

BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

• “All Quiet on the Western Front,” Heike Merker and Linda Eisenhamerová
• “The Batman,” Naomi Donne, Mike Marino and Mike Fontaine
• “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” Camille Friend and Joel Harlow
• “Elvis,” Mark Coulier, Jason Baird and Aldo Signoretti
• “The Whale,” Adrien Morot, Judy Chin and Anne Marie Bradley

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

• “All Quiet on the Western Front,” Volker Bertelmann
• “Babylon,” Justin Hurwitz
• “The Banshees of Inisherin,” Carter Burwell
• “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” Son Lux
• “The Fabelmans,” John Williams

BEST SOUND

• “All Quiet on the Western Front,” Viktor Prášil, Frank Kruse, Markus Stemler, Lars Ginzel and Stefan Korte
• “Avatar: The Way of Water,” Julian Howarth, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, Dick Bernstein, Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers and Michael Hedges
• “The Batman,” Stuart Wilson, William Files, Douglas Murray and Andy Nelson
• “Elvis,” David Lee, Wayne Pashley, Andy Nelson and Michael Keller
• “Top Gun: Maverick,” Mark Weingarten, James H. Mather, Al Nelson, Chris Burdon and Mark Taylor

© Agence France-Presse