#NewsBytesExplainer: Ahead of Oscars 2023, decoding 'Big Five' Academy Awards 

The pinnacle of artistic brilliance, the 95th Academy Awards, is upon us! The star-studded gala will take place at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Sunday night (Monday morning in India) and will be attended by the who's who of the world cinema. Ahead of the 2023 Oscars, let's understand the coveted "Big Five" Academy Awards and the prestige attached to them.

The Big Five awards are the most prestigious and coveted honors of the evening, and the films and artists that win them are considered the best of the best. These five categories included Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay (Original or Adapted). As of the 94th Academy Awards, 43 films have been nominated in all these five categories.

Interestingly, there are only three films in the history of global cinema that have had the honor of sweeping all Big Five awards, which is a significant accomplishment considering how competitive all these categories are. These films are Frank Capra's It Happened One Night (1934), Milos Forman's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), and Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs (1991).

This year, the films competing in the Best Picture category are Triangle of Sadness, Tár, Triangle of Sadness, Avatar: The Way of Water, All Quiet on the Western Front, Elvis, The Banshees of Inisherin, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Women Talking, and The Fabelmans. Martin McDonagh, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Steven Spielberg, Todd Field, and Ruben Ostlund are nominated for Best Director.

Austin Butler (Elvis), Colin Farrell (The Banshees of Inisherin), Brendan Fraser (The Whale), Paul Mescal (Aftersun), and Bill Nighy (Living) will be competing for the Best Actor Academy Award. Meanwhile, Cate Blanchett (Tár), Ana de Armas (Blonde), Andrea Riseborough (To Leslie), Michelle Williams (The Fabelmans), and Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All at Once) will be battling it out in the Best Actress category.

This time, Best Adapted Screenplay nominees include All Quiet on the Western Front, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Living, Top Gun: Maverick, and Women Talking. The Best Original Screenplay category is dominated by The Banshees of Inisherin, Everything Everywhere..., The Fabelmans, Tár, and Triangle of Sadness. In India, the Oscars ceremony can be streamed live on Monday from 5:30 am on Disney+ Hotstar.