Oscar Nominations 2023: 8 Ups & 9 Downs

3. Top Gun: Maverick Gets Nominated For Best Adapted Screenplay

Though the Best Adapted Screenplay category often allows well-received blockbusters to sneak surprise above-the-line nominations - like Logan back in 2018 - the nomination for Top Gun: Maverick this year raised more than a few eyebrows.

A well-written script? Sure, but in its bones Maverick is still a crowd-pleasing blockbuster which plays broadly satisfying notes, rather than a deeply nuanced screenplay worthy of actual Academy Award recognition.

Many came away feeling that the likes of She Said, The Whale, White Noise, and del Toro's Pinocchio would've all been far more worthy of the nomination.

All the same, congratulations to Maverick co-writer Ehren Kruger, who in less than a decade has gone from penning Transformers: Age of Extinction to getting an Oscar nomination. Wow.