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Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
Entertainment
Christi Carras

Taylor Swift's 'All Too Well' isn't in the running for an Oscar. But she could still win

LOS ANGELES — The 2023 Oscars shortlist for live-action short film didn't turn out all too well for Taylor Swift.

But the singer-songwriter-director could still win an Academy Award in another category next year.

On Wednesday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences unveiled the official shortlists for 10 Oscar categories: documentary feature, documentary short, international feature, makeup and hairstyling, original score, original song, animated short, live-action short, sound and visual effects.

The bad news is that "All Too Well: The Short Film," which is Swift's extended music video for her song "All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor's Version)," did not make the cut for live-action short. That's despite a high-profile Oscars campaign that included a screening and Swift's appearance at this year's Toronto International Film Festival.

The good news is that Tay's contribution to the "Where the Crawdads Sing" soundtrack, "Carolina," is eligible for original song.

The shortlisted titles for live-action short are "All in Favor," "Almost Home," "An Irish Goodbye," "Ivalu," "Le Pupille," "The Lone Wolf," "Nakam," "Night Ride," "Plastic Killer," "The Red Suitcase," "The Right Words," "Sideral," "The Treatment," "Tula" and "Warsha."

In the running for original song opposite "Carolina" are "Time" from "Amsterdam," "Nothing Is Lost (You Give Me Strength)" from "Avatar: The Way of Water," "Lift Me Up" from "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever," "This Is a Life" from "Everything Everywhere All at Once," "Ciao Papa" from "Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio," "Til You're Home" from "A Man Called Otto," "Naatu Naatu" from "RRR," "My Mind & Me" from "Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me," "Good Afternoon" from "Spirited," "Applause" from "Tell It Like a Woman," "Stand Up" from "Till," "Hold My Hand" from "Top Gun: Maverick," "Dust & Ash" from "The Voice of Dust and Ash" and "New Body Rhumba" from "White Noise."

Should "Carolina" and "My Mind & Me" both score nods for original song, Swift would compete for the prize against her longtime industry bestie, Gomez. It would also mark Swift's first Oscar nomination.

Since "All Too Well: The Short Film" premiered in November 2021, Swifties have been rallying for an Oscar nomination. Written and directed by the "Red" hitmaker herself, the dramatic music video stars 20-year-old Sadie Sink of "Stranger Things" and 31-year-old Dylan O'Brien of "Teen Wolf" as doomed lovers based on a young Swift and one of her ex-boyfriends (widely believed to be actor Jake Gyllenhaal).

The visual accompanied the highly anticipated 10-minute version of "All Too Well," which debuted on Swift's rerecording of her fourth studio album, "Red." After its buzzy digital release, "All Too Well: The Short Film" generated even more chatter at TIFF.

"It's really meaningful to get to present the short film on 35mm because that's how it was originally shot and we did this print specifically for TIFF," Swift said at the festival in September.

"Whenever I'd write a song, I'd immediately start thinking, 'How do I want to represent this onstage or in a music video?'" she added. "From a very early point in my career, I wanted to establish each album as its own era, of sorts."

Despite winning big at other award shows — namely the Grammys — and contributing to several movie soundtracks over the years, Swift has yet to break through at the Academy Awards.

Could "Carolina" finally be her ticket to Oscars glory? Find out when the 2023 Oscar nominations are announced Jan. 24.

In the meantime, here's a full breakdown of Wednesday's shortlists.

Documentary feature film

"All That Breathes"

"All the Beauty and the Bloodshed"

"Bad Axe"

"Children of the Mist"

"Descendant"

"Fire of Love"

"Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song"

"Hidden Letters"

"A House Made of Splinters"

"The Janes"

"Last Flight Home"

"Moonage Daydream"

"Navalny"

"Retrograde"

"The Territory"

Documentary short film

"American Justice on Trial: People v. Newton"

"Anastasia"

"Angola Do You Hear Us? Voices from a Plantation Prison"

"As Far as They Can Run"

"The Elephant Whisperers"

"The Flagmakers"

"Happiness Is £4 Million"

"Haulout"

"Holding Moses"

"How Do You Measure a Year?"

"The Martha Mitchell Effect"

"Nuisance Bear"

"Shut Up and Paint"

"Stranger at the Gate"

"38 at the Garden"

International feature film

"Argentina, 1985," Argentina

"Corsage," Austria

"Close," Belgium

"Return to Seoul," Cambodia

"Holy Spider," Denmark

"Saint Omer," France

"All Quiet on the Western Front," Germany

"Last Film Show," India

"The Quiet Girl," Ireland

"Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths," Mexico

"The Blue Caftan," Morocco

"Joyland," Pakistan

"EO," Poland

"Decision to Leave," South Korea

"Cairo Conspiracy," Sweden

Makeup and hairstyling

"All Quiet on the Western Front"

"Amsterdam"

"Babylon"

"The Batman"

"Black Panther: Wakanda Forever"

"Blonde"

"Crimes of the Future"

"Elvis"

"Emancipation"

"The Whale"

Original score

"All Quiet on the Western Front"

"Avatar: The Way of Water"

"Babylon"

"The Banshees of Inisherin"

"Black Panther: Wakanda Forever"

"Devotion"

"Don't Worry Darling"

"Everything Everywhere All at Once"

"The Fabelmans"

"Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery"

"Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio"

"Nope"

"She Said"

"The Woman King"

"Women Talking"

Original song

"Time" from "Amsterdam"

"Nothing Is Lost (You Give Me Strength)" from "Avatar: The Way of Water"

"Lift Me Up" from "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever"

"This Is A Life" from "Everything Everywhere All at Once"

"Ciao Papa" from "Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio"

"Til You're Home" from "A Man Called Otto"

"Naatu Naatu" from "RRR"

"My Mind & Me" from "Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me"

"Good Afternoon" from "Spirited"

"Applause" from "Tell It Like a Woman"

"Stand Up" from "Till"

"Hold My Hand" from "Top Gun: Maverick"

"Dust & Ash" from "The Voice of Dust and Ash"

"Carolina" from "Where the Crawdads Sing"

"New Body Rhumba" from "White Noise"

Animated short film

"Black Slide"

"The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse"

"The Debutante"

"The Flying Sailor"

"The Garbage Man"

"Ice Merchants"

"It's Nice in Here"

"More Than I Want to Remember"

"My Year of Dicks"

"New Moon"

"An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It"

"Passenger"

"Save Ralph"

"Sierra"

"Steakhouse"

Live-action short film

"All in Favor"

"Almost Home"

"An Irish Goodbye"

"Ivalu"

"Le Pupille"

"The Lone Wolf"

"Nakam"

"Night Ride"

"Plastic Killer"

"The Red Suitcase"

"The Right Words"

"Sideral"

"The Treatment"

"Tula"

"Warsha"

Sound

"All Quiet on the Western Front"

"Avatar: The Way of Water"

"Babylon"

"The Batman"

"Black Panther: Wakanda Forever"

"Elvis"

"Everything Everywhere All at Once"

"Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio"

"Moonage Daydream"

"Top Gun: Maverick"

Visual effects

"All Quiet on the Western Front"

"Avatar: The Way of Water"

"The Batman"

"Black Panther: Wakanda Forever"

"Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness"

"Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore"

"Jurassic World Dominion"

"Nope"

"Thirteen Lives"

"Top Gun: Maverick"

———

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