Congee and Bagels: The Food that Defined the 2023 Oscar Movies

Welcome to The Queue — your daily distraction of curated video content sourced from across the web. Today, we’re watching a video essay that explores food on screen in the films nominated for the 2023 Oscars.

I don’t know about you, dear reader, but I’m a big fan of revisiting the Oscar nominees after the ceremony is in the rear-view mirror. With the sheen slightly tarnished, it’s easier to take in the films on their own terms rather than as a box to tick off in a mad dash to catch up with campaign fever.

So if you, like me, are still whittling away at the 2023 nominee lists, the following might strike a chord. Food has always had a special place on film. Not, I think, because of any technical synchronicity. But simply because human beings tend to communicate and come together through the medium of food. Whether it’s making dinner with your family or enjoying a cool pint at the local watering hole, food is an essential part of the human experience. It’s only natural that it would permeate the art we make.

Case in point, the following montage: a loving tribute to all the meals, treats, and noshes that featured on-screen in the 2023 Oscar nominees.

Do not watch the following if you are hungry. You have been warned.

Watch “Cinefoodie 2023”

Who made this?

This video essay on how food made its mark on the films nominated for Oscars in 2023 is by herrozzy a video essayist based in Acapulco, Mexico. You can follow them on Twitter here. And you can check out the rest of their exceptional (and often calming!) work here on Vimeo.

More videos like this

• If you’re hungry for more of herrozzy‘s work, first off we can’t blame you, second: here’s their video essay on the art of food in the films of Studio Ghibli. Be warned: watching on an empty stomach is going to make you want to order ramen and pan fry an egg.
• The above video essay is actually the third in a yearly tradition for herrozzy. Here’s their Cinefoodie video essay for 2020 and 2021 if you want to travel back in time by way of cinematic cookery.
• Here’s Accented Cinema with a video essay on the importance of food and communal eating in Chinese cinema.
• And finally, here’s the fine folks at Fandor with a look at what food can tell us about a character.

Related Topics: food, The Queue

Meg has been writing professionally about all things film-related since 2016. She is a Senior Contributor at Film School Rejects as well as a Curator for One Perfect Shot. She has attended international film festivals such as TIFF, Hot Docs, and the Nitrate Picture Show as a member of the press. In her day job as an archivist and records manager, she regularly works with physical media and is committed to ensuring ongoing physical media accessibility in the digital age. You can find more of Meg's work at Cinema Scope, Dead Central, and Nonfics. She has also appeared on a number of film-related podcasts, including All the President's Minutes, Zodiac: Chronicle, Cannes I Kick It?, and Junk Filter. Her work has been shared on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour, Business Insider, and CherryPicks. Meg has a B.A. from the University of King's College and a Master of Information degree from the University of Toronto.