From Tom Cruise, James Cameron to Glenn Close, the surprising stars to skip Oscars 2023

Cruise’s ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ nominated for six Academy Awards

Tom Cruise will be absent from the 2023 Oscars even though Top Gun: Maverick was nominated for Best Picture.

The Hollywood star was set to miss the movie industry’s biggest night on Sunday as he is shooting Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part II in the UK, according to ET.

Cruise has never won an Oscar and although he was not nominated for Best Actor, the Best Picture award would be his first.

If the movie does take home the award, producer Jerry Bruckheimer will accept it, although Everywhere All At Once remains the favourite to win.

Cruise’s movie is also nominated for Writing (Adapted Screenplay), Film Editing, Sound, Music (Original Song) and Visual Effects.

Glen Powell, who plays Lt Jake “Hangman” Seresin in the movie also won’t be at the awards ceremony tonight.

Meanwhile, Glenn Close had to withdraw from presenting at the awards because of a positive Covid test.

The 75-year-old actress had been due to present alongside Air Force One co-star Harrison Ford, 80.

(AFP via Getty Images)

“Yes, she has Covid, and she is of course required to bow out. She was very much looking forward to taking part,” a representative for Close told People.

Close, is an eight-time Academy Award nominee, while Ford has been nominated once.

Jame Cameron, the director of Avatar: The Way of Water, was also not present for the show.

“You know a show is too long when even Jim Cameron won’t sit through it” joked host Jimmy Kimmel during his monologue as he pointed out Cameron was not nominated for Best Director.

ADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.

ADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.

While poking fun at James Cameron, Jimmy Kimmel jokes about the lack of female director nominees at the #Oscars:

“How does the Academy not nominate the guy who directed ‘Avatar’? What do they think he is? A woman?” pic.twitter.com/Iqh9g0vSr0

— The Recount (@therecount) March 13, 2023

“How does the Academy not nominate the guy who directed Avatar? What do they think he is, a woman?”

“Tom and James Cameron didn’t show up, the two guys who insisted we go to the theatre are not in the theatre,” he joked.

Cameron’s co-producer, Jon Landau, told The New York Times that the director has missed the ceremony for “personal reasons.”

Will Smith, who won Best Actor last year, is obviously not attending the event after his infamous slap of presenter Chris Rock in 2022.

Smith hit Rock on stage after the comedian made a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved head.

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences banned Smith from any Academy event for the next 10 years and Smith also pre-emptively resigned from the Academy.