When the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced its nominations for the 95th Academy Awards in January, contenders included several movies with religion angles and numerous actors with faith backgrounds.

A short list for the ceremony, to be held March 12, 2023, includes the eco-spiritual themes of Avatar: The Way of Water, revivalist roots in the Elvis biopic starring Austin Butler and Tom Hanks, themes of “faith and fatness” in The Whale with Brendan Fraser, the Bible Belt cultural cues that are felt but never fully seen in To Leslie’s melancholic storyline, and confessions and questions of whether God cares about miniature donkeys in The Banshees of Inisherin.

That’s not even to mention Stranger at the Gate. Directed by Joshua Seftel, the film is about an Afghan refugee named Bibi Bahrami and the members of her Indiana mosque, who come face to face with a U.S. Marine who has secret plans to bomb their community center. That’s when the Marine's plan takes an unexpected turn. The moving real-life story is considered a favorite in the best documentary short film category.

Beyond awards season, 2023 has a slew of new religion-related releases sure to catch audiences’ attention.

It’s safe to say that if you head to the movies – or catch the Academy Awards ceremony – this year, you’re likely to run into religion. But what might we learn about religion and culture from this year’s many intersections between faith and film?

Each year the notable sages of the 21st-century gather to ruminate on, and decide, one of the greatest conundrums of our time: who should win ‘Best Picture’ at the Academy Awards? Too silly of a question for you, the matchless metaphysician? Perhaps you should ponder the other consequential inquiry of the day — who is the best, and worst, dressed on the red carpet?

All sarcasm aside, these questions really are akin to the fundamental questions that philosophers, theologians, and people on the streets have been wrestling with for ages. Indeed, the question “what is true, good, and beautiful?” (the trio often called “the transcendentals”) is serious, important, and multifaceted. Philosophers from the Bhagavad Gita, Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Kant, Nietzche, and Balthasar have all mulled over this question, to differing results.