With that in mind, I'll once again partake in my yearly tradition of sharing my own picks for what should've been nominated in some of the biggest categories. Whether it's a genre getting ignored or performances being ignored for certain reasons, there's plenty of fodder. I'll limit this to theatrical releases that could've been eligible for the awards (streaming gems Fire Island, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, and even Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers would be up for some of the golden statues if I had my druthers), and point out that I haven't seen every movie that was released in 2022 (though I've seen around 80, and you can see my full list at Letterboxd).
Here's who would've been my ideal Oscars nominees:
(My choice for winner*)
Best Picture
ACTUAL NOMINEESAll Quiet on the Western Front
Avatar: The Way of Water
The Banshees of Inisherin
Elvis
Everything Everywhere All at Once
The Fablemans
Tár
Top Gun: Maverick
Women Talking
SETH'S NOMINEES
After Yang
Confess, Fletch
Decision to Leave
Everything Everywhere All at Once*
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
RRR
Top Gun: Maverick
To be blunt, Best Picture is the category I think the Oscars got the most wrong this year. For starters, Elvis is one of the five worst movies I saw all year, not among the ten best. The abysmal color grading on Women Talking basically disqualifies it in my view, and I've still yet to get on board with the Avatar franchise. But at least they got Everything Everywhere All at Once (the best film of 2022) and Top Gun: Maverick correctly in there.
In terms of actual realistic snubs, the exclusion of the Indian epic RRR and the Korean slow-burn Decision to Leave in favor of including the generic All Quiet on the Western Front speaks to the Academy's taste in international features being wildly off. It's great that Marcel the Shell with Shoes On got nominated for Best Animated Feature, but its abundant warm heart deserved a shot at the top prize, too. And while the sleek mature comedy of Confess, Fletch and the small-scale sci-fi of After Yang never had a shot at a nomination, that's only because of Oscar norms and studio priorities, not quality.
Best Director
ACTUAL NOMINEESDaniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert (Everything Everywhere All at Once)
Martin McDonagh (The Banshees of Inisherin)
Ruben Östlund (Triangle of Sadness)
Steven Spielberg (The Fablemans)
Todd Field (Tár)
SETH'S NOMINEES
Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert (Everything Everywhere All at Once)*
Dean Fleischer Camp (Marcel the Shell with Shoes On)
Joseph Kosinski (Top Gun: Maverick)
Kogonada (After Yang)
S. S. Rajamouli (RRR)
Outside of The Daniels, this year's actual directing nominees feel incredibly straightforward. A bunch of familiar names for cinephiles, ones who managed to coax plenty of human drama out of their films.
I guess I like to reward directors who make great movies while also putting things on the screen that I feel are unlike what I've seen before. Things like action and music sequences Rajamouli crafted in RRR. Things like the adorable stop-motion majesty Fleischer Camp's Marcel. Things like the heart-pounding aerial thrills Kosinski captured in Top Gun: Maverick. Things like the contemplative robots in Kogonada's After Yang. And, of course, pretty much everything in Everything Everywhere All at Once.
Best Actor
ACTUAL NOMINEESAustin Butler (Elvis)
Bill Nighy (Living)
Brendan Fraser (The Whale)
Colin Farrell (The Banshees of Inisherin)
Paul Mescal (Aftersun)
SETH'S NOMINEES
Brendan Fraser (The Whale)
Colin Farrell (The Banshees of Inisherin)*
John Hamm (Confess, Fletch)
Paul Mescal (Aftersun)
Ram Charan (RRR)
Credit the Academy for actually including Mescal's subtle turn as a depressed dad among their nominees. I'm a bit tired of so many people getting nominated for doing musician impressions though (sorry, Butler).
On the opposite end of the rock biopic over-saturation among acting awards, the Oscars still don't seem to recognize that acting performances not in English can be superb (it's still a joke none of Parasite's performances were recognized). To that end, either of the leads of RRR could be up for Best Actor, but I gave the nod to Charan, as his character had more internal struggles to wrestle with and convey. And comedic performances always get shafted, but Hamm is so jovial and effortless in Confess, Fletch.
Best Actress
ACTUAL NOMINEESAna de Armas (Blonde)
Andrea Riseborough (To Leslie)
Cat Blanchet (Tár)
Michelle Williams (The Fablemans)
Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All at Once)
SETH'S NOMINEES
Cate Blanchet (Tár)*
Florence Pugh (Don’t Worry Darling)
Joséphine Sanz (Petite Maman)
Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All at Once)*
Rooney Mara (Women Talking)
To be frank, I didn't see Blonde because everyone I know said it was beyond horrible. And I haven't seen To Leslie because nobody's seen To Leslie (it literally got nominated because of screenings at celebrity Hollywood parties).
While Mara might not be the most dramatic member of the titular women who talk, that movie doesn't work at all without her understated graceful hand leading the way. Sanz delivered the best child acting performance of the year, but Petite Maman being an early-in-the-year quiet French drama meant it wasn't Oscar bait. And while people took plenty of potshots at Don't Worry Darling (many of them justified), none of that fell on the feet of Pugh, who gave it her all even when things took a turn for the absurd.
There was thankfully never any doubt that by far the two best lead actress performances of the year — Blanchet and Yeoh — were going to be nominated, and it's a lock that one of the two will win the award.
Best Supporting Actor
ACTUAL NOMINEESBarry Keoghan (The Banshees of Inisherin)
Brendan Gleeson (The Banshees of Inisherin)
Brian Tyree Henry (Causeway)
Judd Hirsch (The Fablemans)
Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All at Once)
SETH'S NOMINEES
Christian Bale (Thor: Love & Thunder)
Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All at Once)*
Justin H. Min (After Yang)
Pedro Pascal (The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent)
Steven Yeun (Nope)
My general take on the supporting categories is this: Which performances by actual non-leads actually bumped my enjoyment of the film up by significant notches? To that end, it's hard for me to wrap my brain around Gleeson being a supporting actor in Banshees, hence his exclusion (even though Gleeson is great, I'm gonna be quite upset if he beat Quan's tour-de-force performance when it comes time to hand out the awards).
While their movies weren't that good, Bale acted his tail off in Thor: Love and Thunder as the vicious Gorr and Pascal was an absolute delight as he tried to buddy up with Nicolas Cage in Unbearable Weight. Either film would've been D.O.A. without them. Yeun's turn in the secondary storyline of Nope was far more interesting than the main plot. And as the titular Yang, Min convincingly managed to play a robot trying to find meaning for existence in his memories.
Best Supporting Actress
ACTUAL NOMINEESAngela Bassett (Black Panther; Wakanda Forever)
Hong Chau (The Whale)
Jamie Lee Curtis (Everything Everywhere All at Once)
Kerry Condon (The Banshees of Inisherin)
Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All at Once)
SETH'S NOMINEES
Charlbi Dean (Triangle of Sadness)
Keke Palmer (Nope)
Kerry Condon (The Banshees of Inisherin)*
Lashana Lynch (The Woman King)
Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All at Once)
Despite not lining up, this might be the one category I don't need to quibble about. All the nominated performances are worthy, especially Condon and Hsu!
There just happened to be other deserving candidates I prefer slightly more. Lynch, who was also great in Matlida: The Musical, added the needed energetic zest to cut through the sometimes slightly overly-serious tone of The Women King. Nope was shut out of the Oscars and Palmer's snappy performance as Em was the biggest snub of the lot. And while the movie itself was inconsistent, the late Dean with her aloof influencer veneer really helped underscore the class dynamics of Triangle of Sadness.
Best Cinematography
ACTUAL NOMINEESAll Quiet on the Western Front (James Friend)
Bardo, Flase Chronicle of a Handful of Truths (Darius Khondji)
Elvis (Mandy Walker)
Empire of Light (Roger Deakins)
Tár (Florian Hoffmeister)
SETH'S NOMINEES
Empire of Light (Roger Deakins)
Everything Everywhere All at Once (Larkin Seiple)
The Northman (Jarin Blaschke)
RRR (K.K. Senthil Kumar)
Top Gun: Maverick (Claudio Miranda)*
Really baffled that the candy spectacle that is Everything Everywhere All at Once and the thrilling aerial displays of Top Gun: Maverick got shut out here, as they are far and away my top two choices in the category. And that's even after saying there are at least three spectacle scenes in RRR that are better than everything in All Quiet on the Western Front, Elvis, and Tár combined.
Best Production Design
ACTUAL NOMINEESAll Quiet on the Western Front (Christian M. Goldbeck & Ernestine Hipper)
Avatar: The Way of Water (Dylan Cole, Ben Procter, Vanessa Cole)
Babylon (Florencia Martin & Anthony Carlino)
Elvis (Catherin Martin, Karen Murphy, Bev Dunn)
The Fablemans (Rick Carter & Karen O'Hara)
SETH'S NOMINEES
Don’t Worry Darling (Katie Byron)
Elvis (Catherine Martin, Karen Murphy, Bev Dunn)
Everything Everywhere All at Once (Jason Kisvarday)*
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (Mark Friedberg & Robert Pyzocha)
The Northman (Craig Lathrop)
It's hard for me to get on board with the production design in mostly CGI movies (Avatar) and another war movie (All Quiet). Much like Florence Pugh, Don't Worry Darling's shortcomings have nothing to do with the superb production design, which tackles a similar time period as The Fablemans to a much more effective degree. The island glitz of Glass Onion and the Nordic muck of The Northman fall on the opposite ends of the spectrum, but serve as the strongest element in each film.
Best Original Screenplay
ACTUAL NOMINEESThe Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh)
Everything Everywhere All at Once (Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheiner)
The Fablemans (Steven Spielberg & Tony Kushner)
Tár (Todd Field)
Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Östlund)
SETH'S NOMINEES
The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh)
Decision to Leave (Park Chan-wook & Chung Seo-kyung)
Everything Everywhere All at Once (Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert)*
RRR (S. S. Rajamouli & Vijayendra Prasad)
Tár (Todd Field)
Triangle of Sadness' utter lack of subtlety in the script turned me off of the film, while The Fablemans didn't elevate past most coming-of-age fare. On the other hand, the tonal changes in RRR and the unraveling in Decision to Leave won't leave my brain anytime soon. But again, I'm not terrified by movies written in other languages.
Best Adapted Screenplay
ACTUAL NOMINEESAll Quiet on the Western Front (Edward Berger, Lesley Paterson, Ian Stokell)
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (Rian Johnson)
Living (Kazuo Ishiguro)
Top Gun: Maverick (Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, Christopher McQuarrie, Peter Craig, Justin Marks)
Women Talking (Sarah Polley)
SETH'S NOMINEES
After Yang (Kogonada)*
Confess, Fletch (Greg Mottola & Zev Borow)
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (Jenny Slate, Elisabeth Holm, Dean Fleischer-Camp, Nick Paley)
The Whale (Samuel D. Hunter)
Women Talking (Sarah Polley)
The detailed sci-fi philosophy of After Yang, the sharp comedic tone of Confess, Fletch, and the harrowing (admittedly theatrical) struggles of The Whale are far more impressive than the bland storytelling of All Quiet on the Western Front.
Honestly, Top Gun: Maverick being nominated feels like a prank. That script is so, so, so dumb and the amazing thing is that the film works in spite of that. But oh well...
