Let’s put the final pin in the 2022 movie year, shall we? With the Oscar nominations set to be announced next week, I thought I would take a look at what I would submit if I had a chance to submit a ballot to the Academy. It will likely not surprise you to learn that RRR led the nomination field with 15 nominations and the winners field with 7. It’s truly one of the best films of the decade so far. I was really shook at how this turned out as the more I thought about the movie year, the more very specific elements of different movies came to mind, even films I might not love (like the score for The Batman). Before we get to the Oscar ballot, here’s some fun stats:

  • 41 different films received a nomination (which I think is a record for me) and only two films eclipsed the 10 nomination mark, hell only two films got more than 6!
  • Out of the 41 movies, 10 films were directed by women, 15 based outside the US, 8 are directed by Black directors, and 7 feature LGBTQ themes. 7/20 acting nominees were performances not in English, including the winners of Best Actor and Supporting Actor.
  • 3 of the 4 acting prizes went to Asian actors. Nothing big to say about that, it was just fun to see in the end.
  • Two films got 1 nomination and won that nomination: The Batman in Original Score and Descendant in Documentary.

Best Picture
All Quiet on the Western Front
Argentina, 1985
The Bad Guys
Good Luck to You, Leo Grande
Happening
Mr. Malcolm’s List
The Northman
The Outfit
RRR
Top Gun: Maverick

Best Director
Edward Berger, All Quiet on the Western Front
Audrey Diwan, Happening
Robert Eggers, The Northman
Joseph Kosinski, Top Gun: Maverick
S. S. Rajamouli, RRR

Best Actor
Ben Affleck, Deep Water
Ram Charan, RRR
Ricardo Darín, Argentina 1985
Sope Dirisu, Mr. Malcolm’s List
Park Hae-il, Decision to Leave

Best Actress
Zawe Ashton, Mr. Malcolm’s List
Frankie Corio, Aftersun
Emma Thompson, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande
Anamaria Vartolomei, Happening
Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All at Once

Best Supporting Actor
Neil Bhoopalam, Cobalt Blue
Tenoch Huerta, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Anthony LaPaglia, Nitram
Dylan O’Brien, The Outfit
Albrecht Schuh, All Quiet on the Western Front

Best Supporting Actress
Angela Bassett, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Kerry Condon, The Banshees of Inisherin
Stephanie Hsu, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Judith Ivey, Women Talking
Anjali Sivaraman, Cobalt Blue

Original Screenplay
Santiago Mitre and Mariano Llinás, Argentina, 1985
Park Chan-wook, Decision to Leave
Kathy Brand, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande
S. S. Rajamouli and V. Vijayendra Prasad, RRR
Jean Luc Herbulot and Pamela Diop, Saloum

Adapted Screenplay
Edward Berger, Lesley Paterson, Ian Stokell, All Quiet on the Western Front
Etan Cohen, The Bad Guys
Sachin Kundalkar, Cobalt Blue
Audrey Diwan and Marcia Romano, Happening
Suzanne Allain, Mr. Malcolm’s List

Film Editing
Sven Budelmann, All Quiet on the Western Front
David Brenner, James Cameron, John Refoua, Stephen Rivkin, Avatar: The Way of Water
Géraldine Mangenot, Happening
A. Sreekar Prasad, RRR
Eddie Hamilton, Top Gun: Maverick

Cinematography
Jarin Blaschke, The Northman
K. K. Senthil Kumar, RRR
Philippe Rousselot and Baltasar Breki Samper, Beast
Germain McMicking, Nitram
James Friend, All Quiet on the Western Front

Production Design
Christian M. Goldbeck, Ernestine Hipper, All Quiet on the Western Front
Rossitsa Bakeva, Barbarian
Jason Kisvarday, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Sabu Cyril, RRR
Roger Ford, Three Thousand Years of Longing

Costume Design
Ruth Carter, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Shirley Kurata, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Rama Rajamouli, RRR
Alana Morshead, Do Revenge
Kym Barrett, Three Thousand Years of Longing

Makeup and Hair
Heike Merker, All Quiet on the Western Front
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Michelle Chung and Anissa Salazar, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Maralyn Sherman,Carmel Jackson, Stefania Pellegrini, The Northman
Babalwa Mtshiselwa, Sergio Lopez-Rivera, Jamika Wilson, Louisa V. Anthony, The Woman King

Visual Effects
Frank Petzold, Kamil Jafar, Viktor Müller, Markus Frank, All Quiet on the Western Front
Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon, Daniel Barrett, Avatar: The Way of Water
Guillaume Rocheron, Jeremy Robert, Sreejith Venugopalan, Scott R. Fisher, Nope
V. Srinivas Mohan, RRR
Ryan Tudhope, Scott R. Fisher, Seth Hill, Bryan Litson, Top Gun: Maverick

Sound Mixing
Viktor Prášil, Lars Ginzel, All Quiet on the Western Front
James Harrison, The Northman
Raghunatha Kemisetty, Rahul Karpe, Boloy Kumar Doloi, RRR
Roland Winke, Deb Adair, Steve Single, Tár
Mark Weingarten, Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor, Top Gun: Maverick

Sound Editing
Frank Kruse, Markus Stemler, All Quiet on the Western Front
Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Dick Bernstein, Avatar: The Way of Water
Larry Blake, Kimi
Raghunatha Kemisetty, RRR
James H. Mather, Al Nelson, Top Gun: Maverick

Original Score
Simon Franglen, Avatar: The Way of Water
Michael Giacchino, The Batman
Ludwig Göransson, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Steven Price, My Policeman
M. M. Keeravani, RRR

Original Song
Love is Not Love – Bros
Etthara Jenda – RRR
Naatu Naatu – RRR
Who Do You Think You Are – The School for Good and Evil
Nobody Like U – Turning Red

Animated Feature
The Bad Guys
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Strange World
Turning Red

Foreign Language Film
All Quiet on the Western Front
Argentina, 1985
Decision to Leave
Happening
RRR

Documentary Feature
Descendant
Is That Black Enough for You?
Fire of Love
Sidney
Wildcat

Nomination/Win Tally
RRR – 15/7 (Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Editing, Sound Mixing, Original Song, Foreign Language Film)
All Quiet on the Western Front – 12/4 (Supporting Actor, Cinematography, Makeup and Hairstyling, Sound Editing)
Happening – 6/1 (Adapted Screenplay)
Top Gun: Maverick – 6/0
Everything Everywhere All at Once – 5/2 (Actress, Supporting Actress)
The Northman – 5/0
Avatar: The Way of Water – 4/1 (Visual Effects)
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – 4/1 (Costume Design)
Argentina, 1985 – 4/0
Mr. Malcolm’s List – 4/0
The Bad Guys – 3/1 (Animated Film)
Decision to Leave – 3/1 (Actor)
Cobalt Blue – 3/0
Good Luck to You, Leo Grande – 3/0
Three Thousand Years of Longing – 2/1 (Production Design)
Nitram – 2/0
The Outfit – 2/0
Turning Red – 2/0
The Batman – 1/1 (Original Score)
Descendant – 1/1 (Documentary)
Aftersun – 1/0
Barbarian – 1/0
The Banshees of Inisherin – 1/0
Beast – 1/0
Bros – 1/0
Deep Water – 1/0
Do Revenge – 1/0
Fire of Love – 1/0
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio – 1/0
Is That Black Enough for You? – 1/0
Kimi – 1/0
My Policeman – 1/0
Nope – 1/0
Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – 1/0
Saloum – 1/0
The School for Good and Evil – 1/0
Sidney – 1/0
Strange World – 1/0
Tár – 1/0
Wildcat – 1/0
The Woman King – 1/0
Women Talking – 1/0