The 94th Academy Awards: Nominations

by Jasmine Perkins

So far 2022 has been a year of huge reform in the award ceremony industry. With the Brit Awards switching to the hopefully beneficial gender-neutral categories and the award season picking up pace, discourse about the relevance of the academies’ choices is extremely prevalent. The release of this year’s Oscar nominations have garnered plenty of complaints and murmurs of agreement from all corners of the film industry. Here’s the rundown of some of the successful nominees who are in it for the chance to win a legendary Oscar or two.

The ‘Best Picture’ award is easily the largest honour presented by the Academy and there are 10 nominees in contrast to the ordinary 5. Unsurprisingly the standout nomination is ‘The Power of the Dog’ directed by Jane Campion which has also been recognised for 10 other awards including ‘Writing (Original Screenplay)’ and ‘Production Design.’ Adam Mckay’s ‘Don’t Look Up’ is another Netflix original that is being considered for the prestigious award despite its polarising reception and the mammoth movie ‘Dune’ directed by Denis Villeneuve also has an understandable nomination. Other films nominated are Kenneth Branagh’s ‘Belfast,’ Sian Heder’s ‘CODA,’ Reinaldo Marcus Green’s ‘King Richard’ and Guillermo del Toro’s ‘Nightmare Alley.’ Renowned director; Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest release ‘Liquorice Pizza’ has made the list along with Stephen Spielberg’s thoughtful remake of movie musical ‘West Side Story.’ Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s adaptation of Murakami’s novel ‘Drive My Car’ also made the list representing the ‘International Feature Film’ category.

Another pair of highly revered awards are the ‘Actor in a Leading Role’ and ‘Actress in a Leading Role’ categories. The first male nominees are: Javier Bardem in ‘Being the Ricardos,’ Denzel Washington in ‘The Tragedy of Macbeth,’ and Will Smith in ‘King Richard.’ ‘The Power of the Dog,’ may receive another accolade in this category for Benedict Cumberbatch’s performance of the cattleman Phil Burbank. Andrew Garfield has also been nominated for his second Oscar after ‘Hacksaw Ridge’ for his portrayal of musical theatre hero Jonathan Larson in Lin Manuel Miranda’s dictatorial debut ‘tick, tick… BOOM!’ In regards to the female category, Garfield’s co-actor in ‘The Eyes of Tammy Faye’ Jessica Chastain has been nominated for her performance in said movie along with Nicole Kidman in ‘Being the Ricardos’ and Penelope Cruz in ‘Parallel Mothers.’ Olivia Colman has also been nominated for her performance in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Netflix feature ‘The Lost Daughter.’ The actress of the titular character of ‘Spencer’ Kristen Stewart has been chosen, making the 94th Academy Awards her first ever Oscar nomination.

Other standout nominees include: the latest animated Disney feature ‘Encanto’ which has been recognised for ‘Animated Feature Film,’ ‘Original Score,’ and ‘Original Song’ courtesy of Lin Manuel Miranda, Marvel hits: ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ and ‘Spiderman: No Way Home,’ which have both been nominated for ‘Visual Effects,’ and ‘No Time To Die,’ Daniel Craig’s final addition to the James Bond franchise which has gained recognition for its ‘Sound.’