2022 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Awards: Where Are the Women (Again?), Favourite Contenders, and Our Best Picture Pick

Although it might not feel like it given the low key affair that was last month’s Golden Globes, awards season is well and truly underway. The Globes forewent their customary red carpet and ceremony broadcast after television rights-holder NBC scrapped the live show, citing ongoing pandemic uncertainties. The Academy Awards are hoping not to follow suit for their 94th edition, with a full show poised to broadcast on Sunday March 27th, hosted by Amy Schumer, Regina Hall and Wanda Sykes.

The nominations are out and speculation is mounting ahead of the ceremony next month. It is a delight but no surprise to see Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay. It was a highlight from the Cannes Film Festival last year, and I’m rooting for Hamaguchi to clinch. The acerbic and endlessly endearing The Worst Person In The World is my favourite contender for Best Original Screenplay. Director Joachim Trier’s talent for translating his astute social observations from script to screen combined with a stunning lead performance from Cannes Best Actress Renate Reinsve make this Norwegian-language feature a pertinent comment on how we navigate our flaws, our relationships, and ourselves. It has already won the hearts of audiences the world over, proving Bong Joon Ho’s hypothesis that audiences have much to gain by overcoming the ‘one-inch tall barrier’ of subtitles.

Once again, the lack of gender parity in nominations across the board is to be noted and lamented; we (still) have a depressingly long way to go to redress this industry-wide imbalance. Case and point: formidable New Zealand native Jane Campion’s Best Director nomination for The Power of the Dog marks her as the first female director in the Academy’s almost century-long history to be nominated for Best Director twice (following her nomination in 1994 for The Piano). Cinematographer Ari Wegner’s nomination for The Power of the Dog makes her the second woman ever to be nominated in the Academy’s cinematography category (the first was Rachel Morrison for Mudbound in 2018).

That The Power of the Dog’s most awe-inspiring elements are the work of two women—as well as being produced by an all-female team—is just one of the many reasons it tops my list of this year’s contenders. Based on Thomas Savage’s obscure semi-autobiographical 1967 novel of the same name, Campion’s utterly bone-chilling Western epic leads the pack with twelve nominations, from Best Picture and Best Director, to Adapted Screenplay, Editing, Original Score, and Production Design, as well as acting nominations for all four principal cast members: Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, and spellbinding newcomer Kodi Smit-McPhee.

Jonny Greenwood’s hair-raising score immeasurably heightens suspense and viewers’ pulse rates as the strained dynamic of the ranch-bound Burbank family steadily unravels - a dynamic remorselessly dominated by the bullish leadership of closeted gay cowboy, Phil Burbank (Cumberbatch). Set in 1920s Montana and shot on location across the South Island of Campion’s native New Zealand, Wegner’s shots of the rolling Auckland hills characterise the landscape as simultaneously breathtaking and hostile, perfectly encapsulating the isolation of the ranch life led by Phil and his unassuming younger brother, George (Plemons). Their dilapidated existence is disrupted by the arrival of George’s new wife Rose (Dunst) and her son, Peter (Smit-McPhee), much to Phil’s chagrin. His barbed remarks and sinister manipulations make life for the troubled Rose and tortured Peter as unsettled as possible. The painstaking unspooling of Rose’s mental state is delivered in a disarmingly off-kilter performance from Dunst. The film’s narrative power, mobilised by Wegner’s expressive cinematography, lies in what remains unsaid: what the audience is invited to surmise from Rose’s furtive looks, George’s weighty silences, and Phil’s measured movements as he laments over the legend and the worn saddle of his mentor, Bronco Henry. Masterfully navigating themes of toxic masculinity and hidden desire through the relationship between the repressed Phil and the queer-coded character of Peter, the subtle turns in power and motive weave a sequence of events guaranteed to keep you returning to this cast of beguiling, beleaguered characters long after the credits have rolled.

Honourable mentions: if you’re planning to dedicate some movie hours to this year’s nominations ahead of the awards ceremony, make sure these movies make your list. 

BELFAST directed by Kenneth Brannagh

CODA directed by Sian Heder

DRIVE MY CAR directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi

LICORICE PIZZA directed by Paul Thomas Anderson

THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH directed by Joel Coen

WEST SIDE STORY directed by Steven Spielberg

The 94th annual Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Awards will take place on 28 March 2022 at 1:00 am BST. The event will be available to watch on the sub-channel Sky Cinema Oscars in the UK.