If I Was the Only One Who Voted for the Oscars, Vol. 5
“Everything we do gets washed away in a sea of every other possibility.”
I’m very excited for this winter’s piece. It’s always my favorite thing to write each year and I know that, so I’ll usually think of how the categories will shape up months ahead of time because I just can’t quell my anticipation. This year, I noticed 2022 was shaping up to be a great year for movies, so I tried my best to not spoil anything about this article for myself ahead of time. I wouldn’t rank anything or analyze anything awards-wise; I’d simply keep the catalog going. It ended up being more quality than I expected.
I also remember that, last year, I observed my tastes were shifting away from the Academy’s wildly. While they were honoring CODA, Nomadland, and Judas and the Black Messiah, I was celebrating Eurovision, Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar, and The Last Duel. It didn’t seem like there was much overlap anymore, but I did express optimism that it might trend back the other way in 2022. Not because I need my opinions validated by voting bodies or I want to like what other people like or anything like that. Rather, I just felt nostalgic for when my favorite movies of each year, like The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Martian, and La La Land, would also be fun and heralded parts of the Oscars race. It was always fun to have that emotional connection, you know? And, oh boy, did we get it this year! So many nominees and (likely) winners sync with the real Academy and half of my nominations for Best Picture (including five of the top five) are also nominated for the real Best Picture prize. It’ll be interesting to see how my picks shape up against the real Oscars’ winners, but either way, I’m just happy to see a new pattern emerge. Happy reading and awards races to all!
Best Picture
Avatar: The Way of Water — Fox
The Banshees of Inisherin — Searchlight
Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers — Disney
Elvis — Warner Brothers
Everything Everywhere All at Once — A24
The Fabelmans — Universal
Glass Onion — Netflix
Top Gun: Maverick — Paramount
Turning Red — Pixar
Vengeance — Focus
As always, Best Picture is announced first at my own Oscars because we already know the nominees from my Top 10 Movies of 2022 article. But that’s okay! The fun isn’t in uncovering the year’s finest film. Rather, the fun is in evaluating the best in myriad categories and truly unpacking the heights of the medium this year in every possible category. To me, Everything Everywhere All at Once is the best movie of the year because of what it has to say about love, purpose, human connection, and the things left unsaid when the world is more frenetic than ever. Telling that sort of story through a mechanism that’s never been utilized in this way only elevated EEAAO even more. You’ll be seeing a lot more of it in this piece.
Previous Winners: The Old Man and the Gun (Searchlight), Avengers: Endgame (Marvel), Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions (Disney), Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar (Lionsgate)
Best Young Actor
Frankie Corio as Sophie Paterson — Aftersun
Auli’i Cravalho as Capri Donahue — Darby and the Dead
Gabriel LaBelle as Sammy Fabelman — The Fabelmans
Bella Ramsey as Birdy — Catherine Called Birdy
Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja as Mika — After Yang
What a gift of a year for young performers. I’m not necessarily sure that Auli’i Cravalho counts, but I wasn’t doing this when Moana premiered so I’m taking the opportunity to nominate her when I can. When it comes to Aftersun, After Yang, and Birdy, those movies don’t work without the impeccable child performances at their centers, but Fabelmans really doesn’t work without Gabriel LaBelle. The breakthrough lead of a Steven Spielberg movie that is also rounded out with Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, and Judd Hirsch, LaBelle is the anchor of a revealing text for a definitive filmmaker. He is deft throughout, weaving a tapestry of emotions and toeing the line between precocious and cloying. He needed both to deliver this sensational leading turn.
Previous Winner: Alan Kim (Minari)
Best Directorial Debut
Dean Fleischer Camp — Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
Lila Neugebauer — Causeway
B.J. Novak — Vengeance
Domee Shi — Turning Red
Charlotte Wells — Aftersun
I went back and forth between B.J. Novak and Domee Shi on this one. Domee Shi, ever since Bao, has been among the most promising talents on the Pixar farm. Her debut feature film, Turning Red, was the best first film from a Pixar director since Lee Unkrich brought Toy Story 3 to life. However, I just know I must be true to myself. I know my brand. I know that if this was truly my own awards ceremony, then B.J. Novak would win the first trophy for which he was eligible. I’ve always adored Novak’s writing abilities, but I was pleasantly surprised that his directorial capabilities were also strong. Hopefully, Novak is able to continue his feature career because I think there is a ton of potential left here that we would all be fortunate to explore with him. Vengeance was confident, bold, and creative — just like its visionary.
Previous Winner: Maggie Gyllenhaal (The Lost Daughter)
Best Ensemble Cast
Babylon
Everything Everywhere All at Once
The Fabelmans
Glass Onion
Jurassic World: Dominion
With the Ensemble Cast category, I try to make sure I don’t get overwhelmed by star power in place of a perfectly cast film where every actor delivers a stellar performance that the movie needs them to. Star-studded would be apt for Babylon and Glass Onion, but the actors in those films are up to the task (as opposed to the star-studded disaster that is Amsterdam). Jurassic World: Dominion’s cast was appealing to me in the same way that it was appealing to the marketing department: it brought back Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum (together again!). Really, though, it came down to EEAAO and Fabelmans because those were the two movies with the roles that were most perfectly cast and with the most incredible performances in even the smallest roles. I ultimately sided with Fabelmans because LaBelle, Williams, Dano, Rogen, Hirsch, David Lynch, Julia Butters, and James Urbaniak? All great! But it’s the lesser-known actors in the peripheral (occasionally major) roles that help Fabelmans shine brighter. Lane Factor and Chloe East, of course, but the bullies, Sam Rechner and Oakes Fegley, were irresistibly arresting every time they were on screen, even when their characters were heinous. The Fabelmans ensemble delivers in every frame.
Previous Winner: The French Dispatch
Best Acting in a Cameo Role
Val Kilmer as Iceman Kazansky — Top Gun: Maverick
David Lynch as John Ford — The Fabelmans
Tobey Maguire as James McKay — Babylon
Ben Stiller as Larry Daley — Bros
Zack Ward as Scut Farkus — A Christmas Story Christmas
What a weird category! Who ever thought Scut Farkus would be back? And who would have thought that Ben Stiller would return as Night at the Museum’s Larry Daley in a Billy Eichner rom-com, rather than the animated Disney Plooos sequel to the trilogy? I’m glad we have this category because we can get real bizarre with it, much like Tobey Maguire’s — I believe the word is “depraved” — third act turn in Babylon. Really, though, it’s Iceman and John Ford for the cameos that are a) fun, b) well-done, and c) impactful for the stories and themes of the films. How can I deny Val Kilmer’s gorgeous return as Iceman, though? There’s rife emotion and melodrama throughout Top Gun, but it’s hardly as earned or as involving as when Maverick seeks advice from an old adversary. Seeing the dignity with which the filmmakers treated Kilmer is also quite moving and it made for one of the year’s best scenes — cameo or not.
Previous Winner: Tobey Maguire (Spider-Man: No Way Home)
Best Acting in a Voice-Over or Motion Capture Role
Rosalie Chiang as Mei Lee — Turning Red
Ewan McGregor as Sebastian J. Cricket — Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
John Mulaney as Chip — Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers
Andy Samberg as Dale — Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers
Jenny Slate as Marcel — Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
This was a hard one to narrow down, especially when you’re someone who thinks Chris Evans was great as Buzz, even when Lightyear was a bit of a let-down. Rosalie Chiang was the leader in this category for the majority of the year. What she has to do in Turning Red, as a young voice actor, is monumental and she rises to every moment with an empathetic and hilarious vocal turn. Mulaney and Samberg are undeniable in the roles of Chip and Dale (they’re cast very well) and I will always love when Ewan McGregor delivers a melodious take on a beloved fairy tale character; his line deliveries are top-tier in Pinocchio. Jenny Slate, though. I mean, come on. She’s played the role of Marcel for years, but when you consider everything the mollusk role asks of her, it becomes apparent just how valuable her comedic timing and dramatic background is for the film to hang on; it doesn’t work without her. Slate is as sentimental as McGregor, as funny as Samberg and Mulaney, and as much of an emotional center as Chiang, while still making it all her own.
Previous Winners: Josh Brolin (Avengers: Infinity War), Tom Hanks (Toy Story 4), Jamie Foxx (Soul), Stephanie Beatriz (Encanto)
Best Visual Effects
Joe Letteri — Avatar: The Way of Water
Javier Marcheselli — White Noise
Guillaume Rocheron — Nope
Zak Stoltz — Everything Everywhere All at Once
Ryan Tudhope — Top Gun: Maverick
When I first saw Jurassic Park, I felt that it was the best use of visual effects I’d ever seen on screen. This belief lasted for many years. And then, I saw Avatar: The Way of Water. While not much about the sequel to the former highest-grossing film of all-time was practical, it was still the result of years of effort and innovation. New technologies were developed, new methods of lensing were introduced. James Cameron continued his career of technical wizardry and applied it on the grandest scale possible. The entire second act of the film — complete with creative designs and immersive landscapes that didn’t reflect a lick of a computer — was unprecedented in how breathtaking it was. I’ve never seen visual effects like it and I will marvel at them forever. I do believe their gorgeousness tops Jurassic Park, which is still full of wonder, and we won’t see anything like it until the third Avatar film.
Previous Winners: Christopher Lawrence (Christopher Robin), Dan DeLeeuw (Avengers: Endgame), Jonathan Dearing (The Invisible Man), Nicholas Bateman (The Green Knight)
Best Film Editing
Sarah Broshar and Michael Kahn — The Fabelmans
Bob Ducsay — Glass Onion
Blair McClendon — Aftersun
Jonathan Redmond and Matt Villa — Elvis
Paul Rogers — Everything Everywhere All at Once
There are impressive feats of editing in all of these nominees. The Fabelmans has to veer from a three act structure and still make emotional sense. Glass Onion has to captivate audiences with the same story twice. Aftersun needs to hold you just lost enough for its emotionally intense crescendo. Elvis has to make sense of its protagonist and his newer, glitzier auteur, Baz Luhrmann. Everything Everywhere All at Once has to juggle hundreds of universes and hundreds of versions of the same characters in each of them to even just land the plot plane, never mind the thematic one. Ultimately, I was just so floored by what was accomplished in the editing bay for EEAAO. To mine logical sense from a cacophonous multiverse is far from simple and yet, Paul Rogers and his team crafted the film in a way that made it seem like one we’ve always loved — even as it is startlingly original.
Previous Winners: Nicholas D. Johnson and Will Merrick (Searching), Monica Salazar (Honey Boy), Matthew Friedman (Palm Springs), Joshua Pearson (Summer of Soul)
Best Costume Design
Erin Benach — Spirited
Jenny Eagan — Glass Onion
Shirley Kurata — Everything Everywhere All at Once
Catherine Martin — Elvis
Mary Zophres — Babylon
This wasn’t a conscious choice to move away from period pieces, after they’ve consistently been the ones I’ve awarded. I do know that those can tend to absorb a lot of the attention and focus. They’re more noticeable, prominent, ostentatious, what have you. And this was true for Elvis, Babylon, and parts of Spirited this year. However, I was taken with both the bombast of EEAAO’s costumes (especially Joy’s) and the chic modernity of Glass Onion’s. What I found myself gravitating towards this year, in terms of costume design, were bright colors, flashy patterns (that still remained cool), and an ultimate sense of confidence over how to look vivacious without sacrificing professionalism. Glass Onion managed this for its stoic characters and had a lot of fun bleeding into wacky territory for its more cartoonish figures. The way Benoit Blanc was dressed does it well enough for me anyway!
Previous Winners: Sandy Powell (Mary Poppins Returns), Noma Moriceau (Aladdin), Phoenix Mellow (Sylvie’s Love), Paul Tazewell (West Side Story)
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Gloria P. Casny and Eryn Krueger Mekash — The Fabelmans
Camille Friend and Joel Harlow — Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Jaime Leigh McIntosh and Heba Thorisdottir — Babylon
Adrien Morot — The Whale
Shane Thomas — Elvis
The makeup and hairstyling for Elvis could have been very simple. Shane Thomas and company could have gone through the motions and recreated everything as aptly as they could. There is so much iconography involved with Elvis Presley that there would not have been a lack of material to pull from. Instead, I felt that the makeup and hair teams did even more than simply recreate Elvis and his world. They crafted designs for the characters that reflected their inner characterizations. The extensive prosthetics for Tom Hanks as Colonel Tom Parker revealed a hobbling, devilish ghoul. The evaporation from Austin Butler’s skin denoted a humanity that faded with every rub of a rhinestone brow. There was a heightened intention behind the aesthetic looks of the characters and it did not go unnoticed. Babylon reached for similar things and, in some ways, so did The Whale. Ultimately, though, this has to be Elvis’ award for what it made me appreciate.
Previous Winners: Kimberly Kimble (A Wrinkle in Time), Frida Aradottir (Little Women), Anna Cash (Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga), Matteo Silvi and Luca Vannella (The Last Duel)
Best Cinematography
Russell Carpenter — Avatar: The Way of Water
Janusz Kamiński — The Fabelmans
Claudio Miranda — Top Gun: Maverick
Linus Sandgren — Babylon
Mandy Walker — Elvis
This was a great year for cinematography. As one of our great cinematographers, Kamiński’s achievements throughout The Fabelmans are hardly surprising. He’s right up there with Bruno Delbonnel and Roger Deakins as one of our finest photography directors. Plus, you could tell from the trailer that The Fabelmans would be brimming with creative shots, storytelling via visuals, and interesting framing decisions that we’ve come to expect from Spielberg movies — and oh gosh, what will we do when he’s not around and the sludge becomes more prominent? For Avatar, I wasn’t sure where the visual effects ended and the cinematography began, but I felt that was more a credit to the Way of Water effects than anything else. For Maverick and Elvis, any shot that framed its protagonists as heroic icon and tragic icon, respectively, was soaring and among 2022’s most unforgettable images. Lastly, for Babylon, I am always going to adore the frenetic filming style of a Damien Chazelle movie; his films look singular among an industry that can be very samey. Still, it’s Fabelmans in a walk here.
Previous Winners: Alfonso Cuaron (Roma), Yorick Le Saux (Little Women), Ethan Palmer (Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions), Bruno Delbonnel (The Tragedy of Macbeth)
Best Production Design
Rick Carter — The Fabelmans
Guy Davis and Curt Enderle — Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
Roger Ford — Three Thousand Years of Longing
Jason Kisvarday — Everything Everywhere All at Once
Florencia Martin — Babylon
It should be no coincidence that Three Thousand Years of Longing’s one and only nomination here also leads to a win. I knew this was stellar production design as I watched it and perhaps on some level I knew it would net the win six months later. I actually think this is a fun batch of nominations. It can be easy to overlook how much painstaking work goes into stop motion, but I loved how fully-realized every corner and nook of Pinocchio was. Plus, EEAAO not only has to flesh out the production for one movie world, but for dozens! Yet, so does Three Thousand. George Miller’s return to the screen was not quite what I was hoping for, but the sets and props were so stunning, so lived-in, so sumptuous that it felt like they should belong to the richest resorts in the world. The money was on the screen and from a production design standpoint, the worlds inhabited by the djinn were tailored carefully and beautifully.
Previous Winners: John Myhre (Mary Poppins Returns), Barbara Ling (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), Jason Kisvarday (Palm Springs), Adam Stockhausen (The French Dispatch)
Best Sound Design
Josh Gold — Glass Onion
Brent Kiser — Everything Everywhere All at Once
Ai-Ling Lee — Babylon
Al Nelson — Top Gun: Maverick
Wayne Pashley — Elvis
Airplane go whoosh. Before I get into the glory of Top Gun: Maverick’s sound design, I want to shoutout Glass Onion. Most movies I consider for this category tend to either slide into the impressive sound effects side (Top Gun, EEAAO) or the impressive musicality side (Babylon, Elvis). Glass Onion manages both and so much of the credit is due to that genius decision for the sense-activated protection case for the Mona Lisa. It adds such a distinct tension to the film; I was impressed by it. Anyway, the feat of Maverick’s sound design carries throughout the film. If you’ve ever been near a naval base, you know those things are capital-L LOUD! To balance those effects and the innately cinematic requirement that they exist for a practical blockbuster with the slower, more sentimental moments is no easy feat. But as the Dolby surround sound ad used to say, you truly felt every moment you heard in Top Gun: Maverick. It’s part of what made it such a must-see movie experience.
Previous Winners: Erik Aadahl and Ethan Van der Ryn (A Quiet Place), Warren Shaw (Uncut Gems), Craig Jackson (Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga), Paul Hsu (Tick, Tick, Boom!)
Best Original Score
Bryce Dessner and Aaron Dessner — Cyrano
Danny Elfman — Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
Justin Hurwitz — Babylon
Son Lux — Everything Everywhere All at Once
John Williams — The Fabelmans
What a group! I was tempted to go with John Williams, as this will be his final collaboration with Steven Spielberg (and perhaps his retirement, in general). I know his Fabelmans score had some detractors, but I included it beyond just sentimental reasons here. It wasn’t phenomenal enough to earn the win here, though. Besides, Jaws, Jurassic Park, Harry Potter, Home Alone. If I was doing this thing in 1975, 1993, 2001, or 1990, he would’ve won then. So he can relax. The Dessners continue to craft beautiful music across their many mediums and Danny Elfman had a ton of fun with some musical setpieces in Doctor Strange. That Justin Hurwitz score for Babylon, though, my goodness. Long pieces that are rife with jazz, percussion, and a propulsive sense of the kinetic energy in old Hollywood’s transition to talkies. It’s remarkable what the Chazelle-Hurwitz collaborations have yielded and perhaps the best time to recognize Hurwitz’s work is when the Spielberg-Williams collaboration comes to an end. “Voodoo Mama” rips.
Previous Winners: Marc Shaiman (Mary Poppins Returns), Alan Silvestri (Avengers: Endgame), Jon Batiste, Trent Reznor, and Atticus Ross (Soul), Emile Mosseri (Minari)
Best Original Song
“Nobody Like U” by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell — Turning Red
“This Is a Life” by Son Lux, Mitski, and David Byrne — Everything Everywhere All at Once
“Good Afternoon” by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul — Spirited
“Lift Me Up” by Rihanna and Ludwig Göransson — Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
“Carolina” by Taylor Swift — Where the Crawdads Sing
This is probably going to be my favorite category forever. I was sad I had to cut some contenders here, like OneRepublic’s track for Top Gun: Maverick! Ultimately, I like this top five. It’s always a treat to give commendations to Taylor Swift and Rihanna, two of the best to ever do it. But I also appreciated being able to bring in some new blood like Billie Eilish and Mitski. It’s not just star power, either. I enjoyed Taylor Swift’s song for the Delia Owens adaptation more than I did her songs for other films and the comeback of Rihanna did not disappoint. The EEAAO credits song is exactly what you’d expect from a Mitski and Byrne collab. “Nobody Like U” from 4*Town also fits into the story of Turning Red well and could apply lyrically to many character dynamics in the film. Ultimately, I landed on “Good Afternoon.” Pasek and Paul always craft dynamite soundtracks for the musicals they work with. While Spirited wasn’t the best of them, “Good Afternoon” is as delightful and catchy a song as they’ve ever written. Plus, it has a festive holiday spirit! It would’ve been so fun to see this performed at the real Oscars.
Previous Winners: “All the Stars” by Kendrick Lamar (Black Panther), “Some Things Never Change” by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez (Frozen II), “Húsavík (My Hometown)” by Fat Max Gsus, Rickard Göransson, and Savan Kotecha (Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga), “Edgar’s Prayer” by Annie Mumolo and Kristen Wiig (Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar)
Best Documentary
Lucy and Desi — Amazon
Moonage Daydream — Neon
Polar Bear — Disney
Sr. — Netflix
We Feed People — Disney
Not the best year for documentaries, but that’s okay because we do have five rock solid representatives here. Disneynature remains one of the unsung studios under the Disney umbrella, José Andrés remains one of our finest humans, and Robert Downey, Jr. remains effortlessly charming. I thought Moonage Daydream would be the runaway winner here when it was first announced, but I actually found myself let down by the David Bowie documentary; it wasn’t as much of a soundscape as I expected. Maybe I should’ve seen it in a theater — if it came anywhere near me! Instead, the first doc I saw in 2022 was also the best. Amy Poehler’s tribute to Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, one of the most wrenching and lovely couples to ever grace showbiz, is elucidating, comforting, and gutting. If you ever cared about them or enjoyed I Love Lucy, it’s a must-watch.
Previous Winners: Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (Focus), Chasing Happiness (Amazon), Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions (Disney), Summer of Soul (Searchlight)
Best Animated Feature Film
Blue’s Big City Adventure — Paramount
The Bob’s Burgers Movie — Fox
Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers — Disney
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On — A24
Turning Red — Pixar
I don’t want the Internet to come for me, so I’ll qualify this category with this: Puss in Boots: The Last Wish was surprisingly good, yes, but I just preferred these five, okay? I’m a sentimental, nostalgic bitch at heart, so I think it make sense that I’m more attached to Blue’s Clues than Shrek. I don’t know. Leave me alone. This was a three-way race between Chip ‘n Dale, Marcel, and Turning Red, though. Turning Red is one of 2022’s best movies and maybe Rescue Rangers isn’t fully animated anyway. Should it be here? No clue. But Turning Red is a masterstroke from Pixar and one of the year’s funniest, smartest, most thoughtful films — animated or not. Yet, it is the way the movie plays with its own form that makes it such a special animated endeavor all the same.
Previous Winners: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Sony), Toy Story 4 (Pixar), Soul (Pixar), Encanto (Disney)
Best Adapted Screenplay
Noah Baumbach — White Noise
Dan Gregor and Doug Mand — Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers
Rian Johnson — Glass Onion
Ehren Kruger, Christopher McQuarrie, and Eric Warren Singer — Top Gun: Maverick
Rebecca Lenkiewicz — She Said
Not the best year for this category, but I think we did manage to find five solid entries here. I’ve never read the White Noise novel, but I thought Baumbach’s screenplay was cleverly written without being overwritten and if it arrives at a couple conclusions that have already been established, well, I didn’t read the novel. The other one to be based on a book, She Said, was immaculate. I know we haven’t addressed She Said yet. It was on the longlist for many categories, but just kept missing out; there’s always a movie like that every year. Really, She Said has been anointed, for me, as one of my favorite journalism movies. It’s just sophisticated enough without losing any of what makes it cinematic. Ultimately, it is fun to honor Glass Onion in the Adapted category when Knives Out won the Original one a few years ago. Rian Johnson is one of our most gifted screenwriters and it is special to have his energy focused towards crafting inventive, creative murder mysteries. Glass Onion was as satisfying as the best of them and it’s because of that tight script that came before it.
Previous Winners: David Lowery (The Old Man and the Gun), Greta Gerwig (Little Women), Kemp Powers (One Night in Miami), Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and Nicole Holofcener (The Last Duel)
Best Original Screenplay
Sam Bromell, Jeremy Doner, Baz Luhrmann, and Craig Pearce — Elvis
Tony Kushner and Steven Spielberg — The Fabelmans
Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert — Everything Everywhere All at Once
Martin McDonagh — The Banshees of Inisherin
B.J. Novak — Vengeance
There were a ton more original screenplays to consider and cull here! Much tougher to narrow down than Adapted was. Whether it’s clever conceptualizing, poetic turns of phrase, or just imaginative ideas in the first place, there were a lot to love about this year’s crop of writing samples. I ultimately sided with Banshees because that was a writer’s film, to me. I spent a lot of time unpacking the theses of all the films nominated here, but Banshees was one that made me reconsider how a movie can be conceived and executed. The reaches of Banshees, both source-wise and thematically, are more along the lines of James Joyce-esque post-bac analysis than they are for little ol’ me to understand. On top of the commentary Martin McDonagh sketched out across his lived-in characters, it also maintains his patented, wry-yet-occasionally-philosophical dialogue that we all loved so much in In Bruges.
Previous Winners: Drew Goddard (Bad Times at the El Royale), Rian Johnson (Knives Out), Aaron Sorkin (The Trial of the Chicago 7), Annie Mumolo and Kristen Wiig (Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar)
Best Supporting Actor
Paul Dano as Burt Fabelman — The Fabelmans
Brendan Gleeson as Colm Doherty — The Banshees of Inisherin
Tom Hanks as Colonel Tom Parker — Elvis
Edward Norton as Miles Bron — Glass Onion
Ke Huy Quan as Waymond Wang — Everything Everywhere All at Once
Obviously, there has been overlap already, but this is where you might start to see even more prominent, more obvious connectios with the true Academy. As you can see from my Previous Winners, I don’t always side with the film-going voting body. This year, though, how can you go for anyone but Ke Huy Quan? Putting aside the narrative of his comeback and his own journey of self-fulfillment against a biased industry that denied it prior, he is still tasked with a Herculean character (or, let’s be real, characters) that must be equal parts Ewan McGregor in Moulin Rouge!, Laurence Fishburne in The Matrix, Chevy Chase in Christmas Vacation, and Tony Leung in In the Mood for Love. On top of that, Quan operates as the soul of the movie while also having a secondary arc to that of Michelle Yeoh’s. Norton is fun as Bron, Hanks is underrated as Parker, Gleeson is severe as Doherty, and Dano is understated as Fabelman. But this is Quan’s trophy and I’m not especially certain there’s a debate.
Previous Winners: Tim Blake Nelson (The Ballad of Buster Scruggs), Brad Pitt (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), Leslie Odom, Jr. (One Night in Miami), Ben Affleck (The Last Duel)
Best Supporting Actress
Kerry Condon as Siobhán Súilleabháin — The Banshees of Inisherin
Stephanie Hsu as Joy Wang — Everything Everywhere All at Once
Janelle Monáe as Helen Brand — Glass Onion
Jean Smart as Elinor St. John — Babylon
Michelle Williams as Mitzi Fabelman — The Fabelmans
EEAAO is a marvel in many, many ways, but none of it works if the three leads (Yeoh, Quan, and Stephanie Hsu) aren’t giving the three best performances of 2022. Fortunately, they do sort out into neat, separate categories, so I’m able to commend each of them. Everyone here is doing great work, even when some have more to relish than others, but like Quan before her, I struggle to see how this trophy can belong to anyone but Hsu. Not only are her dual (and beyond) roles the catalyst for much of the film’s story, but the character of Joy Wang has to be rooted in EEAAO’s central reality for any of the external world to operate with any sense of clarity. In a barrage mirage of butt plugs, talking rocks, and glittery baseball bats, it’s Hsu’s growth and empathy that roots EEAAO somewhere it can resonate. I love that she was able to score an Oscar nomination, too. Part of me was worried Jamie Lee Curtis would take her spot. Curtis is good in the movie, but this category was Hsu’s since March.
Previous Winners: Claire Foy (First Man), Ana de Armas (Knives Out), Saoirse Ronan (Ammonite), Jodie Comer (The Last Duel)
Best Actor
Austin Butler as Elvis Presley — Elvis
Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc — Glass Onion
Tom Cruise as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell — Top Gun: Maverick
Colin Farrell as Pádraic Súilleabháin — The Banshees of Inisherin
Brendan Fraser as Charlie — The Whale
What a lineup! As you’ve gathered, there are many movies from 2022 I was much higher on than The Whale, but Brendan Fraser is undeniable, right? Part of me thought that his campaign had been swept up by the “narrative” of it all, but then I saw The Whale and he’s genuinely great in it. In fact, The Whale might be unwatchable dreck if not for Fraser in the role. He’s sincere and moving and I bought what Darren Aronofsky was articulating because of Fraser. It’s not just the narrative; he deserves it. He does not, however, deserve the win, in my opinion. That would be Austin Butler. As I imagine the Academy is doing right now, I went back and forth between Butler and Colin Farrell. There is no doubt that Farrell’s lead turn in Banshees was high quality and a fun push into the “against type” that we’ve seen from Farrell of late. But you just can’t love Elvis as much as I did without recognizing the monumental task Butler faced and clobbered with ease. I love Farrell. I do. It’s just that Butler as Elvis is one of those performances that’s so lived-in, so consuming that it might be what Butler is forever known for. But that’s also somehow okay? Like John Krasinski with Jim Halpert? It’s okay for your breakout to be your signature, I mean. It’s more than that, though. Rami Malek was unwatchable in Bohemian Rhapsody, to me. It’s not enough to be a mimic or an impressionist. It’s that Butler unearthed a nerve in Presley that made him feel new all over again and accessible in the film, even when the bombast suggested by a Baz-Elvis movie pervaded the story. (Also, a fun note: Daniel Craig has been nominated for playing Benoit Blanc twice now!)
Previous Winners: Robert Redford (The Old Man and the Gun), Adam Sandler (Uncut Gems), Chadwick Boseman (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom), Andrew Garfield (Tick, Tick, Boom!)
Best Actress
Carey Mulligan as Megan Twohey — She Said
Margot Robbie as Nellie LaRoy — Babylon
Saoirse Ronan as Constable Stalker — See How They Run
Emma Thompson as Nancy Stokes — Good Luck to You, Leo Grande
Michelle Yeoh as Evelyn Quan Wang — Everything Everywhere All at Once
Another top-tier crew! I’ll have a lot to say about Emma Thompson soon, Carey Mulligan is the highlight of She Said, Margot Robbie does a lot, but also just enough in Babylon, and Saoirse Ronan forever, baby. (Sincerely, Ronan is great in See How They Run, especially in contrast to how much Sam Rockwell doesn’t seem to be bothered by being in the film.) Even more than I felt that Everything Everywhere All at Once would be the winner of Best Picture back in March, I knew this trophy belonged to Michelle Yeoh. I flirted with some of the others and with the potential that maybe Cate Blanchett or Zoë Saldana could break through, but I always knew it’d be Yeoh. Much of what she does can be found in what I wrote for Quan and Hsu. Tasked with playing many different characters (and, with that, a wide spectrum of emotions and responses), maintaining a soulful, narrative thread throughout the film, providing both physical and internal action. For Yeoh, though, it almost felt even greater, even more removed from those performances that have surrounded her over the course of the year. Not just a reclamation project or a career statement or a rebuke to the notion that her time as a star was over. Michelle Yeoh is this movie. I know it was developed with other actors first, but that’s just not real to me. This film and this actor were destined for one another. Michelle Yeoh has been a legend of the screen for decades, but in every tremor of her lip, every blown-back moment of shock in her eyes, every pained reminder of love that escaped her teeth: it almost feels like this movie and this performance are why she was in this industry in the first place. It’s one of the best leading turns of all-time.
Previous Winners: Emily Blunt (Mary Poppins Returns), Saoirse Ronan (Little Women), Elisabeth Moss (The Invisible Man), Rachel Zegler (West Side Story)
Best Director
James Cameron — Avatar: The Way of Water
Damien Chazelle — Babylon
Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert — Everything Everywhere All at Once
Baz Luhrmann — Elvis
Steven Spielberg — The Fabelmans
Four legends and it’s the Daniels who leap into the victory! That’s not to say Kwan and Scheinert aren’t legends. Well, you know what I mean. One day, they might attain that status and they’re certainly well on their way to doing so. It’s just that the other four obviously have been around longer and established themselves more. They all did great, too! Avatar, Babylon, Elvis, Fabelmans. These are all undeniable achievements in filmmaking and directorial oversight. Baz, Spielberg, Big Jim, and Chazelle remain electric, must-see movie makers. It’s just that the Daniels have now joined them in terms of being “must-see.” EEAAO wasn’t quite their first foray into major motion pictures (that credit goes to Swiss Army Man), but it is unquestionably their most prominent. I remember when the trailer dropped for this and everyone was so excited for it. Not because of the trailer, but because of the pedigree. I wasn’t sure why. How did everyone get so excited so quickly about a movie that I, someone who reads trades, didn’t even know existed? When I saw the movie, I understood. EEAAO instantly shot into my pantheon and it’s because of the deft, careful, manic hands that Kwan and Scheinert slapped onto the production and guided to the end. What they were able to accomplish is nothing short of euphoria. And for the first time since The Old Man and the Gun, Best Director and Best Picture sync up.
Previous Winners: David Lowery (The Old Man and the Gun), Greta Gerwig (Little Women), Pete Docter and Kemp Powers (Soul), Joel Coen (The Tragedy of Macbeth)
The Robert Redford Award for Lifetime Achievement
Emma Thompson and John Williams
I’m kind of into the idea of awarding two people here every year. There’s too many astonishing figures in movies and I got into this too late to do only one. It’ll forever leave some people not celebrated. This year, I feel very strongly about our two winners.
Emma Thompson was someone I had my eye on when the year began. When I took a look at the movies to expect in 2022, I saw that she had a couple on the docket. The aforementioned Good Luck to You, Leo Grande and a Matilda musical and something called What’s Love Got to Do with It? that I never actually sought out. Ultimately, I only saw Leo Grande, but I’m glad it was that one because even though Katy Brand wrote the movie, a lot of it still felt authorial for Thompson. She carries the bulk of it with Daryl McCormack and works her way through a number of difficult, but powerful, moments that will be among her lasting legacy on screen. It was a performance with something to say in a career filled with the same. On my spreadsheet of all-time Oscars (which I will share at some point this year here), Thompson has six acting nominations (Much Ado about Nothing, Sense and Sensibility, Love Actually, Stranger Than Fiction, Saving Mr. Banks, and Good Luck to You, Leo Grande), one screenplay nomination (Sense and Sensibility), and two acting wins (Sense and Sensibility and Saving Mr. Banks). But that’s all without even mentioning her work in Henry V, Treasure Planet, Harry Potter, I Am Legend, Brave, Men in Black, A Walk in the Woods, Burnt, and Last Christmas. What all of this craft shows is that she is not only highly intellectual and deeply empathetic as both a writer and a performer, but that she is a staple of our modern movie landscape and a newfound elder statesman who deserves to be treated with the same reverence that the industry currently heaps upon Meryl Streep, Denzel Washington, and Tom Hanks. Where are we without the pained perseverance through every glistening smile of her turn in Love Actually? Where are we without her take on Jane Austen that changed period adaptations forever? Where are we without a career redefining performance as P.L. Travers? We’re all still alive, but we’re a lot worse off. That’s the point of celebrity in Hollywood. Not the tabloids, not the cryptocurrency, not the power abuse. It’s about the stories we can tell and share and Emma Thompson has been the best part of the best of them.
As I said before, John Williams would’ve been dominant in the Best Original Score category if I was alive and doing this since the 1970s (and the Internet existed). I do have that spreadsheet where I’ve tried to have my own Oscars dating back to the 1930s-1960s, but I don’t go as deep into it as to have Original Score winners (it only covers Picture, Director, the Acting categories, the Screenplays, and Animated). Rest assured, ninety percent of my favorite movie scores belong to Williams. The Poseidon Adventure, Tom Sawyer, Jaws, Family Plot, Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Superman, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Home Alone, Hook, Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Catch Me If You Can, Lincoln, The Post, and even the damn Olympics! In real life, he has fifty-three Oscar nominations and he is now ninety-one years old and seems only to be retiring out of obligation? The man shows no signs of age outside of appearance and his musical compositions — whether they’re for films or for theme park lands — are as strong as they ever were, as evidenced by his work on The Fabelmans this year. Whatever his motivation may be, we have to respect him as someone who lived in this world and helped take an entire era of movies to unprecedented heights and move multiple generations of adoring storytellers. These scores will stay with us forever and John Williams is our greatest living composer. Bravo, maestro. Thanks for everything. Now, enjoy.
Previous Winners: Robert Redford, Richard Curtis, Chadwick Boseman, Emma Watson and Ridley Scott
Best Scene
The Opening Credits — After Yang
Lo’ak Meets Payakan — Avatar: The Way of Water
“If I Can Dream” — Elvis
The Everything Bagel — Everything Everywhere All at Once
The Hallway — The Fabelmans
This was a tricky one to parse. There weren’t any obvious, “oh my gosh, this is the scene of the year” contenders. Some tickled me, some moved me, some transported me, some made me rethink the neurons and synapses that were once hard-wired by my parents, Kurt Vonnegut, and Community. But there’s something about the hallway scene in The Fabelmans that has stuck with me irrepressibly since I first saw it. The characters at the school, including a couple bullies and Sammy Fabelman, have a major confrontation (both verbal and physical) after Sammy showcases his movie about the Senior Skip Day at prom. There are plenty of questions bandied about during the scene and no tidy resolutions to any of them. Instead, Spielberg positions the scene as one to make us wonder. Do movies exist to provide commentary, to pay homage, to get revenge, to be as good as they possibly can be? Why do we do any of this? That was clearly on Spielberg’s mind when he wrote the scene, which simultaneously contains the movie’s central thesis and is intrinsically inaccessible. It’s well-written, well-acted, well-directed, well-lit, well-shot, well-scored. What elevates it above its competitors, though, is the fact that its ambiguity makes it unforgettable as a true scene that encapsulates the beauty of the process all at once.
Previous Winners: Thanos Snaps in Avengers: Infinity War (Marvel), Portals in Avengers: Endgame (Marvel), Song-Along in Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (Netflix), “When the Sun Goes Down” in In the Heights (Warner Brothers)
And that’ll do it! Until next February. I do love writing this piece so much and I love updating my spreadsheets. It dates back to when I was a child and my parents would gift me a journal every time I would get a shot. It was a welcome salve to a dreaded medical operation and I would use the journal to make all the lists I wanted. This is just that on the Internet. What would yours be if you’re particular like me?
Most Nominations
- Everything Everywhere All at Once — 15*
- The Fabelmans — 14
- Babylon, Elvis — 11
- Glass Onion — 9
- Top Gun: Maverick — 7
- Avatar: The Way of Water, The Banshees of Inisherin, Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers, Turning Red — 5
- Aftersun, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, Vengeance — 3
- After Yang, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, She Said, Spirited, The Whale, White Noise — 2
- Blue’s Big City Adventure, The Bob’s Burgers Movie, Bros, Catherine Called Birdy, Causeway, A Christmas Story Christmas, Cyrano, Darby and the Dead, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, Jurassic World: Dominion, Lucy and Desi, Moonage Daydream, Nope, Polar Bear, See How They Run, Sr., Three Thousand Years of Longing, We Feed People, Where the Crawdads Sing — 1
*indicates a tie of the record with Little Women (2019) — 15.
Most Wins
- Everything Everywhere All at Once — 7*
- The Fabelmans — 4
- Elvis, Glass Onion, Top Gun: Maverick — 2
- Avatar: The Way of Water, Babylon, The Banshees of Inisherin, Lucy and Desi, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, Spirited, Three Thousand Years of Longing, Turning Red, Vengeance — 1
*indicates a new record.
See also:
If I Was the Only One Who Voted for the Oscars, Vol. 1
If I Was the Only One Who Voted for the Oscars, Vol. 2
