2022 Oscars Awards Best Picture: what are the nominated movies?
The Power of the Dog is widely tipped to take the top prize at the 2022 Oscars but will face competition from CODA, Licorice Pizza and West Side Story.
No streaming service has ever won the film industry's top prize, the best picture statuette. That is likely to change on Sunday, if awards watchers are correct. Most see a two-way race between online video pioneer Netflix Inc and Apple TV+
Netflix's gothic Western The Power of the Dog landed 12 nominations, more than any other film. But Apple's CODA, about a deaf family with a hearing daughter who wants to pursue a career in music, gained momentum with wins at the Screen Actors Guild Awards and the Producers Guild Awards.
Jane Campion could become the third woman in the Oscars' 94-year-history to win best director and is now the only woman to have been nominated in the category twice. Campion received her first nod for the 1993 film The Piano, but lost out to Steven Spielberg and Schindler's List. Spielberg is competing again this year with West Side Story.
A Campion win would make for back-to-back victories for women, after Nomadland director Chloé Zhao took the trophy last year.
The Power of the Dog and CODA Best Picture favourites
The New Zealand director is seen as one of the favourites to win both Best Picture and Best Director and is also up for Best Adapted Screenplay. Set on a 1920s Montana ranch, The Power of the Dog has already scooped trophies this awards season including best film and director for Campion at the British Academy Film Awards.
However, CODA has also triumphed, claiming the top honours from the Producers Guild and Screen Actors Guild. "If you'd asked us a week ago, The Power of the Dog would have been pretty much a shoo-in to win... but such was the success of CODA at the Producers Guild of America Awards last weekend that a lot of punters have jumped on CODA," Alex Apati, PR Manager at bookmaker Ladbrokes, told Reuters.
"It was 12/1 at the start of the month and it's now as short as 11/10. So it's pretty much a two-horse race." Apati also noted that in the last four years, the best picture winners had been second favourites.
Belfast
CODA
Don't Look Up
Drive My Car
Dune
King Richard
Licorice Pizza
Nightmare Alley
The Power of the Dog
West Side Story
Directors in the mix for Best Picture
Kenneth Branagh is up for his second Best Picture award following Henry V (1990) – which also earned the British thespian a Best Actor nod - and will hope to finally land an Oscar after being nominated five times previously. Belfast is up for Best Director, Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay.
Sian Heder could cause something of a surprise in the Best Picture stakes for helming CODA, a coming-of-age comedy drama that has been tipped to upset The Power of the Dog for the top prize. The American director also wrote CODA and is up for Best Adapted Screenplay, which could possibly lead to a female one-two-three of Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay with Campion in the mix for all three.
Adam McKay has been nominated for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay for Don’t Look Up. He has had previous Best Director and Best Picture nominations for The Big Short (2016) and Vice (2019). The Big Short won McKay an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Dennis Villeneuve’s Dune is up for 10 awards in total, including Best Picture and Best Adapated Screenplay. In all likelihood, the French-Canadian director may find the Academy’s aversion to handing the big prizes to sci-fi movies sees him miss out again, as he did on his directing nod for Arrival (2017), but Dune is likely to sweep up in the technical categories, while Hans Zimmer is always a good shout for an original score.
Paul Thomas Anderson’s coming-of-age drama Licorice Pizza scored three nominations for picture, director and original screenplay. Anderson has been a regular in the voting over the course of his career and has been nominated for Best Picture and Best Director twice previously for Daniel Day-Lewis collaborations There Will be Blood and Phantom Thread. However, the American auteur is still waiting for a first Oscar win after 11 previous nominations.
Guillermo del Toro, who helmed Nightmare Alley, will hope to add to his Best Picture and Best Director awards for The Shape of Water (2018) but is seen as an outlier in this year’s running.
Steven Spielberg knows his way to an Oscars podium, garnering 19 nominations and three wins, two for Best Director (Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan) with a Best Picture Oscar securing him the coveted double for the former. His most recent nomination was also in the Best Picture category for The Post (2018), which also landed Meryl Streep a Best Actress nomination.
Japanese movie Drive My Car is seen as the frontrunner for international feature film with its director, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, also in the mix for Best Director.