STEWART IN, GAGA OUT IN ACTRESS RACE; DENIS DUDDED FOR DUNE; DOG’S DAY BECKONING COME OSCAR NIGHT.

Jane Campion’s creepy, complex western The Power of the Dog nestled into the laps of  Academy members, leading the 2022 Oscar nominations pack with 12 nods. Other contenders fell in line with award season trajectory, with the space epic Dune landing 10 nominations and the retro-spectacles West Side Story and Belfast both nabbing seven. Those four frontrunners will be joined in the Best Picture race by CODA, Don’t Look Up, Drive My Car, King Richard, Licorice Pizza and Nightmare Alley.

With her Best Director nomination, Campion (pictured, below) becomes the first woman in Oscar history to earn two directing nominations, her last being in 1993 for the The Piano. She won the Adapted Screenplay award that year, an honour she is in line for again in 2022.

Other milestones established with the 2022 nominee list include the second deaf nominee in Oscar history (CODA’s Troy Kotsur in the Supporting Actor category); Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast haul, making him the only person to earn seven Oscar nominations in seven different categories (in addition to Belfast, he’s been nominated previously for Hamlet, Henry V,  live-action short film Swan Song, and My Week With Marilyn); and, Being the Ricardo’s Javier Bardem and Parallel Mother’s Penélope Cruz becoming the sixth married couple to be nominated for acting in the same year.

There were two “What the f*** just happened?!?” omissions from the nominee list. On the crest of an award season wave, Lady Gaga was bumped for Ridley Scott’s House of Gucci, with Oscar favouring Kristen Stewart for Spencer (who had missed SAG and BAFTA consideration in recent weeks; pictured, below) and Jessica Chastain in The Eyes of Tammy Faye (considered a waning outsider by Oscar analysts). And Denis Villeneuve found himself being Beresford-ed by the Academy, with Dune’s ten nominations not including a Best Director mention (perhaps Part 2 of the saga will rectify that). 

The Academy also chose not to pander to high-profile commercial success as a means by which to reverse sagging viewership. Blockbuster status did not bolster the nomination count for No Time to Die (three, including a Best Song nod for Billie Eilish plus Sound and Visual Effects) and Spider-Man: No Way Home (a sole Visual Effects mention).

In fact, studios will be hoping that nominations will re-energise the box office takings of several of the nominees. Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story will head back into theatres nationally, hoping its cumulative box office of US$36million will surge on the back of its seven nominations. Other films looking for the ‘Oscar Bump’ include Guilleremo Del Toro’s Nightmare Alley (4 noms with US$11million banked); Reinaldo Marcus Green’s King Richard (6 noms with takings of $15million); Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza (3 noms against US$13million so far) and Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s arthouse hopeful Drive My Car (4 noms with US$950k from a very limited release).

The 94th annual Academy Awards will be held on March 27 at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre, with the in-person ceremony to be televised on ABC in the US and Foxtel in Australia.

The full list of 2022 Academy Award nominees are:

BEST PICTURE
Belfast (Laura Berwick, Kenneth Branagh, Becca Kovacik and Tamar Thomas, Producers)
CODA (Philippe Rousselet, Fabrice Gianfermi and Patrick Wachsberger, Producers)
Don’t Look Up (Adam McKay and Kevin Messick, Producers)
Drive My Car (Teruhisa Yamamoto, Producer)
Dune (Mary Parent, Denis Villeneuve and Cale Boyter, Producers)
King Richard (Tim White, Trevor White and Will Smith, Producers)
Licorice Pizza (Sara Murphy, Adam Somner and Paul Thomas Anderson, Producers)
Nightmare Alley (Guillermo del Toro, J. Miles Dale and Bradley Cooper, Producers)
The Power of the Dog (Jane Campion, Tanya Seghatchian, Emile Sherman, Iain Canning and Roger Frappier, Producers)
West Side Story (Steven Spielberg and Kristie Macosko Krieger, Producers)

BEST DIRECTOR
Paul Thomas Anderson (Licorice Pizza); Kenneth Branagh (Belfast); Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog); Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car); Steven Spielberg (West Side Story)

BEST ACTRESS
Jessica Chastain (The Eyes of Tammy Faye); Olivia Colman (The Lost Daughter); Penélope Cruz (Parallel Mothers); Nicole Kidman (Being the Ricardos); Kristen Stewart (Spencer)

BEST ACTOR
Javier Bardem (Being the Ricardos); Benedict Cumberbatch (The Power of the Dog); Andrew Garfield (Tick, Tick … Boom!); Will Smith (King Richard); Denzel Washington (The Tragedy of Macbeth)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Jessie Buckley (The Lost Daughter); Ariana DeBose (West Side Story); Judi Dench (Belfast); Kirsten Dunst (The Power of the Dog); Aunjanue Ellis (King Richard)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Ciarán Hinds (Belfast); Troy Kotsur (CODA); Jesse Plemons (The Power of the Dog); J.K. Simmons (Being the Ricardos); Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Power of the Dog)

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Cruella (Jenny Beavan); Cyrano (Massimo Cantini Parrini and Jacqueline Durran); Dune (Jacqueline West and Robert Morgan); Nightmare Alley (Luis Sequeira); West Side Story (Paul Tazewell)

BEST SOUND
Belfast (Denise Yarde, Simon Chase, James Mather and Niv Adiri); Dune (Mac Ruth, Mark Mangini, Theo Green, Doug Hemphill and Ron Bartlett); No Time to Die (Simon Hayes, Oliver Tarney, James Harrison, Paul Massey and Mark Taylor); The Power of the Dog (Richard Flynn, Robert Mackenzie and Tara Webb); West Side Story (Tod A. Maitland, Gary Rydstrom, Brian Chumney, Andy Nelson and Shawn Murphy)

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Don’t Look Up (Nicholas Britell); Dune (Hans Zimmer); Encanto (Germaine Franco); Parallel Mothers (Alberto Iglesias); The Power of the Dog (Jonny Greenwood)

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
CODA (screenplay by Siân Heder); Drive My Car (screenplay by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Takamasa Oe); Dune (screenplay by Jon Spaihts and Denis Villeneuve and Eric Roth); The Lost Daughter (written by Maggie Gyllenhaal); The Power of the Dog (written by Jane Campion)

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Belfast (written by Kenneth Branagh); Don’t Look Up (screenplay by Adam McKay; story by Adam McKay & David Sirota); King Richard (written by Zach Baylin); Licorice Pizza (written by Paul Thomas Anderson); The Worst Person in the World (written by Eskil Vogt, Joachim Trier)

BEST ANIMATED SHORT
Affairs of the Art (Joanna Quinn and Les Mills); Bestia (Hugo Covarrubias and Tevo Díaz); Boxballet (Anton Dyakov); Robin Robin (Dan Ojari and Mikey Please); The Windshield Wiper (Alberto Mielgo and Leo Sanchez)

BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT
Ala Kachuu — Take and Run (Maria Brendle and Nadine Lüchinger); The Dress (Tadeusz Lysiak and Maciej Ślesicki); The Long Goodbye (Aneil Karia and Riz Ahmed); On My Mind (Martin Strange-Hansen and Kim Magnusson); Please Hold (K.D. Dávila and Levin Menekse)

BEST FILM EDITING
Don’t Look Up (Hank Corwin); Dune (Joe Walker); King Richard (Pamela Martin); The Power of the Dog (Peter Sciberras); Tick, Tick … Boom! (Myron Kerstein and Andrew Weisblum)

BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
Coming 2 America (Mike Marino, Stacey Morris and Carla Farmer); Cruella (Nadia Stacey, Naomi Donne and Julia Vernon); Dune (Donald Mowat, Love Larson and Eva von Bahr); The Eyes of Tammy Faye (Linda Dowds, Stephanie Ingram and Justin Raleigh); House of Gucci (Göran Lundström, Anna Carin Lock and Frederic Aspiras)

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Encanto (Jared Bush, Byron Howard, Yvett Merino and Clark Spencer); Flee (Jonas Poher Rasmussen, Monica Hellström, Signe Byrge Sørensen and Charlotte De La Gournerie); Luca (Enrico Casarosa and Andrea Warren); The Mitchells vs. the Machines (Mike Rianda, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and Kurt Albrecht); Raya and the Last Dragon (Don Hall, Carlos López Estrada, Osnat Shurer and Peter Del Vecho)

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Ascension (Jessica Kingdon, Kira Simon-Kennedy and Nathan Truesdell); Attica (Stanley Nelson and Traci A. Curry); Flee (Jonas Poher Rasmussen, Monica Hellström, Signe Byrge Sorensen and Charlotte De La Gournerie); Summer of Soul (Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, Joseph Patel, Robert Fyvolent and David Dinerstein); Writing With Fire (Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh)

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
Audible (Matt Ogens and Geoff McLean); Lead Me Home (Pedro Kos and Jon Shenk); The Queen of Basketball (Ben Proudfoot); Three Songs for Benazir (Elizabeth Mirzaei and Gulistan Mirzaei); When We Were Bullies (Jay Rosenblatt)

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
“Be Alive” — music and lyrics by DIXSON and Beyoncé Knowles-Carter (King Richard)
“Dos Oruguitas” — music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda (Encanto)
“Down to Joy” — music and lyrics by Van Morrison (Belfast)
“No Time to Die” — music and lyrics by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell (No Time to Die)
“Somehow You Do” — music and lyrics by Diane Warren (Four Good Days)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Dune (Greig Fraser); Nightmare Alley (Dan Laustsen); The Power of the Dog (Ari Wegner); The Tragedy of Macbeth (Bruno Delbonnel); West Side Story (Janusz Kaminski)

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE
Drive My Car (Japan); Flee (Denmark); The Hand of God (Italy); Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom (Bhutan); The Worst Person in the World (Norway)

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
Dune (production design: Patrice Vermette; set decoration: Zsuzsanna Sipos); Nightmare Alley (production design: Tamara Deverell; set decoration: Shane Vieau); The Power of the Dog (production design: Grant Major; set decoration: Amber Richards); The Tragedy of Macbeth (production design: Stefan Dechant; set decoration: Nancy Haigh); West Side Story (production design: Adam Stockhausen; set decoration: Rena DeAngelo)

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Dune (Paul Lambert, Tristan Myles, Brian Connor and Gerd Nefzer); Free Guy (Swen Gillberg, Bryan Grill, Nikos Kalaitzidis and Dan Sudick); No Time to Die (Charlie Noble, Joel Green, Jonathan Fawkner and Chris Corbould); Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (Christopher Townsend, Joe Farrell, Sean Noel Walker and Dan Oliver); Spider-Man: No Way Home (Kelly Port, Chris Waegner, Scott Edelstein and Dan Sudick)