This Sunday, the Academy Awards will present awards to the best in film from 2022 in 23 categories ranging from Best Documentary Short to Best Picture. This year’s nominees are an impressive batch, from the bombastic nature ofEverything Everywhere All at Once, the engrossing animated shortMy Year of Dicks, the shocking documentaryNavalny, to some questionable choices that have left Oscar fans scratching their heads.
The Academy Awards is packed with great nominees in every category, many of which get overlooked for some of the flashier, more mainstream nominees. So let’s take a look at all of this year’s nominees by going through and ranking all 54 nominees in all 23 nominees in this flawless list that absolutely no one should have any issues with!
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54. Tell It Like a Woman
1 nomination - Music (Original Song)
The annual tradition ofDiane Warrenwriting a song for a movie that sounds made up has led to the worst Oscar nominee this year: the anthology ofTell It Like a Woman. While the concept of seven different female directors telling empowering stories about women is a great idea in theory, in execution, it’s a mess. Want a short based on a true story starringMarcia Gay Hardenabout her helping a homeless woman named Validation—played byCara Delevinge—take off her many layers of clothes? How about an animated short that looks like the forest creatures fromPrincess Mononokewere trapped in a prison hellscape? At the very least,Mipo O’s segment “A Week in My Life” halfway through this ordeal is deserving of your attention.
53. How Do You Measure a Year?
1 nomination - Documentary Short Film
Jay Rosenblatt’s nominated doc short from last year,When We Were Bullies, was last place in last year’s list, so, hey, at least he’s moving up? Rosenblatt interviewed his daughter every year on her birthday for several years, asking her the same questions, and seeing how her responses changed. The result seems more like Rosenblatt saying. “hey, check out this thing I did!” as opposed to making any grand statement of note. Rosenblatt wants us to be impressed with this accomplishment, and instead,How Do You Measure a Year?just falls flat.
52. BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths
1 nomination - Cinematography
Alejandro González Iñárritufully embraces his ostentatiousness withBARDO, a thinly-veiled personal story about a documentary filmmaker living in Los Angeles who returns home to Mexico. From the very beginning,BARDOis exhausting, and Iñárritu never pumps the brakes.BARDOfrequently has the Iñárritu-cypher character Silverio (Daniel Giménez Cacho)proclaiming the criticisms that many have had about his work, then flat-out ignoring the advice that others have about his questionable choices. IfBARDOis any indication, maybe Iñárritu should’ve listened to those critics.
51. The Flying Sailor
1 nomination - Short Film (Animated)
The Flying Sailortells the true story about a man that was nearby the biggest accidental explosion in history, which sent him flying 4 km, where he landed unharmed, yet naked except for his boots. It’s an intriguing story, it’s just a shame thatThe Flying Sailorinstead focuses more on the imagery of this naked man twirling in the sky, as opposed to exploring the incredible reality of this situation. It’s not great when a short makes you think about the story you wish you were seeing instead of the one you’re being shown.
50. The Whale
3 nominations - Actor in a Leading Role (Brendan Fraser), Actress in a Supporting Role (Hong Chau), Makeup and Hairstyling
Don’t get me wrong,Brendan FraserandHong Chaudeserve their nominations inThe Whale, as they’re the shining lights inDarren Aronofsky’s two-hour slog through mean-spirited manipulation and abuse. Aronofsky has always been a provocateur with his films, but he goes too far withThe Whale, a simplistic gimmick that spouts bile at its audience and hopes they’ll see the beauty underneath. Fraser deserves all the acclaim in the world, but hopefully,The Whaleleads to better projects in the future.
49. Night Ride
1 nomination - Short Film (Live Action)
What seems like it will be a charming short about a woman of short stature who gets on an empty tram and accidentally ends up driving it herself,Night Ridequickly takes a sharp turn when she starts picking up passengers, leading to an extended segment of transphobic violence.Eirik Tveiten’s short seems to be about two outsiders finding friendship in each other—if that’s even the point—yet the way it gets there is misguided and unfortunate, and this abuse is only used as a way to explore the tram driver’s character.Night Rideseems to have its heart in the right place, but the way it gets there is in poor taste.
48. Empire of Light
Sam Mendes’ love letter to cinema could’ve probably used more of the movies, as his first solo script instead feels like a montage of half-considered concepts than an actual compelling story.Richard Deakins’ nominated cinematography is as gorgeous as always,Olivia Colmanis always great regardless of the story, and there are slivers of magic that poke out through the seams, butEmpire of Lightultimately feels like a confusing mixture of ideas that never comes together in a satisfying way.
Ivalufollows Pipaluk (Mila Heilmann Kreutzmann), a girl in Greenland who is trying to find her missing sister, Ivalu (Nivi Larsen). As she searches, we get glimpses of their history together and the familiar issues they’ve had to deal with. It’s also a gorgeous short, as Pipaluk searches sections of Greenland covered in snow for her sister.Ivaluis based on a graphic novel of the same name byMorten Dürr, and it feels like it, since this seems more about the tone than any real narrative push, and it’s easy to understand how this might work better on the page than in a short. Missing kids and kids in trouble are strangely always a topic for the live-action shorts, andIvaluensures that this quota is made at this year’s Oscars.
46. The Sea Beast
1 nomination - Animated Feature Film
2022 was the best year for Netflix animation yet, withApollo 10 1/2: A Space Odyssey,Wendell & Wild, andGuillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, andThe Sea Beast—while not at the level of those other films—is a promising step forward for the streamer. FromChris Williams, the director ofBolt,Big Hero 6, andMoana, who was essential to the shifting tides at Disney, it seems like Williams is doing the same thing with Netflix, in this story of a sea monster hunter and a little girl that can often feel like Netflix’s answer toHow to Train Your Dragon.
45. The Martha Mitchell Effect
The only short in the documentary category that truly feels like a feature-length doc crammed down into short length,The Martha Mitchell Effectalso seems like a story that is screaming for someone to adapt it into a narrative feature. DirectorsAnne AlvergueandDebra McClutchyspotlight the title woman, who was the wife ofRichard Nixon’s attorney general,John Mitchell, and who refused to keep quiet about how Watergate must’ve gone all the way to the top. Mitchell’s story is fascinating and probably deserves a feature-length documentary of her own, but it’s impressive how much information Alvergue and McClutchy can cram into this—even if it is the longest of the doc shorts. After this, there’s also no way that someone isn’t Oscar-nominated for playing Martha Mitchell in the next decade or so.
