AMPAS Announces 2022 Oscar Shortlists

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have revealed their annual shortlists in 10 categories for the 2022 Oscars.
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​Hello, everyone, and welcome back to The Friendly Film Fan! Boy, it has been a crazy time in the movie world recently. Spider-Man: No Way Home shattered both pandemic and pre-pandemic box office records to become the #2 highest-grossing opening weekend earner of all time at the domestic box office, with a whopping total of $260 million (you can read our review here). No matter how one feels about the film itself, that is a staggering achievement, unlikely to be surpassed by anyone any time soon. But Spidey’s web-bound success wasn’t the only news that dropped in the movie world over the past few days; as you may have guessed by the title, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences also revealed their shortlists for the 2022 Oscar nominations in 10 categories.
 
The reveal of these shortlists is an annual tradition that film critics and Oscar fans the world over anticipate highly at the start of every awards season, and now the 2022 version has arrived. All three Short Film categories are given shortlists as part of the announcement, but most of the time, people are really looking for the more obvious categories. This year, those categories are “International Feature Film,” “Documentary Feature Film,” “Makeup & Hairstyling,” “Original Score,” “Original Song,” “Sound,” and “Visual Effects.” These shortlists provide a guide to where the Oscar nominations might be heading by revealing not just what made the cut, but what didn’t.
 
The most egregious absence amongst all shortlists is the absence of Julia Ducournau’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner Titane, not only one of the best movies of the year but one of the boldest in its narrative and its direction. This could mean, giving the risk it was to submit the film, that France sees the lack of a nomination as an excuse to only submit the safer films they have available as future entries for the International Feature race. And although it was always an up-in-the-air question as to whether Titane could actually pull off a nomination in this field, its absence from the shortlist entirely feels like a gross misstep on the part of AMPAS.
 
There are a few absences from other lists that are also notable, however (though none as boneheaded as that one). The Harder They Fall, despite being a sleeper hit in the predictions surrounding the Sound category, has missed that category entirely, although the Netflix western did nab two other shortlist spots in Original Score and Original Song. Edgar Wright’s Sparks Brothers documentary, as well as Morgan Neville’s Anthony Bourdain film, Roadrunner, both missed the cut in Documentary Feature, The Green Knight missed the Makeup & Hairstyling category, and as tough as it is to sit with, James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad did not make it to the shortlist for Visual Effects.
 
Apart from that, there were also a few pleasant surprises. Scores for Candyman, Encanto, The Green Knight, and The Harder They Fall all cracked the list, and not just one or two but all four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films released this year made the cut for Visual Effects (Spider-Man even made it into Sound as well). Other than those, the rest of these shortlists are filled with most of the expected material, and at the unexpected material in some categories does make sense given how those competitions look. For a full rundown of all the 2022 Oscars shortlists, see below.

Best International Feature Film:

• Compartment No. 6 (Finland)
• Drive My Car (Japan)
• Flee (Denmark)
• The Good Boss (Spain)
• Great Freedom (Austria)
• The Hand of God (Italy)
• A Hero (Iran)
• Hive (Kosovo)
• I’m Your Man (Germany)
• Lamb (Iceland)
• Playground (Belgium)
• Plaza Catedral (Panama)
• Prayers for the Stolen (Mexico)
• The Worst Person in the World (Norway)
• Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom (Bhutan)

 
Best Documentary Feature:

• Ascension
• Attica
• Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry
• Faya Dayi
• The First Wave
• Flee
• In the Same Breath
• Julia
• President
• Procession
• The Rescue
• Simple as Water
• Summer of Soul (…or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
• The Velvet Underground
• Writing With Fire

 
Best Makeup & Hairstyling:

• Coming 2 America
• Cruella
• Cyrano
• Dune
• The Eyes of Tammy Faye
• House of Gucci
• Nightmare Alley
• No Time to Die
• The Suicide Squad
• West Side Story

 
Best Original Score:

• Daniel Pemberton, Being the Ricardos
• Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, Candyman
• Nicholas Britell, Don’t Look Up
• Hans Zimmer, Dune
• Germaine Franco, Encanto
• Alexandre Desplat, The French Dispatch
• Daniel Hart, The Green Knight
• Jeymes Samuel, The Harder They Fall
• Kris Bowers, King Richard
• Harry Gregson-Williams, The Last Duel
• Hans Zimmer, No Time to Die
• Alberto Iglesias, Parallel Mothers
• Jonny Greenwood, The Power of the Dog
• Jonny Greenwood, Spencer
• Carter Burwell, The Tragedy of Macbeth

 
Best Original Song:

• “The Anonymous Ones,” Dear Evan Hansen
• “Automatic Woman.” Bruised
• “Be Alive,” King Richard
• “Beyond the Shore,” CODA
• “Dos Orguitas,” Encanto
• “Down to Joy,” Belfast
• “Dream Girl,” Cinderella
• “Guns Go Bang,” The Harder They Fall
• “Here I Am (Singing My Way Home),” Respect
• “Just Look Up,” Don’t Look Up
• “No Time to Die,” No Time to Die
• “Right Where I Belong,” Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road
• “So May We Start,” Annette
• “Somehow You Do,” Four Good Days
• “Your Song Saved My Life,” Sing 2

 
Best Visual Effects:

• Black Widow
• Dune
• Eternals
• Free Guy
• Ghostbusters: Afterlife
• Godzilla vs. Kong
• The Matrix Resurrections
• No Time to Die
• Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
• Spider-Man: No Way Home

 
Best Sound:

• Belfast
• Dune
• Last Night in Soho
• The Matrix Resurrections
• No Time to Die
• The Power of the Dog
• A Quiet Place: Part II
• Spider-Man: No Way Home
• tick, tick…Boom!
• West Side Story

 
Best Live-Action Short:

• Ala Kachuu – Take and Run
• Censor of Dreams
• The Criminals
• Distances
• The Dress
• Frimas
• Les Grandes Claques
• The Long Goodbye
• On My Mind
• Please Hold
• Stenofonen
• Tala’vision
• Under the Heavens
• When the Sun Sets
• You’re Dead Helen

 
Best Animated Short:

• Affairs of the Art
• Angakusajaujuq: The Shaman’s Apprentice
• Bad Seeds
• Bestia
• Boxballet
• Flowing Home
• Mum Is Pouring Rain
• The Musician
• Namoo
• Only a Child
• Robin Robin
• Souvenir Souvenir
• Step Into the River
• Us Again
• The Windshield Wiper

 
Best Documentary Short:

• Águilas
• Audible
• A Broken House
• Camp Confidential: America’s Secret Nazis
• Coded: The Hidden Love of J. C. Leyendecker
• Day of Rage
• The Facility
• Lead Me Home
• Lynching Postcards: “Token of a Great Day”
• The Queen of Basketball
• Sophie & the Baron
• Takeover
• Terror Contagion
• Three Songs for Benazir
• When We Were Bullies

So, what do you think of these new 2022 Oscars shortlists? Do you see anything that surprised you? Frustrated you? Do any of these change what your predictions are now going to look like? Let me know in the comments section below, and thanks for reading!
 
- The Friendly Film Fan