The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the nominees for the 94th Oscars. Two titles lead the animated entries with three nominations: Flee (Animated Feature, Documentary Feature, International Feature) and Encanto (Animated Feature, Original Score, Original Song). The other Animated Feature nominees are Luca, The Mitchells vs. the Machines, and Raya and the Last Dragon. The full list of nominees follows…
The Animated Short nominees are Affairs of the Art, Bestia, Boxballet, Robin Robin, and The Windshield Wiper.
The Visual Effects nominees are Dune, Free Guy, No Time to Die, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and Spider-Man: No Way Home.
The Academy Award winners will be revealed on Sunday, March 27, 2022.
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 actor in a leading role
• 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 actress in a leading role
• 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 directing
• Belfast – Kenneth Branagh
• Drive My Car – Ryusuke Hamaguchi
• Licorice Pizza – Paul Thomas Anderson
• The Power of the Dog – Jane Campion
• West Side Story – Steven Spielberg
Best actor in a supporting role
• 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 actress in a supporting role
• 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 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 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 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 Sørensen and Charlotte De La Gournerie
• Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) – Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson, Joseph Patel, Robert Fyvolent and David Dinerstein
• Writing with Fire – Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh
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 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 Original song
• Be Alive from King Richard
Music and Lyric by DIXSON and Beyoncé Knowles-Carter
• Dos Oruguitas from Encanto
Music and Lyric by Lin-Manuel Miranda
• Down To Joy from Belfast
Music and Lyric by Van Morrison
• No Time To Die from No Time to Die
Music and Lyric by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell
• Somehow You Do from Four Good Days
Music and Lyric by Diane Warren
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 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 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
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 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 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 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 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 documentary short subject
• 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 live action short
• Ala Kachuu – Take and Run – Maria Brendle and Nadine Lüchinger
• The Dress – Tadeusz Łysiak 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
Encanto is also nominated for Best Original Score, the first WDAS film since Mulan, though I'd say that I think its score was nothing more than fine. As much as I didn't care for Raya and the Last Dragon, its score was superior, and if we go with Disney films from previous years - Tangled, Moana and Frozen II had better scores than Encanto and they weren't nominated.
What's really shocking here though is that Denis Villeneuve was snubbed in the Best Director category, I personally really liked Dune and thought it was the kind of film that you only see once a decade, but of course they'll give it to the most obscure film that no one has seen or cares about.
I wasn't impressed with the new West Side Story and at this point it feels like they just give it to Spielberg by default.
I'm thinking West Side Story
Since they're moved the show back to late march, the contest will probably start the beginning of march. This month look for the readers choice poll for best film of 2021.
Picture (Belfast)
Director (Henry V, Belfast)
Actor (Henry V)
Supporting Actor (My Week With Marilyn)
Original Screenplay (Belfast)
Adapted Acreenplay (Hamlet)
Live-Action Short (Swan Song)
Disney got the sh*ts when Enchanted didn't go home with a little man after it's 3 song nomination and then decided to really have a fit when The Princess and The Frog didn't win a little man with its 2 song nomination so they basically made an unwritten rule that they will only submit one song for consideration because they felt they were dividing the vote and preventing a win. Disney seems to have forgotten that the following films all won for Best Song with multiple song nominations The Little Mermaid (2), Beauty and the Beast (3), Aladdin (2) and The Lion King (3). So perhaps its not the vote splitting but the fact the narrative the Academy wanted to tell didn't involve their movie that year.
Regarding Encanto, I actually really love the nominated track, it serves the movie really well and makes that scene even more emotional. I imagine the public would be scratching their head at the lack of a Bruno nomination not understanding how the submission process works. And to be fair to Disney when Encanto was in theatres Bruno was doing nothing, in fact the soundtrack really wasn't connecting with the public. It wasn't until it hit Disney+ that the public and in particular the TikTok community noticed the song. So to be fair to Disney Bruno wasn't even the breakout song with the public when it was in theatres unlike say something like Hakuna Matata.
This year could have been a great opportunity for Disney to submit more than 1 song and see a double nomination. Cause honestly, if Bruno was nominated I reckon it would have won just cause of the exposure. Although maybe we should be grateful it wasn't nominated cause if it was performed on stage maybe someone in Disney would have the terrible idea to rush Encanto to Broadway.
On a different note, I love the achievement of Flee and I honestly hope it walks away with something for its nomination - I'm guessing Documentary would be its strongest chance?
Also is it wrong to want The Power of The Dog to win so Stephen Spielberg can have a loser's tantrum over a Netflix distributed film winning the major prize?
This might sound mean spirited but I hope West Side Story doesn't win anything (maybe perhaps except Best Supporting Actress).