A short while ago, the Oscar nominations for 2022 were announced in an electronic broadcast via the Internet and the official Oscar account on Facebook, in a tradition followed a few years ago.
The awards ceremony is scheduled to take place on March 27, as usual at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, with a host for the ceremony, a custom that has been neglected since 2018.
The nominations this year did not bring many unexpected surprises. In a previous article, we expected a lot of these nominations, and perhaps the biggest surprises were that the movie "Spider-Man: No Way Home" was not nominated for the Best Picture award as expected. Lots of critics and viewers.
10 films in the Best Film Award
The most important categories of nominations - which is the Best Film Award - included 10 nominees this year, the largest number ever, as nominations usually range between 5 to 10 films, and most often it stops at only 8 films.
This year, the nominations included a very diverse group of films, including the Japanese movie "Drive My Car", the mystery thriller "Nightmare Alley", the musical "West Side Story" and the American West " The Power of the Dog, the science fiction movie Dune, the biopic King Richard and the controversial comedy Don't Look Up.
In addition to other minor films that did not capture the attention of the public enough and perhaps this is a good opportunity to rediscover them are "CODA", "Belfast" and "Licorice Pizza".
"Dog Power" and "Dune" top in the nominations
The Oscar nominations include 23 different categories, and "Dog Power" and "Dune" managed to get the most number of nominations, the first with 12 nominations and the second with 10 nominations.
Both films compete in many categories, including best adapted screenplay, but the most important point is that they are two "genre films", as they belong to a very popular American cinematic genre, unlike the popular choices in Oscar films that tend to be dramatic films. The Power of the Dog is a Western American film that works against the common themes of this genre that tend to be intensely masculine and cruel, as it presents us with a hero who has been confined to the role of a violent cowboy, but he rediscovers himself when his family enters a brother-in-law and her young son.
Dune is a science fiction movie set on a distant planet called Araks, in which Duke Paul Leto fights the harracks and the Emperor's men who are trying to seize the planet's stock of fuel called "spice" and end the enslavement of its inhabitants.
Lady Gaga disqualified
On the other hand, in one of the few surprises, actress and singer Lady Gaga was excluded from Best Actress nominations for her role in her second movie, House Of Gucci, and was previously nominated for a BAFTA/British Academy Award and a Golden Globe.
"House of Gucci" is one of the films that was neglected by the Oscars this year, with only one nomination, which is the best makeup, in line with the negative criticism that the film has received since its release, despite the various nominations it received, which often seemed undeserved.
On the other hand, actress Kristen Stewart was nominated for the Best Actress Award for her role in the movie "Spencer", which is Stewart's first nomination, and the only film that provided a limited time in the life of the famous Lady Diana Spencer and the former wife of the British Crown Prince, and Stewart competes with a number of Many veteran actresses, such as former Academy Award winner Olivia Colman, Nicole Kidman, Jessica Chastain, and Penelope Cruz.
Fourth nomination for Will Smith, but no hope
The brown American actor Will Smith was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in the movie “King Richard”, in which he played the role of the father of tennis legends Serena and Vanessa Williams, which is the fourth nomination in Smith’s career, but most likely like the first three times he will not win the award this year in light of A very fierce competition with Andrew Garfield, Javier Bardem, Denzel Washington, and the closest to the award is Benedict Cumberbatch for his role in the movie "The Power of Dog".
The film was nominated in general for 6 awards, including Best Film, Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Best Editing, Best Screenplay and Best Song, but it will most likely come out empty-handed this year.
Will Disney win again?
In the category of animated films, Disney, the leading company in this art, competed as usual with 3 films, “Encanto”, “Luca” and “Raya and the Last Dragon”, in front of two other films, namely Flee and The Mitchells vs. the Machines.
But as usual, this category is almost settled for one of the Disney films Incanto and Luca, both of which are films that try to present a culture different from the American one by mixing it with legends. Canto revolves around a family that possesses magical power, consistent with magical realism, the most important cinematic and literary genre for this continent, while the events of Lucca in a small Italian town about Luca, a teenage marine creature who can transform into human form when he rises to land, and whether he can adapt to this new environment or not.
The question remains, will we witness this year's awards ceremony with big surprises, such as "Drive My Car" winning the Best Film competition, as happened years ago with the Korean "Parasite"?
Will we see young actors like Andrew Garfield and Kristen Stewart take home the Best Actor and Actress award?
There is about a month and 20 days left and we will all find out the answers to these questions.