Mark Kermode, Wendy Ide, Jonathan Romney and Ellen E Jones 

Envelopes, please! Our film critics reveal their personal Oscars shortlists

Ahead of the official Academy nominations on Tuesday, Observer critics and film writers pick their standout movies, performances, directors and more
  
  

Clockwise from top left: Catherine Clinch in The Quiet Girl; Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick; Cate Blanchet in Tár; Colin Farrell and Barry Keoghan in The Banshees of Inisherin; Alia Bhatt in Gangubai Kathiawadi; Janelle Monáe on the red carpet for Glass Onion; Jalyn Hall and Danielle Deadwyler in Till; Aftersun star Paul Mescal with writer-director Charlotte Wells.
Clockwise from top left: Catherine Clinch in The Quiet Girl; Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick; Cate Blanchett in Tár; Colin Farrell and Barry Keoghan in The Banshees of Inisherin; Alia Bhatt in Gangubai Kathiawadi; Janelle Monáe on the red carpet for Glass Onion; Jalyn Hall and Danielle Deadwyler in Till; Aftersun star Paul Mescal with writer-director Charlotte Wells. Composite: Alamy, AP, Curzon, Venice

Mark Kermode

Best picture – my shortlist (my winner first)

  • Aftersun

  • Elvis

  • The Banshees of Inisherin

  • Gangubai Kathiawadi

  • Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio

Indian epic RRR was a box-office sensation, but Gangubai Kathiawadi was the most excitingly radical Indian release of 2022. I also loved Irish drama The Quiet Girl, which has its best shot at international feature. Aftersun, my favourite film of the year, is eligible for best picture but clearly not a contender. A nod for Top Gun: Maverick would remind us that Wings won top honours at the first ever Oscars in 1929.

Best director

  • Charlotte Wells – Aftersun

  • Martin McDonagh – The Banshees of Inisherin

  • Baz Luhrmann – Elvis

  • Sarah Polley – Women Talking

  • SS Rajamouli – RRR

There’s no chance that Charlotte Wells will be nominated (sadly!) but Sarah Polley may well make the cut, and Gina Prince-Bythewood is also a long shot for The Woman King. Both would be worthy nominees, as would SS Rajamouli for corralling the riotously entertaining RRR. Steven Spielberg is the bookies’ favourite for The Fabelmans, but Martin McDonagh might just clinch it.

Best actress

  • Alia Bhatt – Gangubai Kathiawadi

  • Michelle Yeoh – Everything Everywhere All at Once

  • Viola Davis – The Woman King

  • Danielle Deadwyler – Till

  • Catherine Clinch – The Quiet Girl

Alia Bhatt dominates the screen as a woman sold to a brothel-owner who becomes a local hero and an outspoken advocate of the rights of sex workers in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s terrific Hindi-language drama. Sadly she won’t be nominated, with the current Oscar race is looking like a title-fight between Cate Blanchett and Michelle Yeoh. Here’s hoping Danielle Deadwyler bags her first nomination.

Best actor

  • Colin Farrell – The Banshees of Inisherin

  • Austin Butler – Elvis

  • Paul Mescal – Aftersun

  • Daniel Kaluuya – Nope

  • Bill Nighy – Living

Bookies and critics alike have Brendan Fraser tagged as pack leader for his starring role in The Whale, something which leaves me utterly baffled. Personally, I’d be happy with either Colin Farrell or Austin Butler taking home the trophy – two very different performances, both superbly nuanced and affecting. It’s astonishing to think that Bill Nighy has never been Oscar-nominated, so a nod for Living would be welcome.

Best supporting actress

  • Kerry Condon – The Banshees of Inisherin

  • Dolly De Leon – Triangle of Sadness

  • Aimee Lou Wood – Living

  • Keke Palmer – Nope

  • Lashana Lynch – The Woman King

The “supporting” categories are always strange – one could easily argue that Kerry Condon’s Siobhán is at the very heart of The Banshees of Inisherin. Angela Bassett is currently a favourite for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – she was previously nominated for best actress for What’s Love Got to Do With It in 1994. I’d love to see rising star Aimee Lou Wood get some recognition for Living.

Best supporting actor

  • Barry Keoghan – The Banshees of Inisherin

  • Brendan Gleeson – The Banshees of Inisherin

  • Ke Huy Quan – Everything Everywhere All at Once

  • Bryan Tyree Henry – Causeway

  • Paul Dano – The Fabelmans

Has Barry Keoghan ever been less than brilliant? From The Killing of a Sacred Deer through Calm With Horses and The Green Knight, he’s one of the screen’s most versatile presences. Meanwhile, with Spielberg’s autobiographical The Fabelmans now a major awards contender, it would be great to see Ke Huy Quan (who rose to fame as Short Round in Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom) make the list.

Best original score

  • Hildur Guðnadóttir – Women Talking

  • Terence Blanchard – The Woman King

  • Volker Bertelmann – All Quiet on the Western Front

  • Son Lux – Everything Everywhere All at Once

  • Alexandre Desplat – Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio

Icelandic composer Hildur Guðnadóttir won for Joker in 2020, and is a contender again this year, although John Williams’s tinkly score for The Fabelmans is getting a lot of love. Terence Blanchard, who was nominated for BlacKkKlansman and Da 5 Bloods, may triumph with his stirring score for The Woman King. Meanwhile, my own favourite score (Aska Matsumiya’s sublime ambient music for After Yang) was never on the Academy’s radar.

Wendy Ide
Best
picture

  • Tár

  • All Quiet on the Western Front

  • Decision to Leave

  • The Woman King

  • Women Talking

There’s an invigorating lack of consensus about best picture this year; the competition could throw up some real surprises. The current momentum behind the German-language first world war drama All Quiet on the Western Front is one early curveball, a rare example of merit rather than marketing propelling a film into awards conversation. My pick, however, is Tár: one of the few contenders this year that feels genuinely and thrillingly original.

Best director

  • Park Chan-wook – Decision to Leave

  • Edward Berger – All Quiet on the Western Front

  • Gina Prince-Bythewood – The Woman King

  • Sarah Polley – Women Talking

  • Todd Field – Tár

I would be delighted to see Gina Prince-Bythewood take home a prize for her epic, bracingly kinetic approach to The Woman King. And at the other end of the spectrum, I adored the intimacy and sensitivity of Sarah Polley’s direction of Women Talking. But my winner is Park Chan-wook, who combines playfulness and precision in his handling of the sinuous Korean neo-noir Decision to Leave.

Best actress

  • Alia Bhatt – Gangubai Kathiawadi

  • Cate Blanchett – Tár

  • Michelle Yeoh – Everything Everywhere All at Once

  • Tang Wei – Decision to Leave

  • Vicky Krieps – Corsage

The most competitive category of the year – I could have easily doubled this list – has clear frontrunners in Cate Blanchett and Michelle Yeoh. Either would be deserving. Vicky Krieps in Corsage and Tang Wei in Decision to Leave are equally impressive. My winner, however, is Alia Bhatt, whose magnetic performance takes a sweeping arc from trafficked teenager to brothel madam to campaigner in Gangubai Kathiawadi.

Best actor

  • Colin Farrell – The Banshees of Inisherin

  • Eden Dambrine – Close

  • Park Hae-il – Decision to Leave

  • Paul Mescal – Aftersun

  • Ricardo Darín – Argentina, 1985

Paul Mescal in Charlotte Wells’s Aftersun and teenager Eden Dambrine in Lukas Dhont’s Close are two of the most emotionally devastating performances of the year; both would be deserving winners. The consistently excellent Ricardo Darín is at the top of his game in Argentina, 1985. However, my pick is Colin Farrell, for his deft balance of tragedy and comedy in The Banshees of Inisherin.

Supporting actress

  • Guslagie Malanda – Saint Omer

  • Claire Foy – Women Talking

  • Kerry Condon – The Banshees of Inisherin

  • Lashana Lynch – The Woman King

  • Rachel Sennott – Bodies Bodies Bodies

Every line-reading that Rachel Sennott delivers in Bodies Bodies Bodies is delicious; Claire Foy is a forceful, furious stand out in an excellent cast in Women Talking. My winner, however, is the remarkable Guslagie Malanda in Alice Diop’s Saint Omer. It’s a supporting performance, but it is so integral and essential for the film’s success that I can’t imagine it without her.

Supporting actor

  • Brian Tyree Henry – Causeway

  • Barry Keoghan – The Banshees of Inisherin

  • Brendan Gleeson – The Banshees of Inisherin

  • Eddie Redmayne – The Good Nurse

  • Ke Huy Quan – Everything Everywhere All at Once

Ke Huy Quan is a likely winner in this category for his bravura multicharacter role in Everything Everywhere All at Once. But I prefer to fly the flag for the smaller, more contained performances: Eddie Redmayne’s fascinating, uncomfortable physicality in The Good Nurse has really stayed with me. But my winner is Brian Tyree Henry’s achingly empathetic turn in the underrated Causeway.

Best international film

  • The Quiet Girl

  • All Quiet on the Western Front

  • Corsage

  • Decision to Leave

  • Saint Omer

It’s another exceptionally strong year in the international category, with at least one film, All Quiet on the Western Front, looking likely to earn a clutch of nominations across other categories. Decision to Leave still has the potential to triumph, and I would be delighted if it did. But the win that would make my heart sing would be for the exquisite Irish-language picture The Quiet Girl.

Jonathan Romney

Best picture

  • Saint Omer

  • EO

  • Tár

  • Aftersun

  • The Banshees of Inisherin

Despite concerns about cinema’s real-world survival prospects, in 2022 the art form itself has continued to show a vigorous capacity for reinvention. One healthy sign is a renewed interest in intimacy over bombast – witness the widespread enthusiasm for Aftersun. Hence too my choice of Alice Diop’s Saint Omer, an ostensibly small-scale courtroom drama that nevertheless makes a resonant statement about race, gender and history.

Best director

  • Jafar Panahi – No Bears

  • Alice Diop – Saint Omer

  • Jerzy Skolimowski – EO

  • Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne – Tori and Lokita

  • Carla Simón – Alcarràs

My choice of Jafar Panahi is partly a vote for the political heroism that has led to his imprisonment by the Iranian regime. But his audacity and playfulness are absolutely manifest in No Bears, a teasing proposition about the perils of making fictions in a fraught real world. Also in the real world, Belgium’s Dardennes offered a gripping depiction of young migrants’ struggle to survive.

Best actress

  • Kayije Kajiye and Guslagie Malanda – Saint Omer

  • Cate Blanchett – Tár

  • Michelle Yeoh – Everything Everywhere All at Once

  • Taylor Russell – Bones and All

  • Vicky Krieps – Corsage

I’m perhaps cheating by going for two leads, but Saint Omer is built around two extraordinary complementary performances – watcher and watched, speaker and listener – and the interplay is mesmerising. On the night, I suspect Cate Blanchett will be the obvious frontrunner, in a dazzling performance that’s not just one of maestria and flamboyant contradictions, but that is very knowingly about those qualities.

Best actor

  • Bill Nighy – Living

  • Ricardo Darín – Argentina, 1985

  • Park Hae-il – Decision to Leave

  • Colin Farrell – The Banshees of Inisherin

  • Ralph Fiennes – The Menu

Cinema has long been at a loss to know what to do with the finer subtleties of Bill Nighy’s presence. Living at last gives him a role he can go to town on, in his ineffably muted way. In more traditional Academy-friendly barnstorming mode, Ricardo Darín delivers a famous historical speech in Argentina, 1985, and it’s only the capper on a genial, mischievous performance.

Supporting actress

  • Janelle Monáe – Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

  • Jamie Lee Curtis – Everything Everywhere All at Once

  • Kerry Condon – The Banshees of Inisherin

  • Aimee Lou Wood – Living

  • Sadie Sink – The Whale

You expect the “supporting” categories to give a spotlight to eccentric character playing, and this year provided a feast. In Glass Onion, Janelle Monáe proved the outstanding asset of an otherwise overwrought entertainment – rising to the spirit of the occasion with a self-reflexive variation on her own protean pop glamour. Jamie Lee Curtis also went broad, not to say downright cartoonish, as befitted a shamelessly cartoonish movie.

Supporting actor

  • Mark Rylance – Bones and All

  • Judd Hirsch – The Fabelmans

  • Ke Huy Quan – Everything Everywhere All at Once

  • Zlatko Buric – Triangle of Sadness

  • Barry Keoghan – The Banshees of Inisherin

Mark Rylance has often been a reassuring, friendly screen figure, all the better to disconcert (eg in this year’s intriguing The Outfit). But there’s nothing reassuring about him in Bones and All, where his veteran cannibal is the year’s most unsettling presence. Meanwhile, Judd Hirsch’s featured role in Steven Spielberg’s autobiographical drama brought jovial blood and thunder to an otherwise placid movie.

Best original screenplay

  • Todd Field – Tár

  • Alice Diop, Amrita David, Marie NDiaye – Saint Omer

  • Park Chan-wook, Chung Seo-kyung – Decision to Leave

  • Dan Kwan, Daniel Scheinert – Everything Everywhere All at Once

  • David Cronenberg – Crimes of the Future

We tend to assume that this category rewards finely spun dialogue, but great screenplays are also about structure, hence my votes for the gloriously perplexing artifices of Decision to Leave and Everything Everywhere… Meanwhile, Todd Field’s Tár may have struck some as a somewhat literary construction, but it was so rich in astutely pitched ideas that it’s fairer to call it novelistic, in the best way.

Ellen E Jones

Best film

  • Top Gun: Maverick

  • Till

  • Tár

  • Everything Everywhere All at Once

  • Holy Spider

This year Top Gun: Maverick flew in under the critical radar and pushed through the cheesy barrier, creating a sonic boom of pure cinematic emotion that left me awestruck and partially deaf in one ear. And only Tom Cruise could have made that landing. So if the Academy will insist on rewarding Movies-with-a-capital-M over artistic achievement, this choice makes sense.

Best director

  • Chinonye Chukwu – Till

  • Gina Prince-Bythewood – The Woman King

  • Park Chan-wook – Decision to Leave

  • Steven Spielberg – The Fabelmans

  • Charlotte Wells – Aftersun

Park Chan-wook’s Decision to Leave is a romantic thriller as finely wrought as a Swiss timepiece, each shot achieving Hitchcockian perfection. And speaking of the big guy, with Till, Chinonye Chukwu exemplifies the new generation of directors who are eschewing auteur-autocrat behaviour, by instead demonstrating that compassionate collaboration is also a route to artistic excellence. She gets my vote.

Best actress

  • Danielle Deadwyler – Till

  • Cate Blanchett – Tár

  • Michelle Yeoh – Everything Everywhere All at Once

  • Aubrey Plaza – Emily the Criminal

  • Michelle Williams – The Fabelmans

In a hugely competitive year, Cate Blanchett’s Tár tour de force is undoubtedly award-worthy. Still, it would be nice to see the two-time winner step aside for a less lauded talent. Maybe Michelle Williams’s period-detailed performance in The Fabelmans? Or, even better, Danielle Deadwyler, who expressed more in a single Till closeup than many actors manage over their entire careers.

Best actor

  • Paul Mescal – Aftersun

  • Harris Dickinson – Triangle of Sadness

  • Will Smith – Emancipation

  • Colin Farrell – The Banshees of Inisherin

  • Mehdi Bajestani – Holy Spider

After last year’s hoo-ha, Will Smith is probably still banished from the Greater Los Angeles area, but that only makes the notion of provoking his pious detractors with a best actor nomination more delectable. Just imagine! (And his Emancipation performance isn’t bad either.) More seriously, Irish heart-throb Paul Mescal pulls off a miracle of naturalism in Aftersun, and deserves to be propelled into the movie-star major leagues.

Best supporting actress

  • Samantha Morton – The Whale and She Said

  • Keke Palmer – Nope

  • Dolly De Leon – Triangle of Sadness

  • Janelle Monáe – Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

  • Kerry Condon – The Banshees of Inisherin

It’s ironic that brazen scene-stealing counts as “supportive” in Hollywood, but Samantha Morton is this year’s proof, with two single-scene performances that threaten to blow the top-billed talent off screen. Meanwhile, Keke Palmer remains a charisma catherine wheel, at last in a role that showcases her star quality; and Dolly De Leon single-handedly justifies Triangle of Sadness’s otherwise disposable third act.

Best supporting actor

  • Judd Hirsch – The Fabelmans

  • Ke Huy Quan – Everything Everywhere All at Once

  • Barry Keoghan – The Banshees of Inisherin

  • Andre Braugher – She Said

  • Eddie Redmayne – The Good Nurse

Ke Huy Quan is on an unstoppable path to glory, but I’d rather see the gold go to 87-year-old Judd Hirsch. As The Fabelmans’s Uncle Boris, he arrives just in time to clasp a flagging 151-minute movie to his hirsute, surprisingly muscular chest, and deliver a brusquely reviving, Yiddish-enhanced pep talk on family, art and everything else that matters.

Best costume design

  • Jenny Eagan – Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

  • Kasia Walicka-Maimone – The Pale Blue Eye

  • Ruth E Carter – Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

  • Catherine Martin – Elvis

  • Shirley Kurata – Everything Everywhere All at Once

Costume design deserves more credit for elevating otherwise average films (The Pale Blue Eye), illuminating peripheral characters (Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s pencil skirts and purple streaks in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), or simply adding to our general amusement (all Daniel Craig’s get-ups as Benoit Blanc in Glass Onion; my favourite). And that’s before we even get to red-carpet looks and their crucial importance to the whole awards-show enterprise.

 

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