Predictions are in boldface, followed by those which I personally would nominate in italics. As with previous years' lists, for several categories I have NOT provided my own nominations, since frankly I know jack about costumes, sound and so forth, though more and more I try to pay attention to sound in particular. Films that I have listed as my own personal nominations yet which will definitely not be nominated -- either because they are ultimately ineligible in those categories or simply not shortlisted -- are marked with an asterisk.
BEST PICTURE
BABYLON
THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN
DECISION TO LEAVE
ELVIS
EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE
THE FABELMANS
GLASS ONION: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY
TAR
TOP GUN: MAVERICK
THE WOMAN KING
ARMAGEDDON TIME
THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN
BONES AND ALL
DECISION TO LEAVE
EMILY THE CRIMINAL
EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE
GLASS ONION: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY
THE MENU
NITRAM
ACTOR
AUSTIN BUTLER – Elvis
COLIN FARRELL – The Banshees of Inisherin
BRENDAN FRASER – The Whale
PAUL MESCAL - Aftersun
BILL NIGHY – Living
COLIN FARRELL – The Banshees of Inisherin
BRENDAN FRASER – The Whale
BRENDAN GLEESON – The Banshees of Inisherin
BILL NIGHY – Living
JEREMY POPE – The Inspection
ACTRESS
CATE BLANCHETT – Tar
VIOLA DAVIS – The Woman King
DANIELE DEADWYLER – Till
MICHELLE WILLIAMS – The Fabelmans
MICHELLE YEOH – Everything Everwhere All at Once
CATE BLANCHETT - Tar
ANA DE ARMAS - Blonde
JENNIFER LAWRENCE - Causeway
AUBREY PLAZA – Emily the Criminal
MICHELLE YEOH – Everything Everywhere All at Once
SUPPORTING ACTOR
PAUL DANO – The Fabelmans
BRENDAN GLEESON – The Banshees of Inisherin
BRIAN TYREE HENRY – Causeway
BARRY KEOGHAN – The Banshees of Inisherin
KE HUY QUAN – Everything Everywhere All at Once
PAUL DANO – The Fabelmans
BRIAN TYREE HENRY – Causeway
BARRY KEOGHAN – The Banshees of Inisherin
EDWARD NORTON – Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
JEREMY STRONG – Armageddon Time
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
HONG CHAU – The Whale
KERRY CONDON – The Banshees of Inisherin
STEPHANIE HSU – Everything Everywhere All at Once
JANELLE MONAE – Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
JEAN SMART – Babylon
HONG CHAU – The Whale
KERRY CONDON – The Banshees of Inisherin
ANNE HATHAWAY – Armageddon Time
JEAN SMART – Babylon
GABRIELLE UNION – The Inspection
DIRECTING
DAMIEN CHAZELLE – Babylon
TODD FIELD – Tar
ALEJANDRO GONAZLEZ INARRITU – Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths
PARK CHAN-WOOK – Decision to Leave
STEVEN SPIELBERG – The Fabelmans
TODD FIELD – Tar
LUCA GUADAGNINO – Bones and All
JED KURZEL – Nitram
MARTIN MCDONAGH – The Banshees of Inisherin
PARK CHAN-WOOK – Decision to Leave
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN
EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE
THE FABELMANS
TAR
TRIANGLE OF SADNESS
ARMAGEDDON TIME
THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN
DECISION TO LEAVE
EMILY THE CRIMINAL
THE MENU
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
GLASS ONION: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY
LIVING
SHE SAID
THE SON
WOMEN TALKING
AFTER YANG
BONES AND ALL
GLASS ONION: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY
LIVING
LOST ILLUSIONS*
CINEMATOGRAPHY
AMSTERDAM
BABYLON
BARDO, FALSE CHRONICLE OF A HANDFUL OF TRUTHS
EMPIRE OF LIGHT
TOP GUN: MAVERICK
AMSTERDAM
BARDO, FALSE CHRONICLE OF A HANDFUL OF TRUTHS
BLONDE
EMPIRE OF LIGHT
TAR
PRODUCTION DESIGN
AMSTERDAM
BABYLON
BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER
ELVIS
THE FABELMANS
AMSTERDAM
EMPIRE OF LIGHT
GLASS ONION: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY
TAR
THREE THOUSAND YEARS OF LONGING
FILM EDITING
AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER
BABYLON
ELVIS
EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE
TOP GUN: MAVERICK
DECISION TO LEAVE
EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE
GLASS ONION: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY
THE MENU
TAR
COSTUME DESIGN
AMSTERDAM
BABYLON
BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER
ELVIS
THE WOMAN KING
ORIGINAL SCORE
BABYLON - Justin Hurwitz
THE FABELMANS - John Williams
GUILLERMO DEL TORO’S PINOCCHIO - Alexandre Desplat
THE WOMAN KING - Terence Blanchard
WOMEN TALKING - Hildur Guonadottir
AMSTERDAM – Daniel Pemberton*
THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN – Carter Burwell
EO – Pawel Mykietyn*
WHITE NOISE – Danny Elfman*
THE WOMAN KING – Terence Blanchard
ORIGINAL SONG
"Carolina" – WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING
"Good Afternoon" – SPIRITED
"Hold My Hand" – TOP GUN: MAVERICK
"Lift Me Up" – BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER
"Stand Up" – TILL
"Good Afternoon" - SPIRITED
"Naatu Naatu" - RRR
“New Body Rhumba” – WHITE NOISE
"Stand Up" – TILL
“Time” - AMSTERDAM
SOUND
AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER
BABYLON
ELVIS
EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE
TOP GUN: MAVERICK
MAKEUP
BABYLON
THE BATMAN
BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER
ELVIS
THE WHALE
THE BATMAN
BLONDE
ELVIS
THE WHALE
X*
VISUAL EFFECTS
AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER
THE BATMAN
BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER
DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS
JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION
AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER
THE BATMAN
DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS
JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION
MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON*
ANIMATED FEATURE
GUILLERMO DEL TORO’S PINOCCHIO
MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON
MINIONS: THE RISE OF GRU
PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH
TURNING RED
GUILLERMO DEL TORO’S PINOCCHIO
MAD GOD
MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON
PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH
TURNING RED
Normally, I use this spot to list my favorite title sequences of the year, but to be honest this year none of them stuck in my memory, so I’m skipping this “category” for once.
MY FAVORITE FILMS OF 2022
THE BATMAN
CHA CHA REAL SMOOTH
CONFESS, FLETCH*
DECISION TO LEAVE
DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS
EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE
GLASS ONION: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY
JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION
THE MENU
TAR
The inclusion of Confess, Fletch may tell you that it was not an amazing year for movies. Not a great film, but the kind of light, fun, consistently funny star vehicle that the film industry used to make regularly in a probably non-existent past.
MY LEAST FAVORITE FILMS OF 2022
Not necessarily the worst – just ones that left me especially dissatisfied.
AMSTERDAM
BARDO, FALSE CHRONICLE OF A HANDFUL OF TRUTHS
BLACKLIGHT*
BOTH SIDES OF THE BLADE
ELVIS
FIRESTARTER
HALLOWEEN ENDS
PREY FOR THE DEVIL
RIFKIN’S FESTIVAL*
SUMMERING
*These two films, though, definitely belong on a worst list. A little ironic that one shoud be a Liam Neeson vehicle and the other a new Woody Allen film, as Neeson co-starred in what I consider to be Allen's masterpiece, Husbands and Wives (though Love and Death and Manhattan are my favorites among his films - 47 years after I first saw it, Love and Death probably still makes me laugh more than any other movie. Only Duck Soup comes close.).
MY FAVORITE THINGS FROM THE MOVIES OF 2022
Carey Mulligan telling off a persistent guy at a bar in She Said. The film isn't bad overalll, but like most of the journalism docudramas that have been made since 1976 - including Spotlight, Truth and The Post - it suffers in comparison with All the President's Men.
DC League of SuperPets was infinitely better and funnier than the trailers would have let one to expect, and the bit that cracked me up the most was the parody of Jor-El’s messages-from-the-grave from the 1978 Superman.
Emily the Criminal – one of the most underrated films of the year, and I especially enjoyed the scene where Aubrey Plaza discovers that the job she’s been hoping to get from Gina Gershon is actually just an unpaid internship. Rarely does a contemporary noir feel so much like real life.
I was not remotely surprised that Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery turned out to be my favorite film of the year. Two moments in particular gave me particular pleasure on both viewings – when Miles’ fake-murder-plot is solved, and when Jessica Henwick realizes why Kate Hudson allowed herself to get into business with a notorious sweatshop.
The Los Angeles Theater, my favorite building in Southern California, showing up more often than ever as a filming location – in Amsterdam, Babylon, Blonde, Don’t Worry Darling, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody, and even in the trailer for the new House Party.
The Menu was one of the best films of the year overall, especially the screenplay and Anya Taylor-Joy’s typically charismatic performance, but my favorite moment by far was the small gesture Judith Light makes to Taylor-Joy near the end of the film.
Michelle Yeoh in Everything Everywhere All at Once. Pretty much my favorite female star working today (cover your ears, Emily Blunt), and the film is an amazing showcase for her extraordinary range.
The opening credits dance montage from After Yang. A fine science-fiction drama overall, but an especially delightful way to start the movie.
Phil Tippet's decades-in-the-making stop-motion feature Mad God, a work of cinematic art in every sense.
The solution to the mystery in Bodies Bodies Bodies - the perfect capper to an already surprisingly enjoyable film.
Stanley Tucci, effortlessly enjoyable as always, in which I can only assume is an improbably airbrushed depiction of music industry legend Clive Davis in Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody (as Davis was one of the film’s producers, the unceasingly positive characterization is hardly a surprise but still – I have trouble believing anyone so successful in the music business is THAT much of a mensch).
Steven Yuen's traumatic past in Nope - my favorite part of the film, and for me the most unsettling thing in any of Jordan Peele's horror movies.
Two of my old friends from UCLA (and not even the usual suspects) independently being responsible (as co-writer/director and as writer) of two acclaimed, popular films – Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris and The Woman King.
The volcano footage from Fire of Love – I suspect we’ll start seeing imagery inspired by this film in visual effects sequences for the next several years.
But most of all, I was thrilled to have twelve full months of moviegoing for the first time since 2019. (In 2020, L.A. theaters closed in mid-March, and in 2021 I didn't return to theaters until the start of May, after receiving my second vaccine shot). In 2019, I saw 242 movies released during that year. In 2022, I saw only 145 movies from the year, but 331 "older" films (including ones released late in 2021 that I didn't see until early 2022, partly because I finally caught COVID at Christmas). Before the pandemic I was largely only seeing older films at the New Beverly, but since then the Academy Museum has opened with regular screenings, and I've also added BrainDead Studios (formerly Silent Movie Theater aka Cinefamily) as well as the Cinematheque screenings at the Aero and the Los Feliz 3. I saw lots of great older films in 2022, but my first theatrical screening of Earthquake (at the Los Feliz 3) was a definite highlight, as were new 70mm prints of Airport and Khartoum at the Aero.
MY TEN FAVORITE SOUNDTRACK RELEASES OF 2022
THE BEST SCORES OF 2022 COMMERCIALLY UNRELEASED ON CD
AMSTERDAM – Daniel Pemberton
THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN – Carter Burwell
CRIMES OF THE FUTURE – Howard Shore
DECISION TO LEAVE – Cho Young-wuk
DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS – Danny Elfman
EO – Pawel Mykietyn
EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE – Son Lux
GLASS ONION: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY – Nathan Johnson
THE MENU – Colin Stetson
THE WOMAN KING – Terence Blanchard
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