It’s March 2023, so it must be time to wrap up our coverage of 2022. The Oscars are on Sunday, so per annual tradition, we’ll be spending this week analyzing all of the feature categories. (Sorry, short subjects, maybe next year.) Today, we’re looking at seven different fields that are, shall we say, low-profile.
Get your pools ready! (Do people do Oscar pools?)
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
NOMINEES
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
The Sea Beast
Turning Red
WILL WIN
The general rule here is just to pick Pixar. But for whatever reason (perhaps its lack of a theatrical release?), Turning Red never developed the sort of momentum that most of the studio’s releases easily accumulate. In fact, only two of these movies received a meaningful run in theaters, and only Puss in Boots: The Last Wish actually generated a significant sum of money. That might have meant something a few years ago, but the stigma which once attached to streaming services has slowly eroded. Instead, the likely winner is Pinocchio, which somehow shrugged off the weirdness of being the second such adaptation of the year—three months before it aired on Netflix, Robert Zemeckis’ version landed on Disney+ with a thud—and became a critical smash thanks to its stop-motion artistry.
SHOULD WIN
Acknowledging that I’ve yet to see the Puss in Boots sequel, my least favorite of these nominees is… a Guillermo del Toro movie? I like Pinocchio well enough, but its meticulous technique can’t quite defeat the awkwardness of its story. As for the other contenders, The Sea Beast is a sturdy children’s adventure with bright colors, while Marcel the Shell counteracts its preciousness with impressive rigor. Still, Turning Red is the class of this group; not only is it beautifully animated, but it flecks its imaginative allegory with an impressive level of personal and cultural detail.
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
NOMINEES
Babylon
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Elvis
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris
WILL WIN
Tricky. The original Black Panther won this award four years ago, but Wakanda Forever hasn’t matched its predecessor’s cachet. Everything Everywhere All at Once is going to win a bunch of awards on Oscar night, so it can’t be ruled out here, but movies set in the present day face an uphill climb in this category. (In fact, aside from the fantastical Black Panther, the last time a film set in contemporary times won this trophy was in 1994.) Instead, I’ll go with Elvis, which has the advantage of dressing a popular icon in a variety of eye-catching jackets.
SHOULD WIN
The middlebrow enthusiast in me wants to vote for Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, which delivers a delightful array of classic fashions. But I simply can’t deny the magnificence of this dress in Babylon:
MOVIEMANIFESTO’S BALLOT
Amsterdam
Babylon
Decision to Leave
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris
Amsterdam has its flaws, but its period details are impeccable, and that extends to its wardrobe. Decision to Leave turns the year’s most glorious dress into a fulcrum of its intricate mystery. Stephanie Hsu should be required to wear this outfit in all of her roles going forward:
MovieManifesto’s winner: Babylon
Honorable mention: Don’t Worry Darling; Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul; The Lost City; The Menu (speaking of dresses).
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
NOMINEES
All That Breathes
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Fire of Love
A House Made of Splinters
Navalny
WILL WIN
Both All the Beauty and the Bloodshed and Fire of Love received rapturous reviews. But so did Navalny, and the force of its subject matter—about the Russian activist who was poisoned by (presumably) Vladimir Putin—is likely too topical for Academy voters to deny.
BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE
NOMINEES
All Quiet on the Western Front (Germany)
Argentina, 1985 (Argentina)
Close (Belgium)
EO (Poland)
The Quiet Girl (Ireland)
WILL WIN
Don’t overthink this one. To the best of my knowledge, a movie which has been nominated for both this award and Best Picture has never lost in this category. That makes All Quiet on the Western Front the easy pick.
SHOULD WIN
I’ve yet to see Close or The Quiet Girl (hoping to catch the latter in theaters this weekend), but the other three are all worth watching. All Quiet on the Western Front is an appropriately grim war picture, while Argentina, 1985 is a solid legal procedural. But where both of those are fairly conventional, the animal adventure of EO is more striking, in particular for how it brings shocks of bold color into its intimate, agonizing journey.
MOVIEMANIFESTO’S BALLOT
Anaïs in Love (France)
Athena (France)
Broker (South Korea)
Decision to Leave (South Korea)
Happening (France)
Big year for France! Anaïs in Love turns whimsy into beauty. Athena’s formal command is astonishing. Broker is remarkable for how it infuses its potboiler tropes with aching empathy. Decision to Leave is the most voluptuous movie of the year. Happening is virtually its opposite, but its furious realism generates its own kind of magnetism. (Note that I’m deeming Speak No Evil ineligible because it’s mainly in English; regardless, you aren’t ready for it.)
Honorable mention: Hatching (Finland); Murina (Croatia); RRR (India).
BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
NOMINEES
All Quiet on the Western Front
The Batman
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Elvis
The Whale
WILL WIN
In the eyes of Academy voters, bigger is better. And there’s certainly no bigger nominee here than The Whale, which piles the false pounds onto Brendan Fraser’s face. It’s possible that Elvis will sneak in for the way it transforms Austin Butler into The King, but I’m going with the fat suit.
SHOULD WIN
How many years can I keep voting for Emma? At least one more!
SHOULD BE HERE
I invite you to admire Penélope Cruz’s hair in Official Competition:
BEST ORIGINAL SONG
NOMINEES
“Applause”—Diane Warren (from Tell It Like a Woman)
“Hold My Hand”—Lady Gaga and BloodPop (from Top Gun: Maverick)
“Lift Me Up”—Tems, Rihanna, Ryan Coogler, and Ludwig Göransson (from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever)
“Naatu Naatu”—M. M. Keeravani and Chandrabose (from RRR)
“This Is a Life”—Ryan Lott, David Byrne, and Mitski (from Everything Everywhere All at Once)
WILL WIN
Academy voters are impressively committing to the bit in nominating a fake Diane Warren song every year, and I applaud them for it. In any event, “Naatu Naatu” has this one in the bag.
SHOULD WIN
And justly so. Not only is the RRR duet a delight, it’s also (to the best of my knowledge) the only nominated song that takes place during the actual movie, as opposed to accompanying the closing credits. Change the rules, Oscar people!
SHOULD BE HERE
Aparrrrtment for sale! Aparrrtment for sale! You put your sister in jail! Your apartment’s for sale!
BEST SOUND
NOMINEES
All Quiet on the Western Front
Avatar: The Way of Water
The Batman
Elvis
Top Gun: Maverick
WILL WIN
If Best Makeup typically goes to the fattest movie, then Best Sound tends to go to the loudest. And no movie in 2022 cranked up the decibels more vociferously than Top Gun: Maverick.
SHOULD WIN
Avatar: The Way of Water, purely for the way Zoe Saldaña chills your blood when she snarls, “I cut.”
MOVIEMANIFESTO’S BALLOT
Flux Gourmet
Glass Onion
KIMI
Nope
Tár
I tend to prioritize imagination over volume in this category, which is why my own ballot loads up on more arresting sonic ideas: the sizzling smells of Flux Gourmet, the thwacking threats of Glass Onion, the headphone-induced silences of KIMI, the alien disturbances of Nope, and the sinister metronomic clacks of Tár.
MovieManifesto’s winner: Nope.
Coming tomorrow: the big techies.
Jeremy Beck is the editor-in-chief of MovieManifesto. He watches more movies and television than he probably should.