Your 2022 awards season checklist
Assignment viewing for cinephiles
It’s about the this time of year, right around Thanksgiving, when I start fielding frequent questions about this movie or that movie being in contention for the Academy Awards. It’s also when I have to start reciting my mantra: a great movie is its own award. Nonetheless, I fully recognize and appreciate the ways in which the Oscar season provides a kind of ordering logic to prioritizing movies — and if it weren’t for the ecosystem, a number of those movies simply would not exist.
So to help you sort the contenders from the clutter, here’s my assessment of the awards landscape before the precursor start to roll in. (NB: This does not include most of the documentary, international, or animated films — primarily because I hope to cover those in greater depth when the shortlists drop in December.)
USER GUIDE: If you haven’t heard of one of the movies or don’t know much about it, click on the title and you’ll be taken to watch the trailer on YouTube. Get curious!
BEST PICTURE FRONTRUNNERS
The Fabelmans (in limited theatrical release, opening wide 11/23)
TÁR (in theaters on and VOD)
The Banshees of Inisherin (in theaters)
Women Talking (opening in limited release 12/23, wide in January 2023)
Top Gun Maverick (on VOD)
Everything Everywhere All At Once (on VOD)
The Woman King (available on VOD 11/22)
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (opening in theaters 11/23, available on Netflix 12/23)
Elvis (on HBO Max)
UNSEEN BY ALL — Avatar: The Weight of Water (opening wide 12/16)
MOSTLY A PERFORMANCE PLAY
Hustle (on Netflix)
Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (on Hulu)
Blonde (on Netflix)
Aftersun (in theaters)
Armageddon Time (in theaters)
Till (in theaters)
Causeway (on Apple TV+)
The Inspection (in limited theatrical release)
She Said (in wide theatrical release)
The Son (opening in limited release 11/25)
Empire of Light (opening in limited release 12/9)
One Fine Morning (opening in limited release 12/9)
The Whale (opening in limited release 12/9)
Babylon (opening in wide release 12/23)
Corsage (opening in limited release 12/23)
Living (opening in limited release 12/23)
Broker (opening in limited release 12/23)
MAYBE SOME BELOW-THE-LINE LOVE
The Batman (on HBO Max)
RRR (on Netflix)
The Northman (on Amazon Prime Video)
Where the Crawdads Sing (on Netflix)
Nope (available on VOD)
Thirteen Lives (on Amazon Prime Video)
Three Thousand Years of Longing (available on VOD)
Triangle of Sadness (in theaters)
Decision to Leave (in theaters)
Bardo (in limited theatrical release, available on Netflix 12/16)
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (in theaters)
Bones and All (in limited theatrical release, opening wide 11/23)
Devotion (opening in wide release 11/23)
Nanny (in limited theatrical release, on Amazon Prime Video 12/16)
White Noise (opens in limited theatrical release 11/25, on Netflix 12/30)
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (in limited theatrical release, on Netflix 12/9)
Emancipation (opens in limited theatrical release 12/2, on Apple TV+ 12/9)
FUTURE THIS HAD OSCAR BUZZ EPISODES
Benediction (on Hulu)
Crimes of the Future (on Hulu)
Cha Cha Real Smooth (on Apple TV+)
Pearl (available on VOD)
Bros (available on VOD)
The Greatest Beer Run Ever (on Apple TV+)
Amsterdam (available on VOD)
Raymond & Ray (on Apple TV+)
Stars at Noon (on Hulu)
The Good Nurse (on Netflix)
My Policeman (on Amazon Prime Video)
Call Jane (in theaters)
The Wonder (on Netflix)
The Menu (in theaters)
The Eternal Daughter (opens in limited theatrical release and VOD 12/2)
The Pale Blue Eye (opens in limited theatrical release 12/23, on Netflix 1/6/23)
A Man Called Otto (opens in limited theatrical release 12/25, opens wide 1/13/23)
Happy awards season!
Yours in service and cinema,
Marshall