Oscars nominations 2022: The Power Of The Dog, and Dune go head to head

The nominations for the 94th annual Academy Awards were announced on Tuesday morning with The Power Of The Dog and Dune earning the most nods.

Tracee Ellis Ross and Leslie Jordan announced the nominations across 23 categories from an early morning virtual in Los Angeles ahead of the ceremony on March 27.

Following its eight nods at last week’s BAFTA nominations and its three wins at January’s Golden Globes, The Power Of The Dog leads the nominations with 12 nods, including Best Picture, Leading Actor for Benedict Cumberbatch, Supporting Actress for Kirsten Dunst and Director and Adapted Screenplay for Jane Campion. 

The awards also saw a drop in the popularity of streaming services, despite the Covid pandemic wreaking havoc on the cinema industry. 

The Western drama is the film adaptation of Thomas Savage’s 1967 novel and was released in theatres as well as Netflix late last year. 

The film’s stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Jesse Plemons and Kodi Smit-McPhee, who also both earned a Supporting Actor nomination on Tuesday, as secretive, psychologically duelling rivals on a 1920s Montana ranch. 

Its nominations were for Supporting Actress, Achievement in Sound, Original Score, Adapted Screenplay, Supporting Actor, Film Editing, Cinematography, Production Design, Best Actor, Director and Best Picture.

Campion is the first woman to ever be nominated twice for best director. Last year, Chloé Zhao became the second woman to ever win the award. Meanwhile Campion’s director of photography on The Power Of The Dog, Ari Wegner, is the second woman ever nominated for Best Cinematography.

Benedict will go head to head with Will Smith for King Richard, marking his third Oscar nomination and a strong chance at his first win for the biopic of Venus and Serena Williams’ father. 

Also competing in the Leading Actor category are Javier Bardem for Being the Ricardos, Andrew Garfield for tick, tick… BOOM! and Denzel Washington for The Tragedy of Macbeth, marking his ninth Academy Awards nomination.

Meanwhile Denis Villeneuve’s star-studded sci-fi epic Dune, based on Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel, landed a slew of technical nods, along with a chance at the top prize of Best Picture bringing its total to 10. 

Belfast landed seven nods including Best Picture, Judi Dench for Supporting Actress (marking her seventh acting nomination and a chance at a second win) and a nomination for Sir Kenneth Branagh in the Director category. 

The film’s star Jamie Dornan was snubbed in the Leading Actor category, after also missing out in last week’s BAFTA nominations. While the leading man missed out, Ciaran Hinds did pick up a nod in the Supporting Actor category.

The drama is based on Kenneth’s childhood growing up in Northern Ireland at the height of The Troubles.  

Kristen Stewart has earned her first Oscar nomination for her role as Princess Diana in Spencer, going up against a strong category comprising of Jessica Chastain for The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Olivia Colman for The Lost Daughter, Penélope Cruz for Parallel Mothers and Nicole Kidman for Being the Ricardos. 

In the Supporting Actress category Jessie Buckley earns her debut Oscar nod for The Lost Daughter, competing against Ariana DeBose for her acclaimed performance in West Side Story, Judi Dench for Belfast, Kirsten Dunst for The Power Of The Dog and Aunjanue Ellis for King Richard. 

The Power Of The Dog stars Jesse Plemmons and Kodi Smitt-McPhee go head to head for Supporting Actor, alongside Ciaran Hinds for Belfast, Coda’s Troy Kotsur and J.K Simmons for Being The Ricardos.

The awards also saw a drop in the popularity of streaming services, despite the Covid pandemic wreaking havoc on the cinema industry. While Netflix managed 27 nominations, it was a drop from its 35 last year. Apple managed six, up from two, while Amazon fell from 12 to just three and Hulu equaled last year’s total with one. 

The immediate social media reaction as the nominations were announced focused on the lack of diversity in main categories, specifically Leading Actress. 

Last year’s Academy Awards were officially the most diverse with a record-breaking number of actors of color being nominated.

But this year’s nomination list featured just four actors of color: Ariana DeBose (best supporting actress nominee for West Side Story), Aunjanue Ellis (best supporting actress nominee for King Richard), Will Smith (best actor nominee for King Richard) and Denzel Washington (best actor nominee for The Tragedy of Macbeth).

Tweeters called out the lack of diversity in the best actress category with many wondering why acclaimed performances such as Rachel Zegler’s lead in West Side Story and Tessa Thompson in Netflix’s Passing were not included. Ruth Negga also missed out on a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her acclaimed role in Passing. 

Jennifer Hudson was also notable in her absence, missing out for her role in Aretha Franklin biopic Respect. Hudson was among the frontrunners for the category before the nominations were announced. Some even predicted that she could earn two nods, one for Leading Actress and one for Original Song for Here I Am.

Those two nods would have made the multi-talented star the first Black woman to earn nods in three separate Oscar categories, having previously won a supporting actress Oscar in 2007 for her role in Dreamgirls. 

‘This category is always so white #OscarsSoWhite its 20 years since a black actress won…. God knows how many more it will take….. @IAMJHUD is so robbed she at least deserve a nomination. #ShameOnYouOscars,’ tweeted one.

‘Thanks @TheAcademy of another beige Best Actress list. I’m out for another year. There’s a reason ratings continue to decline year after year. #oscarsshowhite.’ 

After the nominations were announced, a spokesperson for GLAAD also urged for more inclusion of the LGBTQ community. 

‘This year’s Oscar nominations for performances from queer actors including Ariana DeBose and Kristen Stewart, as well for powerful LGBTQ stories in films like West Side Story, Flee, and The Mitchells vs. The Machines, are clear reminders of the opportunities that exist with audiences and critics when Hollywood invests in queer talent and tells diverse stories in bold and original ways,’ said GLAAD President & CEO Sarah Kate Ellis. 

‘With several worthy LGBTQ stories, actors, and creators absent from this year’s list, the industry and Academy should prioritize investing in and recognizing creators and stories from LGBTQ and other marginalized communities that audiences both crave and connect with.’

Among others snubbed by the 2022 Oscars were Lady Gaga, Jared Leto and Al Pacino for  House Of Gucci and Ben Affleck for his work in George Clooney’s directorial effort The Tender Bar. 

Lady Gaga was a force as Patrizia Reggiani in the Ridley Scott directed film House Of Gucci. The movie followed the family members who ran the prestigious house of Gucci. 

Gaga did receive recognition for her Reggiani role from the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild and BAFTA Awards.  

Affleck delivered one of his finest performances as bartender with a heart of gold, Charlie Maguire. The film was directed by his pal Clooney and also starred Tye Sheridan, Lily Rabe, Christopher Lloyd and Daniel Ranieri.  

Frances McDormand was not given an Oscar nomination for The Tragedy of Macbeth while Bradley Cooper was ignored for his work in both Nightmare Alley and Licorice Pizza, which both received Best Picture nods.  

Cooper Hoffman, the son of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman (who died at age 46 in 2014), was thought to have a chance with Licorice Pizza, but he was passed over.

Leonardo DiCaprio won an Oscar in 2016 for The Revenant. But he was not given an Academy love this year for his work in the satire Don’t Look Up. But neither did his costars Jennifer Lawrence and Oscar favorite Meryl Streep. 

Rita Moreno was not given a nod for her work in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story. She won for the original film in 1961 as Best Supporting Actress. 

Also snubbed was Caitríona Balfe. She did not get nominated even though she gave a very sensitive portrayal of a working class mother in Belfast.

Denis Villeneuve, the director behind the sci-fi epic Dune, was also left off the list. Ariana Grande and Kid Cudi did not get recognized for their song for the hit film Don’t Look Up.  

The Oscar nominations follow the lead of the 2022 British Academy Film Awards which were announced last week, with Dune, The Power Of The Dog and Belfast also leading those nominations with 11, eight and six respectively.  

The 94th Academy Awards, held at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, will air Sunday, March 27 on ABC at 8 p.m. ET. Last year, the global pandemic meant a socially distanced ceremony held at Los Angeles’ Union Station. Ratings plummeted to an all-time low of 9.85 million viewers.

It was previously announced in January that Glenn Weiss will direct the telecast for the seventh consecutive time, while film producer Will Packer is serving as producer, and Shayla Cowan, the chief of staff of Parker’s production companies, was named co-producer, according to The Hollywood Reporter. 

Craig Erwich, president Hulu Originals & ABC Entertainment, maintained there will be a host for the 2022 Oscars, which will be a first since 2018 when Jimmy Kimmel had the honor of leading the ceremony that year, as well as in 2017.  

So far, The Academy hasn’t made an official announcement as to who will play host on Hollywood’s biggest night of the year. Following a television ratings tumble, the Academy have decided to reinstate a permeant host after using a rota of guest presenters, with sources claiming bosses were keen to enlist Ricky Gervais.

A source told The Mail On Sunday: ‘Things are so desperate this year that the Academy [the organisation behind the awards] even sent out a tweet asking people who they wanted as a host. A lot of fans said Ricky Gervais. There is growing talk that he should be offered the gig.

‘He’s the one man who could save the most boring show on television. The Oscars are always too long and viewers tune out when you get all these self-entitled celebrities going woke and banging on about their pet causes. Ricky would be a breath of fresh air.’

However, Ricky, 60, played down the chances of hosting the biggest night of the Hollywood year, saying: ‘They’d never let me do what I wanted. I mean, that’s why the Globes got me. They said I could write my own jokes and say what I wanted, no rehearsals.

‘I don’t think the Oscars would ever allow me that freedom and rightly so… I’d do the Oscars but it won’t happen. I’d get cancelled halfway through.’

The voting for this year’s nominations ended on Tuesday, February 1. As a result of last year’s ceremony being delayed, this year marked the shortest eligibility window n Oscars history. 

The Oscars typically award films in the same calendar year, though in 2020, because of the theater closures due to COVID-19, the eligibility was pushed to February 28, 2021. 

This year, in an effort to get back to the calendar year format, the eligibility ran from March 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021.

The Academy also announced more changes in April 2020, which will only be in effect for the 94th Oscars, which allows for films to open in more cities to be considered Best Picture eligible.

A film previously had to be exhibited theatrically, at minimum, in Los Angeles County for seven consecutive days sin the same venue.

The Academy revealed that, for the 94th Oscars, films may open in a, ‘commercial motion picture theater’ in one of six cities – Los Angeles, New York City, the Bay Area, Chicago, Miami and Atlanta within the eligibility window.

Drive-in theaters that are open nightly are counted as ‘commercial theaters,’ in the aforementioned cities. 

The Academy also revealed that, ‘films intended for theatrical release but initially made available through commercial streaming, VOD service or other broadcast may qualify if the film is made available on the secure Academy Screening Room member site within 60 days of the streaming/VOD release or broadcast.’

Producers for eligible films also had to submit, ‘a confidential Academy Representation and Inclusion Standards entry.’

However, while the forms are required to be submitted, meeting the actual inclusion thresholds will not be required for eligibility in the Best Picture category until the 96th Oscars in 2024. 

The 94th Academy Awards will air at 1am on Sky Cinema’s Oscars channel in the UK and at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on ABC in the States.