It is less than a week until the 2022 Oscars and of course people are wondering about two things: 1) Who will be the most talked about celebrity on the red carpet and 2) who will win this year’s Best Picture award? With the movie industry coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic there have been a plethora of great movie releases. We have seen them all and below are our Top 3 contenders for this year’s Best Picture award.
Belfast 1969. Nine-year-old Buddy is facing the sad reality of The Troubles conflict in Northern Ireland. His previously peaceful working-class neighborhood is becoming increasingly tumultuous and Buddy is soon facing the choice of staying or leaving. Premiering at the Telluride Festival, Belfast is a semi-autobiographical movie by director Kenneth Branagh.
It is clear that the movie is deeply personal for Branagh and is seen through the lens of the small boy. Some developments seem inexplicable without having the historical context, just like a nine-year-old wouldn’t have. Despite the sad backdrop of the story – Buddy’s acting definitely conveys in great detail what Branagh must have at the time – it is also an entertaining movie. With a total length of 98 min, we think Branagh has it just right to keep the audience’s full attention.
However, Belfast hasn’t won any of the PGA, DGA, SAG or BAFTA awards which are typically seen as a major precursor to the Academy Awards so it remains to be seen if the movie can defy the odds next Sunday. “Moonlight” is the only movie in modern times that has won Best Picture without winning any of the aforementioned awards so Belfast surely is an outlier.
This western drama directed by Jane Campion and based on Thomas Savage’s novel premiered at the Venice International Film Festival in 2021. It fits all the boxes to make it big at this year’s Academy Awards its 12 nominations are not a coincidence. It revolves around the themes of love, revenge, masculinity and resentment.
The plot revolves around two brothers living in 1925 Montana. Phil, a raunchy cowboy and George, a more classic, dapper and mild-mannered person who wants to enjoy his wealth. When George marries the attractive widow Rose, which Phil disapproves, it leads to a complex and layered narrative.
The Power of the Dog is one of those movies that becomes more complex, deeper and rewarding the more time you spent thinking about it. The characters of the protagonists and relationships between them are incredibly rich and the acting is of top quality. Not only is The Power of the Dog a great movie to watch in itself, but it also ticks all the boxes the Academy is looking for so we think it may be the favorite to win this year.
We have to go back more than 30 years to 1978. It was the last time a sci-fi movie had a real shot at winning Best Picture but Star Wars famously lost out to Annie Hall. While we acknowledge the fact that the lack of sci-fi winners and the fact that Best Picture winners typically meet some current defining spirit or mood at a given point in time, we nevertheless consider Dune to be this year’s top movie.
Dune is nominated for 10 Academy Awards this year – a testament for its great all-around acting, cinematography, sound and visual effects. It has won numerous awards already, including the Golden Globe for Best Original Score.
The movie, directed by Dennis Villeneuve and based on Frank Herbert’s books, is following Paul Atreidas and the House Atreidas into a war over the desert planet Arrakis – which is the only source of the valuable substance “spice” – and is currently ruled by the House Harkonnen. As with many other sci-fi movies – Paul is chosen to be the savior that leads Atreidas to victory. It is in essence, sci-fi’s answer to Lord of the Rings so the only question is if it will be equally successful.
Featured image courtesy of Oscars
