Academy Shortlists Announced

Directly from the Academy, here's word on which films and craft achievements are moving on in the 10 Oscar categories that use a winnowing process either multiple rounds of voting or "bakeoffs" as they're called within the craft communities.

It was a good day for Lin-Manuel Miranda movies, Marvel movies, Bond's latest, and Matrix Ressurection. And a mixed-message day for Cyrano and Nightmare Alley (which didn't score everywhere they could) and a terrible day for Titane (which missed both the international finals and the makeup finals). The press release and some very quick commentary after the jump...

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Fifteen films will advance in the Documentary Feature category for the 94th Academy Awards.  One hundred thirty-eight films were eligible in the category.  Members of the Documentary Branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees.

The films, listed in alphabetical order by title, are:

“Ascension” 
“Attica”
“Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry”
“Faya Dayi”
“The First Wave”
“Flee”
“In the Same Breath”
“Julia”
“President”
“Procession”
“The Rescue”
“Simple as Water” 
“Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)”
“The Velvet Underground”
“Writing with Fire”

Sadly missing from this list is Mr Bachmann and His Class (our loveable longshot prediction) but the rest was mostly as predicted or not too far from it. The highest profile misses are Becoming Cousteau, Citizen Ashe, Pray Away, Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain, Introducing Selma Blair, and The Lost Leonardo. I correctly guessed 9/15 or 10/15 if you count my alternates. The biggest surprise inclusion is surely the low buzz Simple As Water. 

DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
Fifteen films will advance in the Documentary Short Subject category for the 94th Academy Awards.  Eighty-two films qualified in the category.  Members of the Documentary Branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees.

The films, listed in alphabetical order by title, are:

“Águilas”
“Audible”
“A Broken House”
“Camp Confidential: America’s Secret Nazis”
“Coded: The Hidden Love of J. C. Leyendecker”
“Day of Rage”
“The Facility”
“Lead Me Home”
“Lynching Postcards: “Token of a Great Day””
“The Queen of Basketball”
“Sophie & the Baron”
“Takeover”
“Terror Contagion”
“Three Songs for Benazir”
“When We Were Bullies”

We'll be eager to look into these!

INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM
Fifteen films will advance to the next round of voting in the International Feature Film category for the 94th Academy Awards.  Films from 92 countries were eligible in the category.

Academy members from all branches were invited to participate in the preliminary round of voting and must have met a minimum viewing requirement to be eligible to vote in the category. 

In the nominations round, Academy members from all branches are invited to opt in to participate and must view all 15 shortlisted films to vote.

The films, listed in alphabetical order by country, are:

Austria, “Great Freedom”
Belgium, “Playground”
Bhutan, “Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom”
Denmark, “Flee”
Finland, “Compartment No. 6”
Germany, “I’m Your Man”
Iceland, “Lamb”
Iran, “A Hero”
Italy, “The Hand of God”
Japan, “Drive My Car”
Kosovo, “Hive”
Mexico, “Prayers for the Stolen”
Norway, “The Worst Person in the World”
Panama, “Plaza Catedral”
Spain, “The Good Boss”

Our favourite specialty category. We did fine on our predictions 11/15 or 12/15 if you count our 5 "alternates". The biggest surprise inclusions were Bhutan's (named as a submission for last year's Oscars but perhaps delayed a year due to COVID and not "official until this year's submission list) and Panama. 

MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
Ten films will advance in the Makeup and Hairstyling category for the 94th Academy Awards.  All members of the Academy’s Makeup Artists and Hairstylists Branch will be invited to view seven-minute excerpts and interviews with the artists from each of the shortlisted films on Sunday, January 30, 2022.  Branch members will vote to nominate five films for final Oscar® consideration.

The films, listed in alphabetical order by title, are:

“Coming 2 America”
“Cruella”
“Cyrano”
“Dune”
“The Eyes of Tammy Faye”
“House of Gucci”
“Nightmare Alley”
“No Time to Die”
“The Suicide Squad”
“West Side Story”

We did okay on our predictions here, correctly guessing 6/10... 8/10 if you cound out alternates. Notably absent from the list for better and in some cases worse: Being the Ricardos, The French Dispatch, The Green Knight, Spencer, and Titane.

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)
Fifteen scores will advance in the Original Score category for the 94th Academy Awards.  One hundred thirty-six scores were eligible in the category.  Members of the Music Branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees.

The scores, listed in alphabetical order by film title, are:

“Being the Ricardos”
“Candyman”
“Don’t Look Up”
“Dune”
“Encanto”
“The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun”
“The Green Knight”
“The Harder They Fall”
“King Richard”
“The Last Duel”
“No Time to Die”
“Parallel Mothers”
“The Power of the Dog”
“Spencer”
“The Tragedy of Macbeth”

Correctly guessed 10/15... 11/15 if you include the alternates. The biggest surprise among the inclusions is surely Candyman (since Oscar doesn't usually go for horror films. Biggest surprise (though not that big of a  surprise really) among the omissions is Nightmare Alley.

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)
Fifteen songs will advance in the Original Song category for the 94th Academy Awards.  Eighty-four songs were eligible in the category.  Members of the Music Branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees.

The original songs, along with the motion picture in which each song is featured, are listed below in alphabetical order by film title:

“So May We Start?” from “Annette”
“Down To Joy” from “Belfast”
“Right Where I Belong” from “Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road”
“Automatic Woman” from “Bruised”
“Dream Girl” from “Cinderella”
“Beyond The Shore” from “CODA”
“The Anonymous Ones” from “Dear Evan Hansen”
“Just Look Up” from “Don’t Look Up”
“Dos Oruguitas” from “Encanto”
“Somehow You Do” from “Four Good Days”
“Guns Go Bang” from “The Harder They Fall”
“Be Alive” from “King Richard”
“No Time To Die” from “No Time to Die”
“Here I Am (Singing My Way Home)” from “Respect”
“Your Song Saved My Life” from “Sing 2”

Correctly guessed 11/15... 13/15 if you include the alternates. So not a shocking list at all. We're very sad that Cyrano's incredible "Every Letter" is missing though. Gone are the days when Oscar voters liked in context songs better than end credits songs. Biggest surprises (for me though perhaps they shouldn't have been) were the songs from the documentaries Rescue and The First Wave.

ANIMATED SHORT FILM
Fifteen films will advance in the Animated Short Film category for the 94th Academy Awards.  Eighty-two films qualified in the category.  Members of the Short Films and Feature Animation Branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees.

The films, listed in alphabetical order by title, are:

“Affairs of the Art”
“Angakusajaujuq: The Shaman’s Apprentice”
“Bad Seeds”
“Bestia”
“Boxballet”
“Flowing Home”
“Mum Is Pouring Rain”
“The Musician”
“Namoo”
“Only a Child”
“Robin Robin”
“Souvenir Souvenir”
“Step into the River”
“Us Again”
“The Windshield Wiper”

Looking forward to digging in.

LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
Fifteen films will advance in the Live Action Short Film category for the 94th Academy Awards.  One hundred forty-five films qualified in the category.  Members of the Short Films and Feature Animation, Directors, Producers and Writers Branches vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees.

The films, listed in alphabetical order by title, are:

“Ala Kachuu - Take and Run”
“Censor of Dreams”
“The Criminals”
“Distances”
“The Dress”
“Frimas”
“Les Grandes Claques”
“The Long Goodbye”
“On My Mind”
“Please Hold”
“Stenofonen”
“Tala’vision”
“Under the Heavens”
“When the Sun Sets”
“You’re Dead Helen”

Looking forward to digging in.

SOUND
Ten films will advance in the Sound category for the 94th Academy Awards.  Members of the Sound Branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees.  All members of the Sound Branch will be invited to view eight-minute excerpts and interviews with the artists from each of the shortlisted films beginning Friday, January 28, 2022.  Branch members will vote to nominate five films for final Oscar consideration.

The films, listed in alphabetical order by title, are:

“Belfast”
“Dune”
“Last Night in Soho”
“The Matrix Resurrections”
“No Time to Die”
“The Power of the Dog”
“A Quiet Place Part II”
“Spider-Man: No Way Home”
“tick, tick...BOOM!”
“West Side Story”

This is the first year we've had sound as one of the 'bakeoff' categories so we really didn't know what to expect and scored only 5/10 in our predictions. Still, nothing is all that surprising here.

VISUAL EFFECTS
Ten films remain in the running in the Visual Effects category for the 94th Academy Awards.  The Visual Effects Branch Executive Committee determined the shortlist.  All members of the Visual Effects Branch will be invited to view 10-minute excerpts and interviews with the artists from each of the shortlisted films on Saturday, January 29, 2022.  Branch members will vote to nominate five films for final Oscar consideration.

The films, listed in alphabetical order by title, are:

“Black Widow”
“Dune”
“Eternals”
“Free Guy”
“Ghostbusters: Afterlife”
“Godzilla vs. Kong”
“The Matrix Resurrections”
“No Time to Die”
“Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”
“Spider-Man: No Way Home”

Correctly guessed 9/10 here figuring that Black Widow wouldn't make it but Tomorrow War would. They've run hot and cold with Marvel over the years so we didn't expect all four Marvel-related films to make it. We were wrong. 

Nominations voting begins on Thursday, January 27, 2022, and concludes on Tuesday, February 1, 2022.

Nominations for the 94th Academy Awards will be announced on Tuesday, February 8, 2022.

The 94th Oscars® will be held on Sunday, March 27, 2022, at the Dolby® Theatre at Hollywood & Highland® in Hollywood and will be televised live on ABC and in more than 200 territories worldwide.

Comments

[Edwin]

A few people on CriterionForum (which, it should be noted, isn’t exactly an Oscar-centric place) are speculating that the Titane snubs could actually help drum up some supplies for Julia Ducournau in the Best Director category, and while I’m not at all convinced that’s even a decent possibility, I guess you never know. And if there’s one branch of the Academy that would probably get behind that movie, it’s the directors.

[Edward L.]

I'm really pleased to see No Time to Die do so well in this round. I was expecting Sound and Song and possibly Visual Effects, but Score and Makeup and Hairstyling are nice surprises. I think it deserves to convert at least some of these into nominations. And it might pick up elsewhere too. The Cinematography glows and the Editing is sharp. Best Picture?

And I'm really pleased that The Hand of God has made the International Feature Film shortlist. I saw it at the weekend and thought it was very good. It has its weirdnesses, as one might expect from Sorrentino, but they work as part of the whole. A slight pity that the list is so Eurocentric (and I say that as a European) but it looks like a strong set of films.

Edwin: That could happen with Titane!

[Amy Camus]

I believe the Directors will nominate at least one director of a Foreign Language film, but I think that right now it comes down to choosing between Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Asghar Farhadi, or (most likely) Pedro Almodovar for Parallel Mothers - I think here is where a perceived "snub" will rally boost his chances. Who knows, maybe they'll even nominate 2, such as in 2018.

[Working stiff]

A good day for European cinema, I suppose.

And a sigh of relief that Cyrano was shut out in the music categories. Crossing my fingers for that to extend to the Best Actor race.

[NATHANIEL R]

Edwin & Amy ... i'd think that was possible if tehre weren't so many of them so firmly in the discussion but i think support among the directors community isn't going to be so monolithic this year with TITANE, A HERO, PARALLEL MOTHERS, DRIVE MY CAR, HAND OF GOD all having that kind of 'auteur-passion'' support (weird that Joachim Trier doesnt seem to get any) but as it stands now i think it will be hard for any of them to break out from that pack.

[Amy Camus]

Just as long as it's not Ducournau. I shudder at the thought

[Arnaud Trouvé]

Sad to see Dan Romer miss again after his snub for BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD. His score for LUCA was a highlight of the year for me.

Yay, ANNETTE !

[Glenn Dunks]

TITANE was never gonna happen, but the miss in make up is disappointing. Hamaguchi is my guess for director at the moment. The movie is cresting in a way the Farhadi and Almodovar just aren't.