9 Notes on the List of 276 Movies Eligible for the 94th Oscars
Thursday, January 20, 2022 at 7:00PM by Nathaniel R
Raya and the Last Dragon was the first wide release of the eligibilty period for the 94th Oscar
The Academy has released its official list of all 276 movies that are eligible for Best Picture (and all general categories that apply) at the 94th Oscars, to be held on March 27th. Usually the list is about one-hundred titles longer than this but it was a strange year, especially since it was only 10 months long according to the Academy. Last awards seaon they considered 2020 to be 14 months long (January 2020 through February 2021) due to the Pandemic. After the jump the full list and 9 observations...
9 NOTES ON THE LIST
• To be eligible a movie had to play in theaters in at least one of six US metropolitan areas for a period of seven consecutive days at the same venue. Those areas are: Los Angeles, New York City, the Bay Area, Chicago, Miami, and Atlanta. We've long thought this rule was way too lax. The very least they could do without shifting their rules too much (which would scare them) is to make it a requirement to play in all six of those areas for at least one week. Our reasoning is very simple: You should ALWAYS include moviegoers and access to movies in any serious celebration of movies.
• One of the curiousities of the list each year is discovering which Netflix releases got a perfunctory week in a movie theater somewhere and which did not. And it isn't always about whether or not they're "cinematic". Some Netflix titles that apparently did not see the inside of US movie theaters this year were Dance of the 41, Oxygen, Beckett, Yes Day, and Single All The Way.
• Some random titles that were released during the eligibility period but we noticed aren't on the list (presumably because the indie distributor didn't bother submitting them): Monday, Mama Weed, Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn, France, Wojnarowicz, and Hive (which is one of the International finalists... more that in two bullet points).
Jockey, the last release to qualify
• Raya and the Last Dragon, Coming 2 America, and Boogie were the first releases of the 94th Oscar's eligibility period (all released on March 5th) and Jockey (released on Dec 31st) was the last.
• You can be eligible for specialty categories like Documentary Feature and International Feature Film without being elgiible for Best Picture since the rules are different. For instance there are 76 documentaries on this eligibility list for Best Picture but there were originally 138 features vying for Best Documentary Feature which was since whittled down to 15 finalists and among that smaller group some are NOT eligible for general Oscars like President, Simple As Water, and Writing With Fire. Among the current 15 finalists for Best International Feature Film a full third of them are NOT eligible for Best Picture: Austria's Great Freedom, Kosovo's Hive, Bhutan's Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom, Belgium's Playground, and Panama's Plaza Cathedral. It's one of the quirks of the Oscar system that sometimes a foreign film will be eligible for regular Oscar categories the year after it was eligible for Best International Feature Film (provided it didn't get nominated the first time). The most famous example of this in the 21st century is Brazil's City of God which was eligible for Best International Feature in 2002 but snubbed and then collected multiple Oscar nominations for 2003 (when it was released) including Best Director.
• If you remove all the docs and all the animated features (since Oscar voters never honor docs in Best Pic and rarely honor cartoons) than you're left with 174 live action narrative feature films vying for the 10 slots for Best Picture
• No matter how closely you follow cinema culture you will have to look up a few of the titles on the following list. T'was ever thus!
• We don't know why this amuses us but the list starts out very corporate (Addams Family 2) and ends on a note of utter independent spirit (Zola)!
• We wish we had time to divvy this up by genre or gender of director or whatnot for other observations but alas... everything happens all at once every January and our first Sundance screening begins in less than 2 hours. What quick observations do you have about the list?
The Full List of 276 Titles Eligible for Best Picture
* finalist for doc feature
† finalist for international feature
• eligible for animated feature
The Addams Family 2 •
Ageless Love
Ailey
All Light, Everywhere
American Night
American Underdog
Annette
Antlers
The Ape Star •
Army Of The Dead
Ascension *
Attica *
Back To The Outback •
Becoming Cousteau
Being The Ricardos
Belfast
Belle •
Benedetta
Bergman Island
Best Sellers
The Beta Test
Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry *
Black Widow
Blue Bayou
Bob Spit – We Do Not Like People •
Boogie
Boris Karloff: The Man Behind The Monster
The Boss Baby: Family Business •
Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road
Bring Your Own Brigade
Bruised
Candyman
The Card Counter
Censor
Cinderella
Clifford The Big Red Dog
C’mon C’mon
Coda
Coming 2 America
Compartment No. 6 †
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It
Convergence: Courage In A Crisis
A Cop Movie
The Courier
A Crime On The Bayou
Cruella
Cry Macho
Cryptozoo •
Cusp
Cyrano
Dear Evan Hansen
Don’t Look Up
Dream Horse
Drive My Car †
The Dry
The Duke
Dune
East Of The Mountains
El Planeta
The Electrical Life Of Louis Wain
Encanto •
Encounter
Eternals
Everybody’s Talking About Jamie
The Eyes Of Tammy Faye
F9: The Fast Saga
Fathom
Faya Dayi *
Ferguson Rises
Fever Dream
Final Account
Finch
Finding You
First Date
The First Wave *
Fix
Flag Day
Flee * • †
The Forever Purge
Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko •
Found
Four Good Days
Francesco
Free Guy
The French Dispatch
Ghostbusters: Afterlife
Godzilla Vs. Kong
The Good Boss †
The Grave
The Green Knight
The Guilty
Halloween Kills
The Hand Of God †
Hard Luck Love Song
The Harder They Fall
Harper
Here Today
A Hero †
Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard
Holler
Homeroom
House Of Gucci
The Humans
I’m Your Man
In The Earth
In The Heights
In The Same Breath *
India Sweets And Spices
Introducing, Selma Blair
Jai Bhim
Jockey
Joe Bell
John And The Hole
Josee, The Tiger And The Fish •
A Journal For Jordan
Julia *
Jungle Cruise
The Killing Of Kenneth Chamberlain
The Killing Of Two Lovers
King Richard
The King’s Man
Lamb †
Language Lessons
Lansky
Last And First Men
The Last Duel
Last Night In Soho
The Laws Of The Universe – The Age Of Elohim •
Les Nôtres
Licorice Pizza
Like A Rolling Stone: The Life & Times Of Ben Fong-Torres
Lily Topples The World
Limbo
The Loneliest Whale: The Search For 52
The Lost Daughter
The Lost Leonardo
Love Is Love Is Love
Luca •
Malignant
The Many Saints Of Newark
Marakkar: Arabikadalinte Simham
Mass
The Matrix Resurrections
Mayday
Memoria
Minamata
Misha And The Wolves
The Mitchells Vs. The Machines •
Moffie
Mogul Mowgli
Mortal Kombat
Mother/Android
Mothering Sunday
Munich – The Edge Of War
The Mustangs: America’s Wild Horses
My Name Is Pauli Murray
My Sunny Maad •
Naked Singularity
National Champions
The Night House
Nightmare Alley
Nine Days
No Man Of God
No Ordinary Man
No Sudden Move
No Time To Die
Nobody
The Novice
The Nowhere Inn
Old
Old Henry
Operation Mincemeat
Operation Varsity Blues
Paper Spiders
Parallel Mothers
Passing
Paw Patrol The Movie
Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway
Petite Maman
Pig
Plan B
Pompo The Cinephile •
Poupelle Of Chimney Town •
The Power Of The Dog
Pray Away
Prayers For The Stolen †
Prisoners Of The Ghostland
Procession *
Profile
The Protégé
Qazaq History Of The Golden Man
Queenpins
Quiet Explosions: Healing The Brain
A Quiet Place Part Ii
The Race To Save The World
Raya And The Last Dragon •
The Real Charlie Chaplin
Rebel Hearts
Red Notice
Red Rocket
Reminiscence
The Rescue *
Respect
Riders Of Justice
Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain
Ron’s Gone Wrong •
Sabaya
Senior Moment
7 Prisoners
Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings
Shiva Baby
Silencio
Silent Night
Silo
Silver Carnation
Sing 2 •
Sisters On Track
Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins
So Late So Soon
Son Of Monarchs
Sophie Jones
The Souvenir Part Ii
Space Jam: A New Legacy
The Sparks Brothers
Spencer
Spider-Man: No Way Home
The Spine Of Night •
Spiral
Spirit Untamed •
The Starling
Stillwater
Sugar Daddy
The Suicide Squad
Summer Of Soul (…Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised) *
The Summit Of The Gods •
Swan Song (Apple Original Films)
Swan Song (Magnolia Pictures)
Tango Shalom
The Tender Bar
Test Pattern
This Is The Night
Those Who Wish Me Dead
Tick, Tick…Boom!
Titane
Together
Together Together
Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse
The Tomorrow War
Torn
The Tragedy Of Macbeth
Triumph
Truth To Power
12 Mighty Orphans
The Unforgivable
The Unholy
Val
The Velvet Queen
The Velvet Underground *
Venom: Let There Be Carnage
Violet
Vivo •
The Wake Of Light
The Water Man
The Way
Werewolves Within
West Side Story
Whirlybird
The White Line
Who We Are: A Chronicle Of Racism In America
Wish Dragon •
Wolf
Women Is Losers
The Worst Person In The World †
Worth
Wrath Of Man
Zola
Best Picture, Oscar Trivia, Oscars (21)
Reader Comments (5)
No Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy is a surprise. I wonder if the distributors coordinated that?
Where is The Woman in the Window, which had hype for years before finally being released? And speaking of movies with many past Oscar nominees, I don't see Queen Bees on the list either.
This list is always super weird because it's so impossible to land of reasoning for a lot of them. I know it's mostly all contract stuff, but like what on earth is SILO doing there? Or THE PROTEGE? Or WRATH OF MAN? And then you have stuff like PETITE MAMAN and JOCKEY, which may as well not exist as 2021 releases.
Sad to see EVERYBODY LOVES JAMIE is on there because then it means the music branch ignored the (wonderful, expertly deployed) original song. Likewise FINCH, which means its very good visual effects were left off for rubbish-looking SHANG CHI.
“To be eligible a movie had to play in theaters in at least one of six US metropolitan areas for a period of seven consecutive days at the same venue. Those areas are: Los Angeles, New York City, the Bay Area, Chicago, Miami, and Atlanta.” Can someone enlighten me as to how exactly Petite Maman fulfilled this requirement? According to IMDb, it has yet to see any kind of release in America apart from film festival and museum screenings.
Jason -- I think the problem is that a lot of these movies dont advertise their runs and just "Four-wall" one theater in order to qualify. The rules are far too lax. I think they should have to open in all six markets and have to announce that they're running instead of doing it on the sly. for example WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD played for one week here in NYC but i heard nothing of it until the last day of its run (it was somewhere out in Brooklyn)