Civil wars in microcosm with McDonagh's masterfully written pitch black comedy about two friends who suddenly aren't anymore. Poor Jenny!

A towering challenge of a movie about perception, identity, and ego and the kind of cataclysmic conflicts (comeuppances?) that only Time can orchestrate.

Finalists: Auteurial vision and mysteries about the animal soul and contemporary Europe in EO, a winning smart coming of age triumph from Finland with Girl Picture, and Triangle of Sadness satire at once sharp and blunt. Hilarious, too. 

Semi Finalists: Happening, Aftersun, Catherine Called Birdy, Nope
Full "Top 22 of 2022" Article here 

Finalists: Ruben Ostlund crafts disgusting and sexy and satirically dynamic setpieces and interpersonal exchanges with aplomb inTriangle of Sadness, Audrey Diwan never steps a foot wrong in her precise telling of Happening, a intimate thriller of a drama about a fierce young woman "in trouble" in 1960s France

Semi Finalists: Decision to Leave's Park Chan Wook and Nope's Jordan Peele both offer thrilling direction as its own spectacle of craftsmanship and elevate their smart but impossibly busy screenplays in the process, Martin McDonagh for stepping up his game with Banshees of Inisherin, and both Girl Picture's Alli Haapasalo and Fire Island's Andrew Ahn for their skills at capturing the comic and dramatic contours, and specificity of lovely feeling within tight familial friendships and mini-communities

Finalists: Girl Picture, Holy Spider

Semi-Finalists: Return to Seoul, Aftersun, Armageddon Time, Decision to Leave, and Glass Onion

 A witty queer riff on the immortal 1813 classic "Pride & Prejudice" by Jane Austen

 Gorgeously inspired by the autobiographical novel "L'événement" by Annie Erneaux

Finalists: Colm Balréad's The Quiet Girl a minimalist interpretation of "Foster" by Claire Keegan, and Sebastian Lelio and Alice Birch's theatrically inspired take on the 2016 novel The Wonder by Emma Donoghue

Semi Finalists: Living by Kazuo Ishiguro adapted from the Akira Kurosawa film Ikiru, Noah Baumbach's take on the satirical Don De Lillo classic White Noise, Edward Berger, Ian Stockell, and Lesley Pateron's rethink of Erich Maria Remarque's anti-war classic All Quiet on the Western Front, Anthony Fabian, Carroll Cartwright, Keith Thompson, and Olivia Hetreed's adaptation of the Paul Gallico novel Mrs Harris Goes to Paris, and Rebecca Lenkiewicz's She Said an adaptation of a series of New York Times stories and the subsequeent non-fiction book of the same name by Jodi Kantor & Megan Twohey

 Sure it wears its Into the Spider-Verse aesthetic influences baldly but what a kinetic thrill. Vivid characters and plentiful wit elevate it.

 Pixar's very funny, exuberant, and metaphorically messy but potent coming-into-your-own fable. Gorgeous specifity throughout.

Finalist: The out of time punk rock riot of Inu-oh

Semi-Finalist: The Sea Beast, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, Little Nicholas, Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood, My Father's Dragon, and Eternal Spring

NOTE: We only have three nomination spots a year since the Academy's rules for this are kind of crazy. You only need 16 features to trigger a 5 wide race with AMPAS. That's about a 33% chance of being nominated if you so much as exist! If Best Picture had the same ratio of existence to nominees, our Best Picture list would be around 80-90 nominees long each year based on how many films qualify! Can you imagine?