'The Power of The Dog' Leads This Year's Oscar Contenders with 12 Nominations

Good morning to 2022's newly minted batch of Academy Awards nominees, and to fantastic news for the past year's very best film. The Power of the Dog leads this year's list of contenders with 12 nods, including three for filmmaker Jane Campion — who is now the first woman in history to receive two nominations for Best Director (after also being nominated for The Piano back in 1993), and could become the second female filmmaker in a row to win the coveted field (after Chloé Zhao's 2021 win for Nomadland).

The Power of Dog's cinematographer Ari Wegner is also just the second woman to be nominated in her category, while the film's main cast all scored nods — including a Best Actor nomination for Benedict Cumberbatch, a Best Supporting Actress nom for Kirsten Dunst, and Best Supporting Actor nods for both Jesse Plemons and Australian talent Kodi Smit-McPhee. For real-life couple Dunst and Plemons, they nabbed their first-ever Oscar nominations together. For Smit-McPhee, if he wins, he'll become the second-youngest actor to score the shiny statuette in his category. That's the power of The Power of the Dog, clearly.

Following Campion's exceptional New Zealand-shot western at the top of the 2022 Oscar nominations list is Dune with ten, including for Best Picture — although the film must've directed itself, with Denis Villeneuve missing out. After the sci-fi epic sits Steven Spielberg's new version of West Side Story and Kenneth Branagh's black-and-white memoir Belfast with seven apiece, also including Best Picture slots in a field that spans The Power of the Dog (obviously), CODA, Don't Look Up, Drive My Car, King Richard, Licorice Pizza and Nightmare Alley as well.

Inspired by Haruki Murakami's short story of the same name, Drive My Car is now the most-nominated Japanese film in history, thanks to its Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay nods for filmmaker Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, and its spot in the Best International Feature and Best Picture categories.

Also making history: astonishing animated documentary Flee, which became the first movie to nab a spot in the Best International Feature, Best Animated Feature and Best Documentary Feature fields.

Other standouts nods: Kristen Stewart's Best Actress nomination for playing Princess Diana in Spencer; Penélope Cruz's place in the same field for Parallel Mothers; Troy Kotsur's nod for CODA, becoming just the second actor who is deaf to be recognised by the Academy; both Olivia Colman (Best Actress) and Jesse Buckley (Best Supporting Actress) getting nods for sharing the same part in The Lost Daughter; Questlove earning some love for Best Documentary Feature for Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised); and The Worst Person in the World picking up places in the Best International Feature and Best Original Screenplay fields. Licorice Pizza's strong showing — including a Best Director spot for Paul Thomas Anderson — is also well-deserved, although the Oscars couldn't find room for Alana Haim's glorious lead performance.

Oddities and omissions come with the territory every year, of course. The Academy went big for the average-at-best Being the Ricardos performance-wise, including nominating Nicole Kidman for Best Actress — and Don't Look Up's Best Picture nod probably at least means that filmmaker Adam McKay won't make a followup about how people ignored a movie that riffs on the response to climate change because they were more interested in better features. Also, despite a big public campaign, Spider-Man: No Way Home was only recognised in the Best Visual Effects category. That's a reflection of the film itself, though, and not of any supposed anti-superhero/supervillain flick bias, given that Black Panther scored seven nominations in 2019 and Joker picked up 11 in 2020.

From all of this year's nominations, movie lovers will learn who'll emerge victorious on Monday, March 28, Australian and New Zealand time. And if it feels like we just went through all of this, that's because 2021's awards were held a little later than usual due to the pandemic — and because chatter about who's won Oscars and who'll win next, aka the sport of the film world, has become a year-round affair.

The 94th Academy Awards will take place on Monday, March 28, Australian and New Zealand time. Here's the full list of nominations:

OSCAR NOMINEES 2022

BEST MOTION PICTURE

• The Power of the Dog
• West Side Story
• Belfast
• Dune
• Licorice Pizza
• King Richard
• CODA
• Don't Look Up
• Drive My Car
• Nightmare Alley

BEST DIRECTOR

• Jane Campion, The Power of the Dog
• Paul Thomas Anderson, Licorice Pizza
• Steven Spielberg, West Side Story
• Kenneth Branagh, Belfast
• Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Drive My Car

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

• Olivia Colman, The Lost Daughter
• Nicole Kidman, Being the Ricardos
• Jessica Chastain, The Eyes of Tammy Faye
• Kristen Stewart, Spencer
• Penélope Cruz, Parallel Mothers

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

• Will Smith, King Richard
• Benedict Cumberbatch, The Power of the Dog
• Andrew Garfield, Tick, Tick... Boom!
• Denzel Washington, The Tragedy of Macbeth
• Javier Bardem, Being the Ricardos

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

• Ariana DeBose, West Side Story
• Kirsten Dunst, The Power of the Dog
• Aunjanue Ellis, King Richard
• Judi Dench, Belfast
• Jessie Buckley, The Lost Daughter

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

• Kodi Smit-McPhee, The Power of the Dog
• Ciarán Hinds, Belfast
• Troy Kotsur, CODA
• Jesse Plemons, The Power of the Dog
• JK Simmons, Being the Ricardos

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

• Licorice Pizza, Paul Thomas Anderson
• Belfast, Kenneth Branagh
• King Richard, Zach Baylin
• Don't Look Up, Adam McKay (story by McKay and David Sirota)
• The Worst Person in the World, Joachim Trier and Eskil Vogt

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

• The Power of the Dog, Jane Campion
• The Lost Daughter, Maggie Gyllenhaal
• CODA, Sian Heder
• Dune, Jon Spaihts, Denis Villeneuve and Eric Roth
• Drive My Car, Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM

• Drive My Car (Japan)
• The Worst Person in the World (Norway)
• Flee (Denmark)
• The Hand of God (Italy)
• Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom (Bhutan)

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

• Encanto
• Luca
• The Mitchells vs the Machines
• Flee
• Raya and the Last Dragon

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

• Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
• Flee
• Ascension
• Attica
• Writing with Fire

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

• The Power of the Dog, Jonny Greenwood
• Dune, Hans Zimmer
• Don't Look Up, Nicholas Britell
• Encanto, Germaine Franco
• Parallel Mothers, Alberto Iglesias

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

• 'No Time to Die', No Time to Die (Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell)
• 'Dos Oruguitas', Encanto (Lin-Manuel Miranda)
• 'Be Alive', King Richard (Beyoncé Knowles-Carter and Dixson)
• 'Down to Joy' Belfast (Van Morrison)
• 'Somehow You Do', Four Good Days (Diane Warren)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

• Dune, Greig Fraser
• The Power of the Dog, Ari Wegner
• The Tragedy of Macbeth, Bruno Delbonnel
• Nightmare Alley, Dan Laustsen
• West Side Story, Janusz Kaminski

BEST FILM EDITING

• Dune, Joe Walker
• The Power of the Dog, Peter Sciberras‎
• Don't Look Up, Hank Corwin
• King Richard, Pamela Martin
• Tick, Tick... Boom!, Myron Kerstein and Andrew Weisblum

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

• Dune, Patrice Vermette and Zsuzsanna Sipos
• Nightmare Alley, Tamara Deverell and Shane Vieau
• West Side Story, Adam Stockhausen and Rena DeAngelo
• The Tragedy of Macbeth, Stefan Dechant and Nancy Haigh
• The Power of the Dog, Grant Major and Amber Richards

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

• Dune, Paul Lambert, Tristan Myles, Brian Connor, Gerd Nefzer
• Free Guy, Swen Gillberg, Bryan Grill, Nikos Kalaitzidis, Dan Sudick
• Spider-Man: No Way Home, Kelly Port, Chris Waegner, Scott Edelstein and Dan Sudick
• Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Christopher Townsend, Joe Farrell, Sean Noel Walker and Dan Oliver
• No Time to Die, Charlie Noble, Joel Green, Jonathan Fawkner, Chris Corbould

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

• Cruella, Jenny Beavan
• Dune, Jacqueline West and Bob Morgan
• West Side Story, Paul Tazewell
• Nightmare Alley, Luis Sequeira
• Cyrano, Massimo Cantini Parrini and Jacqueline Durran

BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

• The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Linda Dowds, Stephanie Ingram and Justin Raleigh
• Dune, Donald Mowat, Love Larson and Eva von Bahr
• Cruella, Nadia Stacey, Naomi Donne and Julia Vernon
• Coming 2 America, Mike Marino, Stacey Morris and Carla Farmer
• House of Gucci, Goran Lundstrom, Anna Carin Lock and Frederic Aspiras

BEST SOUND

• Dune, Mac Ruth, Mark Mangini, Theo Green, Doug Hemphill and Ron Bartlett
• West Side Story, Tod A Maitland, Gary Rydstrom, Brian Chumney, Andy Nelson and Shawn Murphy
• No Time to Die, Simon Hayes, Oliver Tarney, James Harrison, Paul Massey and Mark Taylor
• Belfast, Denise Yarde, Simon Chase, James Mather and Niv Adiri
• The Power of the Dog, Richard Flynn, Robert Mackenzie and Tara Webb

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT

• Audible
• Lead Me Home
• The Queen of Basketball
• Three Songs for Benazir
• When We Were Bullies

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM

• Affairs of the Art
• Bestia
• Boxballet
• Robin Robin
• The Windshield Wiper

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM

• Ala Kachuu — Take and Run
• The Dress
• The Long Goodbye
• On My Mind
• Please Hold

Top image: Netflix.