The Academy Award Favorites For Best Director & Best Actor This Year
With the nominations all fixed, there have been several surprises, as well as a number of snubs. Since then, predictions making claims as it pertains to who will win have been popping up all over, as expected, and sportsbooks offering odds on the Oscars have likely seen lots of activity on that front.
Of course, no one ever knows for sure and there might be even more surprises when the gold statuettes are handed out on the night. However, we have made a few predictions of our own in two of the major categories.
First up, Best Picture…
Nominees: The Power of the Dog, Belfast, West Side Story, Licorice Pizza, Dune, CODA, King Richard, Don’t Look Up, Drive My Car, Nightmare Alley.
Favorites to win: The Power of the Dog is the frontrunner here and could become the first Best Picture winner from streaming giants Netflix. It would have been hard to imagine that the company would have titles vying for an Oscar 20 years ago given its old business model yet it has evolved into one of the biggest entertainment platforms and actually has two films in the running, with Don’t Look Up also coming from their studios.
The former, a western-style bit directed by Jane Campion, has all a movie needs to win such an accolade, boasting a compelling story and remarkable landscapes. It also features a Best Actor nominee in Benedict Cumberbatch and that Campion is behind it will be helpful too.
While it’s not a nailed-on certainty, it would be a surprise if The Power of the Dog doesn’t bring the award home. It has been nominated for 13 categories, which is always a good sign.
Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast is right up there with it. The film portrays the struggles of North Ireland in most entertaining fashion and was nominated for Best Picture in the Golden Globes’ Drama section. It has also picked up seven Academy nominations
West Side Story has been tipped as a possible winner too. It wasn’t all that great commercially but had a good reception among critics. It does have history working against it as a musical hasn’t won Best Picture since Chicago in 2003.
CODA, Licorice Pizza, King Richard, and Dune are all thought to have an outside shot at winning this award.
Drive My Car is also among such films but is perhaps the most surprising, having picked up some momentum over the last few weeks.
Best Director
Nominees: Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog), Ryusuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car), Paul Thomas Anderson (Licorice Pizza), Steven Spielberg (West Side Story), Kenneth Branagh (Belfast)
Favorites to win:
Chloe Zhao became the first woman to win this award in 100 years the last time out, with Kathryn Bigelow the last to win Best Director for her work on The Hurt Locker.
The bookmakers have Campion as the outright favorite to win this year and, should she walk away with the award, will be the second straight woman to do so following the 100-year drought. In any case, she’s still the first woman to be nominated for two Best Director Oscars. Her work on the aforementioned The Power of the Dog was remarkable as she put a new spin on a genre usually associated with violence and masculinity.
“It’s very lucky that he really trusted me with this story, which you would think is a book for the kind of big-guy type of person that would handle ranch material – even though I do ride horses, and my parents did have cattle on the farm,” Campion, who grew up in New Zealand, told BBC this week.
“I was grateful to him for believing in me. And I was grateful to Savage’s book, which is kind of subversive… When you think about most western genre movies, they’re really a kind of celebration of masculinity in one way or another… and often a romanticized version of what a man is.
“In Savage’s hands, he ripped through it really, and showed us a very true and different version.”
Branagh is also a favorite due to his work on Belfast but it’s going to be pretty hard to beat Campion.
Steven Spielberg is an underdog for Best Director for his remake of West Side Story. It seems weird to have the iconic filmmaker as an outsider but it would be even more surprising to see him win it this year.
Paul Thomas Anderson and Ryusuke Hamaguchi are also outside possibilities for Licorice pizza and Drive My Car.
The highly-anticipated 2022 Academy Awards are right around the corner and are expected to set the movie industry ablaze when presented on March 27.
With the nominations all fixed, there have been several surprises, as well as a number of snubs. Since then, predictions making claims as it pertains to who will win have been popping up all over, as expected, and sportsbooks offering odds on the Oscars have likely seen lots of activity on that front.
Of course, no one ever knows for sure and there might be even more surprises when the gold statuettes are handed out on the night. However, we have made a few predictions of our own in two of the major categories.
First up, Best Picture…
Nominees: The Power of the Dog, Belfast, West Side Story, Licorice Pizza, Dune, CODA, King Richard, Don’t Look Up, Drive My Car, Nightmare Alley.
Favorites to win: The Power of the Dog is the frontrunner here and could become the first Best Picture winner from streaming giants Netflix. It would have been hard to imagine that the company would have titles vying for an Oscar 20 years ago given its old business model yet it has evolved into one of the biggest entertainment platforms and actually has two films in the running, with Don’t Look Up also coming from their studios.
The former, a western-style bit directed by Jane Campion, has all a movie needs to win such an accolade, boasting a compelling story and remarkable landscapes. It also features a Best Actor nominee in Benedict Cumberbatch and that Campion is behind it will be helpful too.
While it’s not a nailed-on certainty, it would be a surprise if The Power of the Dog doesn’t bring the award home. It has been nominated for 13 categories, which is always a good sign.
Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast is right up there with it. The film portrays the struggles of North Ireland in most entertaining fashion and was nominated for Best Picture in the Golden Globes’ Drama section. It has also picked up seven Academy nominations
West Side Story has been tipped as a possible winner too. It wasn’t all that great commercially but had a good reception among critics. It does have history working against it as a musical hasn’t won Best Picture since Chicago in 2003.
CODA, Licorice Pizza, King Richard, and Dune are all thought to have an outside shot at winning this award.
Drive My Car is also among such films but is perhaps the most surprising, having picked up some momentum over the last few weeks.
Best Director
Nominees: Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog), Ryusuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car), Paul Thomas Anderson (Licorice Pizza), Steven Spielberg (West Side Story), Kenneth Branagh (Belfast)
Favorites to win:
Chloe Zhao became the first woman to win this award in 100 years the last time out, with Kathryn Bigelow the last to win Best Director for her work on The Hurt Locker.
The bookmakers have Campion as the outright favorite to win this year and, should she walk away with the award, will be the second straight woman to do so following the 100-year drought. In any case, she’s still the first woman to be nominated for two Best Director Oscars. Her work on the aforementioned The Power of the Dog was remarkable as she put a new spin on a genre usually associated with violence and masculinity.
“It’s very lucky that he really trusted me with this story, which you would think is a book for the kind of big-guy type of person that would handle ranch material – even though I do ride horses, and my parents did have cattle on the farm,” Campion, who grew up in New Zealand, told BBC this week.
“I was grateful to him for believing in me. And I was grateful to Savage’s book, which is kind of subversive… When you think about most western genre movies, they’re really a kind of celebration of masculinity in one way or another… and often a romanticized version of what a man is.
“In Savage’s hands, he ripped through it really, and showed us a very true and different version.”
Branagh is also a favorite due to his work on Belfast but it’s going to be pretty hard to beat Campion.
Steven Spielberg is an underdog for Best Director for his remake of West Side Story. It seems weird to have the iconic filmmaker as an outsider but it would be even more surprising to see him win it this year.
Paul Thomas Anderson and Ryusuke Hamaguchi are also outside possibilities for Licorice pizza and Drive My Car.