Awards Season 2022: Tez's Official Academy Award Nomination Predictions

Tomorrow morning, the nominations for the 94th Academy Awards will be announced. This year, they will be announced by Tracee Ellis Ross (Black-ish, Girlfriends) and Leslie Jordan (Will & Grace, American Horror Story)

Since 2003, I have tried to predict who will be nominated in several of the major categories (Best Picture, Best Director and the four acting awards). It's a sobering thought that I've been at this for nearly two decades. 

Below is my list of who I think will be named tomorrow.

As of this year, the Academy have committed to there being 10 Best Picture nominees. 

BEST PICTURE

Being The Ricardos

Belfast

CODA

Don't Look Up

Dune

King Richard

Licorice Pizza

The Power Of The Dog

tick, tick... Boom!

West Side Story

BEST DIRECTOR

Paul Thomas Anderson (Licorice Pizza)

Kenneth Branagh (Belfast)

Jane Campion (The Power Of The Dog)

Steven Spielberg (West Side Story)

Denis Villeneuve (Dune)

BEST ACTOR

Javier Bardem (Being The Ricardos)

Benedict Cumberbatch (The Power Of The Dog)

Andrew Garfield (tick, tick... Boom!)

Will Smith (King Richard)

Denzel Washington (The Tragedy Of Macbeth)

BEST ACTRESS 

Jessica Chastain (The Eyes Of Tammy Faye)

Olivia Colman (The Lost Daughter)

Lady Gaga (House Of Gucci)

Alana Haim (Licorice Pizza)

Nicole Kidman (Being The Ricardos)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Ben Affleck (The Tender Bar)

Jamie Dornan (Belfast)

Ciarán Hinds (Belfast)

Troy Kotsur (CODA)

Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Power Of The Dog)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Caitriona Balfe (Belfast)

Ariana DeBose (West Side Story)

Kirsten Dunst (The Power Of The Dog)

Aunjanue Ellis (King Richard)

Ruth Negga (Passing)

As we now have 10 Best Picture nominees (in addition to the 20 for acting and 5 for directing), I will be happy with any score over 20. Last year, it was 29/33 (88%). 

With Best Picture, I struggled to get 10 nominees (basically padding the list with a couple of entries). We might see Nightmare Alley or House Of Gucci sneak in in place of possibly Being The Ricardos and/or tick, tick... Boom! but I'm fairly confident of at least 7 of the names on there. 

I decided to go with the DGA nominees, although a surprise left-field nomination for Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car) could be possible, or Maggie Gyllenhaal receiving a nod for The Lost Daughter. 

I feel confident in 4 of the 5 Best Actor nods, although Mahershala Ali (Swan Song), Leonardo DiCaprio (Don't Look Up), or Peter Dinklage (Cyrano) could well take Bardem's place. Similarly, with Best Actress, there's a strong core- Chastain, Colman, Kidman, Gaga- and, whilst I've gone for Alana Haim, it wouldn't be a massive surprise to see either Jennifer Hudson (Respect) or Kristen Stewart (Spencer) in that place.

For me, Best Supporting Actor is the category that's potentially the most open; I feel that Hinds, Kotsur, and Smit-McPhee are locked in, but there's two other slots which have had a variety of different names attached. 

Sadly one of those names is Jared Leto for House Of Gucci which, frankly, is mind-boggling; it's easily one of the worst performances I've seen on film in the last decade, deserving of as much scorn and derision as the Razzies have mustered, rather than Academy consideration.  

Bradley Cooper could sneak in for his turn as Barbra Streisand's boyfriend in Licorice Pizza, or (and I'd be delighted if this did happen) J.K. Simmons gets another nod, for playing William Frawley (the actor who played Fred in I Love Lucy) in Being The Ricardos. 

As for Best Supporting Actress? Potentially you could see Ann Dowd (Mass) or Jessie Buckley (The Lost Daughter), but I feel it's unlikely. 

The nominations will be announced tomorrow afternoon (around 1:20pm GMT) - there'll be a post up as soon as I can afterwards with the official nominations.

Awards Season 2022: Producers Guild Awards (PGA), Directors Guild Awards (DGA) and Writers Guild Awards (WGA) Nominations

 

Typical, isn't it? You wait for some awards season news, and then three come along at the same time. Today [Thursday 27th January 2022] saw the three major Guilds- the Producers Guild (PGA), Directors Guild (DGA), and Writers Guild (WGA)- announce their award nominations for this year. 

So here we go...

* * *

PRODUCERS GUILD AWARD (PGA)

Here are the nominations for the 33rd Producers Guild of America Awards

The Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures

Being The Ricardos

Belfast

CODA

Don't Look Up

Dune

King Richard

Licorice Pizza

The Power Of The Dog

tick, tick...Boom!

West Side Story

Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures

Encanto

Luca

The Mitchells Vs The Machines

Raya And The Last Dragon

Sing 2

Outstanding Producer of Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures 

(previously announced)

Ascension

The First Wave

Flee

In The Same Breath

The Rescue

Simple As Water

Summer Of Soul (...Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised)

Writing With Fire

The PGAs will be given out on Saturday 19th March (moved from their original date of Saturday 26th February). 

* * *

DIRECTORS GUILD AWARDS (DGA)

Here are today's DGA Awards nominations:

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film

Paul Thomas Anderson (Licorice Pizza)

Kenneth Branagh (Belfast)

Jane Campion (The Power Of The Dog)

Steven Spielberg (West Side Story)

Denis Villeneuve (Dune)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in First-Time Feature Film

Maggie Gyllenhaal (The Lost Daughter)

Rebecca Hall (Passing)

Tatiana Huezo (Prayers For The Stolen)

Lin-Manuel Miranda (tick, tick...Boom!)

Michael Sarnoski (Pig)

Emma Seligman (Shiva Baby)

The winners will be announced at the 74th Annual DGA Awards on Saturday March 12th.

* * *

WRITERS GUILD AWARDS (WGA)

And finally, here are the nominees for this year's Writers' Guild Awards (WGA).

Long-time readers of the awards season nonsense on here will know that the screenplay categories are not ones that I try and guess nominees (or winners) for, but as a writer, I'm interested to see what's got the nod.

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Being The Ricardos

Don't Look Up

The French Dispatch

King Richard

Licorice Pizza

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

CODA

Dune

Nightmare Alley

tick, tick... Boom!

West Side Story

DOCUMENTARY SCREENPLAY

Being Cousteau

Exposing Muybridge

Like A Rolling Stone: The Life And Times Of Ben Fong-Torres

Due to how the Writers Guild of America works (where non-members are not permitted to be nominated for a WGA Award), there are several major films that were ineligible (but will be eligible for the Oscars): these include The Power Of The Dog, Belfast, Cyrano, The Lost Daughter, Parallel Mothers, Passing, and A Hero.

The Writers' Guild Awards will be handed out on Sunday 20th March.

Congratulations to all nominees!

Our next awards announcement is a week away, when the BAFTA Film Awards nominations are announced on Thursday February 3rd.

Awards Season 2022: Screen Actors' Guild (SAG) Awards Nominations

This afternoon (Wednesday 12th January), the nominations for the 28th Annual Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards were announced, with Vanessa Hudgens (tick, tick... BOOM!, High School Musical, Spring Breakers) and Rosario Dawson (Daredevil, Sin City, Rent) doing the honours via Instagram Live. 

Last year's SAG Awards were also announced this way and, just like last year, there were a few technical issues to start, with no sound on Rosario Dawson's feed. This was soon rectified, though, and the nominees were announced.

Below is the list of film nominations:

Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture

Belfast

CODA

Don't Look Up

House Of Gucci

King Richard

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role

Javier Bardem (Being The Ricardos)

Benedict Cumberbatch (The Power Of The Dog)

Andrew Garfield (tick, tick… Boom!)

Will Smith (King Richard)

Denzel Washington (The Tragedy Of Macbeth)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role

Jessica Chastain (The Eyes Of Tammy Faye)

Olivia Colman (The Lost Daughter)

Lady Gaga (House Of Gucci)

Jennifer Hudson (Respect)

Nicole Kidman (Being The Ricardos)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role

Ben Affleck (The Tender Bar)

Bradley Cooper (Licorice Pizza)

Troy Kotsur (CODA)

Jared Leto (House Of Gucci)

Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Power Of The Dog)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role

Caitriona Balfe (Belfast)

Cate Blanchett (Nightmare Alley)

Ariana DeBose (West Side Story)

Kirsten Dunst (The Power Of The Dog)

Ruth Negga (Passing)

Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture

Black Widow

Dune

The Matrix Resurrections

No Time To Die

Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings

House Of Gucci and The Power Of The Dog both have three nods apiece. 

A couple of surprises here (for me, the main one is that neither Jamie Dornan or Ciaran Hinds got a nod in Supporting Actor for Belfast). This is the first major awards love for Jennifer Hudson, Bradley Cooper, and Cate Blanchett this season, so it'll be interesting to see if this continues. Unsurprisingly, there's a lot of the same names cropping up again, so it's looking like (in the acting categories at least) there's a strong core of 3-4 consistent names, with some variation then in the remaining 1-2. 

Also, as previously announced, the living legend that is Helen Mirren will be given this year's SAG Life Achievement Award. 

The SAG Awards will be handed out on Sunday February 27th 2022.

Congratulations to all nominees!

For those of you with absolutely no interest in this utter trivia, you'll be glad to know you've got a good two weeks' respite from this as the next awards announcements aren't until Thursday 27th January, when all three of the major Guilds- Producers', Writers' and Directors'- will announce their nominations. A three-for-one deal. How exciting!