Did the Best Picture race finally cough up a frontrunner yesterday? When the 2022 Oscar nominations were announced, Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog” led with 12 nominations. Hell, the academy voters even liked Jesse Plemmons - the film’s weakest performance- enough to nominate him in the Supporting Actor category.
Netflix seems to think they may have finally found the film that will win them the top prize at the Oscars — at least, after numerous attempts with “Roma,” “The Irishman” “Marriage Story” and“Mank.” And yet, are Oscar voters ready to embrace a streaming film as one of their own?
The looming question remains as to whether or not voters have been really taken by Campion’s film enough to champion it come March 27th. There are signs pointing to not everybody liking “The Power of the Dog,” critics definitely do, but actual voters and audiences have not shown the kind of unadorned passion that usually comes with Best Picture a frontrunner.
At the very least, Campion will probably win the Best Director trophy. ‘Power of the Dog’ might also take three of the four acting categories with Cumberbatch, Smit-McPhee, and Dunst all frontrunners or semi-frontrunners in their respective races.
Netflix needs to now figure out “who are we really up against”? One can only assume that Kenneth Branagh’s “Belfast” is hot on its heels and, I guess, Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story.” That’s fairly weak competition in what was a below-average year for quality American movies.
I have the Best Picture race shaping up like this:
1 “Power of the Dog”
2 “Belfast”
3 “West Side Story”
4 “King Richard”
5 “Don’t Look Up”
6 “Drive My Car”
7 “Licorice Pizza”
8 “Dune”
9 “CODA”
10 “Nightmare Alley”