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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Mark Kermode, Wendy Ide, Simran Hans, Guy Lodge

My award goes to... our film critics reveal their personal Oscars shortlists

Hidetoshi Nishijima and Toko Miura in Drive My Car, Ruth Negga, Olivia Colman in The Lost Daughter, Anders Danielsen Lie and Renate Reinsve in The Worst Person in the World, Dev Patel in The Green Knight.
Clockwise from top left: Hidetoshi Nishijima and Toko Miura in Drive My Car, Ruth Negga, Olivia Colman in The Lost Daughter, Anders Danielsen Lie and Renate Reinsve in The Worst Person in the World, Dev Patel in The Green Knight. Composite: Getty, AP, Album/Alamy

Amid the hype over her acclaimed performance as Diana, Princess of Wales in Spencer, Kristen Stewart briefly stopped awards pundits dead in their tracks when, upon being asked about her Oscar buzz, she drily admitted, “I don’t give a shit.” Sacrilege! Some of the best films and performances of all time haven’t been considered by the Academy, she continued. “There’s five spots. What the fuck are you going to do?”

Nobody disagrees with Stewart on any of this: just ask our critics, whose ideal Oscar ballots below are knowingly far from the expected reality of next week’s nominations. That the actor’s comments made showbiz headlines anyway speaks to the strange aura the Oscars maintain as a gold standard of cinematic achievement: for several months a year, people fret and discuss and strategise about them, while companies expensively campaign for them, only to spend the rest of the year complaining that they don’t mean anything anyway. Even Stewart’s scepticism emerged while on the campaign trail, being interviewed on a Variety podcast named Awards Circuit. Should she win for Spencer, she’ll doubtless turn up and give a humbly grateful speech anyway. That’s the game. Nobody gives a shit about the Oscars, after all, except when everyone does.

Here, then, are our critics’ picks of who and what should be on those Oscars shortlists. Guy Lodge

Mark Kermode

Mark Kermode, Observer film critic

Best picture – my shortlist (my winner first)

  • PETITE MAMAN

  • Summer of Soul

  • The Green Knight

  • Titane

  • Censor

Joséphine Sanz and Gabrielle Sanz in Céline Sciamma’s Petite Maman.
Joséphine Sanz and Gabrielle Sanz in Céline Sciamma’s Petite Maman. Photograph: Lilies Films/MK2 Films

Céline Sciamma’s Petite Maman rekindled my faith in the universal power of cinema. Summer of Soul was a revelation that has been shortlisted for the documentary feature award. Meanwhile, Julia Ducournau’s Palme d’Or winner Titane bizarrely failed to make the best international feature selection. The bookies favour The Power of the Dog for best film, but Belfast has the popular touch.

Best director

  • CÉLINE SCIAMMA – PETITE MAMAN

  • Julia Ducournau – Titane

  • Guillermo del Toro – Nightmare Alley

  • Jane Campion – The Power of the Dog

  • Prano Bailey-Bond – Censor

Watch a trailer for Petite Maman.

The real-world title fight seems to be between Jane Campion and Kenneth Branagh, with Siân Heder a possibility for Coda. My award would go to either Céline Sciamma, who has barely put a foot wrong since 2007’s Water Lilies, Julia Ducournau, for her thrillingly confident follow-up to Raw, or Guillermo del Toro, who previously won for The Shape of Water.

Best actress

  • JENNIFER HUDSON – RESPECT

  • Agathe Rousselle – Titane

  • Kristen Stewart – Spencer

  • Alana Haim – Licorice Pizza

  • Niamh Algar – Censor

Jennifer Hudson as Aretha Franklin in Respect.
Jennifer Hudson as Aretha Franklin in Respect. Photograph: Lifestyle Pictures/Alamy

British writer and director Aleem Khan’s terrific After Love is not eligible for this year’s Oscars – if it were, Joanna Scanlan would be in my list. Of those actually in the running, Jennifer Hudson was born to play Aretha Franklin, although Respect fails to live up to her barnstorming central performance. Special mention to Agathe Rousselle for her fearless turn in Titane.

Best actor

  • DEV PATEL – THE GREEN KNIGHT

  • Will Smith – King Richard

  • Riz Ahmed – Mogul Mowgli

  • Bradley Cooper – Nightmare Alley

  • Hidetoshi NishijimaDrive My Car

Dev Patel in The Green Knight.
Dev Patel in The Green Knight. Photograph: Eric Zachanowich/AP

Will Smith, Benedict Cumberbatch and Andrew Garfield seem to be Oscar frontrunners. A statuette for Smith (who’s been nominated twice before) would be deserved. My picks include the endlessly versatile Dev Patel for The Green Knight and Riz Ahmed (who should have won for Sound of Metal last year) for Mogul Mowgli, which didn’t open in the US until 2021.

Best supporting actress

  • KATHRYN HUNTERTHE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH

  • Ariana DeBose – West Side Story

  • Aunjanue Ellis – King Richard

  • Martha PlimptonMass

  • Ann DowdMass

Kathryn Hunter as the witches in The Tragedy of Macbeth.
Kathryn Hunter as the witches in The Tragedy of Macbeth. Photograph: Alison Rosa/AP

There are lots of things wrong with Joel Coen’s visually striking but dramatically inert The Tragedy of Macbeth, yet Kathryn Hunter’s astonishingly physical performance elevates the project. Ariana DeBose steals the show in Spielberg’s West Side Story with a performance that is full of energy and wit, while Aunjanue Ellis proves the perfect foil for Will Smith in King Richard.

Best supporting actor

  • VINCENT LINDON – TITANE

  • Jason Isaacs – Mass

  • Reed Birney – Mass

  • Ciarán Hinds – Belfast

  • Reece Shearsmith – In the Earth

From left: Jason Isaacs, Martha Plimpton, Reed Birney and Ann Dowd in Mass.
From left: Jason Isaacs, Martha Plimpton, Reed Birney and Ann Dowd in Mass. Photograph: Sky UK/Bleecker Street

The ensemble cast of Mass seems to have been largely overlooked by the major awards – a tragedy since they are superb. I’ve nominated all four in my supporting actress/actor picks. My list also includes Reece Shearsmith in a film that most Oscar voters won’t have seen or even heard of. But it’s Vincent Lindon’s transformative turn in Titane that takes top prize.

Best original score

  • JONNY GREENWOOD – SPENCER

  • Daniel Hart – The Green Knight

  • Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe – Candyman

  • Germaine Franco – Encanto

  • Jeymes Samuel – The Harder They Fall

Jonny Greenwood, Composer and guitarist with Radiohead.
Jonny Greenwood, composer of the score for Spencer. Photograph: Sarah Lee/The Guardian

Depressingly, the 15-strong Oscar shortlist (from which I’ve drawn my picks) includes only one female composer: Germaine Franco. My favourite score of 2021 was Eiko Ishibashi’s heartbreakingly beautiful music for Drive My Car, alongside Nainita Desai’s score for The Reason I Jump, (which isn’t eligible). Jonny Greenwood is a favourite for The Power of the Dog, but his score for Spencer gets my vote.

Wendy Ide

Wendy Ide

Best picture – my shortlist (my winner first)

  • THE LOST DAUGHTER

  • The Power of the Dog

  • Zola

  • The Worst Person in the World

  • Red Rocket

Suzanna Son and Simon Rex in Red Rocket.
Suzanna Son and Simon Rex in Red Rocket. Photograph: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy

It has been a thrilling year for cinema, with a wealth of bold, daring visions staking a claim on the big screen. Not that you would necessarily know it to look at this year’s best picture frontrunners. Rather than some of the safer options, I would love to see Janicza Bravo’s nerve-jangling road trip Zola get a nomination or Sean Baker’s grubby, funny Red Rocket. But my pick would be Maggie Gyllenhaal’s sinuous, unsettling debut, The Lost Daughter.

Best director

  • JANE CAMPION – THE POWER OF THE DOG

  • Maggie GyllenhaalThe Lost Daughter

  • Joanna HoggThe Souvenir Part II

  • Janicza BravoZola

  • Sean BakerRed Rocket

Jane Campion with associate producer Phil Jones during the filming of The Power of the Dog.
Jane Campion with associate producer Phil Jones during the filming of The Power of the Dog. Photograph: Kirsty Griffin/AP

Great direction isn’t just about the showy flex of the big-budget spectacle. For me, one of the most intriguing and satisfying pieces of work this year was the playfully mercurial introspection of Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir Part II. But my pick for the top prize is Jane Campion, for her emotionally attuned and assured direction of The Power of the Dog.

Best actress

  • OLIVIA COLMAN – THE LOST DAUGHTER

  • Alana HaimLicorice Pizza

  • Renate Reinsve – The Worst Person in the World

  • Tessa Thompson – Passing

  • Agathe Rousselle – Titane

Olivia Colman as Leda in The Lost Daughter.
Olivia Colman as Leda in The Lost Daughter. Photograph: Netflix

It’s hard to pick a favourite in this category. How to choose between the guarded self-possession of Tessa Thompson in Passing and the serrated intensity of Agatha Rousselle in Titane? Renate Reinsve’s magnetism in The Worst Person in The World and Alana Haim’s glorious delivery of the line: “Fuck off, teenagers”? Ultimately, however, it has to be Olivia Colman’s endlessly fascinating performance in The Lost Daughter for the win.

Best actor

  • HIDETOSHI NISHIJIMA – DRIVE MY CAR

  • Joaquin Phoenix – C’mon C’mon

  • Simon Rex – Red Rocket

  • Riz Ahmed – Encounter

  • Benedict Cumberbatch – The Power of the Dog

Hidetoshi Nishijima, right, in Drive My Car.
Hidetoshi Nishijima, right, and Masaki Okada in Drive My Car. Photograph: Courtesy: Cannes Film Festival

The best acting doesn’t necessarily mean the most acting. In the best actor category, I have found myself drawn to reined-in, introspective performances that seduce the audience rather than assault them with a firework display of emotional range. Joaquin Phoenix in C’mon, C’mon is a rumpled, rueful pleasure. But it’s the rare delicacy of Hidetoshi Nishijima’s work in Drive My Car that has stayed with me.

Best supporting actress

  • RUTH NEGGAPASSING

  • Jessie Buckley – The Lost Daughter

  • Ann DowdMass

  • Ariana DeBoseWest Side Story

  • Gaby Hoffman – C’mon, C’mon

Ruth Negga in Passing.
Ruth Negga in Passing. Photograph: AP

Ariana DeBose is looking like a frontrunner in this category and deservedly so: she is electrifying in West Side Story. Jessie Buckley, once again demonstrating that she’s one of the most exciting actors of her generation, could take the prize for The Lost Daughter. But I would love to see Ruth Negga win for her magnetic and treacherous charisma in Passing.

Best supporting actor

  • KODI SMIT-MCPHEE THE POWER OF THE DOG

  • Vincent LindonTitane

  • Woody Norman – C’mon, C’mon

  • Richard Ayoade – The Souvenir Part II

  • Jason IsaacsMass

Kodi Smit-McPhee in The Power of the Dog.
Kodi Smit-McPhee in The Power of the Dog. Photograph: Kirsty Griffin/AP

There’s a certain elasticity in the definition of what constitutes a great supporting turn – is it something like Richard Ayoade’s performance in The Souvenir Part II, which leaves an unforgettable impression from just a handful of scenes? Or a performance like Kodi Smit-McPhee’s – my pick this year – in The Power of the Dog, which is an essential component of the film’s slippery sensuality?

Best international feature

  • THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD

  • Drive My Car

  • Compartment No 6

  • Prayers for the Stolen

  • Playground

Herbert Nordrum, left, and Renate Reinsve in The Worst Person in the World.
Herbert Nordrum, left, and Renate Reinsve in The Worst Person in the World. Photograph: AP

The Parasite effect has refocused attention on the international feature category, which can only be a good thing. I hope that smaller titles, such as Laura Wandel’s riveting Playground and Tatiana Huezo’s Prayers for the Stolen reach a wider audience as a result. But my pick for the win is Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person in the World, a joy of a movie that embraces the chaos and charm of its central character.

Simran Hans

Simran Hans

Best picture – my shortlist (my winner first)

  • THE SOUVENIR PART II

  • Dune

  • Licorice Pizza

  • The Lost Daughter

  • Zola

Honor Swinton Byrne in The Souvenir Part II.
Honor Swinton Byrne in The Souvenir Part II. Photograph: Landmark Media/Alamy

The Souvenir Part II deserves international acclaim; it has been criminally overlooked by awarding bodies here in the UK, missing out on Bafta’s best film and best British film longlists. It’s about those first, tentative green shoots of creative confidence, made by a director whose talent and authority are finally in full bloom. The film is heartbreakingly poignant and my clear winner.

Best director

  • JANICZA BRAVO – ZOLA

  • Jane Campion – The Power of the Dog

  • Maggie Gyllenhaal – The Lost Daughter

  • Rebecca Hall – Passing

  • Joanna Hogg – The Souvenir Part II

Riley Keough, left, and Taylour Paige in Zola.
Riley Keough, left, and Taylour Paige in Zola. Photograph: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy

Janicza Bravo’s bravura vision transforms a viral Twitter thread into an entire world, bringing visual wit, an arch sense of humour and a distinctly feminine point of view to what might, in the wrong hands, feel like tawdry sleaze. Hollywood can feel like a bit of a desert when it comes to new ideas; Bravo is one of several female directors whose perspective feels like an enlivening, ice-cold glass of water.

Best actress

  • ALANA HAIM – LICORICE PIZZA

  • Olivia Colman – The Lost Daughter

  • Jodie Comer – The Last Duel

  • Taylour Paige – Zola

  • Honor Swinton Byrne – The Souvenir Part II

Alana Haim in Licorice Pizza.
Alana Haim in Licorice Pizza. Photograph: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy

I hope Alana Haim goes on to have a long and successful career. Paul Thomas Anderson has a way of bringing out the best in his actors, which feels even more miraculous given this is the pop star’s film debut. She’s endearingly gawky and naturally intelligent, with a flirtatious quality that translates beautifully on screen. An Oscar nomination would certainly put her on more film-makers’ radars.

Best actor

  • HIDETOSHI NISHIJIMA – DRIVE MY CAR

  • Anders Danielsen LieThe Worst Person in the World

  • Andrew Garfield – Tick, Tick… Boom!

  • Cooper Hoffman – Licorice Pizza

  • Denzel Washington – Macbeth

Hidetoshi Nishijima in Drive My Car.
Hidetoshi Nishijima in Drive My Car. Photograph: Courtesy of Cannes Film Festival

Not a vintage year in the best actor category, which will probably see a familiar Hollywood face collect another gong to add to their collection. The Academy’s bias towards English-language films doesn’t help Hidetoshi Nishijima’s case, but he’s a cut above the rest in Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car. He’s subtly brilliant as a man whose placid exterior hides stinging grief.

Best supporting actress

  • RUTH NEGGA – PASSING

  • Jessie Buckley – The Lost Daughter

  • Kathryn Hunter – The Tragedy of Macbeth

  • Ariana DeBose – West Side Story

  • Tôko Miura – Drive My Car

Watch a trailer for Passing.


All five of these actors outshine their co-stars, despite the smaller size of their roles. Forget West Side Story’s main character, Maria – she’s a charisma vacuum compared to Ariana DeBose’s Anita. Kathryn Hunter is an obvious frontrunner for her memorably twisted turn as the witches in The Tragedy of Macbeth, but for sheer star wattage I have to champion Ruth Negga’s luminous performance in Passing.

Best supporting actor

  • MIKE FAIST – WEST SIDE STORY

  • Richard Ayoade – The Souvenir Part II

  • Colman Domingo – Zola

  • Kodi Smit-McPhee – The Power of the Dog

  • Woody Norman – C’mon C’mon

Mike Faist, centre, in West Side Story.
Mike Faist, centre, in West Side Story. Photograph: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy

I’m crossing my fingers for Mike Faist, whose ferocious bad-boy bite gives him the edge in the otherwise respectable West Side Story. Equally deserving, though, would be the giddying, sharply tuned comic performances given by Richard Ayoade and Colman Domingo, Kodi Smith-McPhee’s slinking intelligence, on display in The Power of the Dog or the emotionally translucent 11-year-old Woody Norman in C’mon C’mon.

Best documentary

  • PROCESSION

  • Ascension

  • Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry

  • Faya Dayi

  • Flee

Terrick Trobough in Procession.
Terrick Trobough in Procession. Photograph: Courtesy of Netflix/Netflix

This category is voted for by a specialist documentary branch; its shortlist of 15 has been announced, and happily, some of their more leftfield choices overlap with my own. I’d love to see something formally experimental rewarded, like Faya Dayi, Jessica Beshir’s trancelike exploration of the stimulant khat, or Procession, Robert Greene’s creative collaboration with six survivors of child abuse in the Catholic church.

Guy Lodge

Guy Lodge

Best picture – my shortlist (my winner first)

  • DRIVE MY CAR

  • The Green Knight

  • Moffie

  • Procession

  • The Souvenir Part II

Watch a trailer for Drive My Car.

After a surprise sweep of the major US critics’ awards, Drive My Car, Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s languid, longing meditation on grief, companionship and Chekhov is now a dark horse for a best picture nomination, potentially disrupting what otherwise looks to be an all-English-language lineup. With bland titles such as Belfast and Coda seen as sure things, there’s really no excuse for it not to make the cut.

Best director

  • TATIANA HUEZO PRAYERS FOR THE STOLEN

  • Janicza Bravo– Zola

  • Jane Campion – The Power of the Dog

  • Julia Ducournau – Titane

  • Maggie Gyllenhaal – The Lost Daughter

Marya Membreño in Prayers for the Stolen.
Marya Membreño in Prayers for the Stolen. Photograph: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy

Having struggled to limit my best picture selections to five in a strong and diverse year, I opted to pick five completely different films for best director. All are distinctive visions from female film-makers working at a high level of risk and formal daring, none more so than Salvadoran-Mexican doc-maker Tatiana Huezo, whose devastating first fiction film blends socially conscious realism with earthy poetry.

Best actress

  • RUTH NEGGA – PASSING

  • Olivia Colman – The Lost Daughter

  • Rebecca Hall – The Night House

  • Tôko Miura – Drive My Car

  • Tessa Thompson – Passing

Ruth Negga, left, with Tessa Thompson in Passing.
Ruth Negga, left, with Tessa Thompson in Passing. Photograph: Netflix/NETFLIX

Ruth Negga has been categorised as a supporting actress in Rebecca Hall’s exquisite directorial debut, but I disagree: even if she has less screen time than the excellent Tessa Thompson, her magnetic performance as a white-passing black woman in 1920s New York City is the film’s thematic linchpin. Hall, meanwhile, makes the cut for her film-elevating turn in the underrated horror The Night House.

Best actor

  • BRADLEY COOPER – NIGHTMARE ALLEY

  • Yuriy Borisov – Compartment No 6

  • Hidetoshi Nishijima – Drive My Car

  • Simon Rex – Red Rocket

  • Kodi Smit-McPhee – The Power of the Dog

Bradley Cooper in Nightmare Alley.
Bradley Cooper in Nightmare Alley. Photograph: Kerry Hayes/2021 20th Century Studios All Rights Reserved

Bradley Cooper has quietly racked up eight Oscar nominations in various categories, without winning any of them. This isn’t looking like his year either, despite a pair of superb performances in very different registers. His all-American slickness is subverted to intense, dark-souled effect in Nightmare Alley, while his brief, delightfully gonzo turn in Licorice Pizza (see below) provides impressive contrast.

Best supporting actress

  • JESSIE BUCKLEY – THE LOST DAUGHTER

  • Ana De Armas – No Time to Die

  • Gaby Hoffmann – C’mon C’mon

  • Charlotte Rampling – Benedetta

  • Suzanna Son – Red Rocket

Jessie Buckley in The Lost Daughter.
Jessie Buckley in The Lost Daughter. Photograph: Netflix/AP

Only twice in Oscar history have two actors been nominated for playing the same character in one film: both times, Kate Winslet (in Titanic and Iris) was one of the beneficiaries. Buckley deserves to muscle in on that stat: playing the younger version of a peak-form Olivia Colman, she subtly but uncannily echoes the physical and unravelling psychological presence of her older counterpart.

Best supporting actor

  • ANDERS DANIELSEN LIE – THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD

  • Richard Ayoade – The Souvenir Part II

  • Bradley Cooper – Licorice Pizza

  • Colman Domingo – Zola

  • Jared Leto – House of Gucci

Anders Danielsen Lie with Renate Reinsve in The Worst Person in the World.
Anders Danielsen Lie with Renate Reinsve in The Worst Person in the World. Photograph: Landmark Media/Alamy

Last year, Minari’s Youn Yuh-jung became the first actor since Marion Cotillard in 2007 to win an Oscar for a wholly non-English-language performance; even as the Academy diversifies, Anglocentric bias is the norm. As the broken heart of Joachim Trier’s lovely reflection on millennial ennui, Norwegian actor Danielsen Lie — who maintains a career as a medical doctor between films — deserves to buck the trend.

Best original screenplay

  • JOANNA HOGG – THE SOUVENIR PART II

  • Amalia Ulman – El Planeta

  • Paul Thomas Anderson – Licorice Pizza

  • Sean Baker and Chris Bergoch – Red Rocket

  • Joachim Trier and Eskil Vogt – The Worst Person in the World

Honor Swinton Byrne in The Souvenir Part II.
Honor Swinton Byrne in The Souvenir Part II. Photograph: Landmark Media/Alamy

Dubiously, Academy rules define all sequels as adaptations, though Joanna Hogg isn’t drawing on anything other than her own experience and imagination in her dazzling self-portrait of the artist as a young woman. Bafta absurdly left The Souvenir Part II off a 20-title longlist for best British film; I’m not expecting the Academy to notice it either, though it’s a masterwork just the same.

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