2022 Oscar Predictions: FILM EDITING and CINEMATOGRAPHY (October)
As I mentioned in production and costume design, Dune should be at or near the top of anyone’s lists at this point and they are in mine.
Film Editing this year could be an expansive lineup that includes a swift, 97-minute film (Belfast) to the biggest epic of the year (Dune) and each of them bring unique talents and requirements to each. Belfast‘s Úna Ni Dhonghaile will be newcomer to more US-based awards groups but she’s well known and multi-nominated in the UK, with five BAFTA nominations for her television work. She blended the intimacy of the family drama in the film with several action sequences that rip through moments with urgency. Dune‘s Joe Walker is a two-time Oscar-nominated editor (Arrival, 12 Years a Slave) and quite like Dhonghaile weaves family storylines through impossibly huge action set pieces over a span of two and a half hours, keeping audiences gripped to their seats.
But there are other editing contender lurking and even possibly ready to upset. Pamela Martin’s work in King Richard, starring Will Smith as the father of tennis legends Venus and Serena Williams, also takes family drama and blends stunning and suspenseful tennis sequences throughout the film from practices to Wimbledon matches with ease. Not to mention that a nomination here her, if she’s nodded alongside Dhonghaile, will mark the first time two women have been nominated in the same as sole editors of their films, since 2001 when Dody Dorn (Memento) and Jill Bilcock (Moulin Rouge!) made the cut. In the last 20 years only two women have won – Thelma Schoonmaker twice (2004’s The Aviator and 2006’s The Departed) and Margaret Sixel (2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road).
In cinematography this is the year of black and white in a way we haven’t seen in decades. The Tragedy of Macbeth, Belfast and C’mon C’mon are just some of the high profile films this season that employed the photographic style, all for different reasons and to dramatically different effect. The gorgeous New Zealand landscapes (standing in for Montana) put Ari Wegner’s work in The Power of the Dog in the top contender list, as does the moody and imposing framing by Claire Mathon in Spencer. It was only four years ago, with 2017’s Mudbound that this category finally saw its first female nominee ever (!!) in Rachel Morrison and this year could bring two for the first time. After last season finally bringing two women in the best director category there’s no reason why this isn’t going to be and shouldn’t be the new normal.
Here are my ranked 2022 Oscar predictions in Film Editing and Cinematography for October 2021.
FILM EDITING
1. Dune – Joe Walker (Warner Bros/HBO Max)
2. Belfast – Úna Ni Dhonghaile (Focus Features)
3. King Richard – Pamela Martin (Warner Bros/HBO Max)
4. The Power of the Dog – Peter Sciberras (Netflix)
5. Nightmare Alley – Cam McLauchlin (Searchlight Pictures)
6. Don’t Look Up – Hank Corwin (Netflix)
7. The Matrix Resurrections – Joseph Jett Sally (Warner Bros/HBO Max)
8. West Side Story – Sarah Broshar and Michael Kahn (20th Century Studios)
9. The Tragedy of Macbeth – Joel Coen (as Reginald Jaynes) and Lucian Johnston (A24/Apple)
10. Flee – Janus Billeskov Jansen (NEON)
Other contenders:
CODA – Geraud Brisson (Apple)
House of Gucci – Claire Simpson (MGM/UA)
Licorice Pizza – Paul Thomas Anderson (as Andy Jurgensen) (MGM/UA)>
No Time to Die – Tom Cross and Elliot Graham (MGM/UA)
Spencer – Sebastián Sepúlveda (NEON)
tick, tick…BOOM! – Myron Kerstein and Andrew Weisblum (Netflix)
CINEMATOGRAPHY
1. Dune – Greig Fraser (Warner Bros/HBO Max)
2. The Power of the Dog – Ari Wegner (Netflix)
3. The Tragedy of Macbeth – Bruno Delbonnel (A24/Apple)
4. Belfast – Haris Zambarloukos (Focus Features)
5. Nightmare Alley – Dan Laustsen (Searchlight Pictures)
6. Spencer – Claire Mathon (NEON)
7. West Side Story – Janusz Kaminski (20th Century Studios)
8. C’mon C’mon – Robbie Ryan (A24)
9. Licorice Pizza – Michael Bauman and Paul Thomas Anderson (MGM/UA)
10. The French Dispatch – Robert Yeoman (Searchlight Pictures)
Other contenders:
Being the Ricardos – Jeff Cronenweth (Amazon Studios)
Cyrano – Seamus McGarvey (MGM/UA)
Don’t Look Up – Linus Sandgren (Netflix)
House of Gucci – Dairusz Wolski (MGM/UA)
King Richard – Robert Elswit (Warner Bros/HBO Max)
The Matrix Resurrections – Danielle Massaccesi and John Toll (Warner Bros/HBO Max)>
No Time to Die – Linus Sandgren (MGM/UA)
Parallel Mothers – José Luis Alcaine (Sony Pictures Classics)
tick, tick…BOOM! – Alice Brooks (Netflix)
Photo: Kirsty Griffin/Netflix
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.
- 2025 Oscar Predictions: SUPPORTING ACTOR (November) - November 21, 2024
- 2025 Oscars: Eligibility Lists for Animated Feature, Documentary Feature and International Feature Film for the 97th Academy Awards - November 21, 2024
- Nava Mau, Sean Wang Among 2024 BAFTA Breakthroughs Championing New ‘Must-Watch’ Creatives - November 21, 2024
2025 Oscar Predictions: SUPPORTING ACTOR (November) 
Director Watch Podcast Ep. 72 – ‘Three Colours: Blue’ (Krzysztof Kieślowski, 1993) 
2025 Oscars: Eligibility Lists for Animated Feature, Documentary Feature and International Feature Film for the 97th Academy Awards 
Nava Mau, Sean Wang Among 2024 BAFTA Breakthroughs Championing New ‘Must-Watch’ Creatives