Oscar 2022 Nominations: Biggest Frontrunners and Snubs you need to know.

By: Adam Beam

SUTV News

From end of the world comedies to gritty Netflix westerns, this year’s Academy Award nominees are finally upon us, and from this list of contenders comes some major first and record breaking returns. Starting off, Netflix’s “The Power of the Dog” is looking to dominate with 10 nominations. This includes Best Picture, Best Actor for Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst for Supporting Actress, and two nominations for Best Supporting Actor with Jesse Plemons and Kodi Smit-McPhee.

Another film holding its own in numerous categories includes Denis Villenueve’s sci-fi epic “Dune” with nine nominations. It mainly secured nominations in the tech categories like Best Film Editing, Cinematography, and Visual Effects. However, it was able to secure a spot as one of the 10 films up for Best Picture.

The other nominees for Best Picture include Kenneth Branagh’s “Belfast”, the biographical “King Richard”, Guillermo Del Toro's “Nightmare Alley”, Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Licorice Pizza”. There’s the romantic-drama “Coda”, the Japanese drama “Drive My Car”. Despite a less than favorable critical response, Adam McKay’s divisive political-comedy “Don’t Look Up” is up for the big award, and Steven Spielberg’s modern retelling of “West Side Story”.

Speaking of Spielberg, he’s one of the many nominees making history with this year’s awards. The 75-year-old director has now received a Best Director nomination eight times and one for every decade since his first nomination in 1978 with “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”.

Denzel Washington broke his own record as he has now become the most nominated Black actor in Oscar history. With his lead performance in the critically acclaimed “Tragedy of MacBeth, this is his tenth nomination.

Some other stand out nominees include Ariana Debose for Best Supporting Actress in “West Side Story”. Kristen Stewart was the lone nomination for her turn as Princess Diana in “Spencer”. Andrew Garfield received his second Oscar nomination for his portrayal of playwright Jonathan Larson in “tick…tick…BOOM!”. “King Richard” will also bring in the first nomination for Beyonce and her song “Be Alive”.

Finally, to close things out, it wouldn’t be an Oscar year without some major snubs. Some of the most notable include Rachel Zegler, Lady Gaga and Jennifer Hudson in the Best Actress category. Leonardo Dicaprio was surprisingly absent for his role in “Don’t Look Up”, as well as Jared Leto’s portrayal of Paolo Gucci in “House of Gucci”.

Whether your favorite performers are up for the gold or not, the Oscars race is looking to be closer than ever before. The 94th Academy Awards will air on Sunday, March 27 at 8pm on ABC.