Based on my analysis of Oscar nomination patterns, audience ratings, and critical reaction, I have constructed an initial ranking of all 39 feature films nominated this year. At this point, I haven’t seen any of these films and I have encountered only whatever advertising and journalistic coverage might have been generated in general online media. The purpose of this ranking is nothing more than to give a summary comparison of all of the known data into a rough overall comparison of these movies. After generating this list, I publish it, and then, to the best I can, forget it. At the end of the year, it is enlightening to see how much and where my opinion differs from the opinion-makers in the industry. This is also NOT my Oscar predictions. While I use this ranking, my final Oscar predictions can vary from what this ranking seems to suggest. I will make that comparison at the end of the year.
General Interest Feature Films
(Listed in groups where the differences within groups are less significant than the differences between groups.)
Everything Everywhere All at Once
All Quiet on the Western Front
The Fabelmans
The Banshees of Inisherin
Tell It Like a Woman
Top Gun: Maverick
RRR
Tar
Elvis
Aftersun
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Women Talking
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Avatar: The Way of Water
To Leslie
The Batman
Living
The Whale
Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris
Babylon
Triangle of Sadness
Causeway
Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths
Empire of Light
Blonde
Special Interest Feature Films
Animated
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
The Sea Beast
Turning Red
Documentary
All That Breathes
Navalny
Fire of Love
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
A House of Splinters
International
All Quiet on the Western Front (Germany) *
The Quiet Girl (Ireland)
EO (Poland)
Argentina, 1985 (Argentina)
Close (Belgium)
* Is also included in the General Interest Film List
