Normally, I enjoy the chance to peruse the Seattle Film Critics Society's list of the best achievements in film for a given year - the SFCS has pretty reliably good taste. Alas, I can't say I enjoy perusing their 2022 awards nominations, since they appear to have developed a rather worse taste for cinema in the past 12 months. As expected, Everything Everywhere All at Once leads their nominees this year, running away with the entire show with 14 mentions in total, including Best Cinematography - a citation I'll never be able to forgive. In similarly unfortunate news, none other than Cha Cha Real Smooth manoeuvres its way into their Best Picture Top 10. But then they nominate Mad God for Best Animated Feature and all is forgiven! Winners will be revealed on 17 January, and let's hope good taste has been reinstated in what is/was one of my favourite critics' groups.
Best Picture
Aftersun
The Banshees of Inisherin
Cha Cha Real Smooth
Decision to Leave
Everything Everywhere All at Once
The Fabelmans
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Nope
Tar
Top Gun: Maverick
Best Director
Todd Field (Tar)
Joseph Kosinski (Top Gun: Maverick)
Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (Everything Everywhere All at Once)
Martin McDonagh (The Banshees of Inisherin)
Charlotte Wells (Aftersun)
Best Actress in a Leading Role
Cate Blanchett (Tar)
Danielle Deadwyler (Till)
Mia Goth (Pearl)
Margot Robbie (Babylon)
Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All at Once)
Best Actor in a Leading Role
Austin Butler (Elvis)
Tom Cruise (Top Gun: Maverick)
Colin Farrell (The Banshees of Inisherin)
Brendan Fraser (The Whale)
Paul Mescal (Aftersun)
Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Angela Bassett (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever)
Kerry Condon (The Banshees of Inisherin)
Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All at Once)
Janelle Monae (Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery)
Keke Palmer (Nope)
Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Paul Dano (The Fabelmans)
Brendan Gleeson (The Banshees of Inisherin)
Brian Tyree Henry (Causeway)
Barry Keoghan (The Banshees of Inisherin)
Quan Ke Huy (Everything Everywhere All at Once)
Best Screenplay
The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh)
Decision to Leave (Jeong Seo Kyeong and Park Chan Wook)
Everything Everywhere All at Once (Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert)
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (Rian Johnson)
Tar (Todd Field)
Best Cinematography
Avatar: The Way of Water (Russell Carpenter)
Decision to Leave (Kim Ji Yong)
Everything Everywhere All at Once (Larkin Seiple)
Nope (Hoyte van Hoytema)
Top Gun: Maverick (Claudio Miranda)
Best Film Editing
Aftersun (Blair McClendon)
Decision to Leave (Kim Sang Beom)
Everything Everywhere All at Once (Paul Rogers)
Tar (Monika Willi)
Top Gun: Maverick (Eddie Hamilton)
Best Production Design
Babylon (Anthony Carlino and Florencia Martin)
Elvis (Beverley Dunn, Catherine Martin and Karen Murphy)
Everything Everywhere All at Once (Kelsi Ephraim and Jason Kisvarday)
The Northman (Niamh Coulter and Craig Lathrop)
White Noise (Jess Gonchor and Claire Kaufman)
Best Costume Design
Babylon (Mary Zophres)
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Ruth E. Carter)
Elvis (Catherine Martin)
Everything Everywhere All at Once (Shirley Kurata)
The Northman (Linda Muir)
Best Visual Effects
Avatar: The Way of Water (Richard Baneham, Daniel Barrett, Joe Letteri and Eric Saindon)
Everything Everywhere All at Once (Benjamin Brewer, Jeff Desom, Ethan Feldbau and Zak Stoltz)
Nope (Scott R. Fisher, Jeremy Robert, Guillaume Rocheron and Sreejith Venugopalan)
RRR (Pete Draper, Daniel French and V. Srinivas Mohan)
Top Gun: Maverick (Scott R. Fisher, Seth Hill, Bryan Litson and Ryan Tudhope)
Best Original Score
Babylon (Justin Hurwitz)
The Banshees of Inisherin (Carter Burwell)
The Batman (Michael Giacchino)
The Fabelmans (John Williams)
Nope (Michael Abels)
Best Ensemble Cast
The Banshees of Inisherin (Louise Kiely, casting director)
Everything Everywhere All at Once (Sarah Halley Finn, casting director)
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (Bret Howe and Mary Vernieu, casting directors)
Top Gun: Maverick (Denise Chamian, casting director)
Women Talking (John Buchan and Jason Knight, casting directors)
Best Action Choreography
Avatar: The Way of Water
Everything Everywhere All at Once
The Northman
RRR
Top Gun: Maverick
Best Animated Feature
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson)
Mad God (Phil Tippett)
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (Dean Fleischer-Camp)
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado)
Turning Red (Shi Do Mee)
Best Documentary Feature
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (Laura Poitras)
Fire of Love (Sara Dosa)
Good Night Oppy (Ryan White)
Navalny (Daniel Roher)
Sweetheart Deal (Elisa Levine and Gabriel Miller)
Best Film Not in the English Language
All Quiet on the Western Front (Edward Berger)
Decision to Leave (Park Chan Wook)
EO (Jerzy Skolimowski)
RRR (S. S. Rajamouli)
Saint Omer (Alice Diop)
Best Youth Performance (18 years of age or younger upon start of filming)
Vanessa Burdhardt (Cha Cha Real Smooth)
Anna Cobb (We're All Going to the World's Fair)
Frankie Corio (Aftersun)
Eden Dambrine (Close)
Banks Repeta (Armageddon Time)
Villain of the Year
'Jean Jacket' (Nope)
'Jobu Tupaki' - Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All at Once)
'Lydia Tar' - Cate Blanchett (Tar)
'Pearl' - Mia Goth (Pearl / X)
'The Riddler / Edward Nashton' - Paul Dano (The Batman)
Achievement in Pacific Northwest Filmmaking
All Sorts (J. Rick Castaneda)
Kimi (Steven Soderbergh)
Know Your Place (Zia Mohajerjasbi)
Sam Now (Reed Harkness)
Sweetheart Deal (Elisa Levine and Gabriel Miller)