2022 Oscar Predictions: FILM EDITING and CINEMATOGRAPHY (November)

Every couple of years, the Oscars and other awards groups like to trot out ‘The Year of the Woman’ in a way that acts more like a shield to not choose women creators for actual nominations and awards but as a mea culpa celebration in general. This year could be very different, and a very real celebration, in both film editing and cinematography, categories that both have a wealth of women cutting and lensing the most exciting and awards-worthy entertainment of 2021.

Women have fared better in film editing where nine have won the award. Legendary editor Thelma Schoonmaker, Martin Scorsese’s go to, actually tops the field in total nominations (8) and wins (3) where she is tied with one of Steven Spielberg’s most reliable teammates, Michael Kahn. Kahn is in the running once again this year, for another Spielberg film (West Side Story) but he’s accompanied by Sarah Broshar as a co-editor. When you add Úna Ni Dhonghaile (Belfast) and Pamela Martin (King Richard) from Best Picture frontrunners it could be a banner year for women in this category.

Speaking of banner years and Oscar history, we still…in 2021 and 93 years of the Academy Awards, have only ever had one female cinematographer ever nominated for an Academy Award. In 2018, Rachel Morrison became the first woman to receive a nomination, for Dee Rees’ Mudbound. Prior to that it had been the last gender-neutral Academy Award category to never nominate a woman. This year, should the cinematography branch dive in, there could be history in the making as several women are in the running for a nomination this year including Ari Wegner (The Power of the Dog), Claire Mathon (Spencer) and Alice Brooks (In the Heights and tick, tick…BOOM!).

Check out Zach Gilbert’s breakdown of 10 female cinematographers who could find recognition this awards season for an expanded look at women contenders this year and why they should be considered. While women have been able to break into every other Oscar category, with nominations and wins, it can’t go without saying that we only finally had two women nominated in Best Director in the same year just last season when Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman) and winner Chloé Zhao (Nomadland) were both nodded. Zhao also became only the second woman in Oscar history ever to win.

The cinematography branch this season could make history, and not performative, by recognizing true talent and set forth a future where it’s no longer an anomaly.

Here are my ranked 2022 Oscar predictions in Film Editing and Cinematography for November 2021.

FILM EDITING

Green – moves up ↑ Red – moves down ↓ Blue – new/re-entry ♦ Black – no movement ↔

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. Don’t Look Up – Hank Corwin (Netflix) ↑
6. Nightmare Alley – Cam McLauchlin (Searchlight Pictures) ↓
7. West Side Story – Sarah Broshar and Michael Kahn (20th Century Studios) ↑
8. The Matrix Resurrections – Joseph Jett Sally (Warner Bros/HBO Max) ↓
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

Green – moves up ↑ Red – moves down ↓ Blue – new/re-entry ♦ Black – no movement ↔

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 Original Films) ↔
4. Belfast – Haris Zambarloukos (Focus Features) ↔
5. Spencer – Claire Mathon (NEON) ↑
6. Nightmare Alley – Dan Laustsen (Searchlight Pictures) ↓
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