40 Films to Watch for the 2022 Oscars

 The 93rd Academy Awards are still to come in this torturously-long season, but with many of the major races already decided, let’s jump ahead a year and look at next year’s ceremony! Next awards season gives us a nice dose of deja vu as we already know many of the big contenders, thanks to them being pushed back due to COVID-19. As such, I won’t be doing a traditional early predictions article, because it would end up looking awfully similar to last year’s edition.  Instead, I’ve picked out 40 films that look to have some serious Oscar heat and will discuss why they should be on everyone’s radars moving forward!

Director Series #1: Paul Thomas Anderson

Welcome to a new series here on Scriptophile, where I look back at the filmography of an acclaimed director and analyze each of their films! Today we kick things off with one of the biggest auteur names to come out of the 90’s: PTA himself, Paul Thomas Anderson! PTA has gone from whiz kid extraordinaire to cinephile- and Academy-darling over the past two and a half decades. How has his style and storytelling evolved over time? What kind of themes does he like to explore through his characters?

Foreign Film Fridays: “The Handmaiden” (South Korea, 2016)

Welcome to another installment in my ongoing Foreign Films series, in which I take a closer look at some of the best foreign films of the recent past! Today, in my ongoing quest to see all the worthwhile foreign films of the past decade, I’m exploring The Handmaiden (2016), a lesbian romance-thriller from Korean film legend Park Chan-wook. It tells the tale of a young maid tasked with helping a conman seduce a rich heiress – only to fall in love with her herself. With all the recent attention on South Korean cinema thanks to Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite, it seems fitting to dive deeper into the nation’s rich cinematic history and see what else it has to offer. Let’s dive right in!

**Major spoilers ahead.**

‘I’m Thinking of Ending Things’ Film Review: Mainstream Esotericism

I’m Thinking of Ending Things (2020) is a psychological drama film from writer-director Charlie Kaufman based on the book of the same name. It stars Jessie Buckley as a young woman who travels with her boyfriend (Jesse Plemons) to meet his parents (Toni Collette and David Thewlis) for the first time. Despite strong critical reception, it has been described as heady, cryptic, and puzzling by many – so basically par for the course for a Kaufman film. Will this be an awards season hit, or will it prove too weird for mainstream audiences?

**Spoilers ahead.**

2021 Oscar Predictions: September Edition

With film festivals just around the corner, awards season is officially about to begin! What films and performances will be recognized at next year’s 93rd Academy Awards? It’s still early, but never too early to start making predictions, so here goes nothing!

“Boys State” Documentary Review: The Price of Freedom

Boys State (2020) is a documentary from directors Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine, distributed by A24 and Apple TV+. It follows several participants in the titular Boys State, a political event in Texas where a thousand teenage boys build a mock representative government from the ground up. It is a compelling look at the future of politics, and how social media (and recent political campaigns) has affected today’s youth. Should we be optimistic about the next generation, or worried?

2021 Oscar Contender Profiles (Part 1)

We’re right around the corner from 2021 awards season, which means it’s time to start talking about what films we’re likely to see at the 93rd Academy Awards this winter! This year is a weird one however, as the future of many releases is in jeopardy and we don’t know if the ceremony will even happen or not. But who wants to worry about things like that? Let’s hope for the best and take a look at as many upcoming films as we can to gauge their Oscar chances!

Best Picture Winners Ranked (Part 4)

We’ve reached the home stretch: the Top 25 Best Picture Winners of All Time! Which film will reign supreme as my favorite of favorites? Which films deserve to be remembered for as long as movies are a part of our culture? Let’s dive in and talk about some phenomenal pieces of cinema!

Best Picture Winners Ranked (Part 3)

We’re halfway through our rankings of every winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture! What will my favorite be? Where will your own favorites fall on the list? Let’s find out!

Best Picture Winners Ranked (Part 2)

Throughout the near-century-long history of the Academy Awards, 92 films have won the industry’s top prize and been immortalized as the “best” films of their year. Some have deserved it, while others…well, not so much. I’ve been on a mission to watch all 92 Best Picture winners over the past five months or so, and I finally finished! Without further ado, here are my rankings of every winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture!