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Oscars 2022: why Andrew Garfield and Steven Spielberg should win best actor and best director but won’t, and other Academy Awards predictions
- Post critic James Mottram predicts the films and the people the academy will reward on March 27 and reveals the ones he thinks it should be honouring
- The Power of the Dog merits a best picture Academy Award and Drive My Car best international feature, but in every other category justice won’t be done, he says
Reading Time:4 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
This year’s Oscars take place on March 27, after a strange awards season that has seen the beleaguered Golden Globes held behind closed doors and even the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences making missteps.
Cutting eight categories from the live telecast has proved unpopular, while asking audiences to vote on Twitter for the year’s popular movie – rather than forge a new category to recognise what that might be – was a PR gaffe.
Still, in a year when Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog is the film to beat, it’s an intriguing playing field – a perfect line-up to play a game of predict the Oscars.
Best picture
Who will win: The Power of the Dog
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Jane Campion’s return to feature-film making after a 12-year absence has been rightly hailed ever since she won best director in Venice last September. This elegant tale set in 1920s Montana has all the momentum, with 12 Oscar nominations overall. Only Kenneth Branagh’s well-liked memoir Belfast has a shot at blocking its path to the main prize.
Who should win: The Power of the Dog
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Most films will have their supporters – West Side Story, Licorice Pizza and Dune especially – but it’s hard to argue against Campion’s best film since The Piano.
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