Predicting The Major 2022 Oscar Winners

10. Best International Feature - Drive My Car

Firstly: this is the only international film also to receive a nomination for Best Picture, so by that logic it should be nailed on for the world cinema category. Beyond that, though, Drive My Car is an exquisite and bold picture about love, loss, and the creative process quite unlike anything else to come out in this Oscars window.

Inspired by a story from the great Japanese writer Haruki Murakami, Drive My Car stars Hidetoshi Nishijima and Reika Kirishima as a creative couple still nursing the wounds of the loss of their daughter, and Tôko Miura as the driver hired out of necessity as Yûsuke (Nishijima) finds his eyesight failing.

This is a film that refuses to allow any one of its characters to be anything less than fully fleshed out. Prolific director Ryusuke Hamaguchi and his co-writer Takamasa Oe present a sprawling, ambitious script (the film is close to three hours long - that it actually merits the runtime is a huge plaudit) which provides their actors the opportunity to tear into deep, heavy, but engaging material.