Oscars 2022 Review: 7 Ups & 8 Downs

6. The Power Of The Dog Only Wins Best Director

Up until the last few weeks, The Power of the Dog seemed like a solid gold lock to win the Best Picture Oscar, with probable or highly possible wins for Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor (Kodi Smit-McPhee) also.

Yet the acclaimed western drama had one of the most shocking fizzles of any massively nominated film in recent memory, scoring just a single Oscar win from its 12 nominations.

Despite being the most-nominated film this year, The Power of the Dog won only Best Director for Jane Campion, an extremely rare circumstance given that the Academy rarely rewards a director without any of the film's other elements.

This makes it the first film since 1967's The Graduate to win only Best Director, and while it was certainly great to see Campion scoop a well-deserved second Oscar, it's hard not to see the film's overall performance at the show as a colossal disappointment.