Oscars Nominations 2022: 8 Ups & 9 Downs

Downs...

9. Snub: Denis Villeneuve (Best Director)

Let's get the biggest clanger out of the way first - whether you loved or hated Dune, it's difficult to argue with Denis Villeneuve's masterful direction throughout, juggling so many complex technical elements and weaving them into a largely coherent whole.

Villeneuve received nominations for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay, yet despite being widely tipped for a Best Director nomination ended up missing out.

While it's easy to look at the list of nominees and attest that he was beaten out by Drive My Car's Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, it's really Kenneth Branagh whose work on Belfast feels like the least-deserving of the five.

The other three - Paul Thomas Anderson (Licorice Pizza), Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog), and Steven Spielberg (West Side Story) - are difficult to argue with, but seeing Villeneuve again be snubbed after delivering one of the most ambitious films of the last year is absolute lunacy.

Fingers crossed he pulls off Dune: Part Two and the Academy rectifies this mistake.