Predicting The Major 2022 Oscar Winners

This is the first Oscar nomination for the venerable Irish actor, and few could be more deserving of the prize. Hinds is 50 years deep into an enviable career, primarily in the theatre though with big roles in the likes of Game Of Thrones and Harry Potter as well as more interesting smaller fare, but his turn as Pop in Kenneth Branagh’s semi-autobiographical Belfast is perhaps his best on film to date.

Amidst a backdrop of sectarianism and unrest, Hinds’ warmth shines through. Branagh plays a tricky game here, with his focus on the coming of age story of young Buddy but with the knowledge that he can’t flinch away from the troubles innate to life in Belfast in the late 1960s.

Hinds’ grandfatherly warmth and sweetness highlights the strength of family to Branagh’s vision, but also their limits. No matter the kind of world he and Granny (Judi Dench, also terrific) attempt to foster within their home, there’s a cold, hard world out there, something the well meaning film is forced to acknowledge as political tensions encroach.