Happy Oscars season to all who celebrate! You now have just under two months to feverishly catch up on all the nominees you’ve missed before the ceremony on 13 March.
Here is our guide on how to watch everything – or just fake it by reading our lowdowns.
Best picture
All Quiet on the Western Front
Directed by Edward Berger
The lowdown: A harrowing adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s anti-war manifesto with “moments of striking beauty … almost as shocking and disquieting as the scenes of suffering”.
Where to watch: On Netflix.
Avatar: The Way of Water
Directed by James Cameron
The lowdown: The return of the blue people that we called “a soggy, twee, trillion-dollar screensaver” – though evidently Oscars voters disagreed.
Where to watch: At your local cinema, which is probably hosting 50 screenings a day.
The Banshees of Inisherin
Directed by Martin McDonagh
The lowdown: A “Guiness-black” friendship drama starring Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson as two beefing pals on a remote Irish island. It also features the year’s best donkey acting.
Where to watch: Sessions are still going strong in most Australian cinemas.
Elvis
Directed by Baz Luhrmann
The lowdown: A frenetic, fast-talking attempt to bottle the King’s rise and fall that combines the “musical madness of Moulin Rouge! with the turbo-charged irreverence of The Great Gatsby”.
Where to watch: Rent it on iTunes, Amazon, or Google Play.
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert
The lowdown: A multiverse romp with “madcap invention and frenzied visual wit”, featuring hot dog fingers, mystical bagels, and a much-deserved leading turn for Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan. It leads the pack with 11 nominations this year.
Where to watch: On Binge and Amazon Prime.
The Fabelmans
Directed by Stephen Spielberg
The lowdown: The most famous director in the world dives into his family albums to unearth a love letter to cinema – or is it something zanier, more cynical than its premise might imply?
Where to watch: In cinemas is the only acceptable way. It’s still showing.
Tár
Directed by Todd Field
The lowdown: This year’s most-discoursed film, and a star vehicle for Cate Blanchett, playing a monstrous maestro in a work of “slippery complexity [with] a mean-spirited crackle of humour”.
Where to watch: It wouldn’t be an Australian release unless it was three months later than the rest of the world. Tár is out in cinemas from January 26.
Top Gun: Maverick
Directed by Joseph Kosinski
The lowdown: The blockbuster sequel touted as the film to save cinema – that left our critic “powerless to resist” the sheer aeronautical spectacle of it all.
Where to watch: On Binge and Paramount Plus – or rent it from iTunes, Amazon, or Google Play.
Triangle of Sadness
Directed by Ruben Östlund
The lowdown: This summer’s eat-the-rich sensation: a “glossy satire on the ultra wealthy”, featuring a boatload of wealthy vacationers on a ship through troubled waters.
Where to watch: It’s petering out in cinemas now.
Women Talking
Directed by Sarah Polley
The lowdown: An all-star ensemble – Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, and Rooney Mara – head up this prickly #MeToo drama set in a Mennonite community. It’s full of “hard, haunting questions … without any easy answers”, and based on real-life horrors.
Where to watch: In cinemas 16 February.
Best documentary
All That Breathes
Directed by Shaunak Sen
The lowdown: One for the twitchers: this is an Indian doco following two brothers in Delhi on their mission to save the black kite, a bird “slowly poisoned with pollution, just as the city’s society is becoming poisoned by sectarianism”.
Where to watch: It’s coming out on HBOMax in the US – so with any luck we might see it soon on Binge.
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Directed by Laura Poitras
The lowdown: An evisceration of Big Pharma through the eyes of seminal queer artist Nan Goldin – who took on the corporation behind the American opioid crisis and won.
Where to watch: In cinemas 9 March, though if you’re in Sydney you can see it early at the Mardi Gras film festival.
Fire of Love
Directed by Sara Dosa
The lowdown: An achingly gorgeous romance between Katia and Maurice Krafft – the French scientist couple who lived and died by their one true love: the volcano.
Where to watch: On Disney+.
A House Made of Splinters
Directed by Simon Lereng Wilmont
The lowdown: A doco unsparing in its bleakness, opening with a group of Ukrainian kids being sent to an orphanage and “full of almost intolerably cold, hard truths about what happens to little ones when society is fractured”.
Where to watch: Not yet available in Australia.
Navalny
Directed by Daniel Roher
The lowdown: A “staggering portrait of Putin’s arch-enemy”, following Alexei Navalny’s political superstardom – and then assassination attempt – with investigative zeal.
Where to watch: On DocPlay and SBS on Demand, or rent it from iTunes, Amazon, or Google Play.
Best international feature
All Quiet on the Western Front
Directed by Edward Berger
The lowdown: A harrowing adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s anti-war manifesto with “moments of striking beauty … almost as shocking and disquieting as the scenes of suffering”.
Where to watch: On Netflix.
Argentina, 1985
Directed by Santiago Mitre
The lowdown: A Hollywood-isation of the Trial of the Juntas, where nine Argentinian leaders were charged with human rights abuses. There’s a fair bit of dramatic licence involved, but it’s still “muscular and potent”.
Where to watch: On Amazon Prime.
Close
Directed by Lukas Dhont
The lowdown: The “drenchingly sad” tale of two boys whose best friendship is soured by schoolyard taunts, which heart-wrenched its way to a Palme d’Or victory at last year’s Cannes.
Where to watch: In cinemas 16 February.
EO
Directed by Jerzy Skolimowski
The lowdown: A contender for the second-best donkey-acting this Oscars season! This melancholy road movie from Poland follows a sad ass as he escapes his confines and goes on the lam – where he meets gangs, hooligans, and drifters.
Where to watch: Not yet available in Australia.
The Quiet Girl
Directed by Colm Bairéad
The lowdown: A “beautiful and compassionate” Irish-language drama about a mute child sent to live with foster parents on a farm, set over one endless stretch of summer.
Where to watch: Rent it on iTunes, Amazon, or Google Play.
Best animated feature
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
Directed by Guillermo del Toro
The lowdown: It’s del Toro, so of course this adaptation of the beloved children’s character is “austere and dark”, turning its mendacious mischief maker into a young fascist during Mussolini’s rule.
Where to watch: On Netflix.
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
Directed by Dean Fleischer Camp
The lowdown: He’s a shell! And he wears shoes! He’s also the star (voiced by Jenny Slate) of this unassuming tear-jerker, adapted from the viral 2010 short: “a charming and inventive stop-motion adventure” that shows us “how to make a little do a lot”.
Where to watch: Still in cinemas, but barely.
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
Directed by Joel Crawford
The lowdown: The gallant gato (Antonio Banderas) with a checkered past has used up eight of his nine lives – and now he’s on an existential mission to make something of himself with his final chance.
Where to watch: In cinemas now.
The Sea Beast
Directed by Chris Williams
The lowdown: A fantasy epic about a British girl who stows away on a ship to find exotic ocean monsters – with an anti-hunting message to boot.
Where to watch: On Netflix.
Turning Red
Directed by Domee Shi
The lowdown: The first full-length feature from the maker of beloved Pixar short Bao, Turning Red is about a 13-year-old dork who has to balance family expectations while, you know, turning into a giant red panda when stressed.
Where to watch: On Disney+.
Other features of note
The Whale
Directed by Darren Aronofsky
Up for: Best actor (Brendan Fraser), best supporting actress, best makeup and hairstyling
The lowdown: Widely lauded as Brendan Fraser’s comeback, this chamber play about a morbidly obese English teacher – depressing at every turn – also scored a surprise nod for Hong Chau as a straight-talking caregiver.
Where to watch: In cinemas 2 February.
Aftersun
Directed by Charlotte Wells
Up for: Best actor (Paul Mescal)
The lowdown: The definition of crying in the club. This “brilliant assured and stylistically adventurous” drama about a tense holiday in Turkey stars Paul Mescal as a wounded father putting on a brave face for his tween daughter – and has swept critics away, placing on multiple lists of the best films of 2022.
Where to watch: In cinemas 23 February – though the British film festival is hosting advance screenings in most Australian cities.
Living
Directed by Oliver Hermanus
Up for: Best actor (Bill Nighy), best adapted screenplay
The lowdown: Please welcome first-time Oscar nominee Bill Nighy, at age 73! He plays a joyless widower suddenly galvanised by a cancer diagnosis in this film with prestige pedigree; adapted from an Akira Kurosawa original and written by Kazuo Ishiguro.
Where to watch: In cinemas 16 March.
Blonde
Directed by Andrew Dominik
Up for: Best actress (Ana de Armas)
The lowdown: It’s either a shattering “fever dream of childhood trauma haunting adult life”, or an exploitative, ugly appropriation of Marilyn Monroe’s life. Whatever the case for this year’s other most-discoursed film, Ana de Armas scores her first Oscar nod.
Where to watch: On Netflix
To Leslie
Directed by Michael Morris
Up for: Best actress (Andrea Riseborough)
The lowdown: Andrea Riseborough’s turn as “an itinerant, alcoholic mother” who’s squandered a large lottery prize was the little performance that could: the tiny production with a groundswell of support which managed to crack the Oscars, with the help of some A-lister friends.
Where to watch: In cinemas 16 March.
Causeway
Directed by Lila Neugebauer
Up for: Best supporting actor (Brian Tyree Henry)
The lowdown: Jennifer Lawrence plays a former soldier in this “wounded psychological drama” – which picked up a nod for Brian Tyree Henry’s performance as a friendly mechanic suffering trauma of his own.
Where to watch: On Apple TV+.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Directed by Ryan Coogler
Up for: Best supporting actress, best original song, best visual effects, best costume design
The lowdown: This superhero sequel didn’t become the Oscars bonanza many had hoped – but it was recognised for “the commanding work of a magnificent Angela Bassett as the queen who must balance her bereavement against her duty to her people”.
Where to watch: It’s on its last cinema sessions, though it will no doubt come to Disney+ soon.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Directed by Rian Johnson
Up for: Best adapted screenplay
The lowdown: Another film which didn’t quite match expectations, despite critical acclaim for its “ingenious, headspinningly preposterous, and enjoyable … whodunnit” stylings.
Where to watch: On Netflix.
Best animated short
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse
Directed by Charlie Mackesy and Peter Baynton
The lowdown: A boy forms an unlikely friendship with three creatures in this picture-book adaptation featuring Idris Elba and Tom Hollander in voice roles.
Where to watch: On Apple TV+.
The Flying Sailor
Directed by Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby
The lowdown: Two ships collide in a harbour and catch fire. A seaman gets caught in the explosion – and goes on an existential spiral across the universe.
Where to watch: Below, on YouTube.
Ice Merchants
Directed by João Gonzalez
The lowdown: A father and son residing on a cliff forge a perilous path each day to sell ice in village below – all rendered in intricate, expressive sketchwork.
Where to watch: Not yet available in Australia.
My Year of Dicks
Directed by Sara Gunnarsdóttir
The lowdown: Exactly as the name suggests – a raucous, lurid short of one teen’s odyssey to lose her virginity.
Where to watch: Below, on Vimeo.
An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It
Directed by Lachlan Pendragon
The lowdown: A charmingly lo-fi stop-motion affair from a Brisbane animator about an anonymous office worker who encounters a wise ostrich – who reveals the truth about life, love, and universe. It won a student Oscar last year, and now it’s up for the real deal.
Where to watch: Not yet available to watch in Australia.
Best documentary short
The Elephant Whisperers
Directed by Kartiki Gonsalves
The lowdown: That most classic of nature docos – an animal tale bound to inspire “awww”s, following an Indian couple who rescue orphaned elephants.
Where to watch: On Netflix.
Haulout
Directed by Maxim Arbugaev and Evgenia Arbugaeva
The lowdown: On the desolate brink of the Arctic, a man waits to observe a natural gathering of walruses. But he might be too late, thanks to the rapid ramifications of climate change.
Where to watch: On the New Yorker.
How Do You Measure a Year?
Directed by Jay Rosenblatt
The lowdown: Kinda like those annual Billie Eilish interviews from Vanity Fair, except it’s a dad interviewing his daughter every year on her birthday over two decades.
Where to watch: Not yet available in Australia.
The Martha Mitchell Effect
Directed by Anne Alvergue
The lowdown: A political history of a key Watergate whistleblower – and how her revelations were dismissed as delusion.
Where to watch: On Netflix.
Stranger at the Gate
Directed by Joshua Seftel
The lowdown: Executive produced by Malala Yousafzai, this is a startling examination of hatred and its drivers, about a US veteran who planned a terrorist attack on a Muslim community – then changed her mind.
Where to watch: Below, on Vimeo.
