Shortlists for 2022 Oscars Revealed
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced yesterday their shortlists in ten different award categories for the upcoming 94th Oscars, scheduled to take place on March 27, 2022 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. The complete list of nominees for next year’s Academy Awards will be announced on February 8, 2022.
Five films from the 22nd Annual Woodstock Film Festival feature film lineup made the cut for the Documentary Feature shortlist, including FLEE, THE RESCUE, PROCESSION, JULIA and THE VELVET UNDERGROUND. WFF 2021 Centerpiece Film FLEE also earned a spot on the International Feature Film shortlist and is currently eligible for Animated Feature (which is a non-shortlisted category). Should THE RESCUE make it into the final group of nominees, it would put filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin in the running to score their second Oscar for Best Documentary Feature after winning in 2019 for FREE SOLO. JULIA directors Betsy West and Julie Cohen whose Ruth Bader Ginsberg documentary RBG competed with FREE SOLO at the 91st Academy Awards may find themselves in a similar position if their current Julia Child project is a hit with Academy voters.
Film subject Dr. Nathalie Dougé (right) speaks to the audience during WFF’s special screening of Matthew Heineman’s THE FIRST WAVE. Photo by Zach Bell
Other shortlist standouts were Megan Mylan’s SIMPLE AS WATER (Documentary Feature), WFF alum Matthew Heineman’s THE FIRST WAVE (Documentary Feature) and Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s DRIVE MY CAR (International Feature Film), which were all shown by the Woodstock Film Festival during a series of special screenings earlier this month. Questlove’s SUMMER OF SOUL, which was screened by WFF during the summer as part of a free community drive-in event, was included on the shortlist for Documentary Feature.
Kristy Guevara-Flanagan & Maite Zubiaurre’s ÁGUILAS, which was part of the WFF 2021 shorts lineup, was shortlisted for Best Documentary Short Subject. Serhat Karaaslan’s THE CRIMINALS, which screened as part of the 2021 Woodstock Film Festival’s Fight or Flight shorts program, made the shortlist for Live Action Short Film.
You can check out all of the shortlists for the 2022 Oscars here. Best of luck to everyone who was mentioned as the Academy votes for next year’s nominees!