It’s time to finally put a bow on 2022 with tonight’s presentation of the 95th Annual Academy Awards! Honoring the best cinematic achievements of last year, this year’s Oscars will thankfully return to presenting all 23 categories live on air. Jimmy Kimmel returns for his third stint as Oscars host, and you can catch all the action on ABC beginning at 8pm ET.

Last year’s awards saw the Apple-bought little indie that could CODA break all sorts of Oscars stats to take home wins from all three of its nominations, including Best Picture. This year’s indie underdog also happens to be a stealth-surprise industry titan, with A24’s Everything Everywhere All at Once absolutely dominating the awards circuit this season. The question (probably) isn’t if it will win Best Picture, but rather, how many awards with the absurdist, multiverse comedy-drama collect? Since the Academy expanded their Best Picture lineup in 2009, no Best Picture winner has taken home more than 5 awards (films like Gravity and La La Land have won more, but failed to also garner the top prize). I’m predicting Everything Everywhere to nab six Oscars, but as few as two or as many as nine feels possible!

In other categories, there’s the usual mix of sure-things (might as well engrave Avatar: The Way of Water on that Visual Effects Oscar right now), close contests (excitingly three of the four acting categories are total toss-ups!), and wide-open races (who on Earth is winning Best Score??). We’re Team Everything Everywhere here at CineMunch and look forward to seeing one of 2022’s best films get crowned in multiple categories!

Settle in, mix yourself a cocktail or two (in lieu of our traditional Oscar Menu, we’ll be alternating between chocolate martinis and Avatar: The Glass of Waters), and follow along with my predictions below!

Tis the season! It’s finally Christmas Oscar nominations morning!

The 95th Annual Academy Awards nominations will be revealed on Tuesday morning January 24th by Riz Ahmed & Allison Williams beginning at 8:30am ET (you can view a live stream of the announcement via the Oscars website).

The nominations will honor the best in cinema from 2022. With the state of the film industry still reeling from COVID disruptions and an overall decrease in movie-going (not to mention studios reluctant to even release films in theaters these days), expect some familiar titles to crack the Best Picture lineup - as at least two sequels, but possibly as many as four, are likely to nab a mention. 2022’s box office behemoth’s Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way of Water are pretty assured Best Picture nominees, so even if some smaller indies gain recognition, the public can’t complain that Oscar nominated films they never saw this year!

I’ve still got a lot to catch up on from last year to really assess my favorites from 2022, but I’ll definitely be happy to see the A24 indie-that-could Everything Everywhere All at Once among the nomination leaders when all is done and counted.

Read on for my final nominations predictions!