OUTSTANDING ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

Apollo 10 1⁄2: A Space Age Childhood (Directed by Richard Linklater)

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (Directed by Guillermo del Toro)

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (Directed by Dean Fleischer Camp)

Turning Red (Directed by Domee Shi)

Wendell & Wild (Directed by Henry Selick)

AND THE WINNER:

MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON (DIRECTED BY DEAN FLEISCHER CAMP)

This is the first win and nomination for Dean Fleischer Camp.

2022 was a banner year for animated when it comes to individual animation. All five of my nominees this year only share in common that they are animated which made choosing a winner amongst the five a difficult choice. What made me decide on Marcel the Shell as my winning pick is the emotional connection I have with the film. Even months past when I watched the film I still think about the incredible emotional journey the titular character brings you the audience on. The film is truly spectacularly special and perhaps unlike any film ever made. I instantly connected to this film finding it the cutest animated picture in some time but also one that caused me to emotionally break based on parts of the narrative told in the film.

Camp and voice lead star Jenny Slate have collaborated to create a film for all time and I look forward to myself returning to it but also to many audiences discovering it's brilliance as the years go by. Both adult and child because this is for sure a film for anyone at any age.

OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS

Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon & Daniel Barrett for Avatar: The Way of Water

Dan Lemmon, Russell Earl, Anders Langlands & Dominic Tuohy for The Batman

Jörundur Rafn Arnarson, Erik Winquist & Joe Letteri for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

Zak Stoltz, Ethan Feldbau, Benjamin Brewer & Jeff Desom for Everything Everywhere All at Once

Scott R. Fisher, Jeremy Robert, Guillaume Rocheron & Sreejith Venugopalan for Nope

AND THE WINNER:

JOE LETTERI, RICHARD BANEHAM, ERIC SAINDON & DANIEL BARRETT FOR AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER

This is the fifth win and eleventh nomination for Joe Letteri. Letteri previous won for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), King Kong (2005), Avatar (2009), Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) and was nominated for Mission Impossible (1996), The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), The Hobbit the Desolation of Smaug (2013), Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) and War of the Planet of the Apes (2017). This is the 2nd win and nomination for Richard Baneham having previously won for Avatar. This is Eric Saindon's first win and third nomination being previously nominated for The Hobbit the Desolation of Smaug & The Green Knight (2021). Finally this is Daniel Barretts second win and third nomination. He also won for Rise of the Planet of the Apes and was nominated for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes,

I know I've gone in depth on where I've awarded the visual effect artists before but to end this post quickly what can I say about Avatar winning this award other than of course Way of Water was going to win the visual effects trophy. I'll end it by saying the other films had some incredible visual effect work but Avatar: The Way of Water was just going to be the choice based on quality and amount of budget spent on achieving some incredible work.

OUTSTANDING BREAKTHROUGH/DEBUT

Frankie Corio (Aftersun)

Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All at Once)

Felix Kammerer (All Quiet on the Western Front)

Thuso Mbedu (The Woman King)

Paul Mescal (Aftersun)

AND THE WINNER:

PAUL MESCAL (AFTERSUN)

Mescal obviously isn't a total out of nowhere this year because I first came to know him for his performance in 2020's series Normal People (he was my miniseries leading actor winner), however it is ok to award him here as 2022 marked his film debut year with multiple incredible feature films. I've chosen Aftersun as the representative for his work as it was the first film of his two released this year that I saw and got to appreciate his incredible work. He has showed again like he did in Normal People that he is of his generation the performer to watch and follow each career choice he will make from this point. In Aftersun he has a difficult role to play as on paper he must play both the father and the father through memory as this film is a memory piece. He succeeds extremely well in the role gifting us with one of the most exciting and surprising turns of the year.

Also an added note I must point out about Mescal's work is how of his first three films all are directed by women and that is an incredible feat. Some of the biggest male movie stars have added together maybe one film directed by a woman. This marks an exciting start for him and I hope he keeps up both his quality of choices and quality of performance with whatever project he makes next.

OUTSTANDING CINEMATOGRAPHY

Gregory Ole for Aftersun

Kim Ji-yong for Decision to Leave

Crystal Fournier for Great Freedom

Florian Hoffmeister for Tár

Ari Wegner for The Wonder

AND THE WINNER:

GREGORY OLE FOR AFTERSUN

This is the first win and nomination for Gregory Ole.

Aftersun was the film in 2022 that came completely out of nowhere. when the film first premiered at the Cannes film festival buzz was so strong yet no future screenings were planned so it meant people like myself had to wait until the eventual cinema release to check out the film. Thankfully that time came before the end of 2022 and I got to experience this incredible film. In focusing on the film's cinematography it must be said the mixture of video camera footage and more regular film footage was an incredible choice and was blended so expertly together that I didn't care which type of filming was used as I knew both would be incredible to see the film through.

Gregory Ole the films DP really did some incredible work here making me care for every scene of the film especially the flashback scenes of the film where we see Sophie and her father on their holiday. The photography also was so reminiscent of holidays I spent in my youth so everything felt so honest and real which made me enjoy the photography even more.

OUTSTANDING SOUND

David Lee, Wayne Pashley, Andy Nelson & Michael Keller for Elvis

Pawel Jazwiecki, Marcin Matlak & Radoslaw Ochnio for EO

Brent Kiser, Andrew Twite, Stephen Nelson, Alexandra Fehrman & Ian Chase for Everything Everywhere All at Once

Johnnie Burn & José Antonio García for Nope

Becky Sullivan, Kevin O'Connell, Tony Lamberti & Derek Mansvelt for The Woman King

AND THE WINNER:

BECKY SULLIVAN, KEVIN O'CONNELL, TONY LAMBERTI & DEREK MANSVELT FOR THE WOMAN KING

These are the first wins and nominations for Becky Sullivan, Tony Lamberti & Derek Mansvelt. This is the third win and fourth nomination for Kevin O'Connell. He previously won for The Rock (1996) & Spider-Man 2 (2004) and was nominated for Transformers (2007).

The Woman King thankfully in the year 2022 was both a critical and financial success because it is the type of film I always want to become a major success of the year. The film is an epic in so many ways and to focus on its sound work which is the award it has won here I must praise the sound artists for making the war scenes feel as epic and as tense as they did combining together the human noise as well as atmosphere and musical notes in the background. The film also impressed on a sound level in the non war scenes such as the training sequences where the titular women would prepare for war.

Finally to praise the films sound work I must give a shoutout to how the scenes sounded depending on the time of day in which scenes were set. Such powerful work by the films sound mixers, editors and any other title you'd give to someone in the sound department.

OUTSTANDING FEMALE ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Kerry Condon as Siobhán Súilleabháin IN “THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN”

Jennifer Ehle as Laura Madden in “SHE SAID”

Stephanie Hsu as Joy Wang in “EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE”

Lashana Lynch as Izogie in “THE WOMAN KING”

Rachel Sennott as Alice in “BODIES BODIES BODIES”

AND THE WINNER:

STEPHANIE HSU AS JOY WANG IN "EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE"

This is the first win and nomination for Stephanie Hsu. She wins for her performance as Joy Wang in Everything Everywhere All At Once.

And with my first award of the year I have the pleasure of awarding Stephanie Hsu as my supporting actress choice of the year. I was familiar with Stephanie as a television performer the last couple of years prior to this year and had seen her in one film prior but with her work as Joy she moved into a completely different level of performance ability. Stephanie showcased a perfect blend of comedic ability and dramatic heft in this role nailing every note of the role. I was especially impressed by how she introduced an aspect of her role in the above scene, just the casual stroll she takes is so confident and so assured that I loved every moment of it. Nailing giving nothing while also giving everything was not an easy thing and Hsu did this beautifully so many times throughout the film.

Even when acting opposite a titan like Michelle Yeoh, Hsu never comes across as a lesser performer and instead acts on a similar level to Yeoh making for some truly incredible scenes between the two of them. With this role and the success she has had with it, I hope the world and more for Stephanie because based on this role there is so much she can play and I very much would love to see her in multiple amazing roles. Just a genius screen performance that is worth the recognition it has been getting since the film first premiered. (Love that it resulted in a deserved Oscar nomination)

2022 "An Irish Person" FILM Awards ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

To everyone new and old welcome to my blog. For the next 3 weeks I will be posting what I consider to be the best of cinema from 2022. I will present 23 separate categories as a sort of the lead up to the 95th Academy Awards on the 12th of March. I want to make a disclaimer before I start announcing nominees and winners starting tomorrow. I have seen a total of 195 films released in 2022 in the United States. That may seem like a large number which it is but sadly there were a couple of films I have not seen yet whether it's that I missed it during its release or the film hasn't become available for me to see it. This year some of those films include No Bears & a few others that weren't as acclaimed during the year. I'm sure I will see these films at some point in the future but to keep in time with the Academy Awards I have to start announcing my favourites in film now.

Three years past the terrible closing of cinemas worldwide its just so great we can all go to the cinema comfortably and enjoy many films together. I am excited to get into the greatness of cinema from the past year so ends my announcement.