Prior to Everything Everywhere All At Once's big win at the Oscars, CODA was the last Best Picture winner to come out on top of all the movies nominated for Best Picture in 2022. The indie hit was somewhat of a surprise winner but it managed to edge out its stiff competition from the prestige Western The Power of the Dog to the absurd satire Don't Look Up to the sci-fi blockbuster Dune. Looking back on the previous year at the Oscars, it is a reminder of what a strong and varied collection it was given all the movies nominated for Best Picture in 2022.

Over the years, the Oscar nominations have become synonymous with the controversy surrounding snubs, and 2022's ceremony was no different in this regard. In of the Best Picture category, the biggest outcry is for Spider-Man: No Way Home's omission despite the MCU installment's rampant box office success in late 2021 and early 2022. Conversely, more polarizing titles managed to earn a spot in the Best Picture dogfight. With Everywhere Everything All At Once's Best Picture win igniting its own discourse, it is fun to look back on the 2022 Best Picture nominees and see if CODA really was the best of the bunch,

10 Don't Look Up

• Stream on Netflix

Adam McKay's tale of collective denial throws many stones at the state of contemporary culture, with some weighted heavier than others. Don't Look Up is undoubtedly intended as a harsh mirror for many of society's ills, with the indifference of the general population to the end of the world a particularly telling narrative given the continued global effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. McKay's barbed satire also has given a fresh voice to the scientific community, with climate scientists, in particular, feeling a close affinity to the frustration that Don't Look Up's Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence) and Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio) experience.

Yet despite working as an engrossing satire of the modern world, Don't Look Up was the most divisive of the 2022 nominees. There was a debate over whether it mattered that Don't Look Up was a bad movie with a worthwhile message, however, the messy and scattered story as well as the hit-or-miss humor did not make it feel like a hard-hitting satire to some but rather more of a sloppy sketch comedy bit spread too thin. It led to some mixed reviews that were unusual for a Best Picture nominee.

9 Nightmare Alley

• Stream on Hulu & HBO Max

Master of fantasy Guillermo del Toro offers up a different proposition entirely in his neo-noir thriller Nightmare Alley. Based on the 1946 novel of the same name by William Lindsay Gresham, Nightmare Alley deftly intertwines several hard-boiled lines of inquiry before leading to a crescendo finale worthy of its 150-minute runtime. Bradley Cooper is in rare form as the increasingly debased Stan Carlisle, a carnival worker who rises to fame as a psychic medium, becoming gradually corrupted by the journey. Rooney Mara and Cate Blanchett also sparkle as Stan's polar-opposite influences beckon him to despair.

Del Toro is a master of these types of creepy and oddly beautiful stories with big ensembles and flawed characters. It is a gripping genre tale that is entertaining and shocking but elevated beyond the genre by a master storyteller. Yet the movie still feels a little outside of the top-tier quality of some of the best 2022 Best Picture nominees. The reviews were not as uniformly positive as the other movies and Nightmare Alley's struggles at the box office could point to the audience's lack of interest in such a dark tale.

8 King Richard

• Stream on HBO Max

Will Smith's seminal performance as the eponymous Richard Williams anchors King Richard, but there are phenomenal turns littered throughout Reinaldo Marcus Green's biographical drama. Saniyya Sidney and Demi Singleton sparkle as the young Venus and Serena, respectively; while Aunjanue Ellis's nominated performance alone puts the true-story inspired King Richard firmly in the must-watch category. The genius of King Richard, even more than its exceptional cast performances, is how Green's tennis biopic imparts a sense of prescience to its audiences despite the historical achievements of the Williams family already set in stone.

King Richard is a towering monument to Serena and Venus' fortitude and achievements, but also to Richard's flawed genius and unwavering belief in his children that helped propel his supremely talented daughters to the next level at a critical time in their development. The movie does feel a bit slight compared to other 2022 nominees with it being a rather formulaic sports drama, albeit an effective one. Sadly, all the great aspects of the movie are overshadowed by Will Smith's Oscar slap just before he collected his Best Actor Oscar.

7 West Side Story

• Stream on Disney Plus & HBO Max

As the second feature-length adaptation of the legendary Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim stage musical, West Side Story had a lot to live up to upon release in 2021. However, Stephen Spielberg's fresh take on the Sharks vs. the Jets handles this weight of expectation with consummate ease. At the center of this classic story re-told is a towering turn from newcomer Rachel Zegler, who appears destined for stardom after her pitch-perfect take on Maria.

West Side Story bombed at the box office, suggesting not many people felt this needed updating, and it story itself requires the audience to accept some questionable character choices in the name of love. However, the movie continues to show Spielberg is a master director who does some dazzling work with the big musical numbers, especially in the spell-binding gymnasium dance sequence. It had the most Oscar nominations of the year for a reason.

6 Drive My Car

• Stream on HBO Max

It is rare for foreign-language movies to be nominated for Best Picture but it highlights the brilliance of the movies that do cross those language barriers. Ryusuke Hamaguchi's Drive My Car is as complex and gorgeous a production with Hidetoshi Shinomiya's cinematography elevating much of the film into dream-like territory. Drive My Car follows Yūsuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima) as he directs a multi-lingual production of Uncle Vanya in Hiroshima while also grappling with the eventual death of his wife Oto (Reika Kirishima).

Drive My Car is as layered as it is simplistic, with its core themes of sex, infidelity, and loss underpinned by a deep-rooted love for international theater. Hamaguchi is only the third Japanese Director nominated for Best Director at the Oscars (following the legendary Akira Kurosawa), cementing Drive My Car's status as an international breakthrough movie.

5 The Power Of The Dog

• Stream on Netflix

The Power of the Dog's immediate universal acclaim is well-earned, with Jane Campion's stunning Western-slash-psychological drama deconstructing love, grief, resentment, jealousy, and sexuality against the backdrop of a cutthroat Montana in 1925. Campion's movie, in many ways, is a Western paint-by-numbers affair, but what makes The Power of the Dog an extraordinary proposition is its desire to dive beyond the usual cowboy machismo and understand the core of what makes its key characters tick. This is exemplified by Benedict Cumberbatch's Phil Burbank, who is brought to life in a compellingly assured manner by both the MCU star and Campion herself.

Cumberbatch leads an incredible ensemble with himself Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, and Kodi Smit-Mhee all receiving nominations for their performances. However, the star of the show is really Jane Campion who won a much-deserved Best Director Oscar for bringing this haunting, complicated Western to life. She maintains an intense and riveting atmosphere throughout all leading to The Power of the Dog's impactful ending.

4 Belfast

• Stream on HBO Max

Tied with West Side Story for most 2022 Oscar nominations, Belfast is director Kenneth Branagh's ode to the Northern Irish "The Troubles" in 1969 that continue to shape his perception of the world. Belfast is a deeply personal, wholly touching project and one which its entire cast has bought into without hesitation. As a result, Belfast may well be just as cathartic for Northern Irish actors Jamie Dornan, Ciarán Hinds, and Caitríona Balfe as it is for Branagh himself, making this coming-of-age drama a thoroughly engaging tale rooted in deep historical tragedy.

Told through a young child's eyes, the movie holds a certain magical quality and an innocent outlook on a very dramatic event. The movie goes through various hallmarks of the coming-of-age genre, from the first loves to first losses, but it is the scenes of this loving and determined family that really makes Belfast feel like a special heartwarming story.

3 Licorice Pizza

• Stream on Prime Video & Paramount Plus

Coming-of-age comedy dramas make up a significant portion of 2022's Best Picture Oscar nominations, but Licorice Pizza just about takes the crown as the best of them. Paul Thomas Anderson's perfect slice of Americana evokes a sense of time and place so vivid it is hard to find fault in Licorice Pizza's intoxicating 133-minute runtime. At its center is two potentially star-making turns from newcomers Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman, who blend into Anderson's vision of a 1973 San Fernando Valley so effortlessly audiences are forced to root for their mismatched yet-burgeoning love story.

Licorice Pizza does not necessarily deviate from a well-worn coming-of-age formula, but it is a vision realized with such conviction that it stands out among all the movies nominated for Best Picture in 2022. With it also being a lighter movie than Paul Thomas Anderson is known for, it's also one of the most rewatchable of the 2022 Best Picture nominees.

2 CODA

• Stream on Apple TV Plus

An English-language remake of the 2014 French film La Famille Bélier, the 2021 movie CODA was 2022's Best Picture winner while also making history with deaf actor Troy Kotsur winning Best ing Actor. Sian Heder's film centers on Ruby Rossi (Emilia Jones), the only hearing member of her otherwise deaf family, with the Rossi clan forced to overcome the societal and physical boundaries that shackle them.

CODA's treatment of its deaf characters is wholly refreshing, and more importantly, accurate, with the entire Rossi family rightfully depicted as thriving of their community with compellingly realistic personas. CODA's narrative is fairly linear, but its cast's performances and Heder's spellbinding direction make the movie's final moments feel wholly earned nonetheless.

1 Dune

• Stream on HBO Max

There are very few superlatives that have not already been used to describe Denis Villeneuve's take on Frank Herbert's sprawling sci-fi world. Standing in stark contrast to its predecessor, Denis Villeneuve's Dune is a tour-de-force of worldbuilding and storytelling that demands recognition from start to finish. The Blade Runner 2049 director's convictions prior to filming pay off spectacularly right across Dune, from Timothee Chalamet's stunning turn as Paul Atreides to the prescient decision to break an unwieldy source material into more palatable chapters for contemporary audiences.

Though Spider-Man: No Way Home didn't get the Best Picture nomination many fans were hoping for, Dune proves there is a place for blockbusters at the Oscars. With big sci-fi ideas, thrilling action sequences, and a tease for more to come, it is certainly a genre hit while also being an incredible piece of filmmaking. Though Dune didn't win Best Picture, the Dune: Part 2 has a shot.