A third movie in the top 10 is fronted by an up-and-coming Irish star.
Yes, we know there are still about six weeks left in the year, but pretty much every major movie that is up for potential Oscar glory has already been shown in cinemas or at film festivals.
The last two unknowns still to arrive are Avatar: The Way Of Water (arriving on 16 December) and the Brad Pitt/Margot Robbie-front Hollywood drama Babylon (debuting in the States on 23 December, arriving over here on 20 January).
Aside from those two exceptions, pretty much every other major Oscar contender has been shown to audiences, and their reactions have been gathered on public review app Letterboxd.
Now, normally we wouldn’t put too much weight behind public reviewing platforms – just look at how Captain Marvel was review-bombed because some people didn’t like Brie Larson having opinions about things, or the undying support for anything and everything made by Zack Snyder – but Letterboxd is more trustworthy than most, mainly because most of its users seem to be genuine movie-lovers, and not just fanboys/girls/etc.
The reason we’re pointing all of this out is because from the 2022 movies, especially the releases that are up for some serious Oscar consideration this year, two of the top 10 are Irish movies.
And a third is fronted by an up-and-coming Irish star.
Here is the top 10, with the Irish-centric movies emboldened:
- Everything Everywhere All At Once – 4.5 out of 5
- Mars One – 4.3
- Argentina 1985 – 4.3
- The Fabelmans – 4.2
- The Banshees Of Inisherin – 4.2
- TÁR – 4.2
- RRR – 4.2
- Aftersun – 4.1
- Top Gun: Maverick – 4.1
- The Quiet Girl – 4.1
You can check out our review of The Banshees of Inisherin right here, which is likely to be nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actor (for Colin Farrell), Best Supporting Actor (for Brendan Gleeson, and possibly also for Barry Keoghan), Best Supporting Actress (for Kerry Condon) and a perhaps a few more besides.
The Quiet Girl (or An Cailín Ciúin, to give it its Irish title) has already been officially selected as Ireland’s entry for Best International Feature Film. We’ll find out if it has been formally chosen for the Oscars shortlist on 24 January, 2023.
And then we’ve got Aftersun, fronted by Paul Mescal, which comes to Irish cinemas on Friday, 18 November, and is also in the conversation for Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay and Best Actor for Mescal – although that’s admittedly a long shot, considering how competitive the actor category is proving to be this year.
Regardless, it is great to see such a strong showing of Irish movies on the high end of quality cinema this year. Because god knows, it hasn’t all been great…
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