Ranking the 2022 Oscar Clips
Wednesday, March 15, 2023 at 12:00PM By Ben Miller
It's that time of year again! Every year since 2017 (minus 2020, when they didn't show clips), this is the piece I most look forward to writing. The Oscars always throw a few curveballs with their clip choices. They certainly made some choices this year. Let's rank the clips 20 to 1.
I'm gonna not be selfish. I'm gonna be your mom.
What Are We Doing?
20. Michelle Williams, The Fabelmans
19. Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All At Once
18. Stephanie Hsu, Everything Everywhere All At Once
For all three of these performers, their roles had big showy moments that were tailor-made for Oscar clips. Instead, they went with odd choices...
Quan and Hsu had some perfect clip opportunities, but they went with an odd one-off exposition scene with Quan, and a emotional moment for Hsu. Strange choices.
Oscar Baity
You listen to me. He doesn't need saving.
17. Ana de Armas, Blonde
16. Brendan Fraser, The Whale
15. Hong Chau, The Whale
I have a long-standing belief that whomever chooses the clips has personal opinions on the nominated performances. With de Armas, they went with a montage of clips where she is going as big as possible. Same thing with Fraser and Chau. For the performers from The Whale, there were some smaller moments they could have gone with, but they chose the obvious bigger and baitier choices
Missed Opportunties
I wanna be a good momma again.
14. Brendan Gleeson, The Banshees of Inisherin
13. Andrea Riseborough, To Leslie
12. Austin Butler, Elvis
11. Kerry Condon, The Banshees of Inisherin
All four of these performances had ample clip material to work with, but they zigged when they should have zagged. They went with an out-of-nowhere choice for Butler when they could have chosen literally any other clip. Condon is the most disappointing. "You're all feckin' boring!" was right there!
Quiet/Tough to Clip
You can be whoever you want to be. You have time.
10. Brian Tyree Henry, Causeway
9. Paul Mescal, Aftersun
8. Bill Nighy, Living
Before the Oscars kicked off, I knew these three would have clip issues. All three are quietly devastating, but it's not something that can be encapsulated in a 10-second clip. Henry and Mescal had some better options, but they are still solid. Nighy's clip is more of synopisis of the film than it is a showcase for him.
Big, But Correct
Have I not given everything?
7. Jamie Lee Curtis, Everything Everywhere All At Once
6. Judd Hirsch, The Fabelmans
5. Cate Blanchett, TAR
4. Angela Bassett, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
On the flipside of the quiet performances, big and broad works perfectly in clip form. Curtis and Blanchett's clips are nice summaries of their characters, which is what the clip is supposed to do. We all knew what Hirsch and Bassett's clips were months ago, but doing the obvious doesn't mean it's wrong.
Nailed It
I will always want to be here with you.
3. Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All At Once
2. Colin Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin
I was fully prepared to hate whatever clip came from Yeoh, but I was shocked they chose correctly. It's a tough performance to narrow down to a single moment, but that's as good as a clip as could be expected. Meanwhile, Farrell's sweet vulnerability is exquisitely personified in his clip which puts his brilliance on full display.
Perfection
There goes that dream
1. Barry Keoghan, The Banshees of Inisherin
We all knew it was coming. The most memed and posted clip from any performance this year was this for a reason. It's heartbreakingly perfect in every way. Congrats to Keoghan, who joins Lesley Manville, the ladies from The Favourite, Florence Pugh, and Aunjanue Ellis as the Oscar clip champions!
Reader Comments (13)
As soon as I saw Tar months ago, I've been hoping that Blanchett's clip would be the glorious "APARTMENT FOR SALE" accordion solo from hell, but there goes that dream.
Well I love that they edited the clip so that there's the main clip that serves as voice over narration over a series of other clips from the movie. Which probably explains why some main clips were chosen since they worked better for that purpose.
Anyways, I thought it was all actually VERY well done and I'm happy they didn't do away with the clips for the leads (as they are wont to do if they want to save time at the end).
Pick a scene, Academy!
Glad Jamie got the best clip too.
I thought Brian Tyree Henry's clip was very strong. It deserved to be higher. Nailed it with Barry Keoghan at no. 1.
Not trying to stir the shit here but Riseborough got a very mild applause. Not fair. Totally deserved to be there. We all use our contacts when in need.
Peggy & Ryan -- I am torn on the montage clips. On the one hand I like the idea in theory (showing multiple moods) but on the other it just ends up feeling like a movie trailer and i hate that they do that for the best picture clips. If they want to try this multi-scene approach. It should just be a voiceover from one scene bleeding over one more scene... not a bunch of them
Agree with the rankings, disagree with the clips packages. Pick ONE SCENE and showcase it. I hated the montages because it dilutes the weight of the performances. Why is this so hard to get right?
Still can't believe they didn't use the piano scene in Living. Easily my favourite scene of the year. They used to love clips of actors singing
I’ll say this: back when I taped the Oscars on VHS so I could rewatch (2002-2006 I think), the 2004 & 2005 were by far the best years of clips. Longish clips (relatively speaking), and often different from what we already saw at SAG and Critics Choice. And I also liked the side-by-side two images of the actor before the actual clip started. Rewatching those clips & reactions were my favorite part of the show. It just looked great. And the 2002 show was obviously the worst because there were no acting clips at all, not even images. Just names being read. Yawn.
I hate those clips.
Hate it all.
We want SCENES, GREAT SCENES, not stupid clips.
Who are those people and why are they doing those terrible things with the Oscars?
Huh! That's so interesting. I didn't know montage of clips was so controversial. I think, for me, so many of those roles ARE so multi-faceted and no real one scene can encapsulate so doing it this way alleviate that a bit. And I guess I'm OK with them being essentially mini-movie trailers because after all we are selling the movies aren't we?
I also enjoyed the Best Picture clips as well--at least it was definitely a fresh cut/edit versus what some other awards shows do which is show the actual studio-released trailer which we've all seen many times already. Anyways, at least we got clips!
Judd Hirsch has like 8 Oscar clips in 2 minutes. Masterclass!
Promise not to post again. Bye.
Love this series. I went back and reread the previous entries and it was a great trip down memory lane.