No scandals here! No slaps, and all the nominations came through the correct pathways 😆 It’s easy when this is just one guy’s informed opinion on the talented performances spread out across 2022 and beyond. Yes, the Slice Awards are here once again, and I have done my due diligence in gathering nearly all of the most touted movie performances to fall under the banner of the previous calendar year, and I’m going to celebrate 🎉 If you’ve been here before, you’ll know, that at Slice HQ, we don’t meddle in resolving winners, as to be nominated from a vast field in any chosen category is a high achievement in itself – the glorious gimmick of the Slice Awards is that every named recipient walks away with a metaphoric slice of the yearly pie to accredit their outstanding contributions. But, like forever and always, I did not attend a screening or stream every possible movie for 2022, and this is merely just the official Today Junior stance on the matter – it doesn’t mean you can’t prefer a performance that I left off the grid, or that I honoured a movie that you didn’t like, but let’s just not be a dick about it. Following my dazzling nominations, I’ll offer a little breakdown of how I arrived at my selections, and you’ll see the struggle was real to divide who I liked into only six slices. If you have any thoughts of your own, and have the time to drop a few sentences in the reply box below, I shall say a ‘thank-you’ in advance 😊 Now, ON WITH THE SHOW!!!
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BEST DIRECTOR
Baz Luhrmann – Elvis
Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert – Everything Everywhere All at Once
Martin McDonagh – The Banshees of Inisherin
Ruben Östlund – Triangle of Sadness
Steven Spielberg – The Fabelmans
Todd Field – Tár
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BEST ACTOR
Adam Driver – White Noise
Asa Butterfield – Elvis
Brad Pitt – Babylon
Brendan Fraser – The Whale
Colin Farrell – The Banshees of Inisherin
Ralph Fiennes – The Menu
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BEST ACTRESS
Andrea Riseborough – To Leslie
Cate Blanchett – Tár
Danielle Deadwyler – Till
Margot Robbie – Babylon
Michelle Williams – The Fabelmans
Michelle Yeoh – Everything Everywhere All at Once
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BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Alison Janney – To Leslie
Hong Chau – The Whale
Jamie Lee Curtis – Everything Everywhere All at Once
Kerry Condon – The Banshees of Inisherin
Rachel Sennott – Bodies Bodies Bodies
Zoe Kazan – She Said
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BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Barry Keoghan – The Banshees of Inisherin
Ben Whishaw – Women Talking
Brendan Gleeson – The Banshees of Inisherin
Brian Tyree Henry – Causeway
Ke Huy Quan – Everything Everywhere All at Once
Mark Rylance – Bones and All
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BEST ENSEMBLE
Babylon
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Bodies Bodies Bodies
The Banshees of Inisherin
The Fabelmans
Women Talking
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The Best Director and Best Actor categories gave me no trouble, although a seventh slice would’ve gone to Ryan Coogler for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and I understand the logic behind a push for Paul Mescal in Aftersun, respectively. Living, where Bill Nighy is said to be fantastic is yet to be released in Australia, as of a week before the Oscars ☹ So it might feature next year. I went between Mark Rylance and Zen McGrath from The Son for the last slice in Best Supporting Actor, but I went with the character who left the best impression on me, and I figure I’ll let The Son inform you as a whole, as a movie, on its own.
Not for the first time, Best Actress was a challenging category to chill. Emma Thompson’s exposing work in Good Luck to You, Leo Grande was the one I was most disappointed to leave behind, but there were a few others. I would’ve loved to acknowledge Aubrey Plaza for Emily the Criminal because she’s so captivating, but she’s always captivating, so it’s tough. I’m sorry to Oscar purists, but although Ana de Armas looked the part in Blonde, I couldn’t concede any ground to her awful movie, that by casting her had de Armas have to work to hide her accent, which was still distracting to me. But her time will come, I’m sure, because she’s an amazing actress.
Best Supporting Actress – it pained me but Angela Bassett for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever had to fall out. She’ll probably win the Academy Award and I’ll look like a fool, but at the end of the day I went with Zoe Kazan because she had the bigger role. And Alison Janney won her place because there’s something so fierce about her when she gets to play malevolent, more so than Bassett’s regal and staunch defiance. Bassett also could’ve been hurt because I’ve seen her play powerful strong characters in American Horror Story a few times before. At the end of the day, I really didn’t have to separate the cast of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever as I was blown away by their work as a unit, whom all took turns roaring in the spotlight. And that’s the truth, and that’s why they were my first pick for Best Ensemble. With them, the only other one I might like explaining is that The Fabelmans bats deeper than Everything Everywhere All at Once, although the latter had 3 of 4 main stars make it in the individual categories. The Batman is also stiff to miss out.
And that’s it! It’s been an absolute privilege to experience the movies of the past few months, making their way to the Australian summer season, and I mean that from the heart. I think I recall that there were only perhaps two or three of the 10 nominations for the Academy’s Best Picture last year that I was extremely passionate about, but this year there’s up to 7 movies I’d be proud to see given the nod to represent the preceding year in cinema on Monday. It’s been terrific.
What do you make of my Slice Awards for 2023? Who are your picks for the best movies and performances of last year? Let me know in the comments down below, and have a great day!!!
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