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Members of the Portland Critics Association have announced the nominees for their annual awards, honoring the best films, filmmakers, actors and cinematic achievements of 2022.
Leading the contest with the most nominations is Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s Everything Everywhere All at Once, which is up for a total of 14 PCA awards (including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress, for Michelle Yeoh). The film is the latest from hot indie distributor A24, which also released last year’s PCA Best Picture winner, The Green Knight.
Damien Chazelle’s Babylon earned the second-most nominations, a total of eight. The decadent Hollywood epic has proved divisive (although WW’s film critics have passionately defended it). Still, the PCA honored the film in several technical categories (including Best Cinematography and Production Design), in addition to nominating Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie for their impressively unhinged performances.
Right behind Babylon is James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water (the highest-grossing movie at the box office globally) with seven nominations, including Best Director. In that category, Cameron faces an eclectic group of visionaries, including Todd Field, the Portland-raised director of TÁR.
This is the second time that the PCA has voted on the best cinematic achievements of the year. The organization was founded in 2022 by The Lamplight Review’s Brent Hankins (full disclosure: The PCA includes two WW film critics, myself and Chance Solem-Pfeifer).
Final votes occur this week, with winners announced Jan. 16. The full list of nominees is available on the PCA’s official website.