The Movies That Made This Year’s Oscar Nominees

Yesterday, here in the heart of Hollywood, bundles of diverse and exciting flicks were honored with nominations for the 95th annual Academy Awards. While plenty of favorites were suitably recognized, there were quite a few surprises, too.

And we talked to a lot of them!

On our podcast The Movies That Made Me, Trailers From Hell Gurus Josh Olson and Joe Dante have had the pleasure of speaking with a variety of this year’s Oscar nominees about the cinematic experiences that have shaped them into the filmmakers they are today.

Let’s take a look at the recent pod guests whose pictures got some love on Tuesday, and could be in line for a little gold statue on March 12th.

The collaborative duo DANIELS (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert) were recognized for their work on the spectacular multi-verse-traversing science fiction dramedy Everything Everywhere All At Once. With 11 nominations overall this year, EEAAO seems to have garnered a lot of love across several different guilds, and is shaping up to be the title to beat. DANIELS were nominated for Best Picture (they produced it, along with Jonathan Wang), Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. These represent their first Oscar nominations.

Todd Field had a similarly eventful Tuesday. His intense tale of a brilliant-but-troubled composer, Tár, garnered six nominations. Todd individually was recognized for three honors himself: Best Picture (he produced it, along with Alexandra Milchan and Scott Lambert), Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. Todd has previously been nominated three times before, once for his 2001 marital strife drama In The Bedroom (Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay) and once for his 2006 marital strife drama Little Children (Best Adapted Screenplay).

Trailers From Hell Guru Guillermo del Toro is no stranger to the Academy Awards. As the director and producer of the 2017 creature feature romance The Shape Of Water, he won his first two Oscars. He has also previously been nominated for his 2006 historical fantasy epic Pan’s Labyrinth (for Best International Feature Film and Best Original Screenplay), and his 2021 noir remake Nightmare Alley (for Best Picture as one of its producers). Now, Guillermo is up for Best Animated Feature Film honors, thanks to his stop-motion interpretation of Pinocchio, now streaming on Netflix. The flick is a recent favorite of TFH Fearless Leader Joe Dante.

The singular live action/animation dramedy mash-up Marcel the Shell With Shoes On, has made its director/co-writer Dean Fleischer Camp a direct competitor with Pinocchio for the Best Animated Feature Film award. Not bad for his directorial debut!

The action-adventure extravaganza RRR, helmed and co-written by pod guest S.S. Rajamouli, was an international smash and a Netflix streaming must-watch in 2022. Accordingly, the picture broke through to receive a nomination for Best Original Song with “Naatu Naatu.” The music for “Naatu Naatu” was composed by M.M. Keeravaani, with lyrics written by Chandrabose.

To get some insights into what films made these master filmmakers tick, click on their names in the paragraphs above to be rerouted to their podcast episodes with Josh and Joe!

Congratulations and good luck to all of yesterday’s nominees! We’ll see you at the movies.