Best Movies of 2022: Best of the Techs

Continuing my look back at the best movies of 2022, I am now going to look at the best technical achievements of 2022. I will be looking at the best screenplays, cinematography, production design, song, and other technical categories like that. Like Best of the Genres, each category will have five “nominees” (a.k.a my personal top five) with my “winner” (my favorite) in bold, followed by short reasoning as to why I chose it as the best of the year. Here are my picks for the best technical achievements of 2022.

 

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

The Banshees of Inisherin

Everything Everywhere All at Once

The Fabelmans

The Outfit

TÁR

• The best screenplay of Martin McDonagh’s career perfectly balances humor, heart, and drama with some incredible dialog.

 

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Bones and All

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

Women Talking

• It was a weaker year than usual for Best Adapted Screenplay, but Sarah Polley’s complex and powerful Women Talking and Rian Johnson’s delightfully fun Glass Onion: A Knive Out Mystery stood head-and-shoulders above the rest, with Women Talking coming out on top.

 

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Avatar: The Way of Water

The Batman

The Fabelmans

Nope

Top Gun Maverick

• One of the best parts about Top Gun: Maverick is the air fighting and the planes flying. The sky camera work is excellent and the way they filmed inside the aircraft made it feel like we were right in the cockpit.

 

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

After Yang

The Batman

The Outfit

Strawberry Mansion

The Woman King

• Kogonada’s tender sci-fi drama takes us to an imaginative and beautiful future filled with unique architecture.

 

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

The Batman

Elvis

The Northman

The Outfit

The Woman King

• While I loved the 1950s gangster stylings of The Outfit, the costuming in Elvis was fit for a king.

 

BEST EDITING

Avatar: The Way of Water

Everything Everywhere All at Once

The Fabelmans

Top Gun: Maverick

The Woman King

• Some tough calls here and while Top Gun: Maverick may not be as flashy as Avatar: The Way of Water or Everything Everywhere All at Once, the tight, crisp editing made the action soar even higher.

 

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Ambulance

Avatar: The Way of Water

Everything Everywhere All at Once

Nope

Top Gun: Maverick

• One of the few no-brainer choices for me this year. James Cameron’s game-changing return to Pandora is one of the most visually stunning movies I have ever seen.

 

BEST MAKE-UP & HAIR

The Batman

Elvis

Everything Everywhere All at Once

The Northman

The Woman King

• Turning Colin Farrell into Oswald “Penguin” Cobblepot was one of the great magic tricks of 2022.

 

BEST SCORE

Babylon

The Batman

Devotion

Don’t Worry Darling

The Fabelmans

• I truly love all of these scores, but Michael Giacchino’s grandiose noir score is the only one I find myself actively humming and thinking about on a daily basis.

 

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

“Lift Me Up” – Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

“Vegas” – Elvis

“Naatu Naatu” – RRR

“Good Afternoon” – Spirited

“Hold My Hand” – Top Gun: Maverick

• Not only is “Naatu Naatu” an amazing, energetic song but it is also accompanied by one of the great movie scenes of 2022.

 

 

 

 

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