Beyonce, Jay-Z and Ariana Grande are all in the running for the Best Original Song Oscar Award, but French shock-fest Titane did not make the shortlist for Best International Feature Film, as the Academy unveiled its annual shortlists on Tuesday ahead of the formal nominations.
Pop superstar Beyonce's ballad Be Alive – penned for the tennis biopic King Richard, about the father of Serena and Venus Williams (played by Will Smith) – was on a list of 15 tracks, which will be whittled down to a final five before March's Oscars.
She will compete against her husband Jay-Z, who produced Netflix Western The Harder They Fall, and teamed up with Kid Cudi for the movie's track Guns Go Bang.
Grande appears in the satire Don't Look Up, in which her pop star character sings Just Look Up to implore the public to take seriously the impending threat of a comet plummeting towards Earth.
Billie Eilish's 007 theme song No Time To Die also made the list.
So did Dos Oruguitas from Disney's animated film Encanto, a song composed by Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, who only needs an Oscar to complete the coveted EGOT collection of awards – Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony.
A total of 15 contenders were unveiled for the international feature film Academy Award, from among 92 eligible movies. Each country is only permitted to submit one film.
France boasts the most foreign film nominations of any country in Oscars history, but will watch from the sidelines this year after its selection, Julia Ducournau's Palme d'Or-winning body-horror Titane, failed to make the cut. The ultra-violent movie about a female serial killer may have proven too controversial for Academy voters.
The shortlist includes frontrunners such as Paolo Sorrentino's coming-of-age drama The Hand of God (Italy) and Ryusuke Hamaguchi's Drive My Car (Japan), based on a Haruki Murakami short story.
Iran's Asghar Farhadi – among a select group of auteurs to have won several foreign film Oscars previously with A Separation and The Salesman – again makes the cut with morality drama A Hero.
The tiny Himalayan nation of Bhutan is a step closer to its first Oscar nomination with Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom, a comic drama about a reluctant young teacher who is sent to work in the world's most isolated school.
Denmark, which won the foreign film Oscar last year for Another Round, again has a strong contender in the form of Flee, which chronicles a homosexual Afghan refugee's perilous journey to Europe.
The animated film was also included in the shortlist for Best Documentary Feature, which was also unveiled Tuesday.
The Rescue, about the headline-grabbing 2018 race to save a Thai soccer team trapped in a flooded cave, and Questlove's Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), about the huge but largely forgotten "Black Woodstock" festival that took place in 1969 Harlem, also made the cut.
The final list of Oscar nominations will be revealed on Tuesday, February 8, and the awards will be handed out on Sunday, March 27.
Full list of shortlisted films for the Oscars 2022:
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
15 films will advance; 138 films were eligible in the category. Members of the Documentary Branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees.
- Ascension
- Attica
- Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry
- Faya Dayi
- The First Wave
- Flee
- In the Same Breath
- Julia
- President
- Procession
- The Rescue
- Simple as Water
- Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
- The Velvet Underground
- Writing with Fire
DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
15 films will advance; 82 films qualified in the category. Members of the Documentary Branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees.
- Aguilas
- Audible
- A Broken House
- Camp Confidential: America’s Secret Nazis
- Coded: The Hidden Love of J C Leyendecker
- Day of Rage
- The Facility
- Lead Me Home
- Lynching Postcards: 'Token of a Great Day'
- The Queen of Basketball
- Sophie and the Baron
- Takeover
- Terror Contagion
- Three Songs for Benazir
- When We Were Bullies
INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM
15 films will advance to the next round of voting; 92 countries were eligible in the category. Academy members from all branches were invited to participate in the preliminary round of voting and must have met a minimum viewing requirement to be eligible to vote in the category. In the nominations round, Academy members from all branches are invited to opt in to participate and must view all 15 shortlisted films to vote.
- Austria – Great Freedom
- Belgium – Playground
- Bhutan – Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom
- Denmark – Flee
- Finland – Compartment Number 6
- Germany – I’m Your Man
- Iceland – Lamb
- Iran – A Hero
- Italy – The Hand of God
- Japan – Drive My Car
- Kosovo – Hive
- Mexico – Prayers for the Stolen
- Norway – The Worst Person in the World
- Panama – Plaza Catedral
- Spain – The Good Boss
MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
10 films will advance. All members of the Academy’s Makeup Artists and Hairstylists Branch will be invited to view seven-minute excerpts and interviews with the artists from each of the shortlisted films on Sunday, January 30. Branch members will vote to nominate five films for final consideration.
- Coming 2 America
- Cruella
- Cyrano
- Dune
- The Eyes of Tammy Faye
- House of Gucci
- Nightmare Alley
- No Time to Die
- The Suicide Squad
- West Side Story
MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)
15 scores will advance; 136 scores were eligible. Members of the Music Branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees.
- Being the Ricardos
- Candyman
- Don’t Look Up
- Dune
- Encanto
- The French Dispatch
- The Green Knight
- The Harder They Fall
- King Richard
- The Last Duel
- No Time to Die
- Parallel Mothers
- The Power of the Dog
- Spencer
- The Tragedy of Macbeth
MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)
15 songs will advance; 84 songs were eligible. Members of the Music Branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees.
- So May We Start from Annette
- Down To Joy from Belfast
- Right Where I Belong from Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road
- Automatic Woman from Bruised
- Dream Girl from Cinderella
- Beyond The Shore from CODA
- The Anonymous Ones from Dear Evan Hansen
- Just Look Up from Don’t Look Up
- Dos Oruguitas from Encanto
- Somehow You Do from Four Good Days
- Guns Go Bang from The Harder They Fall
- Be Alive from King Richard
- No Time To Die from No Time to Die
- Here I Am (Singing My Way Home) from Respect
- Your Song Saved My Life from Sing 2
ANIMATED SHORT FILM
15 films will advance; 82 films qualified in the category. Members of the Short Films and Feature Animation Branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees.
- Affairs of the Art
- Angakusajaujuq: The Shaman’s Apprentice
- Bad Seeds
- Bestia
- Boxballet
- Flowing Home
- Mum is Pouring Rain
- The Musician
- Namoo
- Only a Child
- Robin Robin
- Souvenir Souvenir
- Step Into the River
- Us Again
- The Windshield Wiper
LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
15 films will advance; 145 films qualified in the category. Members of the Short Films and Feature Animation, Directors, Producers and Writers Branches vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees.
- Ala Kachuu – Take and Run
- Censor of Dreams
- The Criminals
- Distances
- The Dress
- Frimas
- Les Grandes Claques
- The Long Goodbye
- On My Mind
- Please Hold
- Stenofonen
- Tala’vision
- Under the Heavens
- When the Sun Sets
- You’re Dead Helen
SOUND
10 films will advance in the Sound category for the 94th Academy Awards. Members of the Sound Branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees. All members of the Sound Branch will be invited to view eight-minute excerpts and interviews with the artists from each of the shortlisted films beginning Friday, January 28. Branch members will vote to nominate five films for final consideration.
- Belfast
- Dune
- Last Night in Soho
- The Matrix Resurrections
- No Time to Die
- The Power of the Dog
- A Quiet Place Part II
- Spider-Man: No Way Home
- tick, tick…Boom!
- West Side Story
VISUAL EFFECTS
10 films remain in the running. The Visual Effects Branch Executive Committee determined the shortlist. All members of the Visual Effects Branch will be invited to view 10-minute excerpts and interviews with the artists from each of the shortlisted films on Saturday, January 29. Branch members will vote to nominate five films for final consideration.
- Black Widow
- Dune
- Eternals
- Free Guy
- Ghostbusters: Afterlife
- Godzilla vs Kong
- The Matrix Resurrections
- No Time to Die
- Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
- Spider-Man: No Way Home
