An Aside: My 2022 Best Picture Preferential Ballot

One of the big innovations in the Academy's voting procedure over the past few years was been the introduction of a preferential ballot voting system for Best Picture in 2009, which went hand-in-hand with the expansion of the Best Picture category from 5 to between 8 and 10 nominees. As a consequence, every Academy voter does not merely select his or her pick for Best Picture, but instead ranks all of the nominees in order (with the option of not ranking those which they haven't seen). The effect of this on the winners is ambiguous, with my hunch being that it has a tendency to reward crowd-pleasing, least common denominator films over more polarizing films with large numbers of both detractors and advocates.

So if I was an Academy voter, what would I put on my preferential ballot this year? This is what I would submit:

1. Licorice Pizza

2. The Power of the Dog

3. Dune

4. Drive My Car

5. Nightmare Alley

6. West Side Story

7. CODA

8. King Richard

9. Belfast

10. Don't Look Up