Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner, “The Fabelmans”
Todd Field, “Tár”
Ruben Östlund, “Triangle of Sadness”
Should win: “Tár.” Scene for mesmerizing scene, Field’s script might have been the year’s most scintillatingly written and unapologetically erudite movie (and also, predictably and depressingly, the one most subject to charges of pretension). “The Fabelmans” — the latest of several remarkable collaborations between Spielberg and Kushner, but the first that Spielberg has co-written — runs a close second.
Should’ve been a contender: Jordan Peele, “Nope.” Peele won this Oscar five years ago for “Get Out.” He should be in contention again for his third and finest feature — a funny, scary, deeply disturbing interrogation of Hollywood spectacle and, in a sea of top-grossing franchise movies, the year’s single most heartening box office success story.
Ben Whishaw, Rooney Mara and Claire Foy in the movie “Women Talking,” an Oscar nominee for best adapted screenplay.
(Michael Gibson/Orion Releasing)