Trophy Talk

AFI names Nope, Avatar: Way of Water, Top Gun: Maverick, and Abbott Elementary the best of 2022

The American Film Institute released their annual list of the best Movies and Television Shows of 2022.

by Jacqueline Coley | December 9, 2022

(Photo by Courtesy of Universal Pictures)

The American Film Institute (AFI) announced its official selections of the top 10 movies and TV shows of 2022 today. Among the honorees are some of the buzziest titles of the year, including James Cameron’s long-awaited Avatar sequel and Jordan Peele’s Nope. However, the big talk of the morning was on the films absent from the list as opposed to any surprising additions. Most pundits failed to foresee films The Woman King, Nope, and She Said would make the cut over the likes of Damien Chazelle’s Babylon or Rian Johnson’s murder mystery Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.

Universal Pictures was the big talk of the morning, taking home three prizes for the lead studio (Nope, She Said, The Fabelmans) and one for Tár, which was released by the prestige arm of the studio, Focus Features. With an equal mix of blockbusters and indie fare, most moviegoers would likely be fairly pleased if this list translated over to a Best Picture lineup. Last year CODA was honored just days before it took home the top film prize, while the feel-good soccer comedy Ted Lasso and the biting drama Succession were dubbed two of the best shows of 2021 by AFI before their respective Emmy wins in September.

Read below for the full list of AFI winners, and if you’re as obsessed with awards as we are, check out our Awards Leaderboard for 2022/2023.