I

n 2022, movies felt like movies, and Ticketmaster became public enemy #1 before only the male characters in “The White Lotus.” Unparalleled in grandeur and drama, this year’s art found success in the little things. Bending methodology and blurring genre, the conventional foundations of film, music and television evolved into insightful abstraction and sincerity.

From Jordan Peele’s starry-eyed, bizarre “Nope” to the glow-in-the-dark slasher satire “Bodies Bodies Bodies” to the masterful ambition of “Tár,” film spanned multiversal realms with heart and sagacity.

Whether plunging into the depths of the Upside Down in “Stranger Things” or navigating the mind-bending ethical labyrinth of Nathan Fielder’s “The Rehearsal,” the episodic narratives of 2022 resounded with enthrallment.

In music this year, Beyoncé proved (again) she’s the bar with her glitzy, magnificent album RENAISSANCE, Taylor Swift shattered records at 3 a.m. with Midnights and Rosalía experimentally merged the divine feminine with vulnerability on MOTOMAMI.

A twisting kaleidoscope of eccentricity and color, pop culture this year prided itself on spontaneity. In-your-face nostalgia and novelty interlaced into ingenuity across film, music and television, crafting some of the most perceptive artistic works to date — simply put, art in 2022 was everything everywhere all at once.

— Sarah Runyan & Taila Lee, arts & entertainment editors

The Daily Californian’s Arts Awards: Film of 2022

The Daily Californian’s Arts Awards: Television of 2022

The Daily Californian’s Arts Awards: Music of 2022