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Announced amid more genuine excitement than the Oscars have mustered in several years, nominations for the 96th Academy Awards showed Oppenheimer leading the way ahead of a crowded pack of contenders. Christopher Nolan’s acclaimed biopic about American nuclear physicist J Robert Oppenheimer received 13 nominations in total, including nods for the blue-ribbon Best Picture, Best Director for Nolan and Best Actor for star Cillian Murphy.
There was also recognition for Barbie, the tale of living dolls that may have done even more than Oppenheimer to re-assert the cultural relevance of movies. The film won eight nominations, Best Picture among them. And yet eyebrows were raised by the lack of individual nominations for either director Greta Gerwig or star Margot Robbie.
After a year in film with a striking number of critically praised and commercially popular hits, other titles too secured multiple nominations. Offbeat period comedy Poor Things received 11, including Best Picture, Best Director for Yorgos Lanthimos and Best Actress for Emma Stone.
Gerwig and Robbie aside, the closest thing to a snub this year might be the Academy’s response to another Best Picture nominee, Martin Scorsese’s historical crime drama Killers of the Flower Moon. The thought might seem strange for a film up for 10 awards, including Best Director for Scorsese and Best Actress for Lily Gladstone (considered favourite for the prize ahead of Stone). But set against the juggernaut of Oppenheimer, there may be a sense of relative disappointment, with star Leonardo DiCaprio missing out on a nomination.
Instead, Murphy’s main rival for Best Actor is likely to be Paul Giamatti, headliner of 1970-set comedy-drama The Holdovers. The film also stars Da’Vine Joy Randolph, clear favourite for Best Supporting Actress.
Despite Gerwig’s omission from the Best Director category, there was at least no repeat of last year’s all male shortlist. French filmmaker Justine Triet was named among contenders for her thriller Anatomy of a Fall, which will also compete for Best Picture. The film’s star, Sandra Hüller, is up for Best Actress as well. The other movie Hüller starred in last year, Auschwitz-set drama The Zone of Interest, was nominated for Best Picture, with filmmaker Jonathan Glazer also nominated as Best Director.
Other multiple nominees included Maestro, Bradley Cooper’s biopic of composer Leonard Bernstein, with seven nods including Cooper’s own performance as Best Actor; and literary satire American Fiction, whose five nominations include another potential Best Actor, Jeffrey Wright.
The buoyancy around this year’s nominations reflects the return of cinema to the very centre of public attention after a spell in the shadow of streaming and Covid. Oscars organisers will hope the awards themselves receive a similar upward bump, following a period of audience drift and controversies around diversity.
Still, some old habits die hard. While the unofficial double-bill “Barbenheimer” combined to pack cinemas and drive social media engagement, the different fates of the films with Academy voters might tell a story. Gerwig outperformed Nolan at the box office, but even a modernised Oscars still leans towards the traditional prestige picture.
The biggest cheer among attendees at the nominations was sparked by the Best Original Song nod for Barbie’s anthemic “I’m Just Ken”. But Nolan was the one more likely to walk away whistling a tune.
Best Director
Jonathan Glazer, The Zone of Interest
Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things
Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer
Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon
Justine Triet, Anatomy of a Fall
Best Actor
Bradley Cooper, Maestro
Colman Domingo, Rustin
Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers
Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer
Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction
Best Actress
Annette Bening, Nyad
Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon
Sandra Hüller, Anatomy of a Fall
Carey Mulligan, Maestro
Emma Stone, Poor Things
Best Supporting Actor
Sterling K Brown, American Fiction
Robert De Niro, Killers of the Flower Moon
Robert Downey Jr, Oppenheimer
Ryan Gosling, Barbie
Mark Ruffalo, Poor Things
Best Supporting Actress
Emily Blunt, Oppenheimer
Danielle Brooks, The Color Purple
America Ferrera, Barbie
Jodie Foster, Nyad
Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers
Full list of nominees in all categories at oscars.org
The Academy Awards are scheduled to take place on March 10.
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