Entertainment (Commonwealth Union)_On the heels of a tumultuous movie year marred by strikes and work stoppages, the Academy Awards have showered nominations on Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster biopic, Oppenheimer, which came away with a leading 13 nominations.
Nolan’s three hour opus, that was viewed as the best picture frontrunner, received nods for best picture; Nolan’s direction; acting nominations for Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr and Emily Blunt; and multiple honours for the craft of the drama by J Robert Oppenheimer.
Greta Gerwig’s ‘Barbie’ was not far behind with eight nominations, including nods for best picture; Ryan Gosling for best supporting actor; and two best-song candidates in ‘What Was I Made For’ and ‘I’m Just Ken’. Gerwig was surprisingly left out of the best director field, though.
Both Yorgos Lanthimos’ Frankenstein riff ‘Poor Things’ and Martin Scorsese’s Osage epic ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ were also widely celebrated. Poor Things landed 11 nods, while Killers of the Moon was nominated for 10 Oscars.
Star of Killers of the Flower Moon, Lily Gladstone, became the first Native American nominated for best actress. Scorsese was nominated for best director for the 10th time, but Leonardo DiCaprio, was left out of best actor.
Also read :
Michael Jackson Biopic lands 2025 Premier
These four contenders made for a maximalist quartet of Oscar heavyweights. Nolan’s sprawling biopic. Gerwig’s near-musical. Scorsese’s pitch-black Western. Lanthimos’ sumptuously designed fantasy.
Each utilised a wide spectrum of cinematic tools to communicate big, often disturbing big-screen stories. And each, even Apple’s biggest-budgeted movie yet, Killers of the Flower Moon, had robust theatrical releases which saved streaming for months later.
The 10 films nominated for best picture are: ‘Oppenheimer’, ‘Barbie’, ‘Poor Things’, ‘Maestro’, ‘American Fiction’, ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’, ‘The Holdovers’, ‘Past Lives’, ‘Anatomy of a Fall’ and ‘The Zone of Interest’.
The nominees for best actress are : Annette Bening, Nyad; Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon; Sandra Hüller, Anatomy of a Fall; Carey Mulligan, Maestro; Emma Stone, Poor Things.
The nominees for best actor
Bradley Cooper, Maestro; Colman Domingo, Rustin; Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers; Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer; Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction.
The nominees for 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.
The nominees for best director
Justine Triet, Anatomy of a Fall; Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things; Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon; Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer; Jonathan Glazer, The Zone of Interest.
The nominees for best international film
Society of the Snow (Spain); The Zone of Interest (United Kingdom); The Teachers’ Lounge (Germany); Io Capitano (Italy); Perfect Days (Japan).
The nominees for best animated film
The Boy and the Heron; Nimona; Elemental; Robot Dreams; Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
The Ukraine war documentary – 20 Days in Mariupol, which is a joint production between the Associated Press and PBS’ Frontline was among the nominated films is and will compete in the best documentary category.
Oscar season has reunited Oppenheimer with Barbie, its summer box-office partner while Gerwig’s feminist blockbuster is easily the biggest hit of the year with more than $US1.4 billion ($2.13 billion) in ticket sales.
Historically, blockbusters have helped fuel Oscar ratings. Though the pile-up of award demonstrateed (an after-effect of last year’s strikes ) could be detrimental to the Academy Awards, the Barbenheimer presence could help lift the March 10 telecast on ABC.
Jimmy Kimmel is returning as host, with the ceremony moved up an hour, to 7pm Eastern (9 am AEDT on 11th March).
