Christopher Nolan is expected to pick up his first Oscar at next month’s ceremony as his latest film Oppenheimer is revealed to be the most nominated film .
The film, a biopic of Robert Oppenheimer, the scientist behind the atomic bomb, is nominated in 13 categories, including best picture, best director and best adapted screenplay. Stars Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr. and Emily Blunt are also in the running for awards. The number means it is the most nominated single film since 2018’s “The Shape of Water,” which went on to win four nods, including best picture and best director.
Nolan has previously been nominated for five Oscars and is a frontrunner for next month’s Bafta Awards, but he’s also always come away empty-handed.
Meanwhile, Martin Scorsese received a 10th Best Director nomination for his true-crime epic “Killers of the Flower Moon.” After being snubbed in the Bafta nominations last week, stars Lily Gladstone and Robert De Niro have been revealed to be in the running for an Oscar – although Leonardo DiCaprio has been ruled out.
Gladstone’s nomination makes her the first Native American actor to compete for the award and reignites her rivalry with “Poor Things” star Emma Stone, who this month She also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress earlier.
“Poor Things” performed better than expected in Tuesday’s nominations, with Mark Ruffalo winning a surprise supporting actor award and Yorgos Lanthimos picking up best director. Lanthimos will now compete against Nolan, Scorsese, Zone of Interest’s Jonathan Glazer and Justin Treat’s Anatomy of a Fall.
Treat won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival last year for her courtroom thriller, making her the only female director in the category, with Greta Gerwig of “Barbie” and Celine Song of “Previous Life” both excluded .
Instead, Barbie could only eke out eight nominations, including adapted screenplay, a supporting actor nod for Ryan Gosling, two separate nominations for best song, and a surprise supporting actress nod for America Ferrera.
However, “Barbie” and “My Life Before” join “Anatomy of Autumn” on the top 10 best picture shortlist, along with “Oppenheimer,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “My Life Before,” and “American Novel” , “Old Stuff”, “The Master” and “Zone of Interest”.
Glazer’s film is a thoroughly experimental look at the family life outside the walls of Auschwitz with Helga and Rudolf Hoss, the camp commander currently in contention for the Five Academy Awards, including Best International Film.
“Zone of Interest,” shot in German in Poland, is the first British film to compete in the category in 24 years (Paul Morrison’s Welsh-language “Solomon and Gaynor” was nominated).
The show’s star, Sandra Hüller, wasn’t on the supporting actress shortlist, but her performance in Anatomy means she’ll join Stone, Gladstone, Annette Bay Ning (“Niyad”) and Carey Morrigan (“The Master”) compete for best actress.
Bradley Cooper’s take on Leonard Bernstein’s personal and professional drama The Master was recognized in seven categories including voice, makeup and hair, while Cooper himself is competing for Original Screenplay and Best Actor.
Colman Domingo (“Rustin”) and Jeffrey Wright (“American Novel”) were surprise surprises in this matchup, although it was widely predicted that this matchup would be between Murphy and Paul Gee A straight-up fight between Amati (Paul Giamatti, a grumpy teacher in “Guardians”).
Alexander Payne’s comedy was one of four comedies on the Best Picture shortlist, the most since 2013, and while it missed out on Best Director, it was a strong contender for Original Screenplay , and will almost certainly win the Best Supporting Actress award. Da’Vine Joy Randolph has won every previous award for her performance in the film, but there are a few surprises in her game.
Like Ferrera in “Barbie,” Jodie Foster is also a surprise inclusion. The quintet is completed by Danielle Brooks, the sole representative of The Color Purple after Fantasia was overlooked for a leading actress nomination. Foster and Rustin’s Domingo are both openly LGBTQ and playing LGBTQ characters – the first time they have appeared on the Oscar shortlist twice.
Meanwhile, Wright and Sterling K. Brown were nominated in the American fiction category, marking another first: a black lead and supporting actor were nominated for the same film.
Critically acclaimed British romance film We Were Strangers disappointed as it didn’t receive any nominations, meaning writer-director Andrew Haigh and stars Andrew Scott, Paul McCus, Claire Foy and Jamie Bell’s snub. Michael Mann’s Ferrari also stalled, with stars Adam Driver and Penélope Cruz both left out in the cold.
Also overlooked is Emerald Fennell’s much talked about Saltburn, with supporting actress Rosamund Pike and lead actor Barry Keoghan being the most glaring omissions from the nominations.
“Previous Life” is also hoping for recognition beyond best picture and original screenplay nominations, with stars Greta Lee and Chang Yu also overlooked, along with director Song.
The Oscars are voted on by nearly 11,000 industry professionals from 93 countries. This year’s ceremony will be held in Hollywood on March 10 and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel.
