It’s a great day for Oppenheimer! Christopher Nolan’s summer blockbuster epic received the highest number of Oscar nominations this morning with thirteen, nearly tying the record of fourteen. The film got in pretty much everywhere it could and now appears to be the frontrunner to win the Academy Award in early March for Best Picture.
In the top category, the ten Picture nominees matched the Producers Guild Awards top ten exactly, with no big surprise titles making it in. Poor Things received eleven Oscar nominations total, including Picture and Director, giving it the second-most of the morning. The Picture category ranges from movies like Barbie and Killers of the Flower Moon which also received lots of nominations across the board, all the way to Past Lives, which only managed two noms total—Picture and Original Screenplay.
The big surprise in Director was Greta Gerwig missing for Barbie after getting in almost everywhere, including the Directors Guild Awards. The director’s branch of the Academy opted to nominate two international films in the category—Anatomy of a Fall and The Zone of Interest. They also snubbed Alexander Payne for The Holdovers, which seemed a likely nomination given he had been recognized in this category three times before. It’s already looking like Christopher Nolan for Oppenheimer has this win in the bag, given he was victorious at Golden Globes and Critics Choice and has never won an Oscar.
Best Actor turned out to be the expected five, the same line-up at SAG, and who most were predicting to get into the five slots at the Oscars. The support for Leonardo DiCaprio’s performance in Killers of the Flower Moon has faded in recent weeks, and so he missed, along with some other award season favorites like Barry Keoghan in Saltburn and Andrew Scott in All of Us Strangers. A tremendous achievement in this category is that Colman Domingo becomes only the second openly gay actor after Ian McKellan in Gods and Monsters to be nominated for playing an openly gay character in Rustin. In terms of a win here, this category comes down to either Paul Giamatti for The Holdovers or Cillian Murphy for Oppenheimer, and whoever wins at SAG in February will likely seal the deal.
The biggest shocker in Best Actress was Margot Robbie missing for Barbie after being nominated pretty much everywhere else this season (although Robbie did score a producing nomination for the film). I hoped Greta Lee would make it in with enough passion votes, but sadly, she missed too. The most unexpected inclusion is Annette Bening for Nyad since she missed at Critics Choice and BAFTA for a movie that hasn’t performed well outside of the acting categories; this marks Bening’s fifth Oscar nomination to date, thus far without a win. Lily Gladstone also makes history by becoming the first Native American woman to be nominated for the Best Actress Academy Award for Killers of the Flower Moon. With Emma Stone winning at both the Golden Globes and Critics Choice for Poor Things, she is currently the frontrunner to win the Oscar, but both Sandra Hüller for Anatomy of a Fall and Gladstone are in contention as well.
There were no huge surprises in Best Supporting Actor, only that Sterling K. Brown for American Fiction took a slot many thought was reserved for Willem Dafoe for Poor Things. Weeks in advance, this category is already so obviously Robert Downey Jr’s for the taking, after his victories at Golden Globes and Critics Choice. Best Supporting Actress had a pretty big stunner—America Ferrera for Barbie, a performance that until now had only gotten a nomination at Critics Choice. This category has been all over the place this season, so there seemed to be room for Penelope Cruz for Ferrari or Rosamund Pike for Saltburn, but both of those films turned up with no nominations. Danielle Brooks, who months ago was thought to be the frontrunner in this category, turned out to be The Color Purple’s only Oscar recognition. Like Downey Jr., Da’Vine Joy Randolph for The Holdovers has been overperforming in her category at all the precursor award shows and will probably win the Academy Award, too.
The screenplay categories mostly matched up with the Best Picture nominees, the one outlier being May December, which got a lone nomination in Original Screenplay. Stunningly the only Best Picture nominee to not get nominated in a Screenplay category was Killers of the Flower Moon, although it probably would’ve made it if Barbie had been put in Original Screenplay and not Adapted Screenplay.
The technical categories turned out to include a lot of Killers of the Flower Moon, Oppenheimer, and Poor Things nominations, with only the occasional surprise. El Conde received its only nomination for Best Cinematography. Napoleon made it into three technical categories, including Best Costume Design and Best Production Design. Godzilla Minus One received a well-deserved Best Visual Effects nomination. And John Williams received his near-record fifty-fourth nomination for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
The 96th Academy Awards airs live on ABC on Sunday, March 10 at 4pm PT / 7pm EST.
