Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog leads Oscar nominations with 12

Jane Campion’s western The Power of the Dog has scored the most Oscar nominations; Nicole Kidman is up for best actress | FULL LIST

Australian Kodi Smit-McPhee has been nominated for best supporting actor for his role in Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog.

Antipodean director Jane Campion has made Oscars history today, becoming the first woman to be twice nominated as best director, as her boldly unconventional western, The Power of the Dog, leads the field in this year’s Academy Award nominations.

Nominations for the 2022 Academy Awards were announced overnight, and The Power of the Dog, an Australian-British co-production starring Benedict Cumberbatch, earned an impressive 12 nominations with sci-fi blockbuster, Dune, in second place with 10 nods.

Australians figure prominently in the nominations, with Nicole Kidman shortlisted for the best actress award for her widely-praised performance as Lucille Ball in Being the Ricardos, opposite Javier Bardem, who was nominated for best actor. In January, Kidman won a Golden Globe for her turn as Ball, and she is up against Jessica Chastain, Olivia Colman, Penelope Cruz, Nicole Kidman and Kristen Stewart in the hotly-contested best actress Oscars category.

Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem, in Being The Ricardos, both received acting nominations.

Another Australian, Kodi Smit-McPhee, was nominated in the best supporting actor category for his portrayal in The Power of the Dog of the seemingly vulnerable son of a newly-married widow, while two more Aussies, The Power of the Dog’s Ari Wegner and Dune’s Greig Fraser, were nominated in the cinematography category. Wegner is only the second female cinematographer to receive an Oscar nomination. There was also a best picture nomination for Power of the Dog’s Australian co-producer Emile Sherman and an editing nod for Power of the Dog’s Peter Sciberras.

Campion, a New Zealander who trained at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School and has been a long-time Sydney resident, was nominated for a directing Oscar in 1994 for her brooding period film, The Piano. Although she lost out to Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List, she picked up the Academy Award for best original screenplay; she has been nominated again this year in the adapted screenplay category.

In 1993, she marked another historical milestone when she became the first woman film-maker to win the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or award, for The Piano.

Timothee Chalomet and Rebecca Ferguson in Dune, which received 10 Oscar nominations.

The Oscars success of The Power of the Dog, which is streaming on Netflix, builds on its already muscular awards season. It has snaffled the Venice Film Festival’s Silver Lion Award for best director, three Golden Globes and eight BAFTA nominations in the British film awards.

Its star, Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays a surly, sexually repressed rancher, has been nominated in the actor in a leading role category, alongside Bardem, Andrew Garfield (Tick, Tick … Boom!), Denzel Washington (The Tragedy of Macbeth) and hot favourite Will Smith (King Richard). Cumberbatch’s co-stars, Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons also received acting nods, in the best supporting actress and actor categories.

Although The Power of the Dog has emerged as a potential Oscars powerhouse, it faces stiff competition in the prestigious best film category, which was expanded this year to include 10 nominated movies. Among the leading contenders are Belfast, Kenneth Branagh’s semi-autobiographical story of sectarian conflict in 1960s Northern Ireland, and Spielberg’s remake of classic musical West Side Story. Those films each garnered seven nominations.

Hopes that commercial box office hits including Spider-Man: No Way Home and Daniel Craig’s final Bond outing, No Time To Die, could muscle their way into the best picture field and broaden the Oscars’ appeal, were dashed. Spider-Man landed only a visual effects nomination, while No Time To Die earned three nods.

The Oscar winners will be announced on March 27, US time.

Judi Dench, Jude Hill and Ciaran Hinds in Belfast, which received seven nominations.

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Full list of Academy Award nominations

Best Picture

Belfast

CODA

Don’t Look Up

Drive My Car

Dune

King Richard

Licorice Pizza

Nightmare Alley

The Power of the Dog

West Side Story

Best Director

Kenneth Branagh, Belfast

Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Drive My Car

Paul Thomas Anderson, Licorice Pizza

Jane Campion, The Power of the Dog

Steven Spielberg, West Side Story

Best Actor

Javier Bardem, Being the Ricardos

Benedict Cumberbatch, The Power of the Dog

Andrew Garfield, Tick, Tick … Boom!

Will Smith, King Richard

Denzel Washington, The Tragedy of Macbeth

Best Actress

Jessica Chastain, The Eyes of Tammy Faye

Olivia Colman, The Lost Daughter

Penelope Cruz, Parallel Mothers

Nicole Kidman, Being the Ricardos

Kristen Stewart, Spencer

Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story was nominated for seven Oscars.

Best Supporting Actor

Ciaran Hinds, Belfast

Troy Kotsur, CODA

Jesse Plemons, The Power of the Dog

J.K. Simmons, Being the Ricardos

Kodi Smit-McPhee, The Power of the Dog

Best Supporting Actress

Jessie Buckley, The Lost Daughter

Ariana DeBose, West Side Story

Judi Dench, Belfast

Kirsten Dunst, The Power of the Dog

Aunjanue Ellis, King Richard

Original Screenplay

Belfast

Don’t Look Up

King Richard

Licorice Pizza

The Worst Person in the World

Adapted Screenplay

CODA

Drive My Car

Dune

The Lost Daughter

The Power of the Dog

Animated Feature

Encanto

Flee

Luca

The Mitchells vs. the Machines

Raya and the Last Dragon

Production Design

Dune

Nightmare Alley

The Power of the Dog

The Tragedy of Macbeth

West Side Story

Costume Design

Cruella

Cyrano

Dune

Nightmare Alley

West Side Story

Cinematography

Dune

Nightmare Alley

The Power of the Dog

The Tragedy of Macbeth

West Side Story

Editing

Don’t Look Up

Dune

King Richard

The Power of the Dog

Tick, Tick … Boom!

Makeup and Hairstyling

Coming 2 America

Cruella

Dune

The Eyes of Tammy Faye

House of Gucci

Sound

Belfast

Dune

No Time to Die

The Power of the Dog

West Side Story

Visual Effects

Dune

Free Guy

No Time to Die

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Spider-Man: No Way Home

Score

Don’t Look Up

Dune

Encanto

Parallel Mothers

The Power of the Dog

Song

Be Alive (King Richard)

Dos Oruguitas (Encanto)

Down to Joy (Belfast)

No Time To Die (No Time to Die)

Somehow You Do (Four Good Days)

Documentary Feature

Ascension

Attica

Flee

Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)

Writing With Fire

International Feature

Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom, Bhutan

Flee, Denmark

The Hand of God, Italy

Drive My Car, Japan

The Worst Person in the World, Norway

Animated Short

Affairs of the Art

Bestia

Boxballet

Robin Robin

The Windshield Wiper

Documentary Short

Audible

Lead Me Home

The Queen of Basketball

Three Songs for Benazir

When We Were Bullies

Live-Action Short

The Dress

The Long Goodbye

On My Mind

Please Hold

Ala Kachuu — Take and Run