Oscars 2019: Full list of nominations for 91st Academy Awards
Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma and Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Favourite have led all films with 10 nominations each | FULL LIST
Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma and Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Favourite have led all films with 10 nominations each heading to the 91st Academy Awards, while two dominant but contentious Hollywood forces — Netflix and Marvel — each scored their first best picture nomination. Though many expected A Star Is Born, Bradley Cooper’s tear-inducing revival of one of Hollywood’s most remade show-business myths, to top the nominations, Cooper was surprisingly overlooked as director and the academy instead put its fullest support behind a pair of indies by international directors.
But the news was disappointing for the Aussie contingent. Actress Margot Robbie, lost out on a nomination for her performance as Queen Elizabeth I in Mary Queen of Scots, although Australian screenwriter TonyMcNamara was nominated for original screenplay in The Favourite and production designer Fiona Crombie was also nominated for her work on the same movie.
With the black-and-white, Spanish-language Roma, Netflix scored its first best picture nomination, a prize the streaming giant has dearly sought. Marvel, too, joined the club with Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther, the first superhero movie ever nominated for best picture.
Cuaron tied the record for most decorated Oscar nominee ever for one film with four individual nods for Roma, his deeply personal exhumation of his Mexico City childhood. Cuaron was nominated for direction, cinematography, original screenplay and best picture. Only Orson Welles (Citizen Kane) and Warren Beatty (who did it twice with Reds and Heaven Can Wait) have matched the four-nod feat.
Cuaron, previously a six-time nominee and winner for directing Gravity, said by phone from London that the nominations for such a personal film were more meaningful to him, as was the attention for a film about a humble indigenous domestic worker (Yalitza Aparicio, who was nominated for best actress). And he praised Netflix for its commitment to his film.
“Cinema needs the opportunity to be diverse,” Cuaron said. “What mainstream cinema and the theatrical experience has lacked in general is diversity. And I’m talking about diversity in terms of stories and characters and ways of doing films.”
Just as rewarded Tuesday was Lanthimos’ period romp, which resounded most in the acting categories thanks to its trio of actresses: Olivia Colman in the best actress category, and Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone in supporting. Along with Roma, Black Panther and The Favourite, the eight nominees for best picture were: Peter Farrelly’s interracial road trip tale Green Book, Spike Lee’s white supremacist evisceration BlacKkKlansman, the Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, Adam McKay’s highly critical Dick Cheney biopic Vice and A Star Is Born, which still landed eight nominations, including best actress for Lady Gaga and best supporting actor for Sam Elliott.
Black Panther, the year’s biggest domestic box-office hit and a bona fide cultural event, finally cracked the category long kryptonite to superheroes. Despite the overwhelming popularity of comic book movies, they had previously been shunned from Hollywood’s top honour to the consternation of some industry insiders. After The Dark Knight was snubbed in 2009, the academy expanded the best picture category from five to up to 10 nominees.
The lush, big-budget craft of Black Panther was rewarded with seven total nominations, including Hannah Beachler and Jay Hart’s production design, Terence Blanchard’s score, Ruth Carter’s costume design and Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s song All the Stars. Beachler became the first African-American nominated for production design.
“To break down a wall like that, to be your ancestors’ wildest dreams, to show other young women of colour and boys and girls that you can do whatever you want no matter what struggles you have in your life — all of that. That’s what it means to me,” said Beachler, talking by phone from the Cincinnati set of Todd Haynes’ latest.
There has likewise been resistance among some academy members to awarding Netflix films since the company typically bypasses movie theatres. Steven Spielberg has said Netflix films are more like TV movies and deserve an Emmy, not an Oscar. Netflix altered its policy for Roma and the Coen brothers’ The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (which earned three unexpected nods), premiering them first in cinemas before debuting them on Netflix. In turn, it was rewarded with 13 nominations overall, second only to Fox Searchlight’s 15. Three decades after landing a writing nod for 1989’s Do the Right Thing, Spike Lee was nominated for his first directing Oscar for his BlacKkKlansman.
“Thirty years is a long time, ain’t it?” Lee said with a hearty laugh. The 61-year-old filmmaker lamented the oversight of his lead actor, John David Washington, whom he consoled with a prediction of future awards: “Young blood, you’ll be here.” But Lee took pride in his film’s six nominations. He likes his odds.
“BlacKkKlansman is the dark horse — pun intended,” said Lee, cackling. “You know what? That’s fitting. I’ve always been an underdog, from the very beginning, from film school. That narrative has not changed. And I like that position.”
The nominations, announced by Kumail Nanjiani and Tracee Ellis Ross from the Samuel Goldwyn Theatre in Beverly Hills, California, included plenty of surprises. In a banner year for documentaries, the Fred Rogers documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor was snubbed despite more than $22 million in ticket sales (a huge sum for a doc). Instead the nominees were Free Solo, Hale County This Morning, This Evening, Minding the Gap, Of Fathers and Sons and the Ruth Bader Ginsberg portrait RBG.
The acting categories played out largely as expected with a few notable differences. Along with Lady Gaga and Colman, the best lead actress nominees are Yalitza Aparicio (Roma), Glenn Close (The Wife) and Melissa McCarthy (Can You Ever Forgive Me?).
In best actor, the expected front runner Christian Bale was nominated for his transformation into Cheney in Vice (his fourth Oscar nod), along with Cooper, Willem Dafoe (At Eternity’s Gate), Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody) and Viggo Mortensen (Green Book).
Last year’s Oscar telecast was watched by a record low of 26.5 million viewers, but this year will at least feature a number of popular nominees. Black Panther, Bohemian Rhapsody and A Star Is Born have all done enormous box office. Just how many people have seen Roma, though, remains a mystery. Netflix doesn’t release box office receipts or streaming viewership. It’s also an usually international crop of nominees. It’s only the second time that directors from two foreign language films were nominated for best director (Cuaron and Poland’s Pawlikowski). Roma is aiming to be the first foreign language film to win best picture. Some of that could potentially be attributed to a changing academy, which has greatly expanded its ranks in recent years to diversify its membership, including more overseas members.
Full list
BEST PICTURE
Black Panther
BlacKkKlansman
Bohemian Rhapsody
The Favourite
Green Book
Roma
A Star Is Born
Vice
LEAD ACTOR
Christian Bale, Vice
Bradley Cooper, A Star Is Born
Willem Dafoe, At Eternity’s Gate
Rami Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody
Viggo Mortensen, Green Book
LEAD ACTRESS
Yalitza Aparicio, Roma
Glenn Close, The Wife
Olivia Colman, The Favourite
Lady Gaga, A Star Is Born
Melissa McCarthy, Can You Ever Forgive Me?
SUPPORTING ACTOR
Mahershala Ali, Green Book
Adam Driver, BlacKkKlansman
Sam Elliott, A Star Is Born
Richard E. Grant, Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Sam Rockwell, Vice
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams, Vice
Marina de Tavira, Roma
Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk
Emma Stone, The Favourite
Rachel Weisz, The Favourite
DIRECTOR
Spike Lee, BlacKkKlansman
Pawel Pawlikowski, Cold War
Yorgos Lanthimos, The Favourite
Alfonso Cuaron, Roma
Adam McKay, Vice
ANIMATED FEATURE
Incredibles 2, Brad Bird
Isle of Dogs, Wes Anderson
Mirai, Mamoru Hosoda
Ralph Breaks the Internet, Rich Moore, Phil Johnston
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman
ANIMATED SHORT
Animal Behaviour, Alison Snowden, David Fine
Bao, Domee Shi
Late Afternoon, Louise Bagnall
One Small Step, Andrew Chesworth, Bobby Pontillas
Weekends, Trevor Jimenez
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
BlacKkKlansman, Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott, Spike Lee
Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty
If Beale Street Could Talk, Barry Jenkins
A Star Is Born, Eric Roth, Bradley Cooper, Will Fetters
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
The Favourite, Deborah Davis, Tony McNamara
First Reformed, Paul Schrader
Green Book, Nick Vallelonga, Brian Currie, Peter Farrelly
Roma, Alfonso Cuaron
Vice, Adam McKay
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Cold War, Lukasz Zal
The Favourite, Robbie Ryan
Never Look Away
Roma, Alfonso Cuaron
A Star Is Born, Matthew Libatique
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Free Solo, Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi
Hale County This Morning, This Evening, RaMell Ross
Minding the Gap, Bing Liu
Of Fathers and Sons, Talal Derki
RBG, Betsy West, Julie Cohen
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
Black Sheep, Ed Perkins
End Game, Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman
Lifeboat, Skye Fitzgerald
A Night at the Garden, Marshall Curry
Period. End of Sentence., Rayka Zehtabchi
BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
Detainment, Vincent Lambe
Fauve, Jeremy Comte
Marguerite, Marianne Farley
Mother, Rodrigo Sorogoyen
Skin, Guy Nattiv
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Capernaum (Lebanon)
Cold War (Poland)
Never Look Away (Germany)
Roma (Mexico)
Shoplifters (Japan)
FILM EDITING
BlacKkKlansman, Barry Alexander Brown
Bohemian Rhapsody, John Ottman
Green Book, Patrick J. Don Vito
The Favourite, Yorgos Mavropsaridis
Vice, Hank Corwin
SOUND EDITING
Black Panther, Benjamin A. Burtt, Steve Boeddeker
Bohemian Rhapsody, John Warhurst
First Man, Ai-Ling Lee, Mildred Iatrou Morgan
A Quiet Place, Ethan Van der Ryn, Erik Aadahl
Roma, Sergio Diaz, Skip Lievsay
SOUND MIXING
Black Panther
Bohemian Rhapsody
First Man
Roma
A Star Is Born
PRODUCTION DESIGN
Black Panther, Hannah Beachler
First Man, Nathan Crowley, Kathy Lucas
The Favourite, Fiona Crombie, Alice Felton
Mary Poppins Returns, John Myhre, Gordon Sim
Roma, Eugenio Caballero, Bárbara Enrı́quez
ORIGINAL SCORE
BlacKkKlansman, Terence Blanchard
Black Panther, Ludwig Goransson
If Beale Street Could Talk, Nicholas Britell
Isle of Dogs, Alexandre Desplat
Mary Poppins Returns, Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman
ORIGINAL SONG
All The Stars from Black Panther by Kendrick Lamar, SZA
I’ll Fight from RBG by Diane Warren, Jennifer Hudson
The Place Where Lost Things Go from Mary Poppins Returns by Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman
Shallow from A Star Is Born by Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando, Andrew Wyatt and Benjamin Rice
When A Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings from The Ballad of Buster Scruggs by Willie Watson, Tim Blake Nelson
MAKEUP AND HAIR
Border
Mary Queen of Scots
Vice
COSTUME DESIGN
Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Black Panther, Ruth E. Carter
The Favourite, Sandy Powell
Mary Poppins Returns, Sandy Powell
Mary Queen of Scots, Alexandra Byrne
VISUAL EFFECTS
Avengers: Infinity War
Christopher Robin
First Man
Ready Player One
Solo: A Star Wars Story
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