Oscars nominations: Oppenheimer leads with 13 nods, Margot Robbie snubbed for Barbie
It was a somewhat disappointing announcement for Barbie, the other half of last year’s ‘Barbenheimer’ box office phenomenon and the year’s highest-grossing film.
It was a “Barbenheimer” kind of morning as Barbie and Oppenheimer, two of the year’s biggest - and least alike -- movies split the attention at Tuesday’s Oscar nominations announcement.
But when it came to some prominent categories, Barbie was left out.
As widely anticipated, Christopher Nolan’s saga about the father of the nuclear bomb J. Robert Oppenheimer led all films with 13 nominations. Greta Gerwig’s Barbie came through with eight nods, though Margot Robbie and Gerwig missed out on best actress and director, respectively. Both Barbie and Oppenheimer were nominated for best picture.
Also in the mix was Killers of the Flower Moon, Martin Scorsese’s epic true story about the killing of Osage tribe members by outsiders on oil-rich land in 1920s Oklahoma, which notched 10 nods.
Poor Things, an offbeat origin story from director Yorgos Lanthimos about a cloistered young woman’s path to sex-filled independence, came in with 11 nominations. Maestro, the story of Leonard Bernstein, also fared well with seven nods - including makeup and hairstyling, after all the hullabaloo over star Bradley Cooper’s prosthetic nose for his portrayal of Bernstein.
Barbie, a musical comedy about an existential crisis in the land of plastic dolls, made more than $US1.4 billion at the worldwide box office, followed by The Super Mario Bros. Movie at roughly $1.3 billion (no nominations) and Oppenheimer at $952 million.
The largest-ever voting turnout from 93 countries offered plenty of surprises. Nominators overlooked the domestic drama May December nearly completely -- including snubbing rising star Charles Melton, acclaimed for his supporting performance as a young father trapped by his manipulative older wife -- though the film did receive a screenplay nomination for writer Samy Burch from a story by Burch and Alex Mechanik.
Other less widely predicted twists landed in the supporting actress race, where Danielle Brooks was nominated for The Color Purple and Jodie Foster got the nod for Nyad. America Ferrera also received a nomination for Barbie, where she delivered one of the more memorable monologues of the year. (Da’Vine Joy Randolph has dominated the supporting actress conversation with her performance as a bereaved mother and dining-hall cook in The Holdovers. On Tuesday she received her first Oscar nomination.)
Among the snubs: no best picture nominations for the musical adaptation The Color Purple, the dark comedy May December or Ben Affleck’s Nike biopic Air. Nominations many Oscar prognosticators did not see coming also include: supporting actor for Sterling K. Brown as the surgeon brother in American Fiction and Annette Bening for best actress for her role as the controversial distance swimmer Diana Nyad in Nyad.
Oscar watchers predict a tight three-way supporting actor race between Robert Downey Jr. as the scientist’s nemesis in Oppenheimer, Robert De Niro as a ruthless kingpin in Killers of the Flower Moon and Ryan Gosling’s Ken in Barbie. Downey Jr.’s two previous Oscar nominations make clear the sweep of his long career -- from Chaplin in 1993 to Tropic Thunder in 2009 -- but he has never won.
Paul Giamatti is a leading best actor contender for The Holdovers, Alexander Payne’s wry and poignant look at a teacher and student who change each other’s lives -- a film that reunited Giamatti and Payne nearly 20 years after their hit Sideways.
Among his competitors in the category: Oppenheimer star Cillian Murphy as a genius grappling with the morality of his world-threatening creation, the first Oscar nomination for the Irish actor. Jeffrey Wright also made the list for his performance in the satire American Fiction, playing a writer toying with a publishing industry’s rigid views on race. Colman Domingo also made the cut for his starring role in Rustin, about civil rights activist Bayard Rustin. Maestro star Bradley Cooper was also in the mix. Missing: Leonardo DiCaprio as a traitorous husband in Killers of the Flower Moon. In her starring role in Killers of the Flower Moon, Lily Gladstone has been a favourite this awards season for best actress, and she continued her streak with a nomination on Tuesday. Gladstone has already made history when she became the first indigenous actress to win a Golden Globe for lead actress earlier this month.
Carey Mulligan was nominated for best actress for Maestro, Emma Stone for Poor Things, and the German actress Sandra Hüller for Anatomy of a Fall. Bening’s Nyad nomination edged out other contenders, including Greta Lee for Past Lives, Fantasia Barrino-Taylor for The Color Purple, Natalie Portman for May December and, most notably, producer-star Margot Robbie for Barbie.
Barbie did get a nomination for Gerwig and Noah Baumbach for adapted screenplay, which had been in question after the musical comedy was bumped from the original screenplay category. The switch in categories might explain the snub of the otherwise celebrated adapted screenplay for Killers of the Flower Moon from a book by David Grann.
At least three women were in contention for best director this year, though just one was nominated: Justine Triet for the morality-play mystery Anatomy of a Fall. Along with Gerwig, Celine Song, who helmed the study of love and friendship Past Lives, was also passed over.
The 2024 Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 10.
Here are the nominees in key categories for the 96th Academy Awards, to be handed out in Hollywood on March 10.
Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” about the father of the atomic bomb, dominated the competition with 13 nominations.
“Poor Things,” a female take on the Frankenstein story set in the Victorian era, came second with 11, followed by Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” at 10.
- Best picture -
“American Fiction” “Anatomy of a Fall” “Barbie” “The Holdovers” “Killers of the Flower Moon” “Maestro” “Oppenheimer” “Past Lives” “Poor Things” “The Zone of Interest”
- Best director -
Jonathan Glazer, “The Zone of Interest” Yorgos Lanthimos, “Poor Things” Christopher Nolan, “Oppenheimer” Martin Scorsese, “Killers of the Flower Moon” Justine Triet, “Anatomy of a Fall”
- Best actor -
Bradley Cooper, “Maestro” Colman Domingo, “Rustin” Paul Giamatti, “The Holdovers” Cillian Murphy, “Oppenheimer” Jeffrey Wright, “American Fiction”
- Best actress -
Annette Bening, “Nyad” Lily Gladstone, “Killers of the Flower Moon” Sandra Huller, “Anatomy of a Fall” Carey Mulligan, “Maestro” Emma Stone, “Poor Things”
- 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”
- Best supporting actress -
Emily Blunt, “Oppenheimer” Danielle Brooks, “The Color Purple” America Ferrera, “Barbie” Jodie Foster, “Nyad” Da’Vine Joy Randolph, “The Holdovers”
- Best international feature film -
“Io Capitano” (Italy) “Perfect Days” (Japan) “Society of the Snow” (Spain) “The Teachers’ Lounge” (Germany) “The Zone of Interest” (United Kingdom)
- Best animated feature -
“The Boy and the Heron” “Elemental” “Nimona” “Robot Dreams” “Spider-Man: Across the Spider Verse”
- Best documentary feature -
“Bobi Wine: The People’s President” “The Eternal Memory” “Four Daughters” “To Kill a Tiger” “20 Days in Mariupol”
- Films with seven or more nominations -
“Oppenheimer” - 13 “Poor Things” - 11 “Killers of the Flower Moon” - 10 “Barbie” - 8 “Maestro” - 7
Wall Street Journal