Yesterday the Academy Award nominations for the year were announced, and while there were, as there always are, a few surprising Oscar snubs, there were also some welcome nominations. Robert Downey Jr.’s Best Supporting Actor nomination is just one of Oppenheimer’s many nominations, but the actor is clearly touched by it, and many of his celebrity friends, including MCU co-star Gwyneth Paltrow are also celebrating.
Robert Downey Jr. took to Instagram not to celebrate his own nomination, but instead to celebrate the 13 nominations that Oppenheimer earned overall. However, the comments were full of congratulations specifically for Downey, as he’s been nominated for his third Oscar. The Pepper Potts to Downey’s Tony Stark, Gwyneth Paltrow, was among the well-wishers, saying…
It’s your year, brother
The previous two times that Robert Downey Jr. received Oscar nominations it was not “his year.” He was nominated back in 1993 for Best Actor for his role in Chaplin, the biopic about the silent movie star. He lost that award to Al Pacino for Scent of a Woman. He was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Tropic Thunder in 2009. He lost out then to Heath Ledger, who won the Oscar posthumously for his role as the Joker in The Dark Knight.
Whether or not this is truly Downey’s year remains to be seen. He certainly has some stiff competition in the form of his MCU co-star Mark Ruffalo, who was nominated for Poor Things, the iconic Robert De Niro, nominated for Killers of the Flower Moon, Sterling K. Brown for American Fiction, and Ryan Gosling who was nominated for Barbie.
Still, whatever the outcome will be, few if any are of the opinion that Downey isn’t a deserving nominee, and he likely does have a solid shot at winning. In addition to Paltrow, several other actors and friends of Robert Downey Jr. celebrated his “well-deserved” nomination.
- Well deserved! - Donnie Yen
- ❤️ - David Krumholtz
- 👏👏👏 - Dane DeHaan
Oppenheimer certainly put on one hell of a show when it came to Oscar nominations. The movie has 13, the most of any film this year. While there have been cases of movies getting a lot of nominations and few wins, Oppenheimer is almost guaranteed to have a good night at the Oscars as it is certainly favored in many categories. The only questions are which awards it will actually win, and if it might run the Oscar table. Even if Robert Downey Jr. doesn’t go home with an Oscar, he says he is proud to be part of the movie’s incredible success.
With Robert Downey Jr. being a big star and Oppenheimer being one of the most seen Oscar nominees in years, we can be sure there will be a lot of eyes on this award when the Oscars are awarded in March. We'll see if he gets another nominations with 2024 movies.
