Christopher Nolan looks set to secure his first ever Oscar at next month’s ceremony after his latest film, Oppenheimer, was revealed as the movie with the most nominations.
A biopic of Robert Oppenheimer, the scientist behind the atomic bomb, the film is shortlisted in 13 categories, including best film, director and adapted screenplay. Stars Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr and Emily Blunt are also in contention for awards. This tally means it has the most nominations garnered by a single film since 2018’s The Shape of Water, which went on to win four, including best picture and director.
Nolan, who has previously been nominated for five Oscars, is also frontrunner at next month’s Bafta awards – where he has likewise always come away empty-handed.
Meanwhile, Martin Scorsese secures a 10th best director nomination for true crime epic Killers of the Flower Moon. Following their snubs at the Bafta nominations last week, stars Lily Gladstone and Robert De Niro were revealed to be in the running for Oscars – although Leonardo DiCaprio has been shut out.
Gladstone’s inclusion makes her the first Native American actor to ever be up for the award and reignites the race between her and Poor Things star Emma Stone, who also won a best actress Golden Globe earlier this month.
Poor Things performed better than expected at Tuesday’s nominations, securing surprise nods for Mark Ruffalo as best supporting actor and Yorgos Lanthimos for best director. Lanthimos will now compete against Nolan, Scorsese, The Zone of Interest’s Jonathan Glazer and Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall.
Triet, who won the Palme d’Or at Cannes last year for her courtroom thriller, is therefore the only female director in the category, with Barbie’s Greta Gerwig and Past Lives’s Celine Song both shut out.
Barbie instead had to make do with eight nominations, including adapted screenplay, supporting actor for Ryan Gosling, two separate entries for best song and a surprise supporting actress nod for America Ferrera.
Yet Barbie and Past Lives are nominated alongside Anatomy of a Fall in the 10-strong best picture shortlist, as well as Oppenheimer, Killers of the Flower Moon, Past Lives, and alongside American Fiction, The Holdovers, Maestro and The Zone of Interest.
Glazer’s film, a radically experimental look at the domestic lives of Helga and Rudolph Höss just outside the walls of Auschwitz, where he was camp commander, is now in the running for five Oscars, including best international film.
Shot in Poland in the German language, The Zone of Interest is the first British film in 24 years to be in contention in the category (when Paul Morrison’s Welsh-language Solomon and Gaenor was nominated).
Its star, Sandra Hüller, was not named in the supporting actress shortlist, but her work on Anatomy of a Fall means she will compete against Stone, Gladstone, Annette Bening (for Nyad) and Carey Mulligan (for Maestro) for leading actress.
Maestro, Bradley Cooper’s take on the personal and professional dramas of Leonard Bernstein, scored recognition in seven categories, including sound and makeup and hair, while Cooper himself is up for original screenplay and best actor.
Colman Domingo (for Rustin) and Jeffrey Wright (for American Fiction) were popular surprise inclusions in that race, although it is widely predicted to be a straight fight between Murphy and Paul Giamatti, who plays a curmudgeonly teacher in The Holdovers.
Alexander Payne’s comedy – one of four comedies on the best picture shortlist, the most since 2013 – missed out for best director, but is a strong contender for original screenplay and almost a certainty for supporting actress. Da’Vine Joy Randolph has won every previous award going for her performance in the film, but there were some surprises among her competition.
As with Barbie’s Ferrera, Jodie Foster was an unexpected inclusion; the quintet was rounded out by Danielle Brooks – the sole representative from The Color Purple after Fantasia Barrino was overlooked for leading actress. Foster and Rustin’s Domingo are both out LGBTQ and play LGBTQ characters – this is the first time that has happened twice on the Oscars shortlist.
Meanwhile, Wright and Sterling K Brown’s nominations for American Fiction mark another first: Black lead and supporting actors being nominated for the same film.
There was disappointment for acclaimed British romance All of Us Strangers, which came away with no nominations, meaning snubs for writer-director Andrew Haigh and stars Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, Claire Foy and Jamie Bell. Michael Mann’s Ferrari also stalled, with stars Adam Driver and Penélope Cruz among those cold-shouldered.
Similarly ignored was Emerald Fennell’s much-watched and discussed Saltburn, with supporting actress Rosamund Pike and leading actor Barry Keoghan the most glaring omissions from the nominations.
Past Lives would have also hoped for recognition beyond its best picture and original screenplay nominations, with stars Greta Lee and Teo Yoo also ignored alongside director Song.
The Oscars are voted for by almost 11,000 voters of industry professionals from 93 countries. This year’s ceremony will take place in Hollywood on 10 March, in a ceremony hosted by Jimmy Kimmel.
