By John Corrado

The nominations for the 96th Academy Awards were announced this morning. Leading the pack is Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer with thirteen nominations, followed by Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things with eleven and Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon with ten.

First off, I must say that this is a very strong lineup of ten films for Best Picture (I’m personally happy that Past Lives, my own number one movie of last year, managed to get in alongside a lone screenplay nomination). While big names like Greta Gerwig (Barbie) and Alexander Payne (The Holdovers) didn’t make it in to Best Director, it’s awesome that Cannes favourites Justine Triet (Anatomy of a Fall) and Jonathan Glazer (The Zone of Interest) were both included in the auteur-driven lineup.

In the acting categories, surprises included Sterling K. Brown (American Fiction) and America Ferrera (Barbie) both getting in Supporting Actor and Actress, respectively. They both gave highly memorable supporting performances in their roles (Ferrera’s monologue is surely what put her on top), so it’s not really a shock that they both came along with their Best Picture contenders.

What is more surprising is that Barbie’s lead actress, Margot Robbie, wasn’t able to make the cut, especially with Ferrera and Ryan Gosling both getting through in the supporting categories, and Gerwig’s film otherwise doing so well with eight nominations. Other notable acting snubs included Greta Lee (Past Lives), Andrew Scott (All of Us Strangers), Charles Melton (May December), and newcomer Dominic Sessa (The Holdovers), but they always seemed more like dark horse contenders.

While it’s not exactly shocking that Annette Bening and Jodie Foster received leading and supporting actress nominations for Netflix’s Nyad, the film itself is pure Oscar Bait. It’s also disappointing that the celebrated musical scores behind animated films The Boy and the Heron and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse were shut out of the Original Score category, despite both deservedly making it into Animated Feature.

On a more positive note, I’m very happy to see the wonderful 2D film Robot Dreams in the Animated Feature category. Ditto The Eternal Memory (directed by Maite Alberdi, who was nominated for The Mole Agent a few years ago) in Documentary Feature. A few non-fiction heavy-hitters like American Symphony (which got a song nominee for subject Jon Batiste) and Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie were shut out, but this seems par for the course for the doc category, which has skewed less mainstream in recent years.

Ironically, France’s official submission The Taste of Things also missed out on International Feature, with the country now probably kicking themselves for choosing it over five time nominee Anatomy of a Fall. It’s safe to say that fellow Best Picture nominee The Zone of Interest is now the big International frontrunner, though I’m very happy to see Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days nominated as well.

With the sheer number of nominations it has, Oppenheimer now seems even more well positioned for the big win on Oscar night (if it wasn’t already the clear frontrunner). It will harken back to a time when epic blockbusters that everyone saw like Gladiator and Titanic routinely won Best Picture, and I expect Nolan’s film will deservingly sweep the tech categories as well.

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:
Justine Triet – Anatomy of a Fall
Martin Scorsese – Killers of the Flower Moon
Christopher Nolan – Oppenheimer
Yorgos Lanthimos – Poor Things
Jonathan Glazer – The Zone of Interest

Best Actor:
Bradley Cooper – Maestro
Paul Giamatti – The Holdovers
Colman Domingo – Rustin
Cillian Murphy – Oppenheimer
Jeffrey Wright – American Fiction

Best Actress:
Annette Bening – Nyad
Lily Gladstone – Killers of the Flower Moon
Sandra Hüller – 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 Original Screenplay:
Anatomy of a Fall – Justine Triet and Arthur Harari
The Holdovers – David Hemingson
Maestro – Bradley Cooper and Josh Singer
May December – Samy Burch
Past Lives – Celine Song

Best Adapted Screenplay:
American Fiction – Cord Jefferson
Barbie – Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach
Oppenheimer – Christopher Nolan
Poor Things – Tony McNamara
The Zone of Interest – Jonathan Glazer

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

Best International Feature Film:
Io Capitano
Perfect Days
Society of the Snow
The Teachers’ Lounge
The Zone of Interest

Best Cinematography:
El Conde – Edward Lachman
Killers of the Flower Moon – Rodrigo Prieto
Maestro – Matthew Libatique
Oppenheimer – Hoyte van Hoytema
Poor Things – Robbie Ryan

Best Costume Design:
Barbie
Killers of the Flower Moon
Napoleon
Oppenheimer
Poor Things

Best Film Editing:
Anatomy of a Fall
The Holdovers
Killers of the Flower Moon
Oppenheimer
Poor Things

Best Make-Up & Hairstyling:
Golda
Maestro
Oppenheimer
Poor Things
Society of the Snow

Best Production Design:
Barbie
Killers of the Flower Moon
Napoleon
Oppenheimer
Poor Things

Best Original Score:
American Fiction – Laura Karpman
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny – John Williams
Killers of the Flower Moon – Robbie Robertson
Oppenheimer – Ludwig Göranson
Poor Things – Jerskin Fendrix

Best Original Song:
American Symphony – “It Never Went Away”
Barbie – “I’m Just Ken”
Barbie – “What Was I Made For?”
Flamin’ Hot – “The Fire Inside”
Killers of the Flower Moon – “Wahzhazhe (A Song For My People)”

Best Sound:
The Creator
Maestro
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
Oppenheimer
The Zone of Interest

Best Visual Effects:
The Creator
Godzilla Minus One
Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
Napoleon

Best Animated Short Film:
Letter to a Pig
Ninety-Five Senses
Our Uniform
Pachyderm
War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko

Best Documentary Short Film:
The ABCs of Book Banning
The Barber of Little Rock
Island In Between
The Last Repair Shop
Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó

Live Action Short Film:
The After
Invincible
Knight Of Fortune
Red, White And Blue
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar