And the Nominees for the 96th Academy Awards Are…

Jack Quaid and Zazie Beetz unveil the 96th Academy Awards nominations (Image Copyright: AMPAS)

At 5:30am Pacific Time this morning, Zazie Beetz and Jack Quaid announced the nominations for the 96th Academy Awards, which are set to air on ABC on March 10th . There were high-profile snubs, surprise inclusions, and new records abound. Below I list the key takeaways and the nominees in the major categories, along with their Oscar history.

Key Headlines from This Morning’s Oscar Nominations

1.) It Was a Great Morning for Oppenheimer, Poor Things, Anatomy of a Fall, American Fiction, The Zone of Interest, and Nyad. A handful of films showed up in every single category they were realistically expected to. Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster Manhattan Project drama Oppenheimer lead the field with 13 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and 3 acting nominations for stars Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey, Jr., and Emily Blunt. Yorgos Lanthimos’s bizarre and beautiful sci-fi comedy Poor Things was close behind with 11 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and 2 acting nominations for Emma Stone and Mark Ruffalo. Justine Treit’s complex French courtroom drama Anatomy of a Fall scored 5 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Actress for Sandra Huller. Cord Jefferson’s racial satire American Fiction scored 5 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and 2 acting nominations for Jeffrey Wright and Sterling K. Brown. Jonathan Glazer’s experimental Holocaust drama The Zone of Interest scored 5 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. And what a morning it was for Nyad. Although it only appeared in 2 categories, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s biographical sports drama picked up 2 acting nominations for Annette Bening and Jodie Foster. Many doubted the ability for both (or either) of them to maket he cut for the relatively low-profile streaming film, but both legendary actresses pulled through and scored their 5th acting nomination each.

2.) It Was a Mixed Morning for Barbie, Killers of the Flower Moon, Maestro, The Holdover, and Past Lives. First of all, let’s get one thing straight. It is a profound feat for a summer comedy blockbuster based on a toy that is focused on the experience of young women to score 8 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and 2 acting nominations for Ryan Gosling and America Ferrera. Nevertheless, Barbie’s morning feels like a bit of a disappointment because of two high-profile omissions. Greta Gerwig missed out in Best Director and star Margot Robbie missed out in Best Actress. Of note, however, both did receive nominations for the film — Gerwig for co-writing it with husband Noah Baumbach and Robbie for producing it. Martin Scorcese’s historical crime epic Killers of the Flower Moon can hardly have been said to have a bad morning with its impressive tally of 10 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, and 2 acting nominations for Lily Gladstone and Robert DeNiro. However, the high-profile omissions of Leonardo DiCaprio in Best Actor and Scorcese and Eric Roth in Best Adapted Screenplay surely tempered the team’s joy. Bradley Cooper’s Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro scored an impressive 7 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, and 2 acting nominations for Cooper and Carey Mulligan. However, Cooper again missed Best Director just as he did for his multi-nominated directorial debut A Star is Born a few years back. (See more below about Cooper’s impressive Oscar run.) Alexander Payne’s old-fashioned coming-of-age dramedy The Holdovers scored 5 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, and 2 acting nominations for Paul Giamatti and Da’Vine Joy Randolph. Although this is a solid showing, many expected Payne to get into Best Director and for breakout star Dominic Sessa to score a Supporting Actor nomination. Celine Song’s Past Lives, a heartbreaking character study about a Korean immigrant reuniting with her childhood sweetheart, managed to make it in to Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay, but stars Greta Lee and Teo Yoo were missing from the acting races.

3.) It Was a Bad Morning for The Color Purple, May December, Saltburn, Ferrari, Air, and The Iron Claw. In general, the films that were expected to do well at the Oscars this year did in fact do well or at least did okay. Nevertheless, there were a handful of films that had buzz and sporadic nominations throughout awards season that fared poorly this morning. Blitz Bazuwale’s adaptation of Alice Walker’s classic novel The Color Purple scored only a single nomination — Supporting Actress for Danielle Brooke. Prior to its release in December it was considered by many to be a frontrunner for Best Picture, but it fizzled out quickly. Todd Haynes’s deeply unsettling black comedy May December also fizzled out after a promising early start, scoring only 1 nomination for Best Original Screenplay. The omissions of Charles Melton, Julianne Moore, and Natalie Portman for their brilliant, nuanced turns in the film have undoubtedly irritated many. Saltburn, Emerald Fennel’s bold and divisive follow-up to her bold and divisive Promising Young Woman, failed to score any nominations despite some potential for a screenplay nomination and acting nominations for Barry Keoghan and Rosamund Pike. Likewise Michael Mann’s automobile biopic Ferrari, Ben Affleck’s Air Jordan dramedy Air, and Sean Durkin’s wrestling biopic The Iron Claw all went nomination-less despite some buzz in various categories (e.g., Penelope Cruz for Best Supporting Actress for Ferrari, Alex Convery for Best Original Screenplay for Air, Zac Efron for Best Actor).

4.) It Was a Better Morning than Usual for Diversity and Inclusion.

Inclusion of Non-White Actors and Filmmakers. The notorious #OscarsSoWhite social media campaign seems unlikely to gain much traction this year — at least when it comes to the acting categories. A solid 7 of the 20 acting nominees (35%) were non-White — Lily Gladstone is of Indigenous heritage, American Ferrera is Latinx, Colman Domingo is Afro-Latinx, and Sterling K. Brown, Danielle Brooks, Jeffrey Wright, and Da’Vine Joy Randolph are Black. In contrast, the nominated producers, directors, and writers were mostly white. There were some notable exceptions, however, like Celine Song, who became the 1st Asian woman nominated for Best Original Screenplay for her beautiful work on Past Lives.

Inclusion of Female Filmmakers. Fears of yet another all-male Best Director lineup were not realized, with Justine Treit becoming the 8th woman nominated for Best Director. (One of the Oscars most pathetic statistics is that only 9 of the 471 nominations for Best Director (1.9%) have gone to women.) It was the first-ever year where 3 Best Picture nominees were directed by women — Anatomy of a Fall, Barbie, and Past Lives. Of the nominated producers, 8 out of 31 (26%) were women and 7 out of the 10 nominated films had at least 1 woman producer. Of the nominated writers, 4 out of 13 (31%) were women.

Inclusion of LGBTQ+ Character and Actors. A particularly outrageous Oscar statistic was highlighted this year when Colman Domingo (Rustin) and Jodie Foster (Nyad) shockingly become only the 3rd and 4th openly queer performers in history to receive an acting nomination for playing queer characters, following Ian McKellen’s Best Actor nomination for Gods and Monsters in 1998 and Stephanie Hsu’s Best Supporting Actress nomination for Everything Everywhere All at Once last year. That represents 0.2% of the 1,819 nominees in the acting categories since the award’s inception. However, an additional 5 actors who don’t identify as LGBTQ+ got nominated for playing LGBTQ+ roles this year — Annette Bening (Nyad), Emma Stone (Poor Things), Sandra Huller (Anatomy of a Fall), Bradley Cooper (Maestro), and Sterling K. Brown (American Fiction). That means 7 of the 20 acting nominees (35%) played LGBTQ+ roles. This is actually wildly impressive relative to the Academy’s historic representation.

5.) Killers of the Flower Moon’s Nominations Bring About a Bevy of Records and Milestones. Martin Scorcese scored his 10th Best Director nomination, moving him out of his tie with Steven Spielberg and placing him alone as the 2nd most nominated person in the category with 10. (William Wyler remains the most nominated director of all time with 12.) Killers of the Flower Moon also marks the 10th Best Picture nominee directed by Martin Scorcese, which puts him only behind Steven Spielberg (director of 14 Best Picture nominees) and William Wyler (director of 13 Best Picture nominees). The film’s Best Picture nomination also extends Robert DeNiro’s and Leonardo DiCaprio’s records as the actors to appear in the most Best Picture nominees. DeNiro has now has appeared in 12 while DiCaprio has now appeared in 11. (Cate Blanchett, Tom Hanks, and Jack Nicholson are in a 3-way tie in 3rd place, having appeared in 10 Best Picture nominees apiece.)

6.) Maestro’s Haul Adds to Steven Spielberg and Bradley Cooper’s Sterling Nomination Counts. Bradley Cooper adds a mightily impressive 3 nominations to his already impressive tally, bringing him to 12 total Oscar nominations. He has 5 acting nominations for Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle, American Sniper, A Star is Born, and Maestro; 5 producing nominations for American Sniper, A Star is Born, Joker, Nightmare Alley, and Maestro; and 2 writing nominations for A Star is Born and Maestro. If he loses all 3 (which seems likely this year), he will join the unfortunate company of a precious few who have gone 0-for-12 (or more) at the Oscars. Meanwhile, his Maestro co-producer Steven Spielberg also adds to his impressive tally. Last year, Spielberg broke his tie with William Wyler and became the individual to direct the most Best Picture nominees with 14. Maestro marks the 13th film he produced to be nominated for Best Picture, moving him further out front from his nearest competitors Scott Rudin (9 films) and his longtime collaborator Kathleen Kennedy (8 films). Maestro also marks Spielberg’s first Best Picture nominee that he produced but did not direct. Spielberg has now amassed a whopping 23 nominations — 13 for producing, 9 for directing, and 1 for writing. He won for producing and directing Schindler’s List and for directing Saving Private Ryan.

7.) John Williams and Diane Warren Keep Their Stunning Streaks Alive in the Music Categories. Legendary composer John Williams received his 54th Oscar nomination for composing the score to Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, which extends his record as the most-nominated living person. (He is 2nd overall to Walt Disney, who has 59 nominations.) John Williams also sets a new record for the oldest Oscar nominee ever at age 91 (breaking his own record from last year when he was nominated for The Fabelmans). Williams also has the distinction of being the only person nominated for an Oscar in 7 consecutive decades, as he has been nominated in this category in the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, ’00s, ’10s, and ’20s. Meanwhile, legendary songwriter Diane Warren received her 15th Oscar nomination for Best Original Song for “The Fire Inside” from Flamin’ Hot, Eva Longoria Parker’s directorial debut about the person who claimed to invent Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. Should she lose this year (which seems likely), she will enter a 4-way tie with composer Randy Newman, composer Alex North, and Art Director Roland Anderson as the most nominated person without a win. (The all-time most nominated person without a win is sound engineer Greg P. Russell with 16 nominations.) Warren can take some solace, however, in the fact that she was a recipient of an Academy Honorary Award this year.

8.) The Races Remain Competitive in (Most of) the Top 8 Categories. With its dominant showing this morning, Oppenheimer looks poised to win Best Picture and Best Director. At this point, only a fool would bet against Da’Vine Joy Randolph in Best Supporting Actress as The Holdovers star is having the most dominant awards season run since Mo’Nique for Precious in 2009. But the rest of the categories have some real competition. Cillian Murphy and Paul Giamatti appear to be neck-and-neck as the frontrunners for Best Actor. Emma Stone and Lily Gladstone seem neck-and-neck for Best Actress with Sandra Huller breathing down their necks. Although Downey, Jr. seems out front for Supporting Actor, I would not call him a lock just yet. The screenplay awards were thrown into a bit of chaos with Barbie being deemed an Adapted Screenplay after campaigning as an Original Screenplay. The move opens the door to a tight race between Anatomy of a Fall and The Holdovers in Original Screenplay, and what looks like a tight 4-way race between Barbie, Oppenheimer, American Fiction, and Poor Things in Adapted Screenplay.

Additional Records, Milestones, and Fun Facts

Lily Gladstone became only the 7th indigenous person to be nominated for an acting Oscar after Merle Oberon (The Dark Angel), Jocelyne LaGarde (Hawaii), Chief Dan George (Little Big Man), Graham Greene (Dances with Wolves), Keisha Castle-Hughes (Whale Rider), and Yalitza Aparicio (Roma). No indigenous actor has ever won.
Robert DeNiro’s nomination this year occurred 49 years after his 1st nomination for The Godfather Part II. He now beats Katharine Hepburn’s record of longest span between first and last/most recent Oscar nomination by 1 year (she spanned from 1932’s Morning Glory to 1980’s On Golden Pond).

Annette Bening joins an elite group of actors nominated for an acting Oscar in each of the past 4 decades (i.e., ’90s, ’00s, ’10s, ’20s). The rest of this group is comprised of Cate Blanchett, Dame Judi Dench, Frances McDormand, and Denzel Washington. McDormand and Washington stretch back further as they have been nominated in each of the past 5 decades.
With Barbie, Greta Gerwig becomes the first woman in history to have directed 3 Best Picture nominees, following Lady Bird and Little Women. She also joins an elite group of having the first 3 solo-directed films nominated for Best Picture. (Note: She has a co-directing credit on the 2008 indie film Nights and Weekends, so technically its her 2nd, 3rd, and 4th film that got nominated — but still mightily impressive.)
The longest Oscar dry spell in Meryl Streep’s illustrious career continues. Her last nomination was in 2017 for The Post, meaning that there have now been 6 years without seeing her name among the nominees. Previously, her longest span without a nomination occurred from 1991 to 1994. This is the longest period she has gone without an Oscar nomination since she received her 1st for 1978’s The Deer Hunter. (Streep is far out front as the most nominated actor in history, with her 21 acting nominations dwarfing her 12-time nominated closest competitors Katharine Hepburn and Jack Nicholson.)
Justine Triet’s nomination marks the 9th time a slot in Best Director has been claimed by a woman, following Lina Wertmüller (Seven Beauties), Jane Campion (The Piano), Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation), Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker), Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird), Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman), Chloe Zhao (Nomadland), and Jane Campion again (The Power of Dog). Zhao and Campion are the only women to win this award.
Oppenheimer becomes just the 11th movie in history to score 13 or more nominations. La La Land, Titanic, and All About Eve scored 14, while The Shape of Water, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Lord of the Rings; The Fellowship of the Ring, Shakespeare in Love, Forrest Gump, and Gone with the Wind scored 13.
Emma Stone became the 2nd woman to be nominated for acting and producing for the same movie. Frances McDormand became the first to achieve this feat — and to win both categories — for Nomadland.

Note on my predictions: Of the 45 nominees in the top 8 categories (Best Picture, Best Director, the 4 acting categories, and the 2 screenplay categories) I correctly predicted 39 (87%). Of the 6 I missed, all were on my list of potential alternatives. This marks my all-time high since starting these predictions in 2018 (my previous scores were 78% in 2022, 76% in 2021, 81% in 2020, 82% in 2019, and 86% in 2018). But it’s really a win either way. If my predictions are accurate, I get bragging rights. If they are inaccurate, I get the benefit of a fresh and exciting race.

The Nominees in the Top 8 Categories (and Their Oscar Nomination History)

Best Picture

American Fiction (5 nominations)
Anatomy of a Fall (5 nominations)
Barbie (8 nominations)
The Holdovers (5 nominations)
Killers of the Flower Moon (10 nominations)
Maestro (7 nominations)
Oppenheimer (13 nominations)
Past Lives (2 nominations)
Poor Things (11 nominations)
The Zone of Interest (5 nominations)

Best Director

Jonathan Glazer, The Zone of Interest (1st nomination; also nominated this year for Adapted Screenplay)
Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things (3 prior nominations for writing The Lobster and producing and directing The Favourite; also nominated this year for producing Poor Things; 5 total nominations as of this year; he has yet to win)
Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer (5 prior nominations for writing Memento, producing and writing Inception, and producing and directing Dunkirk; also nominated for producing and writing this year; 8 total nominations as of this year; he has yet to win)
Martin Scorcese, Killers of the Flower Moon (14 prior nominations for directing Raging Bull, directing The Last Temptation of Christ, writing and directing GoodFellas, writing The Age of Innocence, directing Gangs of New York, directing The Aviator, directing The Departed, producing and directing Hugo, producing and directing The Wolf of Wall Street, and producing and directing The Irishman; also nominated for producing this year; 16 total nominations as of this year; he has 1 win for directing The Departed)
Justine Triet, Anatomy of a Fall (1st nomination; also nominated this year for Original Screenplay)

Best Leading Actress

Annette Bening, Nyad (4 prior nominations — Supporting Actress for The Grifters and Actress for American Beauty, Being Julia, and The Kids Are All Right)
Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon (1st nomination)
Sandra Huller, Anatomy of a Fall (1st nomination)
Carey Mulligan, Maestro (2 prior nominations — Best Actress for An Education and Promising Young Woman)
Emma Stone, Poor Things (3 prior nominations — Best Supporting Actress for Birdman and The Favourite and Best Actress for La La Land; she won for La La Land; she was also nominated this year for producing Poor Things; she now has 5 total nominations)

Best Leading Actor

Bradley Cooper, Maestro (4 prior acting nominations — Actor for Silver Linings Playbook, American Sniper, and A Star is Born and Supporting Actor for American Hustle; 4 prior nominations for producing American Sniper, A Star is Born, Joker, and Nightmare Alley; 1 prior nomination for co-writing A Star is Born; 2 additional nominations this morning for producing and co-writing Maestro; he now has 12 nominations and has yet to win)
Colman Domingo, Rustin (1st nomination)
Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers (1 prior nomination — Best Supporting Actor for Cinderella Man)
Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer (1st nomination)
Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction (1st nomination)

Best Supporting Actress

Emily Blunt, Oppenheimer (1st nomination)
Danielle Brooks, The Color Purple (1st nomination)
America Ferrera, Barbie (1st nomination)
Jodie Foster, Nyad (4 prior nominations — Best Supporting Actress for Taxi Driver and Best Actress for The Accused, The Silence of the Lambs, and Nell; she won for The Accused and The Silence of the Lambs)
Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers (1st nomination)

Best Supporting Actor

Sterling K. Brown, American Fiction (1st nomination)
Robert DeNiro, Killers of the Flower Moon (7 prior nominations — Supporting Actor for The Godfather Part II and Silver Linings Playbook and Actor for Taxi Driver, The Deer Hunter, Raging Bull, Awakenings, and Cape Fear; he won for The Godfather Part II and Raging Bull)
Robert Downey, Jr., Oppenheimer (2 prior nominations — Actor for Chaplin and Supporting Actor for Tropic Thunder)
Ryan Gosling, Barbie (2 prior nominations — Actor for Half Nelson and La La Land)
Mark Ruffalo, Poor Things (3 prior nominations — Supporting Actor for The Kids Are All Right, Foxcatcher, and Spotlight)

Best Original Screenplay

Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik, May December (1st nomination for both)
Bradley Cooper and Josh Singer, Maestro (Cooper — see above; Singer — 1 prior nomination and win for co-writing Spotlight)
David Hemingson, The Holdovers (1st nomination)
Celine Song, Past Lives (1st nomination)
Justine Triet and Arthur Harari, Anatomy of a Fall (Triet — also nominated for producing this year; Harari — 1st nomination)

Best Adapted Screenplay

Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, Barbie (Gerwig — 3 prior nominations for directing and writing Lady Bird and writing Little Women and Barbie; Baumbach — 3 prior nominations for writing The Squid and the Whale and writing and producing Marriage Story)
Jonathan Glazer, The Zone of Interest (see above in Best Director)
Cord Jefferson, American Fiction (1st nomination; also nominated for producing the film this year)
Tony McNamara, Poor Things (1 prior nomination — Original Screenplay for The Favourite)
Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer (see above in Best Director)

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