Guy Pearce is leading the Australian charge at this year’s Oscars, picking up a best supporting actor nomination for his role in The Brutalist.
Fellow Australian Adam Elliot, an Oscar-winning animator, is up for best animated feature for Memoir of a Snail and Melbourne’s Greig Fraser is in the running for his cinematography in Dune: Part Two but this year’s early star is Emilia Pérez.
The Netflix narco-musical about trans identity scooped up 13 nominations in Thursday’s announcement, which had been delayed in the wake of LA’s devastating wildfires which struck at the heart of Hollywood.he Netflix narco-musical about trans identity scooping up 13 nominations in Thursday’s announcement, which had been delayed in the wake of LA’s devastating wildfires which struck at the heart of Hollywood.
Jacques Audiard’s Spanish-language, French-made film dominated the nominations picking up best picture, as well as best actress for Karla Sofía Gascón, making her the first openly trans actor ever nominated for an Oscar. The film also landed nominations for directing, original screenplay, two of its songs, and for supporting actress Zoe Saldaña.
Netflix, despite its starring role in Hollywood, has never won best picture. Many of its top contenders have previously racked up large numbers of nominations (including Mank, The Irishman, and Roma) but gone home with only a handful of trophies.
Emilia Pérez, though, may be its best chance yet. It became the most nominated non-English-language film ever, surpassing Netflix’s own Roma, which scored 10 nominations. Only three films — All About Eve, Titanic, and La La Land — have scored more nominations in Academy Awards history.
Another musical — Wicked, the smash Broadway adaptation — came away with nearly as many nominations. Jon M Chu’s lavish Wizard of Oz riff scored 10 nominations, including best picture and acting nods for its stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande.
The Brutalist, Brady Corbet’s post-war epic filmed in VistaVision, also came away with a commanding 10 nominations, including best picture, best director, and nominations for actor Adrien Brody, Guy Pearce, and Felicity Jones. The A24 release
The nominees for best picture are: Anora; The Brutalist; A Complete Unknown; Conclave; Dune: Part Two; Emilia Pérez; I’m Still Here; Nickel Boys; The Substance and Wicked.
In a wide-open Oscar race, the six most honoured films — Emilia Pérez, Wicked, The Brutalist, Anora (six nominations), Conclave (eight nominations), and A Complete Unknown (eight nominations) — all fared as expected.
The biggest surprises were the Brazilian film I’m Still Here, which also landed Fernanda Torres a best actress nomination, and RaMell Ross’ Nickel Boys, a POV-shot drama that had been overlooked by many guilds in earlier voting.
Those nominees likely displaced a few best-picture possibilities in Sing Sing, September 5, and A Real Pain, though those films all landed nominations elsewhere.
One of 2024’s most audacious films, The Apprentice, landed a surprising pair of nominations, for Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong. The film dramatises the formative years of President Donald Trump’s emergence in New York real estate under the tutelage of attorney Roy Cohn. Trump has called those involved with the film “human scum”.
In the best actor category, where Stan and Brody were nominated, the other nominees were Timothée Chalamet (A Complete Unknown), Colman Domingo (Sing Sing), and Ralph Fiennes (Conclave). Most notably left out was Daniel Craig, acclaimed for his very un-James Bond performance in Queer.
Best actress, a category that Demi Moore has appeared to have locked up for her full-bodied performance in The Substance, saw nominations for Moore, Gascón, Torres, Erivo, and the star of Anora, Mikey Madison. Arguably the year’s most competitive category, that left out Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Hard Truths), Pamela Anderson (The Last Showgirl), Nicole Kidman (Babygirl), and Angelina Jolie (Maria).
In the directing category, The Substance filmmaker Coralie Fargeat managed to crack into the otherwise all-male group of Sean Baker (Anora), Corbet, Audiard, and James Mangold (A Complete Unknown). Most had expected Edward Berger to be nominated for directing the papal thriller Conclave.
Supporting actor was led by Kieran Culkin, the favourite for the award, for his performance in A Real Pain. The other nominees were: Yura Borisov (Anora), Guy Pearce (The Brutalist), Edward Norton (A Complete Unknown), and Strong.
LA Residents remember those killed as wildfire clean up continues
The supporting actress nominations went to Grande, Saldaña, Jones, Monica Barbaro (A Complete Unknown), and Isabella Rossellini (Conclave).
The nominations had originally been planned for January 17. But after wildfires on January 7 began burning through the Pacific Palisades, Altadena, and other areas around Los Angeles, leaving behind historic levels of destruction, the academy extended its voting window and twice postponed the nominations announcement. Fresh fires outside Los Angeles continued Thursday.
With so many in the film industry reeling from the fires, some called on the academy to cancel the Oscars altogether. Academy leaders have argued the March 2 ceremony must go ahead, for their economic impact on Los Angeles and as a symbol of resilience for the industry. Organisers have vowed this year’s awards will “celebrate the work that unites us as a global film community and acknowledge those who fought so bravely against the wildfires”.
“We will reflect on the recent events while highlighting the strength, creativity, and optimism that defines Los Angeles and our industry,” Bill Kramer, academy chief executive, and Yang said in an email to members on Wednesday.
But much of the usual frothiness of Hollywood’s award season has been severely curtailed due to the fires. The film academy cancelled its annual nominees luncheon. Other events have been postponed or downsized. On Wednesday, Kramer and Yang said original song nominees won’t be performed this year. Conan O’Brien, whose Pacific Palisades home was spared by the fires, is hosting.
The Oscar nominations followed an up-and-down year for Hollywood that saw expansive post-strike delays, wide swaths of unemployed workers due to an industry-wide production slowdown, and the tragedy of the California fires in January. Most humbling, perhaps, was the presidential election that returned Trump to office in a race where podcaster Joe Rogan seemed to hold more sway than all A-listers combined.
At the same time, even amidst a downturn for the superhero film, the industry rallied behind some galvanising hits, including Universal Pictures’ Wicked, and three Walt Disney Co $US1 billion ($1.59 billion) grossers in Inside Out 2, Deadpool and Wolverine, and Moana 2, a film originally developed as a series for Disney+.
Those films missed nominations on Thursday, except for Inside Out 2, which joined the best animated nominees of The Wild Robot, Flow, Memoir of a Snail, and Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl.
That uncertain state of the movies seemed to be reflected in the Oscar nominations, which were spread across films both widely seen and little noticed, theatrically released and predominantly streaming.
But unlike last year, when Hollywood rallied around the success of Oppenheimer, the 2024 movie year offered up no clear frontrunner for the industry’s top honour. With five weeks to go until the Oscar ceremony, at least four or five movies – including The Brutalist, Emilia Pérez, Anora, Conclave, and Wicked – are seen as having a shot at best picture.
