What to Expect at the Academy Awards Dinner for the ‘Baby’s Highest-Grossing Movie Ever Written by a Woman
It was an unusually strong year for films, meaning that members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had some hard choices to make by the time voting closed last week. As I have written throughout this awards season, this year, there are simply more good movies and great performances than there are awards to honor them. When I came up with predictions, I was tied up in knots trying to narrow down the list. I think I know who the names and titles will be when Jack Quaid and Zazie Beetz reveal the nominees on Oscars.com. Here is what to expect.
With her billion-dollar blockbuster, “Barbie,” Greta Gerwig set a Hollywood record for the highest-grossing movie ever directed by a woman. Gerwig wasn’t nominated for an Oscar even though her film “Barbie” got eight nominations, including the Academy Award for best picture. The hit comedy missed out on some nominations such as best cinematography, but it did get at least one mention for its female lead, MargotRobbie. It got a supporting actress nomination for AmericaFerrata alongside an expected supporting-actor nod for RyanGosling.
The dramedy, about a history teacher, a cook and a student staying at a boarding school during winter break, has been a huge hit this awards season. Paul Giamatti and Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who play the adults on campus, have won key prizes already; look for their names to show up on Tuesday. There could be ones for both directing and screenplay as well.
The Times Online Readers’ Compilation: Nominating Young Actresses for the 84th Academy Film and TV Emmy Awards
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The academy has never had a problem nominating young actresses: In fact, seven of the 10 actresses recognized this year are 40 or under. That same interest in ingénues does not apply to the male categories, however. All the 10 actors nominated for an award were over 40, further proof that the Oscars prefer their men older if they’re going to take them seriously.
The group that mirrored the Producers Guild Awards nominees went well as expected, with a strong collection of films. The three best picture nominees for the first time were directed by women, with “Past Lives,” “Anatomy of a Fall” and “Barbie” being directed by women.
The Golden Globes made it clear that unexpected upsets weren’t out of the question during this year’s entertainment awards season, and the Academy is going to have lots of opportunities to surprise us with its votes in the future.
“American Fiction,” Cord Jefferson’s insightful drama about a frustrated novelist, had an especially good day, collecting five nominations. That included a nod for Sterling K. Brown for best supporting actor. Robert De Niro (“Killers of the Flower Moon”) rounded out that category with Downey Jr. and Gosling.
The nominees for Best Supporting Actress could be Emily Blunt, Danielle Brooks, America Ferrera, and Jodie Foster, while Da’Vine Joy Randolph has been seen as an odds-on favorite. With its nine nominations including Best Picture, Production Design, Costume Design, and Adapted Screenplay, Barbie’s also going to be one to watch, and with the film’s “I’m Just Ken” and “What Was I Made For?” both being up for awards, we can expect to hear some rather inspired performances of the songs when the Oscars airs on March 10th.
Both Martin Scorsese’s Osage epic “Killers of the Flower Moon” and Yorgos Lanthimos’ Frankenstein riff “Poor Things” were also widely celebrated. “Poor Things” landed 11 nods, while “Killers of the Moon” was nominated for 10 Oscars.
The best actress was too close to call. The other nominees were Carey Mulligan, Annette Bening and Sandy Hller. It didn’t include the stars of “Barbie” and “The Color Purple.”
The best actor category was very competitive. The nominees in the end were Murphy, Paul Giamatti, Jeffrey Wright, Bradley Cooper, and Colman Domingo. Domingo’s nomination, for his performance as civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, made him just the second openly gay man to be nominated for playing a gay character, following Ian McKellen for the 1998 film “Gods and Monsters.”
Nolan’s movie received nominations for best picture; Nolan’s direction; actor nominations of Robert Downey Jr., Emily Blunt and Cillian Murphy, and multiple honors for the sweeping craft of the J. Robert Oppenheimer drama. Though Nolan is regarded as the big-canvas auteur of his era, he’s never won an Academy Award, nor have any of his films won best picture. He could be his year.
Gerwig was surprisingly left out of the best director field. She was nominated for best director in 2018 for her solo directorial debut, “Lady Bird.” At the time, Gerwig was just the fifth woman nominated for the award. The power of the dog by Jane Campion and Nomadland by Chlo Zhao were the best directors since then. Only one woman has won the Academy Award’s top filmmaking honor before, and that was in 2010 with The Hurt Locker.
It is the first time in history that a Native American has been nominated for best actress. For the 10th time, Scorsese was nominated for best director. There was a left out for Leonardo DiCaprio in the best actor category. The late Robbie Robertson, who died in August, also became the first Indigenous person nominated for best score.
“Poor Things” has received nominations for it’s direction, the main performance by Emma Stone, and the design of the film.
The 10 films nominated for best picture were: “Oppenheimer,” “Barbie,” “Poor Things,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “The Holdovers,” “Maestro,” “American Fiction,” “Past Lives,” “Anatomy of a Fall” and “The Zone of Interest.”
The Associated Press notched its first Oscar nomination in the news organization’s 178-year history with “20 Days in Mariupol,” Mstyslav Chernov’s harrowing chronicle of the besieged Ukrainian city and of the last international journalists left there after the Russia invasion. It was nominated for best documentary, along with “Four Daughters,” “Bobi Wine: The People’s President,” “The Eternal Memory” and “To Kill a Tiger.”
The Best Picture Box Office: The Oscars in Spain, The Zone of Interest and The Teachers’ Lounge in Germany and the USA during the Post-Pandemic
“Society of the Snow,” is in Spain, along with “The Zone of Interest,” and “The Teachers’ Lounge” in Germany.
Justine Triet, “Anatomy of a Fall”; Yorgos Lanthimos, “Poor Things”; Christopher Nolan, “Oppenheimer”; Martin Scorsese, “Killers of the Flower Moon”; Jonathan Glazer, “The Zone of Interest”
Annette Bening, “Nyad”, a film about a woman and her dog, is one of several films by Annette Bening.
The best-picture collection of films — all of which played in theaters for at least a month, including Netflix’s “Maestro” — reflected the industry’s rebalancing after years of experimentation during the pandemic. Movie theaters play a vital role in the release of most films, and the industry still thinks so despite the fact that Netflix came away with the most nominations. Apple and Amazon, which in 2022 acquired MGM, have each made theatrical a priority.
Oscar ratings have been boosted by blockbusters. The Barbenheimer presence can help lift the March 10 Oscars telecast on ABC as a result of the pile-up of award shows. The ceremony has moved up an hour to 7PM in order to have Jimmy Kimmel return as host.
“American Fiction”; “Anatomy of a Fall”; “Barbie”; “The Holdovers”; “Killers of the Flower Moon”; “Maestro”; “Oppenheimer”; “Past Lives”; “Poor Things”; “The Zone of Interest”
“The Fire Inside” from “Flamin’ Hot”; “I’m Just Ken” from “Barbie”; “What Was I Made For?” from “Barbie”; “Wahzhazhe (A Song For My People)” from “Killers of the Flower Moon”; “It Never Went Away” from “American Symphony.