Nobody pulled a Riseborough.
Last year, actress Andrea Riseborough used a new approach to Oscar bidding: Instead of launching an expensive, months-long awards campaign for her performance in the microbudget indie “To Leslie,” her team waited until the week-long Oscar voting window opened and took advantage Then a group of famous friends, including Edward Norton, Gwyneth Paltrow and Sarah Paulson, came together to promote the film en masse on social media. It worked, earning Riseborough a surprise best actress nomination, and although she tried to return the favor last week by championing Ava DuVernay's little-seen “Origin,” the film was rejected by the Academy while all 20 acting spots were up for grabs Cast members who couldn't have run the election campaign the old-fashioned way.
Romance was in the air.
Hey, was this Oscar nomination morning or Valentine's Day? At least six couples received his-and-hers nominations today, including “Oppenheimer” director Christopher Nolan and his producer Emma Thomas; “Anatomy of a Fall” director Justine Triet and her partner and co-writer Arthur Harari; “May-December” co-authors Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik; and Jared and Jerusha Hess, directors of the animated short film “Ninety-Five Senses.” “Barbie” was responsible for the other two pairs of lovebirds, with Gerwig and her husband Noah Baumbach nominated in the adapted screenplay category and Margot Robbie and her husband Tom Ackerley receiving nominations as producers of the film.
Leonardo DiCaprio is snubbed
As the nominations were read out, “Killers of the Flower Moon” was up and down: Martin Scorsese's historical drama picked up major awards for film, direction, actress (Lily Gladstone) and supporting actor (Robert De Niro), but missed out on an expected nomination for the adaptation screenplay, extending an ongoing snub of lead actor Leonardo DiCaprio that began with the Screen Actors Guild. Still, the film made Oscar history in several categories, as Gladstone became the first Native American to be nominated for best actress, and Scorsese's 10th nomination as a director helped overtake Steven Spielberg as the most nominated living director of all time.
Wes Anderson in, Pedro Almodóvar out.
Members of the short film industry can often be hostile toward directors they view as amateurs, and in recent years have snubbed big names like Taylor Swift (for “All Too Well: The Short Film”) and Pedro Almodóvar (for his Tilda Swinton short film “The.” Human Voice”) in favor of lesser-known filmmakers struggling to break through. This year, voters from other industries were allowed to volunteer their services in nominating films for Best Live-Action Short Film, and this expanded group also included Wes Anderson, whose miniature “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar” in the It aired on Netflix in the fall. Almodóvar wasn't so lucky and was rejected again for his western Strange Way of Life, starring Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke.
One last dance for “Barbie”.
“Barbie” might have received another nomination had it not been for a rule change in 2008 that prohibited any film from placing more than two nominees in the original song category. Although three of the tracks from “Barbie” qualified for the original song shortlist announced in December – Dua Lipa's disco-infused “Dance the Night,” the Ryan Gosling-sung “I'm Just Ken” and Billie Eilish's ballad “What What I made sure?” – only the last two made it. At least Lipa can take solace in the song's recent Grammy nomination for Song of the Year.