“Oppenheimer,” Christopher Nolan’s masterful biography of the father of the atomic bomb, received the most Oscar nominations on Tuesday, with 13 nods, including best picture.
In the race for Hollywood’s most coveted honors, “Poor Things,” a female-focused take on the Frankenstein tale, came in second on 11 and Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” came in third on 10.
However, it was a slightly disappointing morning for “Barbie,” the other half of last summer’s “Barbenheimer” box office phenomenon and the year’s highest-grossing film.
The comedy received eight nominations, which is not bad for a parody based on a popular brand of plastic dolls, but it fell short of expectations, missing out on important accolades for Greta Gerwig as director and star Margot Robbie for best actress.
“Oppenheimer,” which debuted in theaters on the same day and grossed over $1 billion, led the way with nominations for director Nolan and stars Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr., and Emily Blunt.
The film, which is a clear favorite to win best picture at the 96th Academy Awards on March 10, has also received nominations in a number of technical categories.
“Killers of the Flower Moon,” Scorsese’s three-and-a-half-hour true-crime epic about killings in the oil-rich Osage community of early twentieth-century Oklahoma, created history.
Star Lily Gladstone became the first Native American to be nominated for best actress at the Oscars.
She will now face Emma Stone, the star of “Poor Things,” which also received an acting nomination for Mark Ruffalo and a slew of technical categories ranging from cinematography to costume design.
However, “Killers” lead Leonardo DiCaprio was disappointed when he did not receive a best actor nomination, and the film also did not receive a nod for best adapted screenplay.
Record year for women directors
It proved to be a record year for female directors.
Three movies overseen by women — French courtroom drama “Anatomy of a Fall,” “Barbie” and “Past Lives” — were nominated for best picture, for the first time in more than nine decades of Academy Awards.
Only 19 films directed by women had previously received nominations for Best Picture.
Despite the fact that “Anatomy” is not France’s official submission in the foreign film category, which has caused some hand-wringing in Paris, Tuesday’s announcement was a huge success.
In addition to the usual nominations for best picture and best actress (Sandra Huller), director Justine Triet received a nod that was generally expected to go to Gerwig, as well as honors for editing and original writing.
Bradley Cooper received three individual nominations for acting, producing, and writing “Maestro.” The Leonard Bernstein biopic, which Cooper also directed, received seven nominations.
Other standout performances included Alexander Payne’s “The Holdovers,” which follows a teacher, a cook, and a student who are trapped in a boarding school during the holidays.
It took five nominations, including acting nominations for Paul Giamatti and Da’Vine Joy Randolph, both of whom are now regarded strong competitors in their respective fields.
And it was a wonderful morning for “American Fiction,” a clever satire on race, publishing, and Hollywood that received five nods, including those for stars Jeffrey Wright and Sterling K. Brown.
The best picture category was completed by “Past Lives,” a Korean-American movie about love, friendship, and how things change but remain the same, and the grim Nazi thriller “The Zone of Interest.”
Zazie Beetz and Jack Quaid hosted the nominations announcement from a still-dark Los Angeles at 5:30 a.m. (1330 GMT) on Tuesday.