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The 97th Academy Awards nominations were announced Thursday morning in a jubilant, celebratory manner – a welcome burst of enthusiasm after they were twice delayed due to devastating wildfires in Los Angeles. Comedians Bowen Yang and Rachel Sennott started out by declaring that, between the two of them, they’d had “three Diet Cokes, an entire pack of cigarettes and one Adderall.” They made little quips along the way. When Sennott announced that “Beautiful Men” had been nominated for best animated short, Yang looked around and gasped, “Where?!”
Films with liberal messaging did well with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, whose voters submitted their ballots in the midst of the fires and just before President Donald Trump’s inauguration. “Emilia Perez” made history by garnering 13 nominations, a record for a non-English language film. The musical – yes, musical! – about a Mexican drug cartel leader who undergoes gender-affirming surgery actually made history twice, when star Karla Sofia Gascon became the first openly transgender performer to be nominated for an Oscar. (Elliot Page was nominated in 2008 for “Juno,” but before coming out as trans.) “The Brutalist” and “Wicked” got 10 nominations each, which is pretty amazing considering one is a 3½-hour epic about an architect, and the other is Part 1 of a glitzy adaptation of a hit Broadway musical. They’re followed by “A Complete Unknown” and “Conclave,” with eight nominations each, and “Anora,” which earned six.
In this fluid and unpredictable year for movies, in which big-budget fare was tabled or delayed due to last year’s industry-upending strikes, there were plenty of fun surprises, too. “The Substance,” an intensely bloody body-horror film from a French director, got five nominations, which is a sentence no one thought they would be writing earlier this year. And Demi Moore, in a fierce portrayal of an aging Hollywood star who will do anything to reclaim her youth, has emerged as the front-runner for lead actress.
Here’s our list of the biggest surprises and snubs for the upcoming Oscars, which will air March 2 at 7 p.m. on ABC.
A huge showing for ‘The Apprentice’
When President Donald Trump won the election, the conventional wisdom was that “The Apprentice” – a darkly comedic dramatization of Trump’s early days as a New York real estate magnate in the late 1970s and early ’80s – didn’t have a chance with Oscar voters. Turns out, academy members did watch the film, which is largely based on meticulously researched real events. Jeremy Strong was a surprise supporting-actor nominee for his snakelike portrayal of Roy Cohn (which even Roger Stone said was spot-on). Even more surprising, Sebastian Stan got a lead-actor nomination for playing Trump. Getting into that crowded field at all is a coup for Stan, but to be nominated for this film, rather than his Golden-Globe-winning role in the far less controversial A24 film “A Different Man,” is very, very good. – Jada Yuan
Monica Barbaro’s surprise nomination
It was a fantastic morning for the team behind “A Complete Unknown,” the Bob Dylan biopic that landed some of the most coveted nominations (including best picture, best director for James Mangold and best lead actor for Timothee Chalamet). But the most notable nod might have gone to Monica Barbaro, who was recognized for her supporting role as Dylan’s musical collaborator and lover Joan Baez. With all of the brouhaha over whether Chalamet nailed Dylan’s gritty vocals, it would have been easy to overlook Barbaro’s careful performance as the legendary folk singer, which helped anchor the film. But the academy was sure to honor the actress, who had no formal voice training or guitar skills before taking on the role. – Sonia Rao
No best-picture nods for ‘A Real Pain’ or ‘Sing Sing’
This Oscars race has been highly unpredictable, but the one thing that seemed fairly set in stone was the movies that would make the cut for best picture. For months, the same 10 titles have circulated as fait accompli. And then on Thursday … both “A Real Pain” and “Sing Sing” were left off the list. The former, written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg, is an awkward buddy comedy about two cousins with polar opposite personalities who go on a tour of World War II sites in Poland to honor their late grandmother, a Holocaust survivor. The latter is a tearjerker of a crowd-pleaser about a prison theater program with a terrific ensemble cast of formerly incarcerated actors (and Colman Domingo) that was positioned as this year’s “CODA.” Maybe Eisenberg’s film never had the juice, but “Sing Sing” was doomed as soon as A24 bought “The Brutalist” in September, and the company shifted its attention. With their snubs, the academy reasserted its preference for weighty dramas over comedies. – J.Y.
‘Nickel Boys’ and ‘The Substance’ triumph
RaMell Ross took a big swing by shooting “Nickel Boys,” his adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer-winning novel, as a point-of-view film. Events unfold as though we’re watching them through the eyes of two Black teenagers at an abusive reform school at the end of the Jim Crow era, a bold choice that risked alienating viewers – but wound up playing very well with critics, and apparently the academy. The film landed one of 10 slots in the best-picture category, as well as an adapted-screenplay nomination (but notably, no directing nod for Ross). It will compete for the top prize alongside “The Substance,” Coralie Fargeat’s body-horror extravaganza that earned tons of praise for its direction and lead performance by Moore but wasn’t a sure bet for best picture. Whether either film stands a chance against heavyweights such as “Emilia Perez,” “The Brutalist” and “A Complete Unknown” remains to be seen. – S.R.
Clarence Maclin’s screenplay recognition
All season long, Maclin had been on the bubble for getting a supporting-actor nomination for “Sing Sing,” a dramedy about a theater program in a maximum-security prison. Maclin, a formerly incarcerated actor, plays himself, as a hardened thug with a talent for Shakespeare who upends the program’s most dedicated actor, “Divine G,” played by Domingo. While Maclin didn’t get recognized for his acting – leaving the category with no Black entrants, particularly after Denzel Washington’s bid for “Gladiator II” faded – he did get a surprise chance at an Oscar when his name was announced as one of the co-writers of the screenplay. And he has a chance of winning. His speeches on the campaign trail have been impressive, and it would be extremely powerful for a formerly incarcerated man to get up on that national stage. – J.Y.
‘I’m Still Here’ is everywhere
Fernanda Torres delivered a career-defining performance in “I’m Still Here” as Eunice Paiva, a Brazilian woman grappling with the forced disappearance of her husband, political dissident Rubens Paiva, under a military dictatorship. She won a Golden Globe for her performance some 25 years after her mother, Fernanda Montenegro, was nominated for “Central Station” – and once again follows in Montenegro’s footsteps with her Oscar nomination for best lead actress. They are reportedly the only two Brazilian actresses to ever have been recognized in the category. Torres’s performance is no doubt a major force behind “I’m Still Here,” which landed an expected nod for best international feature, also appearing as a best-picture contender. – S.R.
A noticeably absent Marianne Jean-Baptiste
You would think that winning just about every major critics’ award would have some sway with academy voters. Not so for Marianne Jean-Baptiste, whose often hilarious, incredibly sad performance as a very angry Black Londoner in “Hard Truths” has been championed by film critics from coast to coast. The film reunites her with director Mike Leigh for the first time in an on-screen role since 1996’s “Secrets & Lies,” which earned Jean-Baptiste a supporting-actress Oscar nomination. There was a time when a Mike Leigh film would be an automatic Oscar contender, but perhaps the changing academy has lost its memory of what a force he is, particularly with one of his greatest collaborators. It’s a shame. Jean-Baptiste is blistering and deeply sympathetic as a woman trapped by her depression. Greta Gerwig described it as watching someone try to breathe with an anvil on them. – J.Y.
A ‘Succession’ matchup
The Oscars are yet another opportunity for the Roy siblings to face off. Former “Succession” co-stars Kieran Culkin and Strong were each nominated for best actor in a supporting role, an echo of this year’s Golden Globes (where Culkin, who played a Jewish American man visiting Poland to honor his grandmother in “A Real Pain,” beat Strong, nominated for playing Cohn in “The Apprentice”). These two aren’t the only serious contenders – Guy Pearce (“The Brutalist”) and Edward Norton (“A Complete Unknown”) both appeared in best-picture front-runners, for instance – but let’s be real: It sure is fun to watch these TV brothers go at it. – S.R.
Some A-listers zero out
From the moment Angelina Jolie showed up on-screen in “Maria,” having learned how to sing opera to play Maria Callas, she seemed like a best-actress shoo-in. But the movie, from Chilean director Pablo Larraín (“Jackie,” “Spencer”) just never got momentum. On nominations day, Jolie became just one of several big-name stars to miss out, despite critically acclaimed performances. Nicole Kidman won the best-actress prize at the Venice Film Festival, but her vulnerable and often funny turn in “Babygirl,” as a wound-up CEO who has a BDSM affair with a much-younger intern, proved too kinky for the academy’s taste. Also not on the roster was Daniel Craig, who completely shed his James Bond machismo to play an alcoholic, barely fictionalized version of William S. Burroughs in Luca Guadagnino’s “Queer,” pining after a young man who seems indifferent to his affections. However odd this year was for movies, it was incredibly strong for actors, and there simply weren’t enough slots to go around. – J.Y.