As we draw towards the close of last year’s festival and award season, ready to start off fresh with the Sundance Festival in February, Oscar nominations have finally been released ahead of the March ceremony. With your Oscar breakdown, we have Brandon Blake, USA entertainment attorney Los Angeles at Blake & Wang P.A., to give you all the news.
Sinners Takes the Lead
It was certainly a good one for Sinners, which took home a record-breaking number of nominations, including the hot-button categories of Best Picture, Director, and Original Screenplay.
One Battle After Another was another well-lauded nominee, with 13 nominations, which is almost enough to put it equal with the prior record holders. Frankenstein, Marty Supreme, and Sentimental Value all took home a commendable 9 nominations. As well as those 5 high-scorers, the Best Picture category is rounded out by Bugonia, F1, Hamnet, The Secret Agent, and Train Dreams.
On the studio side, this leaves Warner Brothers with the most nominations, at 30, thanks to both Sinners and One Battle After Another, while Neon takes second place with 18, again helped by The Secret Agent and Sentimental Value. Netflix, rather ironically given their relationship to date with theatrical releases, was in the third spot, at 16 nominations, with Train Dreams and Frankenstein contributing the bulk.
Surprises and Snubs
Marty Supreme’s over-performance is, perhaps, one of the biggest surprises on the nomination list. Only just a month ago, we were debating if the film would feature at all, let alone take home a big swathe of the nominations.
Kate Hudson’s nomination for Best Actress for Song Sung Blue was another surprise, although it was a stellar performance, while Delroy Lindo’s Best Supporting Actor nomination was a welcome entry.
Notable among this year’s snubs (as the Oscars always have), is Wicked: For Good. Despite a strong box office performance and generally decent critical reception, and in spite of some impressive effects and performances, the film was shut out entirely. Of course, Avatar: Fire and Ash didn’t see a lot of traction, either. It seems like the Academy, somewhat like movie-goers themselves, are tired out on sequels and reboots.
This was one of the most geographically diverse Oscar nomination lists we’ve seen in a good while, with 22 nominations for films that are, at least majoritively, not English language. Additionally, there is at least one per category, which shows a swing to much broader audience tastes, even among Academy voters. Perhaps their efforts to expand their voting base are paying off, after all.
We also got a new award category, which was in itself a bit of a surprise, with Best Casting now a category. This is the first new category since Best Animation was introduced in 2003. This is also the first year where the Academy has taken real pains to ensure that all members who vote in a category have watched all the nominees, not simply voted based on pre-nomination campaigning. Its application was a little lackluster, needing only a self-policing declaration, but they still get points for the attempt.
Now, it’s on to the final winners and the ceremony itself, coming in March this year.