Atomic BLITZ! – 96th Academy Award Nominations Revealed!

It’s time! It’s here! It’s… (cue Monty Python’s Flying Circus theme)

THE OSCAR BLITZ!

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, and everyone in between, this is the moment we’ve all been waiting for. This morning, Zazie Beetz and Jack Quaid announced the nominees for the 96th Academy Awards. As the action unfolded, phones across the industry rang off their proverbial hooks as hundreds of hopefuls learned their fate. Who got in? Who got snubbed? Let’s not waste any more time with preamble and get to the final field. As always, I’ll provide relevant links to reviews and any release information I have available.

Best Actor:
Bradley Cooper – Maestro – Netflix
Colman Domingo – Rustin – Netflix
Paul Giamatti – The Holdovers – In Theatres and Peacock
Cillian Murphy – Oppenheimer – In Theatres and VOD
Jeffrey Wright – American Fiction – In Theatres

Best Supporting Actor:
Sterling K. Brown – American Fiction
Robert De Niro – Killers of the Flower Moon – In Theatres and AppleTV
Robert Downey, Jr. – Oppenheimer
Ryan Gosling – Barbie – In Theatres and HBO/Max
Mark Ruffalo – Poor Things – In Theatres

Best Actress:
Annette Bening – Nyad – Netflix
Lily Gladstone – Killers of the Flower Moon
Sandra Hüller – Anatomy of a Fall – In Theatres and VOD
Carey Mulligan – Maestro
Emma Stone – Poor Things

Best Supporting Actress:
Emily Blunt – Oppenheimer
Danielle Brooks – The Color Purple – In Theatres
America Ferrera – Barbie
Jodie Foster – Nyad
Da’Vine Joy Randolph – The Holdovers

Animated Feature:
The Boy and the Heron – In Theatres
Elemental – Disney+
Nimona – Netflix
Robot Dreams – TBD
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse – Netflix and Blu-Ray

Animated Short:
Letter to a Pig
Ninety-Five Senses
Our Uniform
Pachyderme
War is Over: Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko

Cinematography:
El Conde – Netflix
Killers of the Flower Moon
Maestro
Oppenheimer
Poor Things

Costume Design:
Barbie
Killers of the Flower Moon
Napoleon – AppleTV
Oppenheimer
Poor Things

Best Director:
Jonathan Glazer – The Zone of Interest – In Theatres
Yorgos Lanthimos – Poor Things
Christopher Nolan – Oppenheimer
Martin Scorsese – Killers of the Flower Moon
Justine Triet – Anatomy of a Fall

Documentary Feature:
Bobi Wine: The People’s President – Hulu
The Eternal Memory – Paramount
Four Daughters – Amazon
To Kill a Tiger – In Limited Release
20 Days in Mariupol – PBS/Frontline/YouTube

Documentary Short:
The ABCs of Book Banning
The Barber of Little Rock
Island in Between
The Last Repair Shop
Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó

Film Editing:
Anatomy of a Fall
The Holdovers
Killers of the Flower Moon
Oppenheimer
Poor Things

International Feature:
Germany – The Teachers’ Lounge – In Theatres
Italy – Io Capitano – In Theatres February 23
Japan – Perfect Days – In Theatres February 16
Spain – Society of the Snow – Netflix
United Kingdom – The Zone of Interest

Live Action Short:
The After
Invincible
Knight of Fortune
Red, White and Blue
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar – Netflix

Makeup and Hairstyling:
Golda – Showtime
Maestro
Oppenheimer
Poor Things
Society of the Snow

Original Score:
American Fiction
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny – Disney+
Killers of the Flower Moon
Oppenheimer
Poor Things

Original Song:
“The Fire Inside” – Flamin’ Hot – Hulu
“I’m Just Ken” – Barbie
“It Never Went Away” – American Symphony – Netflix
“Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)” – Killers of the Flower Moon
“What Was I Made For?” – Barbie

Production Design:
Barbie
Killers of the Flower Moon
Napoleon
Oppenheimer
Poor Things

Adapted Screenplay:
American Fiction – Cord Jefferson
Barbie – Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach
Oppenheimer – Christopher Nolan
Poor Things – Tony McNamara
The Zone of Interest – Jonathan Glazer

Original Screenplay:
Anatomy of a Fall – Justine Triet and Arthur Harari
The Holdovers – David Hemingson
Maestro – Bradley Cooper and Josh Singer
May December – Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik
Past Lives – Celine Song

Sound:
The Creator – Hulu
Maestro
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One – VOD
Oppenheimer
The Zone of Interest

Visual Effects:
The Creator
Godzilla Minus One – In Theatres
Guardians of the Galaxy, vol. 3 – Disney+
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
Napoleon

Best Picture:
American Fiction
Anatomy of a Fall
Barbie
The Holdovers
Killers of the Flower Moon
Maestro
Oppenheimer
Past Lives
Poor Things
The Zone of Interest

***

Okay, some thoughts. Obviously the headline is that Best Picture is not a “Barbenheimer” race, but rather a “Poorpenheimer” one, as Oppenheimer and Poor Things dominate with 13 and 11 nominations, respectively. Killers of the Flower Moon is just behind with 10, but the way the winds are blowing, I think it’ll get all but shut out in the win column apart from maybe Lily Gladstone, and even she has to go up against Emma Stone in what is sure to be a hotly-debated contest no matter how it turns out. On the flip side, early favorites like Ferrari were completely left out of the final list, as was Asteroid City and the sublime All of Us Strangers. I can forgive the first two, but not the third, especially when you consider what made it in its place.

I am genuinely amazed at the acting nominations. No love for Greta Lee, Leonardo DiCaprio, or Willem Dafoe, which is really weird. At least on the men’s side I’m kind of okay with it, as they make room for Colman Domingo and Sterling K. Brown, who both gave excellent turns. There’s no way in Hell Bradley Cooper should be in this mix, but Netflix campaigned harder for Maestro than any other film. I am immensely shocked that Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore were left out in favor of Annette Bening and Jodie Foster, as May December is a far better film than Nyad. Hell, the fact that May December and Past Lives basically have to settle for token screenplay nominations is kind of insulting.

But the real shock is that Margot Robbie was left out of Best Actress while America Ferrera was put in for Supporting. Oh yeah, because if there’s one thing we’re going to remember about Barbie, it’s the generic mom character who gives one sanctimonious speech hammering the message into our skulls and NOT the dynamic lead character who made this movie as fun as it was. What the hell was the Acting Branch thinking?

There are a couple of other annoying nominations, like Diane Warren yet again (seriously, I watched and listened to 14 of the 15 shortlisted movies/songs, and 13 were better than “The Fire Inside”), or the fact that Academy voters irrationally love Anatomy of a Fall and The Zone of Interest, to the point that International Feature is no longer a contest. I can’t even muse about great films like The Promised Land and The Monk and the Gun being left out, as they could have put up any random four against Zone and it apparently wouldn’t have mattered.

There are a few contests that look genuinely interesting. Animated Feature is down to Spider-Man and The Boy and the Heron, pitting the second installment of what is very cool and popular at the moment against what will likely be the final film from a legend of the form. Do you vote for the best animation, the best story, or the legacy? Do you give Spidey a second win, knowing the third movie is slated for this year, or do you give a second to Miyazaki, knowing there probably won’t be another chance? It’s hard to say. Similarly, there will be competing interests in Original Screenplay, as the people who are still pissed that France didn’t submit Anatomy of a Fall, rendering it ineligible for International Film, will want to make sure it wins something, while at the same time you will have a solid block of voters equally pissed that Past Lives was all but snubbed. Also, given the precedent set last year with Women Talking, the fact that Past Lives is up for only its script and Best Picture suggests the Academy writ large will want to justify its inclusion to save face. Finally, Original Score will be intriguing, mostly to see if they give it to Robbie Robertson posthumously.

Finally, not for nothing, but this will be the shortest Blitz in history, at least from a post-nomination viewing perspective. I’ll of course be chomping at the bit for when the three Short Film categories get packaged and released in theatres next month, as I always am. But apart from that, there are only two nominated films I haven’t seen: El Conde for Cinematography and Robot Dreams for Animated Feature. The former will be easy peasy, as it’s on Netflix and was part of their FYC push. I didn’t watch it because it’s a foreign film and wasn’t submitted for International Feature, so I assumed it was out of the running. The latter, on the other hand, will be a bitch. Somehow, somewhere, Robot Dreams got a qualifying run, but I never saw a listing. The best I could find was a special screening at American Cinematheque for one night back in November, and that’s not enough, so I’m guessing wherever the public run was, it wasn’t in Los Angeles. It does have distribution through Neon, so I presume it will get a wider release at some point in the run-up to Oscar Night, but I have a feeling it’s going to be a pain in the ass.

So there we have it. The nominees are out. We have our completist tasks in hand, so let’s get to it! I’ll be formulating the Blitz schedule over the next few days, including determining which categories will get the video breakdown treatment. I also have a few more reviews to do for documentaries, foreign films, and Independent Spirit nominees, which I’ll spread out along with regular coverage of new movie reviews and the February and March editions of TFINYW and “The Worst Trailer in the World.” The next seven weeks are going to be a marathon, and I am here for it!

Join the conversation in the comments below! What do you think of these nominations? What do you think is the favorite for Best Picture? Can someone, ANYONE, put a stop to this Diane Warren nonsense? Let me know! And remember, you can follow me on Twitter (fuck “X”) and YouTube for even more content!