12 takeaways from this morning's Oscar nominations
Tuesday, February 8, 2022 at 10:58AM In no particular order - see the full list of nominations here.
1. BEST ACTRESS IS, TWO YEARS RUNNING NOW, A CHAOTIC NAIL-BITER
Last season provided us a rare nail-biter as different women kept winning lead actress at the televised shows: Andra Day, Viola Davis, Frances McDormand, Carey Mulligan. This year the nominations themselves have been routinely surprising. In fact the only woman to hit *every* key precursor was Lady Gaga but when the nominations were announced this morning she was the most shocking snub. Meanwhile, Penelope Cruz who'd only won the Volpi Cup and Kristen Stewart, who had struggled in the precursors despite year long "she's going to win!" hoopla both showed up. So we currently have NO idea who is going to win. You can make a case for any of the nominees. And, once again, none of them are in Best Picture nominated films.
2. QUALIFYING RELEASES ARE ALIVE AND WELL (SIGH)
Norway's incredible film The Worst Person in the World scored a surprise nomination in Best Original Screenplay (well deserved) despite only playing for a week unadvertised in theaters to qualify...
Thankfully it's officially out now in 2022). Cyrano, which could have been a major contender in multiple characters with an actual release, scored one nomination (Costume Design) despite perpetually stabbing itself in the foot by not actually coming out. Other qualifiers weren't as lucky (Compartment No 6, A Hero), but it would probably take a few consecutive years wherein every movie that tried this strategy came up black for the distributors to abandon it. (The media likes to argue about the Oscars being irrelevant and how they could stay relevant and one solution we've always offered -- and always been ignored about -- is doing away with the "qualifying" releases loophole. It's anti-moviegoer and anything anti-moviegoer is not good for the long term health of the industry or the Oscars. So even though we worship Worst Person in the World and hope you'll go see it now, we do not respect this particular Oscar strategy.)
3. THE POWER OF THE DOG IS THE UNDISPUTED FRONTRUNNER
While people have theories about Belfast and Don't Look Up winning... and formerly had theories about the ways in which West Side Story or Dune could triumph, The Power of the Dog netted an astounding 12 nominations, even outdoing the expected nomination leader, Dune. What's more with a surprising Jesse Plemons nomination in Best Supporting Actor, its entire quartet of principals is nominated meaning it has the support of the Acting branch, the largest branch in the Academy
4. THE BALANCE OF POWER HAS SHIFTED TO THE STREAMERS
COVID-19 was the world event that the industry couldn't have seen coming but it succeeded in thoroughly shifting the balance of power to the upstart streamers. Among the ten best picture nominees, only half of them (Belfast, Drive My Car, Licorice Pizza, Nightmare Alley, West Side Story) had traditional theatrical-only releases. Netflix has yet to secure 3 Best Picture nominees at once but they probably came close this year. Apple TV+ scored their first Best Picture nominee with CODA. And Warner Bros strategy of releasing everything day and date on HBOMax and in theaters only harmed one of their contenders (In the Heights, notably the first real contender out of the gate with this strategy) in terms of perception of success and thus Oscar viability.
5. TICK TICK...BOOM! SURELY JUST-MISSED THE TOP CATEGORY
Despite the three acting nods for Being the Ricards we suspect this lively musical was actually the film in that dread 11th place situation. The musical only received two nominations but the Editing nod suggests it had a lot of support. The Editing branch rarely strays outside of Best Picture style films unless it's for genre spectacle (usually action or sci-fi)... and tick, tick... BOOM! is not even a spectacle in the traditional musical sense. It's worth noting though that its editors Myron Kerstein and Andrew Weisblum also edited In the Heights and The French Dispatch respectively, two films that were rudely completely shut out so we can pretend that their shared nomination is a tribute to those two lovely films.
6. BRADLEY COOPER IS THE NEW WARREN BEATTY?
The actor now has just as many producing nominations (Nightmare Alley, Joker, A Star is Born, American Sniper) as he does acting nominations (A Star is Born, American Sniper, American Hustle, Silver Linings Playbook). Four and Four. That's the same tally as legendary Warren Beatty in those fields. Bradley Cooper also has one writing nomination (A Star is Born)... but Beatty still beats his record since he has multiple writing and directing nominations plus a win for Best Director (Reds).
7. KENNETH BRANAGH IS A WINNER... WITHOUT AN OSCAR YET
Kenneth Branagh scored three nominations for Belfast (Screenplay, Picture, and Director)... He has now been nominated in a total of SEVEN different Oscar categories (from his 8 nominations) ... how crazy is that? That's an all time record by the way. The previous record was six categories which both the late Walt Disney and George Clooney accomplished.
8. CRITICS DO HAVE POWER AFTER ALL... BUT ONLY IF THEY REALLY FOCUS IT AND DON'T SHUT UP ABOUT IT
Tiny if revered distributor Janus Films have their second biggest hit of all time with the three hour Japanese drama Drive My Car. That they managed FOUR nominations is entirely due to critical fervor and noise since the company couldn't foot the bill of a traditional Oscar campaign. Critics Awards came through and virtually ignored ALL OTHER foreign language films this year. You could also make a case that constant critical awards for Kristen Stewart helped her survive a rocky precursor season in which her premature frontrunner status got as uncomfortable to swallow as Princess Diana's pearl necklace in a bowl of soup.
9. THE SPECIALTY CATEGORIES ARE BEGINNING TO MERGE
With Flee's historical trio of nominations (Documentary Feature, International Feature, Animated Feature) following closely on the heels of a couple of doubles from Honeyland (2019 International Feature and Doc Feature nominees) and Romania's Collective (2020 International Feature and Doc Feature) we now have an official trend on our hands. Expect a lot more countries to start submitting docs in International Feature now that the Oscar's committees are so receptive to double and even triple-dipping.
10. BEST PICTURE (AND LEAD ACTOR) COATTAILS ARE THE WAY TO PREDICT SUPPORTING SURPRISES
We've known this to be true for some time so why didn't we predict Jessie Buckley, JK Simmons, Judi Dench, and Jesse Plemons? They were all mild surprises (if not shocks) in their categories given that they didn't have much precursor love.
11. SPAIN SHOULD REALLY SUBMIT PEDRO ALMODÓVAR ALL THE TIME
In theory we love the idea of spreading the wealth but when your country is home to the greatest living filmmaker maybe submit him every time and reap the benefits? Parallel Mothers with its nominations for Best Actress and Best Score would probably have scored a third nomination in International Feature, despite impressive competition.
12. TBA
Something else will come to us shortly...
Reader Comments (40)
13) Never ever bet against Judi Dench.
Now an 8 time nominee, she is now nominated in four consecutive decades (90s, 00s, 10s, 20s)
Here's a fun one: first time ever with 5 Best Picture nominees with no Acting nominations (Dune, Licorice Pizza, Drive My Car, Don't Look Up, Nightmare Alley).
Previous record was 4 in in 2009 and 2011.
In the last 9 years there were only 11 such noms total (Parasite, 1917, Ford v. Ferrari, Black Panther, Dunkirk, Arrival, Mad Max: Fury Road, Grand Budapest Hotel, Selma, Her, Life of Pi).
Here's another: Don't Look Up is Leonardo DiCaprio's 10th film to get a Best Picture Nom, and with Nightmare Alley gets Cate Blanchett to 9. Among living stars the only one with more than Leo is De Niro with 11. Leo is now tied with Jack Nicholson and one ahead of Tom Hanks and Blanchett, who moves into the lead for women (her costar Meryl has 8 along with a bunch of guys).
One more: Best director nominations in six different decades for Spielberg! I know it's old news but impossible to imagine that ever being replicated.
Pedro would go down as a Bergman or Fellini in the Oscar books if Spain just submitted him every year. I think Penelope's nomination this year means he's the first director to place lead acting nods from three foreign-language films.
All the supporting surprise nominees' names start with J.
Couples getting nominated in the same year--and covers all four acting categories!
Is this the first year in a long time where ALL the supporting performances are actually supporting???
Here's one: for the first time in the history of the Oscars (I think, someone correct me if I'm wrong), all four acting categories feature at least one performance directed by a woman (Benedict Cumberbatch in Actor, Olivia Colman in Actress, Troy Kotsur, Jesse Plemons and Kodi Smit-McPhee in Supporting Actor, Jessie Buckley and Kirsten Dunst in Supporting Actress).
Is it possible Caitriona Balfe split her votes between lead and supporting actress? I don't know how to explain Lady Gaga other than the entire Academy didn't care for "House of Gucci." No nominations anywhere.
Will vs Denzel 20 years later!
Two partnered couples nominated - Kirsten Dunst/Jesse Plemons... Penelope Cruz/Javier Bardem
Raul:
House of Gucci did get a nomination for Best Makeup & Hairstyling.
Colman and Buckley join:
Winslet and Stuart, Titanic
Dench and Winslet, Iris
as nominees for playing the same character in the same film.
Since I correctly predicted all five Best Actress nominees (and Bardem and Plemons and Igelsias), the category has never seemed that chaotic to me… ;-)
But most other categories are bloody messes. Those Negga and Kushner snubs hurt.
PS. Diane Warren, stop it!
@Raul, I have to imagine that's the case. It's hard to see her film getting the Dench coattails nomination, and her being snubbed.
I think the interesting thing about the Gaga snub, is that she was in a box office hit (by pandemic standards). It feels right that we have box office hits for adults that don't get nominations. I also suspect she'll make a comeback, Cher style, in a few years.
I think Spain's decision really hampered Almodovar's campaign - it's easy to see him being competitive for a screenplay nomination if his film had the boost of being a big international feature contender all season long. But, his film wasn't as loved in Spain.
One of the bigger surprises people haven't caught up with: No Disney movie in Animated Short.
Two out and proud queer acting nominees, both women.
Four Black acting nominees, two men, two women.
All Supporting Actress nominees‘ last names in the first five letters of the alphabet (three Ds).
Not liking the 2 male noms for Being the Ricardos and Judi Dench was meh!!!
While I hope that the success of Flee means that the Int'l committee and Doc/Animation branches are being more inclusive, I fear that instead it means that the Academy is just getting lazier about what they'll consider outside of the main categories...
Honeyland, Collective, and Flee are all wonderful films so I should be grateful that they've done well, but I do worry why something that used to never happen (even to similarly wonderful films) is suddenly happening all the time!
My other thought: wonder how The Worst Person in the World would have done had it gotten an actual release in October/November...
The tick, tick... BOOM! Best Editing nom is not that surprising after watching the Variety Streaming Room event with Lin-Manuel Miranda. He spent a lot of time talking about how he had to film actors separately for a scene due to COVID and then had to layer the frames to have actors together in a scene. I think a lot of editors were watching these talks and admired the way it came out.
Jesse Plemons has now appeared in a Best Picture nominee for 5 consecutive years (Dog, Judas, Irishman, Vice, Post). I can’t immediately spot the last actor who managed such a streak.
I do not consider Being the Ricardos a musical!!?????
@Michael, speaking of streaks, Denzel has now been nominated in 5 consecutive decades (80s, 90s, 00s, 10s, 20s), and Spielberg in 6 (same + 70s).
@ rdf
No one said it was a musical.
I was thinking of the Cooper/Beatty correlation just the other day. It’s only a matter of time before he actually wins!
I will be sad about Passing missing out for years to come. I knew Tessa was a long shot, but I actually held out hope that Ruth was getting in.
Shame that French Dispatch missed out even on Production Design and Score. Love Power of the Dog but I would happily give that spot to the incredible design work Anderson's film. And I cannot remember a single note of Brittel's score on Don't Look Up to be honest. Great nom for Alberto Iglesias though
Passing being shut out was sad too but I guess it was a given that Netflix couldn't handle that many campaigns at once without focusing on something
Of all of the supporting players from Being the Ricardos to shortlist, JK Simmons as the one who broke through -- especially with Nina Arianda right there -- is quite unfortunate.
I have seen none of their movies (WFH streaming fatigue), but how cool would it have been for Halle Berry to have joined Will Smith and Denzel Washington as a nominee this year?
The Lady Gaga snub is deafening. If Margaret Avery and Melissa Leo are subjected to permanent ridicule for *their* Oscar campaigns, Gaga deserves to join the club.
House of Gucci's performances were hard to take seriously in the first place (see the Leto snub) but the press tour made it impossible. A billionaire pop star telling the world's greatest actresses *their* business is bound to grate. The whole thing was so poorly calculated. If I were a serious actor and Academy voter I wouldn't want to reward that, performance aside. And when the performance is that uneven? Next...
Maybe she can pull a Cher and wear something really ridiculous to the Oscars, but she would need a better sense of humor about her film career to pull that off.
@Troy H agreed they left out the best acting in the film for me they also failed to nominated Belfast's best acting Jamie Dornan.
Actor solid but unspectacular outside of Garfield
Actress 3 out of 5 isn't too bad,Chastain for the win
S/Actor JK Simmons really!
S/Actress so sad for Ruth
@Michael Cusumano - I can't spot anyone who has matched Plemons in having one in each of the 5 years but a couple other actors have had 5 nominated films in 5 years recently:
Timothee Chalamet 2017-21: Call Me By Your Name, Lady Bird, Little Women, Dune, Don't Look Up
Tracy Letts 2015-19: Big Short, Lady Bird, The Post, Ford v. Ferrari, Little Women
@Working Stiff.... You are right.... as you ALWAYS are!
^^^I wish ;-)
Cate Blanchett adds two top directors she's yet to work with to her resume, snatches two more Best Picture nominated films.
The coolest aspect of it all, is that the 9 Best Picture nominated movies that she's a part of are so different from one another.
Agustín Almodóvar has been incredibly rude on Twitter bitching about their snub so I don't expect the Spanish Acadamy to change theirs minds anytime soon.
I know the love for Pedro Almodovar in this site but, come on, dou you really think that Spain "deserves" to be nominated each time that he directs just because his name?
At this point just a few spanish language countries have been nominated, if you really want diversity it shouldn't be better to nominate (or even consider to watch) the work of other countries?
I don't think that you embrace completely the spread as you say.
César -- it was said more out of frustration because this is not the first time he's had an obviously viable BEST INTERNATIONAL hot title and not been submitted. He should be up there with Bergman and Fellini!
No Sparks... BOO!!!!! Fuck you Diane Warren you aging hack!
Hard for me to understand any lack of love for Balfe. She is outstanding, and it's a developed performance at that. You don't fully realize she's amazing until the scene on the bus. I think there could be an argument for her or Dornan for being leads, they were certainly better than Hinds and Dench. The latter two are terrific and all but they're smaller roles. Much like Simmons. Simmons was a great little character bit, but it's hard to believe anyone saw that as one of the five best performances in the category.
Surprised at the different categories West Side Story missed in, the two Belfast actors (Balfe is crazy to me), Negga. Strange stuff.
Interestingly, I have the exact opposite reaction regarding streaming. Nightmare Alley getting in over tick/Ricardos/Macbeth -- despite ample support in other categories for those 3 movies -- suggests to me that voters are wary of including too many streaming releases in their ballot and still look to vote for some theatrical-only releases. The Warner movies are a little different in that they all have full theatrical runs, so voters may not immediately think of those as HBO Max movies.
And speaking of Nightmare Alley, has any film received a best picture nomination with only 3 technical nominations that does not include editing?
personally think The lost daughter was closer to that BP nod than Tick... because 2 acting nods (one of them unexpected) and screenplay >>>>>>>>> editing nod
@ kin
Beauty and the Beast was nominated for best picture with additional nods in score, song and sound - no editing.
Thanks! I also later found the more extreme example of Selma, which only has best picture and a song nomination. I guess Nightmare Alley feels more rare because we weren't expecting this best picture nomination, or even any other major nominations really (but we were for Selma). It is almost like if they nominated Cruella for best picture this morning.