Can Cillian nuke the competition with his f irst Oscar nod?
No joy for fellow Irishmen in nominations
CILLIAN Murphy has been nominated for his first Oscar – but there has been disappointment for his string of Irish award nominees, including Barry Keoghan, Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott for their performances.
Ireland has not achieved its slew of nominations this year after the green carpet was thrown out when The Banshees of Inisherin hit Hollywood last year.
However, an Irish-produced film – the hit Poor Things starring Emma Stone – has set an Oscar record and become the most nominated of all time after it received 11 nods at yesterday’s announcement for the 2024 awards.
The film’s list of nominations tops previous record holder The Banshees of Inisherin, which won nine nominations last year, and In the Name of the Father (1993) and Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast (2021), which had seven nominations each.
Poor Things was produced and developed by Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe and the team at Dublin-based Element Pictures. The pair said: ‘We are thrilled with the news today, and with the ongoing success of Poor Things.’
Meanwhile, Britain’s female talent leads the way in this year’s nominations with Maestro’s Carey Mulligan up for best actress and Emily Blunt nominated for best supporting actress.
Oppenheimer swept up the nominations with 13 while Christopher Nolan has been put forward for best director. However, Barbie’s director Greta Gerwig, 40, and lead actress Margot Robbie, 33, missed out on the top spots.
Robert De Niro was nominated for his ninth Oscar at the age of 80 and is in the running for best supporting actor for his role as a cattle rancher, in Killers of the Flower Moon.
The Goodfella’s star is going up against a fellow Hollywood legend Robert Downey Jr, 58, who is also nominated for best supporting actor for his role as Lewis Strauss in Oppenheimer.
Jodie Foster, 61, is up for her first Oscar in 29 years for her role as the 64-year-old Olympic Swimmer Diana Nyad who attempted to become the first person ever to swim from Cuba to Florida.
Saltburn, coined ‘the most divisive film of the year’, by the British director and screenwriter, Emerald Fennell, 38, missed out on the nominations.
Our own Barry Keoghan, 31, who starred in the raunchy psychological thriller was a frontrunner to be up for a gong but remained noticeably absent from the nominees list.
Joining Cillian Murphy as the best actor nominees are Bradley Cooper for Maestro, Colam Domingo for Rustin, Paul Giamatti for The Holdovers and Jeffrey Wright for American Fiction.
Poor Things, Barbie, Past Lives, The Zone of Interest, Oppenheimer, Killers of the Flower Moon, Maestro, The Holdovers, American Fiction and Anatomy of a Fall are all nominated for Best Picture.
‘We’re thrilled with the news’