Greta Gerwig, Jordan Peele make history with Oscar nods
MINUTES after hearing he had been nominated for an Oscar, Get Out director Jordan Peele tweeted: “You know when you’re on the phone trying to disguise the sound of an ugly cry? I failed at that.”
Peele made history when the nominations for the 90th Academy Awards were announced on Tuesday, and he’s in good company. Just two weeks after Natalie Portman criticised the lack of female directors recognised at the Golden Globes, the Academy answered with a more diverse array of nominees. Both Hollywood newcomers and veterans set records in several categories, ranging from cinematography to original screenplay.
Here are some that stand out: Peele is the fifth black director to be nominated. He follows John Singleton (Boyz N The Hood), Lee Daniels (Precious), Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave) and Barry Jenkins (Moonlight). Peele is also the fourth black writer to be nominated for best original screenplay, and the first in more than 25 years. Get Out received a nomination for best picture, and Daniel Kaluuya is one of five actors competing in the leading role category.
Greta Gerwig ended an eight-year streak of the Academy nominating all men for best director for Lady Bird, and is the fifth woman to be recognised in the category. The other four are Lina Wertmuller (Seven Beauties), Jane Campion (The Piano), Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation) and Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker), who won the Oscar in 2010 and became the only female filmmaker to do so. Lady Bird also garnered Gerwig a nomination for best original screenplay and is one of nine best picture contenders.
Mudbound’s Rachel Morrison is the first female cinematographer to be nominated in the Academy’s 90-year history. Morrison, who also worked on the highly anticipated Black Panther, was named best cinematographer by the New York Film Critics Circle earlier in the awards season.
Mudbound director Dee Rees became the first black woman in 45 years – and the second ever – to be nominated for an original screenplay Oscar. The first was Lady Sings the Blues by writer Suzanne de Passe, who shared the 1973 nomination with co-writers Chris Clark and Terence McCloy.
Mudbound put worries of an anti-Netflix bias to rest with its four nominations: supporting actress and original song for Mary J Blige; adapted screenplay for Rees and Virgil Williams; and cinematography for Morrison.
Christopher Nolan received his firstever best director nod for Dunkirk, a best picture contender.
Following sexual assault allegations against Kevin Spacey, Christopher Plummer stepped into the role of J Paul Getty in All the Money in the World and shot his scenes in just 10 days.
The performance earned him a supporting actor nod, and at 88, Plummer is now the oldest actor to ever be nominated. (Titanic actress Gloria Stuart was 87, when she was nominated for a supporting actress Oscar in 1998.) He has been nominated twice before for The Last Station in 2010 and “Beginners” in 2012, which he won at 82.
Nolan has been previously nominated three times – best original screenplay for both Memento and Inception, and best picture for the latter – but has never won.
It’s not unusual to see Meryl Streep and the words “Academy Award” in the same sentence, but the Hollywood veteran notably beat her own record for most acting nominations. Her nod for playing publisher Katharine Graham in The Post is her 21st and comes 40 years after her first, which she received for The Deer Hunter.
Streep has won three Oscars, for Kramer vs Kramer, Sophie’s Choice and The Iron Lady.
Denzel Washington, perhaps a surprise best actor nominee for crime thriller Roman J Israel, Esq, also beat his own record for the most-nominated black actor in Oscar history. This is his eighth nod. He won in the supporting category for Glory in 1990 and in the leading category for Training Day, in 2002. – Washington Post