British actresses set for a starring role at the Oscars

FEMALE British talent led the way in the Oscar nominations last night, with Carey Mulligan up for best actress and Emily Blunt nominated for best supporting actress. Oppenheimer swept up 13 nominations while the film’s director Christopher Nolan, 53, has been put forward for best director. But Barbie’s director Greta Gerwig, 40, and lead actress Margot Robbie, 33, who were hailed for creating the box-office juggernaut that ‘saved cinema’ last summer, were sensationally missed out.

Poor Things, starring Emma Stone who won a Golden Globe for the role, follows with 11 Oscar nominations.

Up to 11,000 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voted from a record-breaking 93 countries with the results revealed at the Academy Awards in March.

Robert De Niro, 80, was nominated for his ninth Oscar – this time as best supporting actor for his performance as Machiavellian cattle rancher William Hale in Killers Of The Flower Moon.

It’s been 11 years since De Niro won a supporting actor gong for Silver Linings Playbook in 2013 and 48 years since he won one for The Godfather Part Two.

Fellow Hollywood legend Robert Downey Jr, 58, 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 after playing 64-year-old Olympic swimmer Diana Nyad in Nyad.

Saltburn – coined ‘the most divisive film of the year’ – by the British director and screenwriter Emerald Fennell, 38, has been noticeably left off the list.

British actors have made a strong impression elsewhere with Londonborn Emily Blunt, Carey Mulligan and Christopher Nolan up for top awards.

Ms Blunt, 40, is nominated for her first Oscar for playing Kitty, Robert Oppenheimer’s wife, opposite Cillian Murphy. Christopher Nolan is up for best director for the biopic. Ms Mulligan, 38, is in the running for best actress for her role as Felicia Montealegre in Maestro. Killers Of The Flower Moon actress Lily Gladstone, 37, who became the first Native American to win a Golden Globe earlier this month, is also the first Indigenous actress to be nominated for an Oscar.

Murphy, 47, is joined in the best actor category by Bradley Cooper for Maestro, Colman Domingo for Rustin, Paul Giamatti for The Holdovers and Jeffrey Wright for American Fiction.