‘Oppenheimer’ dominates Oscar nominations
NEW YORK — After a tumultuous movie year marred by strikes and work stoppages, the Academy Awards showered nominations Tuesday on Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster biopic, “Oppenheimer,” which came away with a leading 13 nominations.
Nolan’s three-hour opus, viewed as the best picture frontrunner, received nods for best picture; Nolan’s direction; acting nominations for Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr. and Emily Blunt; and multiple honors for the sweeping craft of the J. Robert Oppenheimer drama.
Reached by phone Tuesday morning in Los Angeles, Emma Thomas, Nolan’s wife and producing partner, said she woke up to a flurry of congratulatory messages and then roused Nolan with the news.
“Don’t take it as being blase,” Nolan told The Associated Press, laughing. “We just didn’t want to jinx anything.”
Though Nolan is regarded as the big-canvas auteur of his era, he’s never won an Academy Award, nor have any of his films won best picture. This, though, could be his year. Reflecting on the rarity of his film’s success — a lengthy drama dense with talk and the convulsions of history that nevertheless grossed nearly $1 billion — Nolan called Oppenheimer “one of the great American stories.”
“I grew up loving Hollywood movie and believing studio filmmaking can take on anything,” said Nolan. “Seeing audiences respond to that this summer was incredibly thrilling and getting this kind of recognition from the academy, I don’t know what to say, really. It certainly confirms our faith in what studio filmmaking can be.”
The year’s biggest hit, “Barbie,” came away with a nominations haul slightly less than its partner in Barbenheimer
mania. Greta Gerwig’s feminist comedy, with more than $1.4 billion in ticket sales, was nominated for eight awards, including best picture; Ryan Gosling for best supporting actor; and two best-song candidates in “What Was I Made For” and “I’m Just Ken.”
Gerwig was surprisingly left out of the best director field. She was nominated for best director in 2018 for her solo directorial debut, “Lady Bird.”
Both Yorgos Lanthimos’ Frankenstein riff “Poor Things” and Martin Scorsese’s Osage epic “Killers of the Flower Moon” were also widely celebrated, with 11 and 10 nods apiece.
Lily Gladstone, star of “Killers of the Flower Moon,” became the first Native American nominated for best actress. For the 10th time, Scorsese was nominated for best director. Leonardo DiCaprio, though, was left out of best actor. The late Robbie Robertson, who died in August, also became the first Indigenous person nominated for best score.
The 10 films nominated for best picture were: “Oppenheimer,” “Barbie,” “Poor Things,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “The Holdovers,” “Maestro,” “American Fiction,” “Past Lives,” “Anatomy of a Fall” and “The Zone of Interest.”
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS
Cajun musician Doug Kershaw is 88. Singer-songwriter Ray Stevens is 85. Singer-songwriter Neil Diamond is 83. Singer Aaron Neville is 83. Actor Michael Ontkean is 78. Actor Daniel Auteuil is 74. Country singer-songwriter Becky Hobbs is 74. Comedian Yakov Smirnoff is 73. Former South Korean President Moon Jae-in is 70. Actor William Allen Young is 70. Bandleadermusician Jools Holland is 66. Actor Nastassja Kinski is 63. R&B singer Theo Peoples is 63. Country musician Keech Rainwater (Lonestar) is 61. Comedian Phil LaMarr is 57. R&B singer Sleepy Brown (Society of Soul) is 54. Actor Matthew Lillard is 54. Actor Merrilee McCommas is 53. Actor Ed Helms is 50.