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Oscar Nominations as We Close In On the Big Day
Just over a month away from the March 10 ceremony, we finally have the official list of Oscar nominations. Taking place this year at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, it’s down to brass tacks in the race for who will take home the coveted statuette. Brandon Blake, leading entertainment attorney with Blake & Wang P.A., unpacks a nominations list that holds few surprises, but much potential.

Brandon Blake
Oppenheimer Leads the Pack
Christopher Nolan’s historic drama, Oppenheimer, leads the pack with 13 nominations. Naturally, this includes a key nomination in the expanded 10-competitor-strong Best Picture category. Here it will face some stellar competition from American Fiction, Anatomy of a Fall, The Holdovers, Maestro, The Zone of Interest, Poor Things, Past Lives, Killers of the Flower Moon, and, ironically, but not unexpectedly, its box office rival, Barbie. So far, no real surprises, as each of these films has been heavily in the spotlight this awards season.

Oppenheimer also takes home key nods in the Best Director, Actor, and both Supporting categories.
Other Key Nominations
Poor Things follows closely on Oppenheimer’s tail, with 11 nominations. It will also compete with Oppenheimer for Best Direction, as well as key nominations for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor. Critically acclaimed Killers of the Flower Moon will be competing right alongside it in the same categories. This represents a historic first nomination for a Native American actress, for Lily Gladstone.

While it is still relatively unusual for a comedic picture to gain strong traction with the Oscar nominations committee- a fact that may explain the now-notorious snubs for Greta Gerwig as director and Margot Robbie for Best Actress- Barbie did manage to take home 8 nominations, including Best Supporting Actor for Ryan Gosling.

Perhaps it is worth mentioning that part of the reason for the expansion of the nomination slots for Best Picture from the 2009 ceremony onwards was to help redress the leaning towards artistic, non-mainstream films. Some believe that key awards ceremonies like the Oscars show a notable disconnect between what is popular and what is seen as ‘valuable’ enough to nominate. A noble effort in many ways, as we have seen the Best Picture selections expand across far more categories since the change. While it perhaps wouldn’t be practical to expand all the ‘leading’ categories to match, these high-profile snubs do highlight that the limited 5 nominations across the Acting and Direction categories likewise hold back the field just a little. Not that that explains leaving Leonardo DiCaprio off the list for Killers of the Flower Moon, another notable miss. On a brighter note, Martin Scorsese’s Directorial nomination now makes him the most nominated living director. Will that be enough to tip the scales in Killer’s favor for that category? We will have to wait and see.

On the administrative side, this will be the first Oscars ceremony where all Best Picture nominees must meet an expanded set of representation and inclusion standards to be deemed eligible.

With the official list of nominations now announced, the countdown to the ceremony itself can begin. It will return to screens live from coast to coast on Sunday, March 10. Jimmy Kimmel will host once again, although the ceremony will be taking a new, earlier time slot. The race to see which of these worthy nominations go home with the iconic gold statuette is on!

Description
Oscar Nominations as We Close In On the Big Day
Just over a month away from the March 10 ceremony, we finally have the official list of Oscar nominations. Taking place this year at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, it’s down to brass tacks in the race for who will take home the coveted statuette. Brandon Blake, leading entertainment attorney with Blake & Wang P.A., unpacks a nominations list that holds few surprises, but much potential.

Brandon Blake
Oppenheimer Leads the Pack
Christopher Nolan’s historic drama, Oppenheimer, leads the pack with 13 nominations. Naturally, this includes a key nomination in the expanded 10-competitor-strong Best Picture category. Here it will face some stellar competition from American Fiction, Anatomy of a Fall, The Holdovers, Maestro, The Zone of Interest, Poor Things, Past Lives, Killers of the Flower Moon, and, ironically, but not unexpectedly, its box office rival, Barbie. So far, no real surprises, as each of these films has been heavily in the spotlight this awards season.

Oppenheimer also takes home key nods in the Best Director, Actor, and both Supporting categories.
Other Key Nominations
Poor Things follows closely on Oppenheimer’s tail, with 11 nominations. It will also compete with Oppenheimer for Best Direction, as well as key nominations for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor. Critically acclaimed Killers of the Flower Moon will be competing right alongside it in the same categories. This represents a historic first nomination for a Native American actress, for Lily Gladstone.

While it is still relatively unusual for a comedic picture to gain strong traction with the Oscar nominations committee- a fact that may explain the now-notorious snubs for Greta Gerwig as director and Margot Robbie for Best Actress- Barbie did manage to take home 8 nominations, including Best Supporting Actor for Ryan Gosling.

Perhaps it is worth mentioning that part of the reason for the expansion of the nomination slots for Best Picture from the 2009 ceremony onwards was to help redress the leaning towards artistic, non-mainstream films. Some believe that key awards ceremonies like the Oscars show a notable disconnect between what is popular and what is seen as ‘valuable’ enough to nominate. A noble effort in many ways, as we have seen the Best Picture selections expand across far more categories since the change. While it perhaps wouldn’t be practical to expand all the ‘leading’ categories to match, these high-profile snubs do highlight that the limited 5 nominations across the Acting and Direction categories likewise hold back the field just a little. Not that that explains leaving Leonardo DiCaprio off the list for Killers of the Flower Moon, another notable miss. On a brighter note, Martin Scorsese’s Directorial nomination now makes him the most nominated living director. Will that be enough to tip the scales in Killer’s favor for that category? We will have to wait and see.

On the administrative side, this will be the first Oscars ceremony where all Best Picture nominees must meet an expanded set of representation and inclusion standards to be deemed eligible.

With the official list of nominations now announced, the countdown to the ceremony itself can begin. It will return to screens live from coast to coast on Sunday, March 10. Jimmy Kimmel will host once again, although the ceremony will be taking a new, earlier time slot. The race to see which of these worthy nominations go home with the iconic gold statuette is on!