Oscar Nominations: Oppenheimer Crushes Barbie as Race Gets Serious

Oppenheimer crushed the Oscar nominations while Barbie officially got nuked. Christopher Nolan’s drama about the man behind the atomic bomb topped the nominations with 13 citations, including Best Picture. The film earned a nomination in pretty much every category in which it was a contender. The other half of this summer’s blockbuster battle, Barbie, landed eight nominations including Best Picture, but got a backhanded offering as director Greta Gerwig and star Margot Robbie were among the morning’s biggest snubs, missing the cut for Best Director and Best Actress, respectively. Both earned nominations for Best Picture as producers, though, while Gerwig landed an additional nom for Best Adapted Screenplay after the Academy called Warner Bros.’ bluff for campaigning in the Original category despite crediting the Mattel product on which the story was based.

It actually seemed like the morning was going well for Barbie when America Ferrera landed a head-scratcher of a nomination in the Best Supporting Actress field for a role that’s neither showy, nor particularly challenging, and missed the key precursors where contenders like Julianne Moore (May December), Rosamund Pike (Saltburn), Penélope Cruz (Ferrari), and Sandra Hüller (The Zone of Interest) seemed to have more heat. But things started to look rocky for the billion-dollar Barbie after the film came up short at both the Golden Globes and the Critics Choice Awards. The Oscar nominations, however, generally reflected an international arthouse sensibility with Best Director and Best Picture nominations going to Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall and Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest.

Following Oppeneheimer’s lead were Poor Things with 11 and Killers of the Flower Moon with 10 nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director for Yorgos Lanthimos and Martin Scorese, respectively. Those films will face off in Best Actress with a showdown between Golden Globe winners Emma Stone and Lily Gladstone with dark horse Sandra Hüller (Anatomy of a Fall) as a potential spoiler.

It was a good morning for Canadian films, meanwhile, as dark horse To Kill a Tiger landed a well-deserved nomination for Best Documentary Feature. To Kill a Tiger tells the story of one family’s fight for justice in their small Indian village after their daughter survives a violent rape and vows to hold her assailants to account. The film, directed by Nisha Pahuja and produced by Pahuja, Cornelia Principe, and David Oppenheim swept the Canadian circuit last year with a win at the Toronto International Film Festival and three Canadian Screen Award wins. The Canadian drama Invincible, meanwhile, scored a nomination for Best Live Action Film for Vincent René-Lortie and Samuel Caron, while Korean-Canadian Celine Song landed a nomination for her screenplay for Past Lives and musician Robbie Robertson earned a posthumous nomination for Killers of the Flower Moon.

Among the big snubs of the morning, on the other hand, was the disappointing shut-out for Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers and the poor showing for Todd Haynes’ May December. The latter scored a nomination for Samy Burch’s screenplay, but both films didn’t land as favourably with Oscar voters as they did with other awards bodies and critics throughout the season. Also turning up short was France’s acclaimed The Taste of Things in the Best International Feature race—a controversial submission after the country’s selection committee opted not to send the English-heavy Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall. The choice paid off just fine for Fall, though, which scored five nominations, including a surprise shout-out for Best Film Editing.

Finally, the Oscar nominations ended on a high note by saying that this year’s ceremony will begin an hour earlier, which means we all win in the end. Winners will be announced on March 10.

The full list of Oscar nominations is as follows:

Performance by an actor in a leading role

Bradley Cooper in “Maestro“
Colman Domingo in “Rustin“
Paul Giamatti in “The Holdovers“
Cillian Murphy in “Oppenheimer”
Jeffrey Wright in “American Fiction“

Performance by an actor in a supporting role

Sterling K. Brown in “American Fiction”
Robert De Niro in “Killers of the Flower Moon”
Robert Downey Jr. in “Oppenheimer”
Ryan Gosling in “Barbie”
Mark Ruffalo in “Poor Things”

Performance by an actress in a leading role

Annette Bening in “Nyad“
Lily Gladstone in “Killers of the Flower Moon”
Sandra Hüller in “Anatomy of a Fall”
Carey Mulligan in “Maestro”
Emma Stone in “Poor Things”

Performance by an actress in a supporting role

Emily Blunt in “Oppenheimer”
Danielle Brooks in “The Color Purple“
America Ferrera in “Barbie”
Jodie Foster in “Nyad”
Da’Vine Joy Randolph in “The Holdovers”

Best animated feature film of the year

“The Boy and the Heron“ Hayao Miyazaki and Toshio Suzuki
“Elemental“ Peter Sohn and Denise Ream
“Nimona” Nick Bruno, Troy Quane, Karen Ryan and Julie Zackary
“Robot Dreams“ Pablo Berger, Ibon Cormenzana, Ignasi Estapé and Sandra Tapia Díaz
“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse“ Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and Amy Pascal

Achievement in cinematography

“El Conde” Edward Lachman
“Killers of the Flower Moon” Rodrigo Prieto
“Maestro” Matthew Libatique
“Oppenheimer” Hoyte van Hoytema
“Poor Things” Robbie Ryan

Achievement in costume design

“Barbie” Jacqueline Durran
“Killers of the Flower Moon” Jacqueline West
“Napoleon“ Janty Yates and Dave Crossman
“Oppenheimer” Ellen Mirojnick
“Poor Things” Holly Waddington

Achievement in directing

“Anatomy of a Fall” Justine Triet
“Killers of the Flower Moon” Martin Scorsese
“Oppenheimer” Christopher Nolan
“Poor Things” Yorgos Lanthimos
“The Zone of Interest” Jonathan Glazer

Best documentary feature film

“Bobi Wine: The People’s President” Moses Bwayo, Christopher Sharp and John Battsek
“The Eternal Memory” Nominees to be determined
“Four Daughters” Kaouther Ben Hania and Nadim Cheikhrouha
“To Kill a Tiger” Nisha Pahuja, Cornelia Principe and David Oppenheim
“20 Days in Mariupol” Mstyslav Chernov, Michelle Mizner and Raney Aronson-Rath

Best documentary short film

“The ABCs of Book Banning” Sheila Nevins and Trish Adlesic
“The Barber of Little Rock” John Hoffman and Christine Turner
“Island in Between” S. Leo Chiang and Jean Tsien
“The Last Repair Shop” Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers
“Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó” Sean Wang and Sam Davis

Achievement in film editing

“Anatomy of a Fall” Laurent Sénéchal
“The Holdovers” Kevin Tent
“Killers of the Flower Moon” Thelma Schoonmaker
“Oppenheimer” Jennifer Lame
“Poor Things” Yorgos Mavropsaridis

Best international feature film of the year

“Io Capitano” Italy
“Perfect Days“ Japan
“Society of the Snow“ Spain
“The Teachers’ Lounge“ Germany
“The Zone of Interest” United Kingdom

Achievement in makeup and hairstyling

“Golda” Karen Hartley Thomas, Suzi Battersby and Ashra Kelly-Blue
“Maestro” Kazu Hiro, Kay Georgiou and Lori McCoy-Bell
“Oppenheimer” Luisa Abel
“Poor Things” Nadia Stacey, Mark Coulier and Josh Weston
“Society of the Snow” Ana López-Puigcerver, David Martí and Montse Ribé

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)

“American Fiction” Laura Karpman
“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny“ John Williams
“Killers of the Flower Moon” Robbie Robertson
“Oppenheimer” Ludwig Göransson
“Poor Things” Jerskin Fendrix

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)

“The Fire Inside” from “Flamin’ Hot”
Music and Lyric by Diane Warren
“I’m Just Ken” from “Barbie”
Music and Lyric by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt
“It Never Went Away” from “American Symphony”
Music and Lyric by Jon Batiste and Dan Wilson
“Wahzhazhe (A Song For My People)” from “Killers of the Flower Moon”
Music and Lyric by Scott George
“What Was I Made For?” from “Barbie”
Music and Lyric by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell

Best motion picture of the year

“American Fiction” Ben LeClair, Nikos Karamigios, Cord Jefferson and Jermaine Johnson, Producers
“Anatomy of a Fall” Marie-Ange Luciani and David Thion, Producers
“Barbie” David Heyman, Margot Robbie, Tom Ackerley and Robbie Brenner, Producers
“The Holdovers” Mark Johnson, Producer
“Killers of the Flower Moon” Dan Friedkin, Bradley Thomas, Martin Scorsese and Daniel Lupi, Producers
“Maestro” Bradley Cooper, Steven Spielberg, Fred Berner, Amy Durning and Kristie Macosko Krieger, Producers
“Oppenheimer” Emma Thomas, Charles Roven and Christopher Nolan, Producers
“Past Lives” David Hinojosa, Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler, Producers
“Poor Things” Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe, Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone, Producers
“The Zone of Interest” James Wilson, Producer

Achievement in production design

“Barbie” Production Design: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer
“Killers of the Flower Moon” Production Design: Jack Fisk; Set Decoration: Adam Willis
“Napoleon” Production Design: Arthur Max; Set Decoration: Elli Griff
“Oppenheimer” Production Design: Ruth De Jong; Set Decoration: Claire Kaufman
“Poor Things” Production Design: James Price and Shona Heath; Set Decoration: Zsuzsa Mihalek

Best animated short film

“Letter to a Pig” Tal Kantor and Amit R. Gicelter
“Ninety-Five Senses” Jerusha Hess and Jared Hess
“Our Uniform” Yegane Moghaddam
“Pachyderme” Stéphanie Clément and Marc Rius
“WAR IS OVER! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko” Dave Mullins and Brad Booker

Best live action short film

“The After” Misan Harriman and Nicky Bentham
“Invincible” Vincent René-Lortie and Samuel Caron
“Knight of Fortune” Lasse Lyskjær Noer and Christian Norlyk
“Red, White and Blue” Nazrin Choudhury and Sara McFarlane
“The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar” Wes Anderson and Steven Rales

Achievement in sound

“The Creator“ Ian Voigt, Erik Aadahl, Ethan Van der Ryn, Tom Ozanich and Dean Zupancic
“Maestro” Steven A. Morrow, Richard King, Jason Ruder, Tom Ozanich and Dean Zupancic
“Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” Chris Munro, James H. Mather, Chris Burdon and Mark Taylor
“Oppenheimer” Willie Burton, Richard King, Gary A. Rizzo and Kevin O’Connell
“The Zone of Interest” Tarn Willers and Johnnie Burn

Achievement in visual effects

“The Creator” Jay Cooper, Ian Comley, Andrew Roberts and Neil Corbould
“Godzilla Minus One” Takashi Yamazaki, Kiyoko Shibuya, Masaki Takahashi and Tatsuji Nojima
“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” Stephane Ceretti, Alexis Wajsbrot, Guy Williams and Theo Bialek
“Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” Alex Wuttke, Simone Coco, Jeff Sutherland and Neil Corbould
“Napoleon” Charley Henley, Luc-Ewen Martin-Fenouillet, Simone Coco and Neil Corbould

Adapted screenplay