On Thursday, January 23, the American Film Academy announced the nominees for the 97th Academy Awards, reports Kazpravda.kz citing Bbc.com
The films contending for the Oscar for "Best Picture" include: "Anora" by Sean Baker, "The Brutalist" by Brady Corbet, "Emilia Pérez" by Jacques Audiard, "Conclave" by Edward Berger, "A Complete Unknown" by James Mangold, "Dune: Part Two" by Denis Villeneuve, "I Still Here" by Walter Salles, "Substance" by Coralie Fargeat, "Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz" by Jon Chu, and "The Nickel Boys" by RaMell Ross.
The nominees for "Best Director" include Sean Baker, Brady Corbet, Coralie Fargeat, Jacques Audiard, and James Mangold.
The Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role may go to Demi Moore ("Substance"), Mikey Madison ("Anora"), Carla Sofia Gascon ("Emilia Pérez"), Cynthia Erivo ("Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz"), and Fernanda Torres ("I Still Here").
Among the contenders for the Best Actor award are Adrien Brody ("The Brutalist"), Ralph Fiennes ("Conclave"), Timothée Chalamet ("A Complete Unknown"), Colman Domingo ("Sing Sing"), and Sebastian Stan ("The Apprentice: The Rise of Trump").
In the category for "Best Supporting Actress," the shortlist includes Ariana Grande ("Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz"), Isabella Rossellini ("Conclave"), Zoe Saldana ("Emilia Pérez"), Felicity Jones ("The Brutalist"), and Monica Barbaro ("A Complete Unknown").
For the title of "Best Supporting Actor," the nominees are Kieran Culkin ("A Real Pain"), Yura Borisov ("Anora"), Edward Norton ("A Complete Unknown"), Guy Pearce ("The Brutalist"), and Jeremy Strong ("The Apprentice: The Rise of Trump").
Among the nominees for the Oscar for "Best Animated Feature" are the Latvian film "Flow," "The Wild Robot," the sequel "Inside Out 2," "Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl," and "Memoir of a Snail."
The nominations were supposed to be announced last week, but due to wildfires in Los Angeles, the announcement was postponed. The fires affected California in early January, claiming 24 lives and destroying over 10,000 structures.
The Oscar ceremony will take place on March 2 at 7:00 PM Eastern Time (04:00 in Astana). The host will be American comedian Conan O'Brien.
This year, "Best Picture" is one of the most unpredictable categories. In recent ceremonies, the Academy had clear favorites: in 2024, the biopic by director Christopher Nolan, "Oppenheimer," received thirteen nominations. In 2023, the comedy action film "Everything Everywhere All at Once" from the directing duo Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan received eleven nominations.
This time, there were no definitive leaders in the competition before the nominees were announced. Among the favorites were "The Brutalist" by Brady Corbet and "Emilia Pérez" by Jacques Audiard. Both triumphed at the Golden Globes, taking home the major awards.
Corbet's film tells the story of a fictional Hungarian architect, Laszlo Toth, who fled the Holocaust for the USA. Actor Adrien Brody, who played the lead role, won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Dramatic Film, while the film itself received awards for Best Film and Best Director.
"Emilia Pérez" is a French comedy about a Mexican drug lord wishing to undergo a transgender transition. In addition to the Golden Globe for Best Film in its genre, the film also received an award for Best Non-English Language Film and other accolades.
Ultimately, at the Oscars, "Emilia Pérez" became the leader in nominations, securing a total of thirteen.
In the race for Best Picture, there are also films that did not achieve such success in terms of nominations but still enjoy substantial support and generate slightly less controversy among critics. Nominees include "Conclave" by Edward Berger, which deals with political intrigues in the Vatican, and the romantic comedy "Anora" by Sean Baker, depicting the life of a sex worker on Brighton Beach.
At the Golden Globes, "Conclave" won an award only for Best Screenplay (which went to Peter Strogon), while "Anora" went home empty-handed, even though it previously won the Palme d'Or at Cannes. Both films could potentially win the main Oscar statue, thanks to the voting system, where Academy members rank nominees in order of preference.
Also in the running for the top Oscar are the biopic about Bob Dylan, "A Complete Unknown," and the blockbuster "Wicked," an adaptation of the Broadway musical based on "The Wizard of Oz."
In the nominations for "Best Director," critics expected to see Edward Berger for "Conclave," but he did not make the list of contenders. Instead, Coralie Fargeat for "Substance" and James Mangold for "A Complete Unknown" were included.
Ralph Fiennes from "Conclave" and Adrien Brody from "The Brutalist" are vying for "Best Actor," along with Timothée Chalamet ("A Complete Unknown") and Colman Domingo ("Sing Sing").
The return of long-established actresses to the screen is possibly the main trend this year in cinema. The season's favorite is Demi Moore, who played the lead role in the body horror film "Substance." Despite her worldwide fame, the Golden Globe for her role in "Substance" was her first prestigious film award in a 45-year career. Critics are preparing for Moore to also receive an Oscar.
Another actress who has had a highly successful year is Pamela Anderson. She starred in the film "The Last Showgirl" about dancers in Las Vegas and was recently nominated for the SAG Award. Critics expected to see her at the Oscars, but she did not make the list of contenders.
Moore's competitors in the race for "Best Actress" ultimately include Mikey Madison ("Anora"), Cynthia Erivo ("Wicked"), and Carla Sofia Gascon ("Emilia Pérez"). Gascon has become the first openly transgender person nominated for the award.
Among the contenders for Best Supporting Actress, critics expected to see two major pop stars of recent years: Ariana Grande and Selena Gomez. Grande is memorable for her role as Glinda, the Good Witch of the North in "Wicked." Selena Gomez, on the other hand, played the role of the former wife of a drug lord in "Emilia Pérez."
As a result, only Grande made it onto the list of nominees, while Gomez's colleague from "Emilia Pérez," Zoe Saldana, also landed a spot on the shortlist in the same category.
Favorites for the 97th Oscars also include stars from the series "Succession." Kieran Culkin is expected to win in the "Best Supporting Actor" category for his role in the dramedy about the trip of American Jews to Poland, "A Real Pain." His competitor in that category is actor Jeremy Strong for his role in "The Apprentice: The Rise of Trump." Competing with them for the award are Russian actor Yura Borisov ("Anora"), Guy Pearce ("The Brutalist"), and Edward Norton ("A Complete Unknown").
Despite the absence of a showdown on the level of "Barbie" vs. "Oppenheimer," there were plenty of blockbusters in theaters this year. "Wicked" is nominated for "Best Picture," while another box office success of the year, "Gladiator 2" by Ridley Scott, made it onto the shortlist for Best Costume Design.
Among other favorites of this season is "Dune: Part Two," the sequel to the adaptation of Frank Herbert's book by Denis Villeneuve, featuring a star-studded cast. The leading roles are played by Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya, while Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, Florence Pugh, and others can be seen in supporting roles.
In 2021, the first part of "Dune" was nominated for 10 Oscars, including "Best Picture," and won six. The second film is expected to receive nominations for "Best Picture" and is also anticipated to win in technical categories. Timothée Chalamet has entered the race as "Best Actor," but not for "Dune," rather for his other