Jane Campion’s gothic western “The Power of the Dog” led nominations to the 94th Academy Awards, where streaming services more than ever before swept over Hollywood’s top honors.
In nominations announced Tuesday, Campion’s film landed a leading 12 nominations, including nods for best picture, best director and all of its top actors: Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons and Kodi Smit-McPhee.
Campion, a nominee for 1993′s “The Piano,” became the first woman to ever be nominated twice for best director. Last year, Chloé Zhao became just the second woman to ever win the award. Campion’s director of photography, Ari Wegner, also became the second woman ever nominated for best cinematography. The only previous woman to do so was Rachel Morrison for “Mudbound” in 2018.
Denis Villeneuve’s majestic sci-fi epic “Dune” followed closely behind with 10 nominations.
The nominees for best picture are: “Belfast”; “The Power of the Dog”; “Dune”; “Drive My Car”; “West Side Story”; “Don’t Look Up”; “Licorice Pizza”; “CODA”; “King Richard”; “Nightmare Alley.”
Nominations were announced Tuesday morning in Los Angeles by Leslie Jordan and Tracee Ellis Ross.
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A largely virtual awards season added some unpredictability to this year’s nominations, which are occurring later than usual. To make way for the Olympics, the Oscars will be held March 27 and will return to their usual venue, the Dolby Theatre.
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The nominees for best actress are: Jessica Chastain, “The Eyes of Tammy Faye”; Olivia Colman, “The Lost Daughter”; Penélope Cruz, “Parallel Mothers”; Nicole Kidman, “Being the Ricardos”; Kristen Stewart, “Spencer.”
The nominees for best actor are: Will Smith, “King Richard”; Javier Bardem, “Being the Ricardos”; Benedict Cumberbatch, “The Power of the Dog” and Andrew Garfield, “Tick, Tick … Boom!” and Denzel Washington, “The Tragedy of Macbeth.”
The nominees for best supporting actress are: Jessie Buckley, “The Lost Daughter”; Ariana DeBose, “West Side Story”; Judi Dench, “Belfast”; Kirsten Dunst, “The Power of the Dog” and Aunjanue Ellis, “King Richard.”
The nominees for best supporting actor are: Ciarán Hinds, “Belfast”; Troy Kotsur, “CODA”; Kodi Smit-McPhee, “The Power of the Dog”; Jesse Plemons, “The Power of the Dog” and J.K. Simmons, “Being the Ricardos.”
The nominees for original song are: “Be Alive” from “King Richard”; “Dos Oruguitas” from “Encanto”; “Down To Joy” from “Belfast”; “No Time To Die” from “No Time to Die”; “Somehow You Do” from “Four Good Days.”
The nominees for best animated feature are: “Encanto”; “Flee”; "Luca”; “The Mitchells vs. the Machines” and “Raya and the Last Dragon.”
The nominees for documentary feature are: “Summer of Soul (Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised)”; “Flee”; “Attica”; “Ascension” and “Writing With Fire.”
Nominees for best director are: Paul Thomas Anderson, “Licorice Pizza”; Kenneth Branagh, “Belfast”; Jane Campion, “The Power of the Dog”; Steven Spielberg, “West Side Story” and Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, “Drive My Car.”
The nominees for best original score are: “Don’t Look Up”; “Dune”; “Encanto”; “Parallel Mothers” and “The Power of the Dog.”
The nominees for costume design are: “Cruella”; “Cyrano”; “Dune”; “Nightmare Alley”; “West Side Story.”
The nominees for original screenplay are: “Belfast”; “Don’t Look Up”; “King Richard”; “Licorice Pizza” and “The Worst Person in the World.”
The nominees for adapted screenplay are: “CODA”; “Drive My Car”; “Dune”; “The Lost Daughter”; and “The Power of the Dog.”
In pulling from films released in myriad ways, these Oscar nominations reflect a tumultuous pandemic year for Hollywood that began with many theaters shuttered and ended with Sony Pictures' “Spider-Man: No Way Home” smashing box-office records.
In between, much of the normal rhythm of the movie business was transformed, as studios pushed some of the biggest movies of the year to streaming services in a bid to lure subscribers. Films including “Dune" (despite the objections of its director), Pixar's “Luca" and “King Richard” were among those that went straight to homes.
As COVID-19 cases surged in the last two months due to the omicron variant, much of Oscar season also turned virtual. Last year, the pandemic led the academy to host a delayed Oscars in a socially distanced ceremony at Los Angeles' Union Station. Ratings plummeted to an all-time low of 9.85 million viewers.
This year, the academy has yet to map out plans for its show, except that it will include a host for the first time since 2018. For better or worse, the Academy Awards will also be without its usual lead-in. The Golden Globes in January were an untelevised non-event after NBC said it wouldn't air them in 2022 while the beleaguered Hollywood Foreign Press reformed itself after ethics and diversity criticism.
Other changes were more subtle but potentially impactful. For the first time, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences ruled out hard-copy DVD screeners for its members, who instead could watch submissions on the academy's streaming platform.
