THE 94th ACADEMY AWARDS – THE NOMINATIONS

And here are the nominees!

Best Picture
Belfast
CODA
Don’t Look Up
Drive My Car
Dune
King Richard
Licorice Pizza
Nightmare Alley
The Power of the Dog
West Side Story

Best Directing
Kenneth Branagh, Belfast
Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Drive My Car
Paul Thomas Anderson, Licorice Pizza
Jane Campion, The Power of the Dog
Steven Spielberg, West Side Story

Best Actress in a Leading Role
Jessica Chastain, The Eyes of Tammy Faye
Olivia Colman, The Lost Daughter
Penelope Cruz, Parallel Mothers
Nicole Kidman, Being the Ricardos
Kristen Stewart, Spencer

Best Actor in a Leading Role
Javier Bardem, Being the Ricardos
Benedict Cumberbatch, The Power of the Dog
Andrew Garfield, tick, tick…BOOM!
Will Smith, King Richard
Denzel Washington, The Tragedy of Macbeth

Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Jessie Buckley, The Lost Daughter
Ariana DeBose, West Side Story
Judi Dench, Belfast
Kirsten Dunst, The Power of the Dog
Aunjanue Ellis, King Richard

Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Ciarán Hinds,  Belfast
Troy Kotsur, CODA
Jesse Plemons, The Power of the Dog
J.K. Simmons, Being the Ricardos
Kodi Smit-McPhee, The Power of the Dog

Best Original Screenplay
Kenneth Branagh, Belfast
Adam McKay, Don’t Look Up
Zach Baylin, King Richard
Paul Thomas Anderson, Licorice Pizza
Eskil Vogt, Joachim Trier, The Worst Person In the World

Best Adapted Screenplay
Siân Heder, CODA
Kyusuke Hamaguchi, Takamasa Oe, Drive My Car
Jon Spaihts, Denis Villeneuve, Eric Roth, Dune
Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Lost Daughter
Jane Campion, The Power of the Dog

Best Cinematography
Grieg Fraser, Dune
Dan Laustsen, Nightmare Alley
Ari Wegner, The Power of the Dog
Bruno Delbonell, The Tragedy of Macbeth
Janusz Kaminski, West Side Story

Best Film Editing
Hank Corwin, Don’t Look Up
Joe Walker, Dune
Pamela Martin, King Richard
Peter Sciberras, The Power of the Dog
Myron Kerstein, Andrew Weisblum, tick, tick…BOOM!

Best Animated Feature Film
Encanto
Flee
Luca
The Mitchells vs the Machines
Raya and the Last Dragon

Best Animated Short Film
Affairs of the Heart
Bestia
Boxballet
Robin Robin
The Windshield Wiper

Best Live-Action Short Film
Ala Kachuu-Take and Run
The Dress
The Long Goodbye
On My Mind
Please Hold

Best International Feature Film
Drive My Car
Flee
The Hand of God
Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom
The Worst Person in the World

Best Documentary Feature
Ascension
Attica
Flee
Summer of Soul, (…or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
Writing with Fire

Best Documentary Short Subject
Audible
Lead Me Home
The Queen of Basketball
Three Songs for Benazir
When We Were Bullies

Best Original Score
Nicholas Britell, Don’t Look Up
Hans Zimmer, Dune
Germaine Franco, Encanto
Alberto Iglesias, Parallel Mothers
Jonny Greenwood, The Power of the Dog

Best Original Song
“Be Alive,” King Richard – Dixon, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter
“Dos Oruguitas ,” Encanto – Lin-Manuel Miranda
“Down to Joy,” Belfast – Van Morrison
“No Time to Die,” No Time to Die – Billie Eilish, Finneas O’Connell
“Somehow You Do” Four Good Days – Diane Warren

Best Sound
Denise Yarde, Simon Chase, James Mather, Niv Adiri, Belfast
Mac Ruth, Mark Mangini, Theo Green, Doug Hemphill, Ron Bartlett, Dune
Simon Hayes, Oliver Tarney, James Harrison, Paul Massey, Mark Taylor, No Time to Die
Richard Flynn, Robert Mackenzie, Tara Webb, The Power of the Dog
Tod A. Maitland, Gary Rydstrom, Brian Chumney, Andy Nelson, Shawn Murphy, West Side Story

Best Costume Design
Jenny Bevan, Cruella
Massimo Cantini Parrini, Jacqueline Durran, Cyrano
Jacqueline West, Robert Morgan, Dune
Luis Sequeira, Nightmare Alley
Paul Tazewell, West Side Story

Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Mike Marino, Stacey Morris, Carla Farmer, Coming 2 America
Nadia Stacey, Naomi Donne, Julia Vernon, Cruella
Donald Mowat, Love Larson, Eva Von Bahr, Dune
Linda Dowds, Stephanie Ingram, Justin Raleigh, The Eyes of Tammy Faye
Göran Lundström, Anna Carin Lock, Frederic Aspiras, House of Gucci

Best Production Design
Patrice Vermette, Zsuzsanna Sipos, Dune
Tamara Deverell, Shane Vieu, Nightmare Alley
Grant Major, Amber Richards The Power of the Dog
Stefan Dechant, Nancy Haigh The Tragedy of Macbeth
Adam Stockhausen, Rena DeAngelo West Side Story

Best Visual Effects
Paul Lamber, Tristen Myles, Brian Connor, Gerd Nefzer, Dune
Swen Gillberg, Bryan Grill, Nikos Kalaitzidis, and Dan Sudick, Free Guy
Charlie Noble, Joel Green, Jonathan Fawkner, Chris Corbould, No Time to Die
Christopher Townsend, Joe Farrell, Sean Noel Walker, Dan Oliver, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Kelly Port, Chris Waegner, Scott Edelstein, Dan Sudick, Spider-Man: No Way Home

Jane Campion’s film The Power of the Dog from Netflix leads with 12 nominations. No real surprise there as it was a critical darling. No surprise either to see West Side Story landing multiple well-deserved nominations. Very happy to see Steven Spielberg nominated for West Side Story but surprised Tony Kushner didn’t get an Adapted Screenplay nomination for the musical. Dune did exceptionally well landing with ten nominations with Picture and multiple technical categories. Director Denis Villeneuve is one of the biggest snubs for me this year.

The Actress race was probably the most closely watched given the wealth of possibilities and the scattering of contenders across other award ceremonies. Kristen Stewart managed to get in for Spencer despite missing the SAG nomination while Lady Gaga, Alana Haim, Jennifer Hudson, and Emilia Jones were all left out. Gaga has received nominations in almost every other award ceremony leading up to this point. Many thought Jared Leto would score a Supporting Actor nomination for Gucci, but J.K. Simmons earned a surprise nomination for Being the Ricardos. Two couples were nominated this year with Javier Bardem & Penelope Cruz and Kirsten Dunst & Jesse Plemons.

Now is a great time to see Drive My Car. The Japanese film received nominations for Picture, Directing, Adapted Screenplay, and International Feature Film.

Last, but not least, my favorite film of the year, CODA, was recognized with three big nominations: Picture, Supporting Actor (Troy Kotsur), and Adapted Screenplay (Siân Heder).

Let me know your thoughts! Drop a comment on social media! What has your vote this year? Which performance missed out on a nomination? I’d love to hear from you!