THE NOMINATIONS Devesh Sood

Associate News Editor

Whilestudents were stuck in their classes at 13:30 on Tuesday 24th January, the United States awoke to learn of the 95th Academy Award nominees. Despite the dwindling viewership numbers, and the continued insistence of the irrelevance of the Oscars, there always seems to be a curiosity about the films that are bound to be cemented in cinematic history.

The nominations presented plenty of surprises, even for the pundits. 14 out of the 20 actors are firsttime nominees, with Michelle Yeoh and Brendan Fraser amongst the most likely to be rewarded on the night. Everything, Everywhere, All at Once, which began its Oscars campaign as the crowd favourite and held the underdog status, came away with 11 nominations. Alongside the nominations for editing and original score, all 4 major actors received nominations for their roles, with Ke Huy Quan almost guaranteed to win his first, and both Jamie Lee Curtis and Stephanie Hsu receiving supporting actress nominations.

All Quiet on the Western Front proved to be surprising, receiving the 2nd highest number of nominations with 10. The popularity of this German remake had been felt through the BAFTA nominations, but many had not predicted it to be quite as popular prior. Netflix’s position on the film reflected this, with much louder campaigns for the controversial Blonde, which received only one nomination for Ana De Armas, and Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio.

Other notable nominations saw Baz Lurhmans glamorous Elvis biopic prove surprisingly successful, while Spielberg’s autobiographical tale The Fabelmans provides him his best opportunity for his first Best Director in over 20 years. Also recognised were some of the biggest blockbusters of the year, namely Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way of Water. While neither are expected to take home the prestigious Best Picture award, recognising the impact of larger, crowd-driven films is important, especially in the years following the pandemic.

Ireland also proved extremely popular amongst The Academy this year. Martin McDonough’s masterpiece The Banshees of Inisherin received 9 nominations; the 4 main cast members all received recognition and the film is expected to prove triumphant in the Best Original Screenplay category. On top of this, their wonderful international submission The Quiet Girl was recognised, while Paul Mescal proved to be the sole nomination for Charlotte Well’s Aftersun.

However, it is impossible to talk about any Oscar nominations without mentioning some of the biggest surprises. The international category saw the shocking omission of Korea’s submission, Park Chan Wook’s Decision to Leave, which many had predicted to win this category, and Brett Morgen’s Moonage Daydream missing a nomination in the documentary category. However, the most bizarre inclusion was Andrea Riseborough for To Leslie; having earned only $27,322 at the box office and seeing almost no promotion, the campaign used support from other stars and celebrities to generate awareness, a move that ended up proving successful. This shock resulted in the omission of Danielle Deadwyler from Till, which led to outrage from some. For the first time in a long time, these nominations truly presented a clearer, more unique picture of the current landscape of cinema; while the smaller character studies continue to be present, the representation of spectacle and the celebration of creativity has truly been exciting to follow. Should they be successful, the Academy may finally be able to return to what made their show so special; their unapologetic, bold love for cinema…