The Netflix western The Power of the Dog was showered with 12 Oscar nominations on Tuesday, the most of any movie this year, with Dune close behind with 10 and West Side Story and Belfast each receiving seven.
They were all nominated for best picture, a field that will have 10 slots at the 94th Academy Awards, scheduled for March 27 on ABC. The other best picture nominees are Don’t Look Up, Licorice Pizza, CODA, King Richard, Nightmare Alley and, in a surprise, the Japanese film Drive My Car.
The little-seen Drive My Car, an introspective drama about a widowed theater director and the young woman who drives him to rehearsals, had a strong showing, receiving four nominations in total, including one for the Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi. He also surprised with an adapted screenplay nod. The nominations for the critically beloved film are illustrative of the international diversification of the Academy’s membership in recent years.
As always, Hollywood will talk as much about those who did not get nominated as those who did. Denis Villeneuve, the force behind Dune, was considered a lock for a directing nomination, but was overlooked. Lady Gaga (“House of Gucci”) was snubbed in the best actress category. And in documentary feature, “The Rescue,” from the previous Oscar winners Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin (Free Solo), was left out.
The Oscars have emerged as a fight between New Hollywood and Old Hollywood, with streaming services pushing hard for nominations — and thus validation in the eyes of the cinema establishment — and the cinema establishment so far holding the line.
Belfast, West Side Story, Licorice Pizza, Nightmare Alley, Dune and King Richard all hail from traditional studios. But Netflix and Apple TV+ made strong inroads.
Two Netflix films, The Power of the Dog and Don’t Look Up, made the best picture cut. Netflix was hoping to place three films in the race this year, which would have put the company on par with Miramax in its heyday. But voters denied a slot to the service’s “Tick, Tick … Boom!”
Apple TV+ came on strong, with CODA, a romantic drama about the only hearing member of a deaf family, giving the tech giant its first best picture nomination.
CODA also received a nomination for Sian Heder’s screenplay and Troy Kotsur’s supporting performance. The black-and-white The Tragedy of Macbeth, another Apple TV+ movie, received nominations for best actor (Denzel Washington), cinematography and production design. Apple TV+ only started competing at the Oscars last year, when it got two nominations in low-profile categories (and lost).
Amazon Prime Video’s Being the Ricardos received three nominations, with Javier Bardem and Nicole Kidman among the lead acting nominees and — in a surprise — J.K. Simmons recognized for his role as the I Love Lucy actor William Frawley.