New Zealand director Dame Jane Campion appears at the screening of The Power of the Dog during the American Film Institute festival in Los Angeles on November 11, 2021. Photo / AP
New Zealand director Dame Jane Campion appears at the screening of The Power of the Dog during the American Film Institute festival in Los Angeles on November 11, 2021. Photo / AP
After a pandemic year that hobbled movie theatres and gave streaming services new inroads into Hollywood, the Academy Awards put its strongest support yesterday behind two films made with big-screen grandeur that were also streamed into homes: New Zealand director Jane Campion's gothic western The Power of the Dog and Denis Villeneuve's sci-fi epic Dune.
Netflix's The Power of the Dog led nominations to the 94th Academy Awards with 12 nods, including best picture, best director and recognition for 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 be nominated twice for best director. Last year, Chloe Zhao became just the second woman to 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.
This combination of photos shows promotional art for the films nominated for an Oscar for best picture. Image / AP
Dune followed closely behind with 10 nominations spread out largely in the technical categories that rewarded the craft of Villeneuve's adaptation of Frank Herbert's 1965 novel. The Warner Bros release debuted simultaneously in theatres and — against the strenuous objections of its director — on HBO Max.
Sir Kenneth Branagh's Belfast and Steven Spielberg's remake of West Side Story earned seven nods apiece.
Branagh, 61, said: "It's a long way from the streets of Belfast to the Academy Awards.
"Today, I think of my mother and father, and my grandparents - how proud they were to be Irish, how much this city meant to them. They would have been overwhelmed by this incredible honour - as am I.
"Given a story as personal as this one, it's a hell of a day for my family, and the family of our film. I thank Academy voters for their incredible and generous recognition."
New Zealand director Dame Jane Campion appears at the screening of The Power of the Dog during the American Film Institute festival in Los Angeles on November 11, 2021. Photo / AP
No streaming service has ever won best picture, but half of the 10 nominees came from streaming services. This year, the odds may be better than ever that a streamer will finally barrel through one of the last walls of Hollywood tradition.
Apple notched its first best-picture nomination with the deaf drama CODA, which also made history as supporting-actor nominee Troy Kotsur became only the second deaf actor ever nominated. (His CODA co-star Marlee Matlin was the first.) Netflix backed The Power of the Dog and Adam McKay's apocalyptic comedy Don't Look Up. King Richard and Dune launched on HBO Max.
In pulling from films released in myriad ways, the Oscar nominations reflected the tumult of a movie year that began with many theaters shuttered and ended with Sony Pictures' Spider-Man: No Way Home smashing box-office records. While some had urged the Oscars to embrace its most popular blockbusters and return some populism to the awards, Spidey landed only a single nomination - for visual effects.
A largely virtual awards season added unpredictability to this year's nominations, which were announced by actors Leslie Jordan and Tracee Ellis Ross. This year's Oscars will be delayed to make way for the Olympics, and will be held March 27 at their usual venue, the Dolby Theatre.
And there were surprises all around. Lady Gaga, star of House of Gucci, was overlooked in the uber-competitive best actress category. Nominated instead were Jessica Chastain, The Eyes of Tammy Faye; Olivia Colman, The Lost Daughter; Penelope Cruz, Parallel Mothers; Nicole Kidman, Being the Ricardos; and Kristen Stewart for Spencer — whose hopes for her first Oscar nomination had seemed dashed after she was snubbed by the Screen Actors Guild.
This image released by Netflix shows Associate Producer Phil Jones, left, and director Jane Campion during the filming of The Power of the Dog. Photo / Netflix via AP
Drive My Car, Ryusuke Hamaguchi's masterful three-hour Japanese drama, scored major nominations including best picture, best director and best adapted screenplay. The academy, which in 2020 made Bong Joon Ho's Korean thriller Parasite the best picture winner, has drifted overseas in recent years, as more international members have been added to help diversify the organisation.
Other underdogs could celebrate Tuesday, too. The small, remote Himalayan country Bhutan celebrated its first Oscar nomination in its first submission, Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom for best international film.
The Oscars will include a host for the first time since 2018. Photo / AP
In many ways, the nominations kept one foot in Hollywood's past and one in its future. Steven Spielberg, nominated for directing West Side Story, became the first filmmaker nominated for best director in six decades. His 11 best-picture nominations are the most ever. Another remake, Guillermo del Toro's carnival noir Nightmare Alley, fared better than expected, scoring a best picture nomination over streaming titles like Netflix's Tick, Tick ... Boom! and Amazon's Being the Ricardos.
As Covid-19 cases surged in the past two months because of 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 last month were an untelevised non-event after NBC said it wouldn't air them this year and 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.
