The Oscar Nominees Have Been Announced

The Academy announced the Oscar nominees yesterday.  The Netflix black-and-white, Spanish language movie “Roma”, and the 18th Century period piece “The Favourite” were tied for the most with 10 nominations each.

Both are nominated for Best Picture, so “Roma” gives Netflix its first-ever Best Picture nomination.  But let’s be honest, these titles don’t mean much to casual, mainstream movie fans.

Fortunately, the Academy DID nominate some movies you’ve heard of.  “A Star Is Born” and the Christian Bale movie “Vice”about Dick Cheney were also dominant.  Both were nominated eight times, and “Black Panther” got seven.

Those three were also nominated for Best Picture . . . and “Black Panther” has become the FIRST superhero movie to ever be nominated in the category.

“BlacKkKlansman”, “Bohemian Rhapsody”, and “Green Book” are also up for Best Picture.  For what it’s worth, “Green Book” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” took home the top awards at the Golden Globes earlier this month.

As expected, Lady Gaga got a Best Actress nod for “A Star Is Born”.

She’s up against Golden Globe-winner Glenn Close (“The Wife”) . . . Olivia Colman (“The Favourite”) . . . Yalitza Aparicio(“Roma”) . . . and Melissa McCarthy (“Can You Ever Forgive Me?”).

Bradley Cooper also got a Best Actor nomination for “A Star Is Born”.

He’s up against Golden Globe-winner Rami Malek (“Bohemian Rhapsody”) . . . Christian Bale (“Vice”) . . . Willem Dafoe (“At Eternity’s Gate”) . . . and Viggo Mortensen (“Green Book”).

Bradley was NOT nominated for Best Director for “A Star Is Born”, which some people consider a MAJOR ‘snub.’  On the plus-side, Spike Lee finally landed his first Best Director nomination for “BlacKKKlansman”.

One of the other big snubs was the Mr. Rogers documentary “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”.  A lot of people expected it to run away with the Best Documentary Feature category.

Also, none of the actors from “Black Panther” were nominated . . . “First Man” got shut out of the main categories . . . and there were NO nominations for “Beautiful Boy”, “Crazy Rich Asians”, “Eighth Grade”, and “The Rider”.

“The 91st Academy Awards” will air February 24th on ABC.

There hasn’t been any new word on a host, so apparently they’re still moving forward without one.

(“Variety“, “The Daily Beast“, and “The Hollywood Reporter” have more “snubs and surprises.”)