After months of speculation, the nominees for the 97th Academy Awards have finally been announced, and it is unsurprising that leading the pack with a whopping 13 nominations is “Emilia Perez”. Despite being largely disliked by audiences, the problematic musical crime-drama has swept this award season topping nominations at most guilds and precursors except BAFTA, where “Conclave” edged it out.
“Conclave” somewhat underperformed this morning with 8 nominations, but missed out on seemingly locked categories such as Cinematography and crucially Director. This marks the second time that Edward Berger has been snubbed by the Academy, despite him getting in literally everywhere else. Surprisingly it is James Mangold who has taken the decisive fifth director slot, repeating his success at DGA.
While on the topic of the guilds, PGA match 8 of this years nominees, these being the 8 films widely regarded to be secure of a nomination. The final two slots went to RaMell Ross‘ “Nickel Boys”, despite only receiving one other nomination, and Brazilian drama “I’m Still Here”, in which is undoubtedly the biggest shock of nomination morning. It was believed that the final two slots were between “Nickel Boys”, “Sing Sing”, “September 5” and “A Real Pain”, having all appeared in industry line-ups throughout the season, but the International voting body clearly got behind “I’m Still Here”, which also has nominations in Lead Actress and International Film….