Kenneth Branagh’s “Belfast” earned seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Song (“Down to Joy” by Van Morrison). Many expected it would also receive some acting love, but not like this. Critics Choice nominees Jamie Dornan and Caitriona Balfe were snubbed in favor of older cast members Ciaran Hinds and Judi Dench. She receives her 8th career Oscar nomination and returns to the Supporting Actress race 23 years after she famously won for a brief role in “Shakespeare in Love”.
Dench joins some newbies — Ariana DeBose (“West Side Story”), Kirsten Dunst (“The Power of the Dog”) and Aujanue Ellis (“King Richard”). Another first-time nominee gave us the BAFTA voting influence, Jessie Buckley (“The Lost Daughter”).
In Supporting Actor, Academy members recognized young Kodi Smit-McPhee and Jesse Plemons for “The Power of the Dog”, as well as Hinds and Troy Kotsur (“CODA”). But instead of going for Dornan, Bradley Cooper’s minor “Licorice Pizza” appearance, or past winners Ben Affleck (“The Tender Bar”) and Jared Leto (“House of Gucci”), they went for a much older past recipient, J.K. Simmons in “Being the Ricardos”.
That comfort and familiarity of the “I Love Lucy” world to older Academy voters also helped secure Javier Bardem that coveted fifth Best Actor spot over Nicolas Cage (abstract indie “Pig”), Peter Dinklage (“Cyrano”, the MGM musical whose release date has been pushed back multiple times — a strategy that is not paying off) and Leonardo DiCaprio (for his overrated work in “Don’t Look Up”). Bardem faces-off against past nominees Will Smith (“King Richard”), Andrew Garfield (“Tick… Tick… BOOM!”) and Benedict Cumberbatch (“The Power of the Dog”) and past winner Denzel Washington (“The Tragedy of Macbeth”).
Lead Actress sees past winners Nicole Kidman (“Being the Ricardos”), Olivia Colman (“The Lost Daughter”) and Penelope Cruz (“Parallel Mothers”), as well as past nominee Jessica Chastain for her performance as well-known ‘70s and ‘80s figure Tammy Faye Bakker. (Seriously, on the Johnny Carson reruns I watch, he has a Tammy Faye joke almost every night.) The fifth spot went to Kristen Stewart (“Spencer”) — the major push from younger Oscar voters — because the backlash from the SAG snub was so large. Stewart got the spot that could’ve also gone to others in younger generations: past winners Lady Gaga (“House of Gucci”) & Jennifer Hudson (“Respect”), and Alana Haim (“Licorice Pizza”).
For Director, we have past Oscar winners Steven Spielberg (“West Side Story”) and Jane Campion (“The Power of the Dog”), as well as 11-time career nominee Paul Thomas Anderson (“Licorice Pizza”) and 8-time nominee Branagh. The international voting community (and some younger members) fell in love with late in the season surprise “Drive My Car”, earning Ryusuke Hamaguchi a nomination.
In Animated Feature, three of the selections are from iconic Disney (“Encanto”, “Raya and the Last Dragon” and Pixar’s “Luca”), along with Netflix/Sony “The Mitchells vs. the Machines” (popular among mid-age voters) and “Flee” — which also wowed with showings in International Feature and Documentary Feature categories. Anyone of any age who sees it can’t ignore its impact.
And in Original Song, joining Van Morrison are superstar Beyonce for “King Richard” tune “Be Alive”, past nominee Lin-Manuel Miranda for “Encanto”’s “Dos Oruguitas”, Billie Eillish’s “No Time to Die” (which people have been listening to for a couple years now) and Diane Warren’s “Somehow You Do” from “Four Good Days”. This is Warren’s 13th career nomination without a win. Maybe she will finally take home the gold on March 27th!